I'm looking at some of the radeon hd 7970s, and can't decide which one is the best for me. The XFX black edition looks very nice, and it's relatively cheap (in comparison to the other ones).
Which one give the most price to performance ratio? Or should I just stick with the XFX?
All of the 7970s are going to give you the same performance unless one of them has higher clock speeds. The clock speeds aren't really something you should be looking at anyway though because you can just overclock the GPU yourself. What you want to look at when it comes to different video card brands are their warranties, coolers, and power delivery systems. The power delivery is only usually different if you're getting a non-reference card, which is going to cost more than a normal card just because you should be able to get higher overclocks over it. I personally prefer MSI as long as their Twin Frozr cooler is attached to it. They have a 3 year warranty and their cooler is a beast. XFX does come with a lifetime warranty though.
The Msi is around 100 bucks extra... I don't see how this is much better.... and I need to stay within budget, so that doesn't really work >< srry :(
Like I said, they're all the same. The only differences you're going to find are the cooler and warranties mainly unless you're getting a non-reference card. Pick one. It's really not a huge deal.
I have the HIS cards and I screwed up when I got mine. I shouldve gotten the XFX cards because the warranties are alot better.
Like Vortex said.... they all have the same chipsets and do the same thing. They all can be OC'd but like all chips (CPU and GPU), it depends on what chip you get. They may be the same model number and all but all chips OC differently.
I bought this GHz edition Gigabyte Windforce OC from NewEgg for $430: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125439
It seems to have the highest clocks out of all 7970's - Core clock at 1100 Mhz, Mem clock at 1500 Mhz. The cooler is pretty good, I think. Idle at around 30-32 C, load around 60 C.
I did read something about the voltages being locked on the XFX ones, meaning we can't overclock as high...Anyone else tried overclocking them?
MadRussian1209 said it, the windforce or GTFO, they are THE card to get.
I got my dual 7870's because, i paid 420 for both cards shipped less then one 7970 with decent cooler. I LOVE MY CARDS!!!