What is the best manufactued Radeon 7870 to buy?
This:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127681
Could you please explain why?
It's factory overclocked, and has probably the best GPU cooler on the market attached to it. The only thing that might be able to beat that cooler in cooling capacity is ASUS's Direct CU II coolers (excluding third party heat sinks and water blocks), and no one wants a triple slot card anyway. Plus, it's a Hawk edition card, which means the PCB isn't reference. This means it's going to have better power delivery which will give you higher overclocks.
Not to mention that it spins the fans the wrong direction for the first 30 seconds of operation each time you start your computer to get dust out of the heatsink, and it has a full backplate and retention arm to keep the card from warping over time. Plus, it has a bios switch, so that you can switch between two different bioses if you mess one up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prRuEOKpAtk
I'd just like to say that was an awesome post...
Lol, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I tend to recommend MSI GPUs more often than anything else for a reason. I personally have two MSI GTX 580 Lightning Xtreme cards in SLI.
Thanks for the explanation. I have been looking at all those 7870s. Its nice to finally find some input on this stuff.
No problem. I'm glad to help.
The only thing that's kind of a pain in the ass about non-reference cards is finding a water block for them if you decide you want to water cool them later down the road. The only company that makes water blocks for my cards is bitspower and they're $300 a pop.
Thanks for the explanation. I have been looking at all those 7870s. Its nice to finally find some input on this stuff.
Ugh can't say enough good things about the MSI Twin Frozr cooler. +1 for a great choice.
On the other hand, the ASUS Direct CU II cards are nice too as long as you never want to SLI or Crossfire down the road. Logan just came out with a 7850 CU II review and the temperatures are pretty amazing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uEJhXxOwPg
if you want to xfire, get the iceq. logan reviewed it a while back, and it's really good for xfire, as its cooler pulls air for top and bottom....
Yeah, HIS isn't bad either. I just personally like MSI because they make the best dual slot coolers, and they tend to be the most feature rich.
Well, the cooler on the HIS that I have is a bit large for crossfire. The updated model is more manageable:
I do really like the ASUS and MSI offerings a lot. Either of them are great choices. For MSI, get the one Vortex recommended. For ASUS get the DirectCU II: http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/AMD_Series/HD7870DC22GD5/
Wait...that ASUS card has a dual slot cooler? I thought all Direct CU II coolers were triple slot.
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! It realy answerd all my questions! Thanks alot Vortex!
vortex, the triple slots are only the higher end cards.
No problem.
I thought the triple slots referred to the coolers themselves more than how high end the card was. I thought everything labeled Direct CU II was a triple slot card.
There are dual slot dcu2 but they're not very SLI/crossfire friendly IIRC. They are indeed massive and aren't THAT much better than twin frozr. In Canada, the dcu2 cards are usually marked up higher than the other brands. I remember having to pay an extra $20 for the dcu2 560 Ti...