Can't decide between sapphire 7970 OC and msi lightning 7970

[railven]

Can you link the post where the OP said he wouldn't consider a 680?

There is nothing irrelevant about what I've said, nobody else here waving their flags around is going to give the full story to the OP.

If you want to talk about the advantages of the 7970 OC don't call me out when I point out it's gaping shortcomings.

Sure, when he was asked to clarify on what drawbacks he thought the GTX 680 had:

I just didn't want to turn this into another 7970 vs 680 thread. But it seems to me that the two perform essentially equally once overclocked. And the 7970 comes with more memory and IMO seems higher quality. But like I said I'd rather not argue over those points, I'm not loyal to either brand so I don't care much

I think I've narrowed the 7970 choices down to these 2 cards, just can't really make up my mind

He totally called it. Haha.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Edit: NM, 5 posts "aware of the conflict" - rules out a better solution because of "quality" concerns.

I'm out, gl guys!

 

[aaksheytalwar]

The 7970 and 680 are 100% equal when overclocked, he can choose any card, it is absolutely irrevelant. For noise the 680 is better. Otherwise it makes no difference. Just get whichever is cheaper. If they are the same price get the 680

If you want the 7970, I prefer msi

 

[ZimZum]

I just didn't want to turn this into another 7970 vs 680 thread.

Good job guys.

 

[chimaxi83]

Well, anyway, if it were me I'd go Lightning. I'm biased towards MSI Twin Frozr cards though and I've had no issue sending back a card that had been water cooled for RMA service.

The Sapphire card looks to be pretty comparable though, and their cards have a great rep around here.

On top of that, if you already have a water cooling loop, you can really let these cards shine. Potentially

 

[Lepton87]

I guess you're probably right, a 21% OC might be enough!

Maybe we should find out what specific needs the OP has, as far as what games he's playing?

In that review the 7970 @ 1190Mhz 6200Mhz memory couldn't beat the stock 680 in BF3.

It's a single game and at 1080p, at 2560 which is a resolution those card are usually used at it would look different. GTX680 is the king of 1080p, but at 2560 it's barely any better than 7970, and after OC it does not have any advantage whatsoever, might be even slower depending of the clocks. Performance summaries are what matters not single games. You can show whatever you want with a single game.

 

[gregr507]

Edit: NM, 5 posts "aware of the conflict" - rules out a better solution because of "quality" concerns.

I'm out, gl guys!

Interesting, insult me when I specifically tried to not turn this into a fanboy debate. Not sure what your point is either, would you rather discuss this on [H] where I've been a member for 8 years?

To those who have posted something useful, thanks for the input. Still haven't made a decision, but I'm leaning towards the sapphire. If for some reason I do get a bad card it isn't a huge deal to send it back and get another since my 6950 is still holding up pretty well anyway.

edit- also forgot to mention that I do not have any plans of water cooling the card in the future

 

[chimaxi83]

Interesting, insult me when I specifically tried to not turn this into a fanboy debate. Not sure what your point is either, would you rather discuss this on [H] where I've been a member for 8 years?

To those who have posted something useful, thanks for the input. Still haven't made a decision, but I'm leaning towards the sapphire. If for some reason I do get a bad card it isn't a huge deal to send it back and get another since my 6950 is still holding up pretty well anyway.

edit- also forgot to mention that I do not have any plans of water cooling the card in the future

Don't mind them, some people will specifically talk about their favorite company regardless of what the thread is about.

 

[blastingcap]

I know this is a little late and there is a difference between 7970 and 7950 but I still think the thermal photos are useful:

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/853-16/thermographie-infrarouge-cartes-graphiques.html

As you can see the MSI Twin Frozr and Sapphire OC models are obviously the best coolers for the 7950. No direct comparison with the Lightning 7970 but I bet the Lightning beats the '70 versions of the Twin Frozr and Sapphire OC coolers as well... whether it beats the other designs by enough to justify the extra cost, only you can answer. There are additional tests they run that are not shown on that page but rather on the individual card pages where you can see overclocked results. I hope that helps!

Also see this, especially if you don't like noise or need more than 1920x1200 resolution output: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_7970_Lightning/33.html

 

[Hauk]

The MSI Lightning 7970 is in it's own class in terms of PCB goodness. Cost and availability?

The Sapphire is $459 and offers a very solid PCB and cooler design for the money. Quality power components and cooling plates, looks great:

In terms of GPU cooling, it has a finely machined copper base and superb pipes:

I'll be playing with a couple this weekend.

 

[SolMiester]

Interesting, insult me when I specifically tried to not turn this into a fanboy debate. Not sure what your point is either, would you rather discuss this on [H] where I've been a member for 8 years?

To those who have posted something useful, thanks for the input. Still haven't made a decision, but I'm leaning towards the sapphire. If for some reason I do get a bad card it isn't a huge deal to send it back and get another since my 6950 is still holding up pretty well anyway.

edit- also forgot to mention that I do not have any plans of water cooling the card in the future

I dont know where he insulted you, if anything, he was trying to nicely show you the 680 was a better buy, and understand what you thought the drawbacks were!....The rest of the AMD barricade started in and thats where it got out of hand...
Anyway, enjoy your new card!

