What is the most trusted brand for 7850, 7870, 7950

[Shephard]

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

 

[blastingcap]

Just avoid Diamond and you'll be fine.

 

[Shephard]

Just avoid Diamond and you'll be fine.

Never heard of them either.

 

[thilanliyan]

I have an MSI TF3 6950 and a MSI TF3 7950. Both great cards, although the 6950 doesn't OC that well. The 7950 OCs great though...1100MHz core at stock voltage (1.037v), up from 880MHz. I have it watercooled though, so can't comment on the acoustics.

 

[Phynaz]

I really don't think any particular brand is any more reliable than any other once you get into a reasonable sample size.

 

[lehtv]

I would buy any of Asus, Gigabyte, Sapphire, MSI, possibly PowerColor's more premium cards, as well as XFX and HIS if on a budget. XFX coolers aren't as good but that's not always a problem, and the one HIS card I've tried was a bit noisy at idle.

I heard the card is the quietest but does not overclock well.

Gigabyte 7950 3xWindforce overclocks very well. It has excellent VRM cooling as well.

 

[SPBHM]

avoid Sapphire if you are buying a 7870.

 

[Shephard]

avoid Sapphire if you are buying a 7870.

can you go into more detail because that doesn't help me.

I haven't gone with Radeon cards since it was owned by ATI. All the cards I had died from them.

I know these 3 cards are really good for the price and performance. I just need a good brand.

I havent' decided on which card yet but it's probably going to 7870 or 7950.

 

[SPBHM]

can you go into more detail because that doesn't help me.

http://www.behardware.com/news/lire/27-10-2012/

 

[blastingcap]

Sapphire is better than they used to be. They are fine. All of them should be fine except Diamond. Visiontek, HIS, MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte, Sapphire, XFX, PowerColor, etc. are all fine. My Sapphire 7850 OC Edition was great, and the Sapphire 79xx Dual Fans are fine (I have the 50 and 70).

If there is a problem with Sapphire 7870 that is too bad but I don't have direct experience with that.. guess you should avoid them based on the behardware.com article.

 

[Shephard]

http://www.behardware.com/news/lire/27-10-2012/

how come that card in the picture only has one fan? My 9800 GT has one fan and the temperatures suck. I would think the company who makes that card would have learned.

It seems like everyone has 2 or 3 fans now. Gigabyte being 3 and MSI having their Twin Frozer.

 

[Phynaz]

http://www.behardware.com/news/lire/27-10-2012/

it has become clear that for an unknown reason, Sapphire failed to integrate the corrective requested by AMD when it initiated mass production.

I call BS on this for one reason - AMD branded cards are made by Sapphire. I can't see Sapphire selling cards to AMD that have a known defect.

 

[Phynaz]

how come that card in the picture only has one fan? My 9800 GT has one fan and the temperatures suck. I would think the company who makes that card would have learned.

It seems like everyone has 2 or 3 fans now. Gigabyte being 3 and MSI having their Twin Frozer.

Technically is has zero fans - It's a blower encased in a shroud that is designed to exhaust out of the back of the card.

Basically it's a reference design.

 

[lavaheadache]

Just avoid Diamond and you'll be fine.

AFAIK Diamond only has reference cards, which are built like tanks. I don't know what you have against the company. Maybe they have a terrible warranty?

 

[blastingcap]

AFAIK Diamond only has reference cards, which are built like tanks. I don't know what you have against the company. Maybe they have a terrible warranty?

Here, read this: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1707838

 

[Shephard]

ok so avoid Sapphire according to that article and also avoid Diamond as you all suggest.

 

[lavaheadache]

One random person's bad RMA experience isn't reason enough for me to boycott a vendor. The internet is littered with jackasses and their sob stories

 

[blastingcap]

Keep googling. Fact that diamond doesnt make nonref also says something.

 

[etrin]

When I think of trusted I think of rebates and warranty/returns
And there are a LOT of horror stories about both.
From the good and the bad companies.

Some co's just think that a rebate is a registration and you don't really expect them to send you anything. Yep the stamp looked a little scratched.

Warranty, you need me no know. Call back, boss not here right now.
Thank you Mark from St Louis

 

[Durvelle27]

My opinion is



Sapphire, MSI, and Gigabyte

 

[Shephard]

My top 2 right now are Gigabyte and MSI. My friend has a Gigabyte so I know it's good.

 

[Dark Shroud]

MSI, Gigabyte, & Sapphire are the brands you can trust for AMD. Sapphire actually makes the reference cards and helps design & builds AMD's professional cards.

Right now MSI & Gigabyte have the best coolers for over clocking. I'll given an honorable mention for the PowerColor PCS design for being so quiet.

 

[bononos]

My top 2 right now are Gigabyte and MSI. My friend has a Gigabyte so I know it's good.

Asus also makes video cards.

 

[Phynaz]

My friend has a Gigabyte so I know it's good.

Sample size = 1 gives you no actionable data.

 

[Shephard]

Sample size = 1 gives you no actionable data.

lol well I at least know it hasn't failed and performance is good!

I read another topic on this forum and everyone says XFX sucks.