7870 or 7950 $15 Difference

[HapticVoid]

Update:Thanks for the responses, and sorry for the poor quality of the origional message, I literally ran out the house right after I posted.
There is HIS Radeon HD 7950 800MHZ on sale for $375 (original price at NCIX is $399, then a local store called memory express does a price match plus 25% the difference), I was originally going to buy the 7870, but seeing the price is only 15 dollars different I thought I might get this one? Any opinions would be great, I normally like do very thou row research, but this made me jump the gun. Also I do plan to OC what ever card I Get.

Links:
http://www.ncix.ca/products/index.php?sku=67951&vpn=H795F3G2M&manufacture=HIS&promoid=1211
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX37539


I haven't actually made my computer but here is what I have so far:
Processor: Intel 2500k
Ram: 8gb corsair vengeance
Solid State:90gb OCZ agility 3
PSU: 750w Antec True Power New
Mother Board: gigabyte z68-UD3h-B3
Cooler: Corsair h100
Case: Cool Master CM 690 advanced II
Monitor: Dell U231 12HM 1080

 

[blakphoenix]

here you are mate: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/548?vs=550
http://www.hwcompare.com/12191/radeon-hd-7870-vs-radeon-hd-7950/

A few different comparisons for you to mull over. As you can see it depends on the games you play as to how much extra performance you get.

 

[vmem]

Unless you plan on installing aftermarket cooling, I would highly recommend just getting an OC edition of the 7870, which can usually be OCed even further, making up most of the preformance difference between a 7870 and 7950. at the same time, your'll be getting a better GPU cooler to boot, this is especially important since most refrence cards don't do a good job of cooling VRM.

just my 2 cents anyway

as for a card recommendation, there's this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102983
you get a mini-DP to hdmi adapter in the package to boot ^_^

 

[gary1]

Where the heck did you find a 7950 for 375$ 🙁

 

[vmem]

I bet there's only 1 in stock and if we found it he wouldn't have it so he needs to hide the link 😛

in all seriousness, maybe a local hardware store that stocked 1, and realized that they can't sell such a high end product and wants to get rid of it before the 680's out? lol

 

[gary1]

Still, 375? Maybe 400, 410, because the 680 is around 500.

 

[HapticVoid]

Unless you plan on installing aftermarket cooling, I would highly recommend just getting an OC edition of the 7870, which can usually be OCed even further, making up most of the preformance difference between a 7870 and 7950. at the same time, your'll be getting a better GPU cooler to boot, this is especially important since most refrence cards don't do a good job of cooling VRM.

just my 2 cents anyway

as for a card recommendation, there's this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102983
you get a mini-DP to hdmi adapter in the package to boot ^_^

Thanks for the response, I was originally going to get that or the Gigabyte card, just when I saw the price I began to reconsider my choice.

 

[HapticVoid]

I bet there's only 1 in stock and if we found it he wouldn't have it so he needs to hide the link 😛

in all seriousness, maybe a local hardware store that stocked 1, and realized that they can't sell such a high end product and wants to get rid of it before the 680's out? lol

Sorry i didn't have time to post it, I just updated my post with the link

 

[HapticVoid]

here you are mate: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/548?vs=550
http://www.hwcompare.com/12191/radeon-hd-7870-vs-radeon-hd-7950/

A few different comparisons for you to mull over. As you can see it depends on the games you play as to how much extra performance you get.

Thanks for the anandTech link in the couple second before I left, I tried to find a comparison such as this.

 

[gary1]

Canada. 🙁

 

[HapticVoid]

Canada. 🙁

Yea sorry, one of the few times where something is cheaper then what's south of the boarder.

 

[vmem]

Sorry i didn't have time to post it, I just updated my post with the link

wow, what a special offer!!! I live so close to the boarder I can almost taste it XD... but alas, I'm happy with my sapphire 7970 OC

 

[HapticVoid]

wow, what a special offer!!! I live so close to the boarder I can almost taste it XD... but alas, I'm happy with my sapphire 7970 OC

Oh if only my budget would stretch that far to afford a card such as that, but alas it is almost at its breaking point as is.

 

[vmem]

Oh if only my budget would stretch that far to afford a card such as that, but alas it is almost at its breaking point as is.

well, since you mentioned that you plan to OC, I can tell you that I had a sapphire reference 7970 (they're virtually all the same), which runs around 70C or so at full load stock speeds, up to almost as high as 75-80C if I push my clock as far as it'll go with 5% additional voltage

in comparison, the sapphire dual-X fans 7970 OC edition runs at 55-60C at stock speeds at full load, and I've seen no reason to OC it so far as it's been factory OCed to just about where I want it to be.

the temperatures and further OC headroom is why I previously said that the custom coolers you can get on a 7870 with your budget's well worth the price... but yeah, that 7950's an insanely good deal... buy it and sell it back on amazon if you don't like it? lol

 

[HapticVoid]

well, since you mentioned that you plan to OC, I can tell you that I had a sapphire reference 7970 (they're virtually all the same), which runs around 70C or so at full load stock speeds, up to almost as high as 75-80C if I push my clock as far as it'll go with 5% additional voltage

in comparison, the sapphire dual-X fans 7970 OC edition runs at 55-60C at stock speeds at full load, and I've seen no reason to OC it so far as it's been factory OCed to just about where I want it to be.

the temperatures and further OC headroom is why I previously said that the custom coolers you can get on a 7870 with your budget's well worth the price... but yeah, that 7950's an insanely good deal... buy it and sell it back on amazon if you don't like it? lol

Yea I was just looking at the whole temperature thing, not sure what I'm going to do about that. I have 7 days to decided, and worst case scenario I pop it on Amazon or Ebay.