What Model Should I Buy? GTX 670/HD 7950-70

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

First, my rant: I bought a Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 and, lo and behold, they hadn't fixed the grey/black screen issue so many people had been affected with. They claimed the new SKU, which is the one I bought, had fixed it... nope. It started out that when I was playing F1 2012 it'd completely crash my computer with a grey screen and a sound loop two hours into playing. Now it just randomly gives me the same issue even if I'm doing something benign like web browsing. Given this, I will not buy a Sapphire card again: they intentionally lied and because of that lie I bought their card. Now I have to take out of my time to do an RMA.

I'm looking for another card to replace my aging GTX 460 which has worked perfectly for two years. I've been looking at the HD 7950, but no model has convinced me yet. I need something that has a very, very low chance of being either DOA or developing issues early into its life. The MSI TwinFrozr III edition has many reviews mentioning problems with this specifically, and I have sold this card at my store and a good amount of them have been DOA.

From the NVIDIA camp I checked the vanilla GTX 670 by EVGA and many people mention problems with temps due to the heatsink/fan. Then there's the HD 7970, but that seems too expensive given its pretty much the same as the HD 7950 and GTX 670.

I'm too conflicted. Getting a product that's defective from day one makes you more nervous about the next one having issues.

 

[JechtShot]

Has better cooling than the eVGA at least:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125438

For 20$ more:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...k=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=2

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Gonna go with the HIS Radeon HD 7950 IceQ X2 because it doesn't come with the "free" games and it has very good reviews.

The whole "free" games thing by Newegg is deceptive as best. Just so you know, if you buy a card that comes with this "offer" and it has defects and you need to RMA it they discount those "free" games from the refund. As a result, I will be refunded $140 for a card which I paid $210 for even though I didn't want or need those "free" games.

 

[skipsneeky2]

I did have a excellent experience with my old msi tf3 7850,even overclocked it to 1050/1450 @ 1.225v which is damn close to that of the 7870.

I would easily recommend any of the twin frozr cards.

 

[Rvenger]

Gonna go with the HIS Radeon HD 7950 IceQ X2 because it doesn't come with the "free" games and it has very good reviews.

The whole "free" games thing by Newegg is deceptive as best. Just so you know, if you buy a card that comes with this "offer" and it has defects and you need to RMA it they discount those "free" games from the refund. As a result, I will be refunded $140 for a card which I paid $210 for even though I didn't want or need those "free" games.

If that happens. Leave the games untouched and call customer support. They will give you a full refund.

 

[Termie]

Did you already rma your sapphire? I have the same card. One tip is to increase cooling. Both manually increasing the fans using afterburner and increasing case cooling. I think I've had the same crash, but only after hours of playing and not since I increased fan speed. I see your review on Newegg - you mention gaming at 75C. I think this is too high for this card - I assume there is something else getting too hot, even if the GPU can sustain 75C temps. Perhaps memory or other components. Try adjusting the fan so the GPU is below 65C (thus also cooling the rest of the card more) and see if it still crashes.

I think the best option for a new card would be the gigabyte model of 7950. HIS had some problems with the 7970, and that may affect the 7950 too.

 

[3DVagabond]

Did you already rma your sapphire? I have the same card. One tip is to increase cooling. Both manually increasing the fans using afterburner and increasing case cooling. I think I've had the same crash, but only after hours of playing and not since I increased fan speed. I see your review on Newegg - you mention gaming at 75C. I think this is too high for this card - I assume there is something else getting too hot, even if the GPU can sustain 75C temps. Perhaps memory or other components. Try adjusting the fan so the GPU is below 65C (thus also cooling the rest of the card more) and see if it still crashes.

I think the best option for a new card would be the gigabyte model of 7950. HIS had some problems with the 7970, and that may affect the 7950 too.

Can you elaborate on the 7970 troubles? I haven't heard anything.

 

[WiseUp216]

From the NVIDIA camp I checked the vanilla GTX 670 by EVGA and many people mention problems with temps due to the heatsink/fan.

Source?

I read these forums almost everyday and it seemed that almost everyone who has the vanilla EVGA 670 was satisfied with it, myself included.

I also came up from a 460. While not being the best model out there, the reference 670 is much cooler & quieter than the 460.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Did you already rma your sapphire? I have the same card. One tip is to increase cooling. Both manually increasing the fans using afterburner and increasing case cooling. I think I've had the same crash, but only after hours of playing and not since I increased fan speed. I see your review on Newegg - you mention gaming at 75C. I think this is too high for this card - I assume there is something else getting too hot, even if the GPU can sustain 75C temps. Perhaps memory or other components. Try adjusting the fan so the GPU is below 65C (thus also cooling the rest of the card more) and see if it still crashes.

I think the best option for a new card would be the gigabyte model of 7950. HIS had some problems with the 7970, and that may affect the 7950 too.

I still haven't sent the card, but I did request an RMA. To rule out temps as the issue after I made the review I manually set the fan at 85% and the temps didn't rise above 60C. It still grey-screened 10 minutes into F1 2012, which isn't that demanding a game. Still, these GPUs should handle somewhere up to 90C temperature fine.

Also, what problem did HIS have with the 7970? At least the model I bought uses the reference 7950 PCB, and the only issue I've heard people have with it is some coil whine.

