Which 7950?

[Bipedal Humanoid]

Just wanted to get some input on my next GPU upgrade. I've narrowed it down to either the 7870 Tahiti LE or the 7950. Is the 7950 worth the extra money?

Sapphire 7870 XT

If I do go for a 7950, which one?

 

[lehtv]

Sapphire 7950 3GB $300 ($280 AR) is the best bang for buck 7950 and a decent overclocker. It should do 1.1GHz on stock volts.

 

[3DVagabond]

The 7870 XT when it goes on sale will be a killer deal. Compared to something like the Sapphire 7950 for only $20 more (AR) though it's not the best value, IMO.

 

[JimmyH]

Had same decision yesterday between 7870 Tahiti LE and 7950. Very close to getting the Powercolor 7870 Myst for $242 AR. Looks to be about 3% slower than 7950 at 1080p. Tahiti LE so new that no idea how well it'll overclock.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...pk=7870%20myst

Though i really wanted the Never Settle Bundle as i would end up getting Far Cry 3 from steam otherwise. Thankfully as finished up buying parts saw 7950 w/ never settle bundle. Got the Gigabyte WF3 7950 for $298. I figure 1gb extra ram, 3 games i can sell or play, no rebate to deal with gotta be worth extra $56.

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=GA-795WF3G

 

[3DVagabond]

Had same decision yesterday between 7870 Tahiti LE and 7950. Very close to getting the Powercolor 7870 Myst for $242 AR. Looks to be about 3% slower than 7950 at 1080p. Tahiti LE so new that no idea how well it'll overclock.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...pk=7870%20myst

Though i really wanted the Never Settle Bundle as i would end up getting Far Cry 3 from steam otherwise. Thankfully as finished up buying parts saw 7950 w/ never settle bundle. Got the Gigabyte WF3 7950 for $298. I figure 1gb extra ram, 3 games i can sell or play, no rebate to deal with gotta be worth extra $56.

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=GA-795WF3G

Keep in mind that when comparing the 7870Xt to the reference 7950 that the 7870XT is running at higher clocks. The 7950B (boost) is ~12% faster than the reference 7950. That's a better comparison clock for clock. Makes it ~15% faster. Plus, except for the Sapphire 7870XT all of the other models that I've seen use the "crappy" (my opinion) reference cooler. Nothing comparable to the Windforce 3 cooler on your card.

 

[Bipedal Humanoid]

I'll end up getting an aftermarket VGA cooler anyway as I did for my 5850, so which stock cooler the card comes with is not really a consideration.

GV-R795WF3-3GD is the lowest priced 7950 I could find.

 

[Face2Face]

I would say the MSI TF3 7950. (Yes I am bias) Since it has the 7970 PCB, the Arctic 7970 Cooler will fit right on. And the Memory/VRM cooling is good enough, so you won't need to install the heatsinks it comes with - And you can keep your stock HSF if you need to use your warranty.

 

[raghu78]

gigabyte HD 7950(900 mhz) and Sapphire hd 7950 boost (925 mhz). superbiiz has these cards with the game bundle.

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?p=GA-795WF3G
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=AT-7950BST

you get an extra $10 off with NYRESO2013 coupon code on both cards. the sapphire card has an extra $20 off mail in rebate. excellent deals. :thumbsup:

HD 7950 boost (925 mhz) is 10 - 15% faster than HD 7870 tahiti LE. with overclocking that gap would widen as the HD 7950 has phenomenal scaling. HD 7950(1150 mhz) would be atleast 15% faster than HD 7870 Tahiti LE (1200 Mhz)

 

[Bipedal Humanoid]

Quality and noisewise, should I go for the Sapphire 7950 or the Gigabyte 7950? Which do you suppose is the better overclocker?

 

[raghu78]

Quality and noisewise, should I go for the Sapphire 7950 or the Gigabyte 7950? Which do you suppose is the better overclocker?

gigabyte has 3 yr warranty while sapphire has 2 yr. so thats added value on gigabyte. the gigabyte windforce3x does not have vrm heatsinks like sapphire HD 7950 does. also the sapphire HD 7950 boost cards use slightly higher voltage. so even at stock voltage its easier to hit 1100 Mhz.

the gigabyte windforce3x might give slightly lower temps but the sapphire dual x cooler will provide good temps (slightly above wf3) but lower noise too. as for overclocking its a lottery. but with both both cards 1150 mhz is a reasonable expectation. :thumbsup:

 

[coxodoina]

so which stock cooler the card comes with is not really a consideration.

 

[raghu78]

so which stock cooler the card comes with is not really a consideration.

if you mean the reference HD 7950 card with a fan in the middle forget it. the fan is loud and the cooler can't maintain as good temps as custom coolers like Gigabyte Windforce3x , Sapphire Dual X , HIS Iceq, ASUS Direct Cu II.

