Should I bite? (AMD 7970)

[SaltBoy]

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Radeo...&keywords=7970

Seems like a decent deal, especially considering it comes with Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite. I'd be upgrading from a GTX 570.

Thoughts?

 

[wand3r3r]

Is it voltage locked? I believe the windforce 7950's are.

 

[SaltBoy]

Is it voltage locked? I believe the windforce 7950's are.

Yeah, it looks like the voltage is locked, but it appears to already be an OC version and I'm not much into OC'ing video anyway.

 

[Face2Face]

I would save $100 and go for a 7950 instead. The performance difference doesn't justify the expense, especially if you not going to overclock. Gigabyte 7950 1000Mhz VS. Gigabyte 7970 1000Mhz = 5-8% difference in performance.

 

[Xarick]

No, that card was $20 cheaper yesterday.

 

[Eureka]

Yeah, it looks like the voltage is locked, but it appears to already be an OC version and I'm not much into OC'ing video anyway.

I'd agree with face2face... I've had both a 7970 Ghz and a 7950, and the 7950 is very comparable... however I have mine overclocked to 1100/1500, which makes it the same as my 7970 Ghz (which wouldn't overclock much).

 

[Cadarin]

It seems to me that if he's *absolutely not* overclocking than the 7970 is the better choice. The 7950 basically requires overclocking to reach its potential.

 

[james1701]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...e%207970%20ghz

They had this for 429.00 last week. I would try to find the regular ghz edition for not much more, and not play the lottery if its going to be a good clocker.

 

[Eureka]

It seems to me that if he's *absolutely not* overclocking than the 7970 is the better choice. The 7950 basically requires overclocking to reach its potential.

That is true... a 7950 at stock settings (especially the true stock around 850 on the core) is going to be a dog. You need it around 1000+ to be decent performing. However, I can't see why any 7950 can't reach at least 950 on stock volts.

 

[Face2Face]

It seems to me that if he's *absolutely not* overclocking than the 7970 is the better choice. The 7950 basically requires overclocking to reach its potential.

The Gigabyte version comes out of the box with a 200Mhz overclock. That should be around 7970 performance for $300.

 

[FalseChristian]

Never buy the top GPU as you're paying for the fact that it's the top dog. The 7950 is faster than my 2 GTX 460 1GB SLI.

I wish I had a pair of them!

 

[RaistlinZ]

I wouldn't blow $400.00 on something that's voltage locked.

 

[Shmee]

I wouldn't blow $400.00 on something that's voltage locked.

Yes I agree.