 

[Eureka]

If you requested the RMA through the website, it won't credit your games back. You need to talk to a CS rep and they'll credit back the games as long as you didn't use them.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Source?

I read these forums almost everyday and it seemed that almost everyone who has the vanilla EVGA 670 was satisfied with it, myself included.

I also came up from a 460. While not being the best model out there, the reference 670 is much cooler & quieter than the 460.

Many people here mention issues with the heatsink/fan and high temps.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130782

Still nowhere near as spread out as the issues with the Sapphire HD 7870, definitely.

I think I made a good compromise: the HIS model seems to have good cooling and it costs $50 less than a reference GTX 670 while delivering the same performance.

If you requested the RMA through the website, it won't credit your games back. You need to talk to a CS rep and they'll credit back the games as long as you didn't use them.

I guess I'm screwed, then. I know I can request they send me another card, but people are complaining the cards they get sent back have the same issues as well.

 

[Eureka]

Many people here mention issues with the heatsink/fan and high temps.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130782

Still nowhere near as spread out as the issues with the Sapphire HD 7870, definitely.

I think I made a good compromise: the HIS model seems to have good cooling and it costs $50 less than a reference GTX 670 while delivering the same performance.



I guess I'm screwed, then. I know I can request they send me another card, but people are complaining the cards they get sent back have the same issues as well.

Did you already sell/play the games? The better option here might be to exchange it and then sell the new card. If you didn't sell/play the games they can still edit the RMA refund.

With the free games, I just leave them untouched for a couple of weeks to run the card. This way if anything happens, the games are still there. I wouldn't decide on a card just because of the games. That being said, the HIS 7950 is a fine card.

 

[Termie]

Can you elaborate on the 7970 troubles? I haven't heard anything.

This is the model a few people on the forum had trouble with. Look at the reviews - they are decidedly so-so: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161412

I still haven't sent the card, but I did request an RMA. To rule out temps as the issue after I made the review I manually set the fan at 85% and the temps didn't rise above 60C. It still grey-screened 10 minutes into F1 2012, which isn't that demanding a game. Still, these GPUs should handle somewhere up to 90C temperature fine.

Also, what problem did HIS have with the 7970? At least the model I bought uses the reference 7950 PCB, and the only issue I've heard people have with it is some coil whine.

That's bad news. I hope mine doesn't go downhill like yours did. I've already played the bundled games (I got two, which was pretty awesome) and sent in the rebate, so I'd just have the RMA option through Sapphire. I played an older game for a few hours yesterday without problems - I do think it has something to do with being stressed, but crashing with an internet browser sounds like it can get worse quickly.

Source?

I read these forums almost everyday and it seemed that almost everyone who has the vanilla EVGA 670 was satisfied with it, myself included.

I also came up from a 460. While not being the best model out there, the reference 670 is much cooler & quieter than the 460.

There wasn't a "problem" with the reference 670. It just has an annoying whining sound at idle. I had one and sold it. I also had a 460, and I would say the 670 was definitely louder, both at idle and at load. It worked absolutely fine, though.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

Did you already sell/play the games? The better option here might be to exchange it and then sell the new card. If you didn't sell/play the games they can still edit the RMA refund.

With the free games, I just leave them untouched for a couple of weeks to run the card. This way if anything happens, the games are still there. I wouldn't decide on a card just because of the games. That being said, the HIS 7950 is a fine card.

I did download the games, but no, I haven't played them. I guess in hindsight I should've left that alone given I wasn't very interested in playing them. :/

This is the model a few people on the forum had trouble with. Look at the reviews - they are decidedly so-so: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161412

I hope I don't have any issues. For what it's worth, that particular card uses a custom HIS PCB and the one I bought uses the AMD reference HD 7950 PCB.

Quality control seems to have taken a nosedive recently. I remember when the HD 5000/GeForce 400 series were out nearly no one was having problems with defective cards, even cards that ran extremely hot like the GTX 480/470/465.


That's bad news. I hope mine doesn't go downhill like yours did. I've already played the bundled games (I got two, which was pretty awesome) and sent in the rebate, so I'd just have the RMA option through Sapphire. I played an older game for a few hours yesterday without problems - I do think it has something to do with being stressed, but crashing with an internet browser sounds like it can get worse quickly.

Yeah, mine crashed twice with the grey screen while I was web browsing and that's when I decided to completely call it quits and put the GTX 460 back in. I'm hoping I don't have any problems with the HIS 7950.



There wasn't a "problem" with the reference 670. It just has an annoying whining sound at idle. I had one and sold it. I also had a 460, and I would say the 670 was definitely louder, both at idle and at load. It worked absolutely fine, though.

Some people were reporting issues with high temps, but it doesn't seem to be a problem to the extent that the Sapphire 7870 issue goes.

 

[Yukmouth]

Reference 7970's have excellent build quality plus they sell for the same price as or less used with good warranties than a new 670/7950. If you want quality in a fan the 7970 reference design won't disappoint.

If you're dead set on the 7950 Club3D is kicking out some impressive cards right now, though I don't know what their warranties are like. Their coolers are as good or better than the MSI twin frozer coolers, they're extremely quiet and their cards overclock really well.

 

[lehtv]

Club3D cards aren't sold in the US, and I doubt they're better than MSI. Club3D have always been a budget brand.

 

[Yukmouth]

Their OC models get good reviews, didn't know they weren't sold in the states though.