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new XFX 7870

H

hodgenutts

Senior member
Hello all. I recently purchased a new XFX 7870, I was going to get the 7950, but with coupon and rebate I got my 7870 for $209 shipped. I didn't know if the 7950 would really be worth the $150 difference since I got the 7870 for the lower price. I upgraded from a XFX 5850. There is a noticable a difference in Starcraft 2 with all settings maxed with a FPS around 115 - 130. When I play the New W.O.W. expansion the performance boost isn't what I had hoped. I'm getting any where from 40 - 55 FPS average in new content. I didn't know if maybe this was just because it was a new game, and performance might get better with later drivers. I thought about returning the card and paying the extra $150 for a 7950, but once again I just feel there probably isn't a $150 difference in performance from a 7870 to 7950. Also, I'm thinking about picking up Skyrim, I guess my current rig could run it on high settings.......

Also, My mobo EVGA 68Z sli only has a PCIe 2.1 bus, but I got the bored brand new for just $59. Is the 2.1 bus really pulling down the new 7870 card which is capable of running PCIe 3.0? I didn't know if it would be worth upgragding my mobo for a newer PCI3 3.0 bus mother board, or if the performance gain would not be worth it. Iv'e tried to research this but really can't find a diagram that shows the same vid card and proc and ram installed on 2 different mobos with the 2.1 vs. the 3.0 bus, so I'm not sure if there is much of a gain. Thank you very much for your time.

One last thought I'm useing
16 gigs of 1333 RAM, didn't know if that would really cause a bottle neck in gaming. My mobo will support DDR3 2133+. I didn't know if 8 GIGS of DDR3 2133+ would show a performance gain in gaming vs. 16 gigs of 1333...

Thank you very much for your time....


Also note, I play all games on max at 1680 X 1050 res and I like my eye candy 🙂
 
Last edited:
Gpse,

Thank you for the reply. I have latest AMD drivers. Would the RAM speed really matter in a game? Wasn't sure. Once again thanks for the reply.
 
Your PCIe lanes are tied to your motherboard AND your CPU. You can't get PCIe 3.0 unless you upgrade both. Either way, it doesn't matter much - if your motherboard has a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, you should use that, but even a PCIe 2.0 x8 slot (PCIe 3.0 x4 equivalent) is fine. See this article for more information: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5458/the-radeon-hd-7970-reprise-pcie-bandwidth-overclocking-and-msaa

If you're concerned whether your GPU is installed correctly, you may want to run 3dMark11 to get a comparable benchmark. The HD5850 would score about 3500, and an HD7870 would score about 6500.
 
Driversweeper.

I'm guessing your drivers are goofed and causing some problems for you. What CPU is in your system?
 
OP which country are you from. the HD 7950 is generally selling for 50 - 100 bucks more in most regions. HD 7950 (1.15 Ghz) is 30% faster than HD 7870 (1.25 Ghz). so try and get a good deal on HD 7950. the cards you need to look for are Gigabyte HD 7950 OC or Sapphire HD 7950 OC.
 
I'm from the United States. My cpu is an i5 2500K running at 4.4 ghz.

I got the XFX 7870 because with sale coupon and rebates I had it delivered for $209. Please note this was the XFX Double Dissplacement GigaHertz edition with a lifetime warranty that I got for the $209.

I have not seen any 7950's for $259 even after rebate. Currently from the price trends I've seen here in the U.S. $209 for a 7870 is pretty good. When I looked at f.p.s. / dollar via benchmarks I thought it was one of the best deals. Alot better than $319-$359 for a 7950. Just didn't think the perfmance gain for going to a 7950 at the time was worth $110 - $150 more. I will try the driversweeper. I that freeware I can get from a trusted site?
 
install the 12.11 beta 7 drivers and 12.10 cap 1(catalyst application profiles). CAP improves single GPU performance too and assures the best compatibility with latest games. the sapphire HD 7950 boost is one of the best deals. 280 after rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202006

another excellent deal is the gigabyte hd 7950 oc for 300 bucks

www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Mini-Displayport-PCI-Express-Graphic-GV-R795WF3-3GD/

gigabyte comes with 3 yr warranty and would be my pick.
 
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