http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=4020&IsNodeId=1&Description=radeon%207970&name=%24400%20-%20%24500&Order=BESTMATCH
My go to manufacturers are MSI, Asus, and XFX. They are all reliable.
wanna get the 2nd revised version of xfx, but it only has 8 votes :c
I cannot think of a 'best one'
I like the xfx styling, they look seriously cool inside your case, and if their 7970 model is as good a quality as their 7850 (which was my previous card from them) then you get the benefit of a card that looks kick arse AND performs excellent as well, double bonus :).
My current card is an club3d 'royal queen' 7970.... sudder at the name, card is awesome though, I have cranked it up to 1.2 ghz and managed to complete the 3dmark11 test, dont know if it is long term stable at that speed though.. didnt want to push it too far so I currently have it set to 1050mhz, mem set at 6ghz, so far its awesome.
I would imagine most 7970's from big brands wont be that different from each other, the only real difference seems to be the cooling setup on most cards I have seen from reviews.
If I were you, I would go with an asus direct cu 2 top. There is a nice cooling unit on the gpu.
what about the sapphire vapor x?
the asus brand has a really bad review on newegg lol
one thing to add though, make sure that the card you purchase is not voltage locked.
Sapphire, Asus, His, and Gigabyte for cooling.
Sapphire, HIS, and Gigabyte for Price/perf.
And Sapphire and Asus for the Absolute Lowest noise.
Pretty much all of the have the same OC potential, but apparently some Gigabyte cards have been locked with a new PCB revision.
^ Agreed
yeah
when I was trolling amazon looking for user reviews of my replacement for the 7850's I remember reading a HUGE rant from one guy over the fact that his gigabyte card was voltage locked so he couldnt overclock it past gigabytes settings.. hence why i didnt choose that card.
I love user reviews, it allows you to learn from others failures :P
My 7950 from Gigabyte is locked, but I never intended to OC anyways.
I have an older PCB revision with my Gigabyte 7950 and its fully unlcoked, its not that hard to unlock a card anyways, just flash it with a different Bios of a card thats Unlocked.
I've got an XFX HD 7950 Double D.
It's awful hot. Gets to a temperature of 95c WITHOUT ANY OVERCLOCKING.
Really am appalled with the shitty cooling on this thing.
So, stay away for XFX.
Sapphire, XFX and ASUS are my recommended AMD brands.
Each to their own but i personally dont like the Asus direct cu2 heatsink. Too big for the amount of heat it disperses. Sags the hell out of the card.
MSI's design is quite impressive. HIS's iceQ turbo is good - not sure if its available for the 7970.. should be.. GB's windforce is ok but the whole shroud just feels flimsy. Saphhires new cooler is really nice Vapor -X - looks the part and is pretty cool. No pun intended. XFX cards are a good build just that the cooler could probably been a bit better.
Pop the cooler off and wipe off the shitload of thermal paste they applied, or scvrape off the dry stuff they didnt apply enough of, and put something like MX4 on in its place.
I've done that before, it normally decreases temeratures by about 5c.
Worth a shot I suppose.
Why can't the companies get their thermal paste correct in the first place!
ASUS DCUII Top is probably one of, if not the best one on the market right now.
But XFX, ASUS, HIS, Sapphire... They are all good.
Hell, even the stock Powercolour ones are good.
lets it accept it guys
Sapphire is the winner... should i get the vaporx or the version before it....?
go the vapor-x cause its pretty.