I need a bit of help guys if you can, i have been reserching on this resently as my asus 7770 top card has been giving me issues so its being returned and i thought that this would be the best opertunity to get a more powerfull card as i have alittle money in my pocket i can put towards it. I was contemplating between a 7870 or a 7950 from various venders, but i could get a 7870 from amazon uk (i live in Ireland) for £164 or, i could get a 7950 for £199.99.
Now thers a nearly £40 differance and ive heard very good things about the 7870s and in logans video on the HIS 7870s he said that he got 72 frames in skyrim and from all the reveiws of 7950s ive seen theve all had simular frames which baffeled me, so i thought about it then and logan answerd my question in the same video. he got 40 frames in skyrim from stock drivers and all the reviews ive seen of the 7950 have been from 2 or 3 years ago and so i looked at more resent reviews and ive seen frames above 100 at 1080p on ultra which would make more sence. but im just wondering is it better to spend the little bit extra cash to have a gpu that will last longer or to go the cheaper option and get a better gpu in a few years.
also i was planning on getting a second card around christmas and going crossfire but ive had the same problems as with the 7950 single card reviews, all the reviews (all like 3 of them) that i found were using old drivers and i know for a fact that the latest drivers have drematically improves crossfire performance and scaleability. so i guess im asking if you guys think that dual 7870s or 7950s would be a good idea and if anyone has a simular set up would they be able to give me a ballpark estimate of benchmarks in Skyrim, Battlefield 3, Metro 2033 and the witcher 2 if at all posible.also i was wondering if it was possible to run dual 7870s or 7950s of of a corsair gs 700 psu.
i also have a HiS 7870 GHZ edition, its a good budget card for gaming, but i would realy recommend a 7950, for a few pounds more its just a much better card all the way, and it doesnt cost much more. the price diffrence is worth it. especialy on newer more gpu heavy games, like crysis 3 and bioshock. metro last night, and if you buy a voltage unlocked 7950. like the Msi twinfrozer, then you can get performance close to a 7970GHZ edition wenn overclocking the card., for realy a low price. it also beats a GTX770 oc at 1440P in some games. at 1080p they allmost equal.
Long story short, if you can afford 7950 all the way.
You do realise theres a difference between the two 7870s you've listed.
One is a tahiti version (aka the same GPU that the 79xx series uses) and the other is just a regular 7870.
Comparing them on effective performance the 7870 has 5/7 the power of the 7950 whilst the 7870 Tahiti has 6/7 the power.
If this was a question between a regular 7870 and a 7950. With that little price difference I'd get the 7950. However with an 7870 Tahiti and a 7950. Do you wish to sacrifice a little performance to save money. Or do you want flat out performance?
Well the Sapphire 7870 he posted is not the The Tahiti Le version, its just a GHZ edition. the tahiti Le version is called Sapphire 7870XT but those cards are hard to get,if im right they all disconteniued by reseller... but still the 7950 is a better performing card then the 7870XT, the 7870xt might have the same gpu, but still there are alot of disabled stream processors on the XT, and some more diffrences. so yeah i would recommend the 7950. for its price point, and the free games you get.
i know, thats why i put it there. you see its a vtx3d card and ive had bad experiance with them in the past but maybe that was just a fluck, so i put it there so that there was veriatie. but i think ive made my disition, im gonna get a msi 7950 beacuase i can get it for £184.99 and ive heard great things about the over clocking features :) still courious about the crossfire bench marks though if anyone could help me out there.
btw: Thanks for all the help everyone, really apriciate it :)
heres that 7950 i was talking about: http://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-R7950-Graphics-Card-PCI-E/dp/B00CHC695Y/ref=sr_1_7?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1377866325&sr=1-7&keywords=msi+7950
Yeah that seems like a good card , it also has voltage control, i think this is a good card, will probably run a littlebit hotter then the Msi 7950 Twinfrozer, because that card has 1 fan, but still i think this card is great. it will perform the best of all cards in this price range, and you also get free games, so its a great deal ☺
if you prefer a cooler card then i recommend this one, for 190 pounds. Msi 7950 twinfrozer, included 3 free games!
i see, thats a great offer and all but id perfer to buy one from amazon as i can get free shipping and i have the peace of mind that if anything goes wrong in the first few months theyl replace it, no questions asked. the downside is that the twin frozer from amazon is £246 :( and also i dont think i can get the free games from amazon :( but still id perfer to get it from amazon if posible.
also ive heard that the single fan msi card can hit 95c for some people but i have no idea if there overclocking or what, and if it dose hit that high when i overclock than thats a deal breaker and im not to interested in a waterblock as of now beacause there so expensive so the only other allturnitive is to get a card with a good fan cooler. any other sujestions???
i dont realy know how the site amazon works, but i see the twinfrozer is on sale for 229 pounds or something..? i see diffrent prices, but at scan its on sale for 190 pounds i dont know how it is about shipping from scan? i guess it cost 5 pounds extra...?
or look at this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-190-MS
thanks for all of the help angel, really apricate it, but the thing is is that those sites have a shiping price of £12.49 to Ireland and that one on amazon isnt eligable for free shipping, the only ones that are are ones that have the "Prime" logo beside the price, some of them dont have it on the front picture but if you go into the list of new ones it will tell you if it is sold by amazon or not. i know that the deals on the other sites are much better and they come with free games, but if anything goes wrong in the first few months like with what happened to my first two 7770s i can send it back with now problem at all. and also shipping them back is free also. im sorry if i seam overly picky but its just i want to make the best desition i possibly could and i really REALLY do appriciate the time you have put in today to help me find the best card for the money, Thanks :).
Yeah i had my eye on this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-Graphics-Express-Display-Playback/dp/B0091MIFXC/ref=sr_1_6?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1377910943&sr=1-6&keywords=hd+7950
its the cheapest and it comes over clocked and as usual, ive heard mixed benchmarks and tamps on it but the box contents and the fan sound is suposed to be good :)
Thanks again for all of your help :) really apriciate it, i hope to see you here again when i runinto more problems with hardware (as i KNOW i will :L). Thanks again and take care :)