 

[Upgrade_Itch]

I've been reading a lot of user complaints about Sapphire HD7970 coil whine....and the sapphire HD7970 OC is the card I'm most interested in. Reading Newegg user comments many of the 7970 seem to exhibit noisy coil whine.

But rarely do you see users complaining about the 7950 and coil whine. I'm on the fence between the Sapphire HD7950 oc or the 7970 oc Editions.

 

[lavaheadache]

Why have lightnings been so scarce? Is MSI just not making many of them?

 

[blackened23]

I would personally buy 27 GTX 470s and build an array of computers with water cooling to support them. Better buy than the 7950/7970 for sure. And they're easier to find than the 680, so to summarize, 27 GTX 470s with water blocks, 13 MIVE motherboards with the NF200.

Member callouts have not, are not, and will not be allowed. Since you cannot seem to understand this simple concept, please take the next few days off
-ViRGE

 

[Elfear]

I would personally buy 27 GTX 470s and build an array of computers with water cooling to support them. Better buy than the 7950/7970 for sure. And they're easier to find than the 680, so to summarize, 27 GTX 470s with water blocks, 13 MIVE motherboards with the NF200.

Ludicrous! Everyone knows that two watercooled 470's was enough to power Picard's holodeck. 27 would just be .

 

[blastingcap]

I've been reading a lot of user complaints about Sapphire HD7970 coil whine....and the sapphire HD7970 OC is the card I'm most interested in. Reading Newegg user comments many of the 7970 seem to exhibit noisy coil whine.

But rarely do you see users complaining about the 7950 and coil whine. I'm on the fence between the Sapphire HD7950 oc or the 7970 oc Editions.

They use the exact same cooler. I also take "coil whine" comments with a grain of salt--what mobo and case were they using? But then I also game wearing headphones some of the time so I don't really care if it is slightly noisy. There are so many other things that can make noise, including case and PSU fans, CPU fans, etc. I have also not heard any coil whine comments in any official reviews.

 

[chimaxi83]

Holodeck needs PCI 3.0 and OpenCL noobs

Lmao INB4 Balla

 

[Zanovar]

My "coil whine" was very real,wouldnt call it a whine though more like a clicking at a million miles per hour,the thing is the sapphire 7970 OC is so damn quiet it was very noticable(this is at 1220/1800 1.3 volts max temp 71 in lots of games/benchmarks tried),another thing to add is the noise was very noticeable and damn annoying to me,deafening to my nephew and unable to be heard by my dad,something to do with the frequency i guess.

 

[gregr507]

Hi everyone, OP here. Just thought I'd bump this with an update. Ended up going with the Sapphire, and am glad I did. This thing overclocks like crazy! Using the 2nd bios the default voltage is 1170 mV. So far I've bumped clocks up to 1200/1700 totally stable with no voltage changes! And I haven't even tested yet to see how far I can push it. No coil whine or black screen issues either. Very happy with my decision

 

[Zanovar]

Hi everyone, OP here. Just thought I'd bump this with an update. Ended up going with the Sapphire, and am glad I did. This thing overclocks like crazy! Using the 2nd bios the default voltage is 1170 mV. So far I've bumped clocks up to 1200/1700 totally stable with no voltage changes! And I haven't even tested yet to see how far I can push it. No coil whine or black screen issues either. Very happy with my decision

Hi,enjoy your new card:thumbsup:,looks like you have a little cracker there.my max at stock v was 1090/1535.

 

[mple]

I now own the MSI Lightning 7970!

 

[Upgrade_Itch]

My "coil whine" was very real,wouldnt call it a whine though more like a clicking at a million miles per hour,the thing is the sapphire 7970 OC is so damn quiet it was very noticable(this is at 1220/1800 1.3 volts max temp 71 in lots of games/benchmarks tried),another thing to add is the noise was very noticeable and damn annoying to me,deafening to my nephew and unable to be heard by my dad,something to do with the frequency i guess.

1.3 volts is a bit much to the core, if u abuse hardware it will "whine".

 

[Zanovar]

1.3 volts is a bit much to the core, if u abuse hardware it will "whine".

I worded that very badly and made it sound it only made those noises at at those clocks and volts,it actually made thoise annoying noises with any load on the card.it was actually worse at stock v and clocks as the less aggrssive fan would not help drown it out a bit.not all abused hardware will "whine"btw.

 

[imported_Sabresiberian]

Another MSI vote. I've built several computers using their mainboards (where I picked up the term "mainboard" in fact, which I just like better than "motherboard"). I've actually never had a problem with any of them, but did contact MSI service to ask some questions. I was very impressed with how thorough they were.

My only "complaint" with MSI video cards is that the last time I checked, they only had a 2 year warranty. I like a 3 year or better. That may have changed, and I don't know what Sapphire's is.

 

[Upgrade_Itch]

ZERO coil whine here....haven't added any voltage though.....no need