Sapphire is good, XFX was good but is going downhill fast, ASUS is good, MSi is OK(I always have problems with MSi), Powercolor is decent.
dang it, now I'm back to indecision. I was about to tell my gf to pull the trigger on this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127681
Thanks for that spreadsheet. Went to check out the 7950 and the cheapest one is the Sapphire for $280 AR which is indeed close in price to the 7870. I'm just a little leery of Sapphire after reading a thread on this forum about Sapphire's video card being unreliable.
I need to make a decision soon, my gf is putting the pressure on me. She wants to have it here in time for my birthday's party.
For the Black Friday I will decide on one of these cards. They seem to best cards for the respectable price.
XFX - I have no expierence with them and I hear mix reviews.
Pro - Lifetime warranty and can trade in old card for price reduction on new card.
Con - ? Don't know but I heard many complaints.
Powercolor - I had a powercolor radeon back in the day. AGP and it didn't even last a year.
Sapphire - Also radeon card and it died as well.
Gigabyte - I have gigabyte motherboard, but no expierence with GPU. I heard the Windforce 3 cooler is best gpu cooler on the market. I heard the card is the quietest but does not overclock well.
MSI - I heard they make the best overclocking card and Twin Frozer is second best cooler. I heard they make best motherboards as well. I have no expierence.
HIS - I don't know anything about this brand. They must be new.
thanks
I was at the same indecision point as you were. Hopefully some of what I have to say may help you out.
From the research I did most people looking into the 7xxx series recommend MSI, Gigabyte and Sapphire as a trusted brand to buy. Asus follows behind those 3 (not saying it is bad just saying what is recommended from reviews and such)
I myself went back and forth for over a month and I decide to pickup a Sapphire 7950 (boost model) from most of the research I have seen their GPU tend to be a lower asic % compared to Gigabyte and MSI (which could be they are not using binned chips if you buy into the asic % thing which some people don't) The Sapphire 7950 that I had had a asic % of 63.9 and when trying to overclock it I couldn't reach figures that others had reached easily with other cards. of course results will vary but a simple 1000/1400 should be reachable (especially with 1.25v!) but on my card wouldn't happen factor in also some seriously loud coil whine and I was not happy at all with the card and returned it. That was just my experience and others may have a more positive result. I will say the one positive of the card I got was the Dual X cooler worked well enough as temps seemed to stay inline with the norm not going over 70c on a stress testing. Like I said before I returned the card and I am now waiting on a MSI 7950 TF3 model.
If you are looking to overclock your card staying away from a boost model would be a good idea as all boost models bios pumps a higher voltage (1.25v) to the gpu to gain a very small boost clock and when trying to overclock these cards it's a bit more of a PITA than a non boost model.
Comparing the companies Sapphire only give you 2 years parts and labor warranty vs MSI who give 3 years parts 2 years labor vs Gigabyte who is 3 years on both.
So my opinion from broad scope of website reviews along with tons of posts form people about these cards and a little of my own experience is : MSI has the better binned GPU's, Gigabyte has the best cooler of the bunch, Sapphire dual X cooler is good but GPU's asic % or quality not as good as Gigabyte or MSI.
I have not mentioned other brands simply because I have no personal experience with them or have not read much about them (except for the Asus which has mixed reviews most of the time but I trust the company since they been around a very long time just not my first choice on a video card)
In conclusion I'd go with a MSI or Gigabyte or Sapphire (yes even after my 1 bad experience I would try them again in the future) in that order. Also a personal opinion is I'd spend the extra $50 and buy a 7950 over the 7870 ghz edition card. The extra 1gb of VRAM and the 384 bit alone is worth it for longevity (also the extra 512 stream processors) and either the MSI 7950 TF3 or the Gigabyte WindForce 3 *should*(stress the should because results can and will vary) hit 1100/1400 on stock voltage.
Whichever way you go I hope some of what I posted was able to help and wish you nothing but happiness with whatever card you end up with
Durvelle27, what do you think about all of those complaints about Sapphire's cards crashing and losing connection? Do you think those problems have been fixed?
Just avoid Diamond and you'll be fine.
I have a diamond 4850 that has been OCed for 4 years... lucky card or has something changed?
The 7950 was recently 240 on amazon. Hopefully the game bundle drives the price down for vendors that aren't a part of it.
Thank you so much Stylez777. Now you got me looking at this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125414
FWIW, my Sapphire 7850 and 7870 from earlier in the year were both OC edition and had good ASIC% (85% or something like that). A 7950 Dual-X non-OC edition was really low though, like 70%.
What is a good price for the 7950. I always see the Gigabyte one around $300 or above. The XFX 7870 goes on sale a lot though in the low $200 range which seems really good.
How much would you pay for 7950?
I have a diamond 4850 that has been OCed for 4 years... lucky card or has something changed?
The 7950 was recently 240 on amazon (sapphire I think). Hopefully the game bundle drives the price down for vendors that aren't a part of it.
I think the only terrible choice would be a sapphire 7870, due to faulty hardware that they ignored.
I have read in many places that Sapphires newer cards are coming with lower quality chips because of the boost bios (this is totally unconfirmed but just many peoples theory). The boost bios throwing 1.25v to the core and throwing a 925 or 950mhz boost is considered safe by these companies for that modest overclock. A higher quality chip should be able to hit those clocks or better with lower volts. That why you get premium model like the Asus Matrix or MSI lightning that have premium binned chips for the highest of overclocks. What cannot be denied is that earlier Sapphire 7850,7870,7950 did have higher ASIC % numbers than the newer cards they are offering now particulary the boost models.
Sounds plausible to me because the sub-70% Sapphire 7950 I bought wasn't that long ago, maybe a couple of months ago or something. I bought it to replace my 7850OC Sapphire which I sold.
So do you think it's worth $50 more for 7950?