Questions about 7950

[pieguy]

So I bought a 7950 when they came out and gamed with it for a while but haven't done much with my PC, gaming wise, for at least 6 months. I'm upgrading from a 1680x1050 monitor to a 1920x1200 one and will get back into some games, mainly SC2 HOTS and BF3.

I'm wondering about my 7950's performance at this new resolution. Since I haven't payed much attention to what has happened in the video card scene since I built my system over a year ago, have new drivers done much to improve the 7950 performance? Is it still pretty much in stride or perhaps a step behind the 670?

I built this system with future crossfire in mind and I was hoping that the release of some new card would flood ebay with a bunch of cheap 7950's so I could grab a second, but I don't know if that's going to happen or if there is maybe a more economical option to get some performance improvement.

Also, any reason to get a displayport cable and use that vs using DVI-D?

 

[Jaydip]

They are still formidable cards and will have no issue with your resolution(there are always some outliers).DVI-D or displayport will both get your job done.

 

[Stuka87]

With recent drivers, the 7950 out performs the 670 in several cases. For the most part they are on par for performance, with the 7950 being cheaper.

I think you should be fine. You may have to drop a setting or two on some games, but you should still be happy with it.

 

[KingFatty]

Well, with SC2 HOTS, prepare your CPU for punishment. Depending on your CPU, you may find that you'll see the GPU usage drop down when the CPU is maxed out (there are some very CPU punishing scenarios you'll encounter). So perhaps the 7950 won't really show all it's glory for that game, because your CPU will be holding it back.

 

[pieguy]

Groovy, thanks for your thoughts guys. I overpaid for this card badly because I bought it soon after release, but it's nice to know it's still holding up well. Hopefully it will still be up to the task when BF4 comes out.

Well, with SC2 HOTS, prepare your CPU for punishment. Depending on your CPU, you may find that you'll see the GPU usage drop down when the CPU is maxed out (there are some very CPU punishing scenarios you'll encounter). So perhaps the 7950 won't really show all it's glory for that game, because your CPU will be holding it back.

Yeah I know CPU is more of a bottleneck for SC2 but I do like the visuals maxed. My CPU is a 2500K OC'd to 4.6, so while not top of the line any more, SC2 rarely slows it down.

 

[Binky]

If you haven't already overclocked it, you might try that to squeeze a bit more performance out of it. Most 7950's do pretty well up to about 1100mhz with little or no extra voltage, and possibly undervolted. You'll see reports of 1200mhz+ but those are often at high voltages. Both of my 7950s can undervolt to around 1.015v at about 1070-1080mhz (I run pretty conservative overlocks).

 

[Rezist]

My rig1 in my sig runs online 1v1 well above 60fps with no slowdown. Of course 2v2 and 3v3 changes things.

 

[pieguy]

If you haven't already overclocked it, you might try that to squeeze a bit more performance out of it. Most 7950's do pretty well up to about 1100mhz with little or no extra voltage, and possibly undervolted. You'll see reports of 1200mhz+ but those are often at high voltages. Both of my 7950s can undervolt to around 1.015v at about 1070-1080mhz (I run pretty conservative overlocks).

I haven't overclocked this card. I did oc'd the previous cards I had, so I'm somewhat familiar with doing it, but definitely not an expert. Maybe a DERP question, but do you undervolt because it's needed for stability or just because you can reduce the voltage for the clocks you want, so why not?

 

[sublime420ec]

it can make the card last longer..and also run cooler under load etc...stability as well