 

[lehtv]

gigabyte has 3 yr warranty while sapphire has 2 yr. so thats added value on gigabyte. the gigabyte windforce3x does not have vrm heatsinks like sapphire HD 7950 does. also the sapphire HD 7950 boost cards use slightly higher voltage. so even at stock voltage its easier to hit 1100 Mhz.

the gigabyte windforce3x might give slightly lower temps but the sapphire dual x cooler will provide good temps (slightly above wf3) but lower noise too. as for overclocking its a lottery. but with both both cards 1150 mhz is a reasonable expectation. :thumbsup:

One thing to note though: Sapphire Dual-X is voltage locked so what you get with stock volts is what you get. Gigabyte is unlocked but it also requires overvolting to reach similar clock speeds due to Sapphire's higher stock voltage.

Based on my own experience I can only recommend the Dual-X, but I've read very positive overclocking experiences with the Gigabyte card as well.

 

[King4x4]

Got three Gigabyte 7950s and they are good.

Take care though is that they aren't that good of an overclockers... max 1100mz~1150mhz. Which will net you at least a 15-20% performance increase depending on the game!

 

[Bipedal Humanoid]

This review here isn't exactly raving about the 7950 w/ boost. 6% performance increase over the regular 7950 at a 10% increase in power consumption. Good performance for $ though.

The 7950 on the other hand is largely composed of salvaged GPUs that failed to meet 7970 specifications. GPUs that failed due to damaged units aren’t such a big problem here, but GPUs that failed to meet clockspeed targets are another matter. As a result of the fact that AMD is working with salvaged GPUs, AMD has to apply a lot more voltage to a 7950 to guarantee that those poorly clocking GPUs will correctly hit the 925MHz boost clock.

Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing

 

[3DVagabond]

This review here isn't exactly raving about the 7950 w/ boost. 6% performance increase over the regular 7950 at a 10% increase in power consumption. Good performance for $ though.



Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing

That's a very old review where the press was given a new bios to flash their old 7950's with. I agree that AMD applied a lot of voltage to try and ensure the cards would be stable. Those cards couldn't be certified by the AIB's before shipping though. They had only been tested at 800MHz. 7950B's that you buy don't run at 1.25v though. There would have been no way for Ryan to have known that at the time of the review. He could only report on what he had at the time.

 

[lehtv]

That's a very old review where the press was given a new bios to flash their old 7950's with. I agree that AMD applied a lot of voltage to try and ensure the cards would be stable. Those cards couldn't be certified by the AIB's before shipping though. They had only been tested at 800MHz. 7950B's that you buy don't run at 1.25v though. There would have been no way for Ryan to have known that at the time of the review. He could only report on what he had at the time.

What's a 7950B?

 

[3DVagabond]

"B" = boost.

 

[lehtv]

My Sapphire 7950 OC with Boost (dual-x) is 1.25V, bought this in October

 

[Bipedal Humanoid]

That's a very old review where the press was given a new bios to flash their old 7950's with.

Thanks for the info! That put's it into a different perspective.

I ordered a Sapphire 7950BST (11196-16-20G) today, I'll report back what the voltages are once I get it. Either way, I'm sure it's a great card in terms of performance as long as one has an adequate PSU.

 

[3DVagabond]

My Sapphire 7950 OC with Boost (dual-x) is 1.25V, bought this in October

That's interesting. I've seen lots of people post their voltages and haven't seen anyone else report 1.25v. I've never actually tracked it between brands and models, though. Just general observations.

 

[Bipedal Humanoid]

That's interesting. I've seen lots of people post their voltages and haven't seen anyone else report 1.25v. I've never actually tracked it between brands and models, though. Just general observations.

raghu78 stated in a previous post that the Sapphire comes with a higher stock voltage to allow for a higher overclock out of the box, but the voltage is locked. The Gigabyte's voltage is unlocked and has a lower stock voltage.

 

[bigsnyder]

Any predictions on further price drops? Everyone says current gen cards drop when new stuff comes out, but sometimes the drop is not significant. I don't mind waiting, but not just for another $20 bucks off. Any chance we will see any new 7950s - maybe a MSI with the Twin Frozer IV?

 

[KingFatty]

I'm predicting there will be a price drop just before the next gen cards are released.

Then, after the cards are released, the price drop sort of goes away and prices come back up.

Lesson: take advantage of uncertainty, the market gets put on hold while people wait and see, so dynamic pricing lowers the prices.

But if the next gen comes out and it completely blows away the previous gen, then you'll feel silly for throwing money away on old tech. But I don't think this can happen anymore, the next gen is usually just a modest bump so the current gen cards are worth the buy on a good sale.

 

[jacktesterson]

I'm predicting there will be a price drop just before the next gen cards are released.

Then, after the cards are released, the price drop sort of goes away and prices come back up.

Lesson: take advantage of uncertainty, the market gets put on hold while people wait and see, so dynamic pricing lowers the prices.

But if the next gen comes out and it completely blows away the previous gen, then you'll feel silly for throwing money away on old tech. But I don't think this can happen anymore, the next gen is usually just a modest bump so the current gen cards are worth the buy on a good sale.

7000 Series was a nice bump, more than 6000 over 5000 series. 5000 was nice bump over 4000 series. History shows the 8000 series will probably be a less of an increase.

5870=6950=7850. 7850 1200 core > 6970/7870 stock.