Looking for an opinion - AMD 7970

[RedBeard]

Hey -

Right now I am seeing plenty of AMD 7970 cards for $120-150.

Assuming the risk of a used card and not caring about power usage - aren't these a good deal right now? The price point is very important.

Thoughts?

 

[mhouck]

sure. the lowest priced 280x on newegg is going for $199 currently which is basically a rebadge of the 7970. Getting it used for 60% seems fair. good luck

 

[Gikaseixas]

At those prices, it's a great deal

Fastest card for that money

 

[thilanliyan]

In that price range, yes those are good cards. Just make sure that on top of the regular features of the card, the fans are not on their last legs.

 

[n0x1ous]

Truly one of the greatest cards ever. Coming up on 3 year anniversary and still a great performer. 3GB VRAM was key. I'll always hang on to my reference 7970 for my collection. Its a Hall of Famer

 

[SlowSpyder]

I bought a reference 7970 at launch that I still use. I say it is a great card at that price, and going CF or a single faster card is a hard decision for me to make. My only advice would be to go with a non-reference cooler. When the factory blower on my overclocked 7970 spins up under GPU load, it is the loudest part of my system. (I'm cooling a 5.2GHz FX, so that's saying something. )

 

[RussianSensation]

No card is better at $120-150. Just make sure you do not buy a reference 7970 and I would probably try to find the latter 1Ghz or Ghz editions of Gigabyte Windforce, HIS IceQ, or if you are super lucky the Asus Matrix 7970 or MSI Lightning 7970. Those last 2 were known to hit 1.25-1.3Ghz overclocks and have very high quality fans and circuitry. Having said that an after-market 290 was already on sale for $200-210 vrand new this Black Friday week. Therefore, try to find a 7970 for below $150.

 

[zokudu]

What's the opinion on buying a second 7970 used for CrossfireX. I've been debating updating to a 290X but just cannot justify the cost.

 

[WT]

Picked one up 2 months ago for $115 and it OC'd easily to Ghz levels. Very impressed with the card, and the fans were all but new as the previous owner had it under a water block since he bought it. Unfortunately, it's pointless for me to go CF, as the game that I am playing does not support CF (damn, you CoH 2 !!!)

This was a Powercolor brand, and so far I am now a fan of the brand, even though they don't have nearly the rep here in the US that they have overseas.

 

[boozzer]

does 280x perform better? it is a rebrand but I thought there was a performance increase? and it is also 120$ for second hands.

 

[cbrunny]

Grab 2 or 3 if you can. I have 2 7970s and at 1080p they're quite strong still.

 

[RussianSensation]

does 280x perform better? it is a rebrand but I thought there was a performance increase? and it is also 120$ for second hands.

280X is faster than the original 7970s, but there are some 7970s with 1050-1180 (HIs IceQ Turbo) factory pre-overclocks. It's exact same chip so just compare the clocks and you'll know which one is faster. If you can find a 280X for $120, get that as it's the same thing really. I would still take MSI Lightning 7970 or ASUS Matrix 7970 as those are better than any 280X, but I doubt you could find those models for under $140.

Also, as I mentioned the HIS 7970 X Turbo was also a 3rd special 7970, with 1180 out of the box clocks and 1250-1265 overclocks:
http://www.techpowerup.com/mobile/reviews/HIS/HD_7970_X_Turbo/31.html

They were super rare though.

 

[boozzer]

I don't need one, was just curious.

 

[GreenOrbs]

One thing I would keep in mind is that many of the 7950 and 7970's have been used for bitcoin mining and may have been a bit abused. They were being sold at the peak of the craze. One of my acquaintances, for example is looking to get rid of about 5 of them. As you mention though, if you are okay with the risk used 7970s are pretty good bang for the buck.

 

[Silverforce11]

7970 is no slouch, they run pretty conservative clocks and can easily hit 1.1ghz without vcore mods. Considering 7970 Ghz is faster than 770, its a steal at $120.

 

[liverunnin]

I seen on ebay some 7950s 100-130 bucks, overclock it and get close to the perfomance of 7970ghz.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

I seen on ebay some 7950s 100-130 bucks, overclock it and get close to the perfomance of 7970ghz.

It's worth the extra $20 to get the 7970.

 

[thilanliyan]

One thing I would keep in mind is that many of the 7950 and 7970's have been used for bitcoin mining and may have been a bit abused. They were being sold at the peak of the craze. One of my acquaintances, for example is looking to get rid of about 5 of them. As you mention though, if you are okay with the risk used 7970s are pretty good bang for the buck.

Sometimes they are less abused than ones that weren't mined on though. I for example kept my 7950s at 0.975 v (stock 1.15-1.25v), which kept temps <65C, so fans also didn't spin up very much. This was all in the pursuit of best hash/watt ratio, which regular users are usually not looking for.

 

[GreenOrbs]

Sometimes they are less abused than ones that weren't mined on though.

Quite true. Always was a balance between hash/watt to bitcoin/altcoin price. For example, around last Dec. when the mining difficulty was lower and the price above 1K, cards were scarce and higher clocks were worth the power premium even if efficiency was lower. If I remember correctly last year around this time used 7970's were going for 400+. I sold a used 7950 for about 300 last year at the peak of the mining craze.

In any case, mining cards would likely have been more likely to have been run 24/7 vs. someone who uses their card only to game. That said, as you pointed out, some gamers may have pushed their cards further to get more performance since electrical power cost may not be an issue for them.

My point though was that you never know but if you are okay with risk a 7950/7970 at these prices can be a great option.