Best Radeon HD 7950 Card Manufactorer?

[aonor]

Right now, I'm thinking about buying a Radeon HD 7950 card, but should I either buy XFX, Gigabyte, or MSI?

 

[bigcyco1]

i would recommend Sapphire's HD 7950 Vapor-X comes with a large dual-fan cooler that uses the company's famous vapor-chamber technology. On the Vapor-X you will also find a "Lethal Boost" button which switches to a second BIOS with higher clock speeds. With this BIOS, clocks are increased to 950 MHz GPU and 1250 MHz memory.
Pricing of the Sapphire HD 7950 Vapor-X is $330 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202003

 

[plasmaj12345]

I agree with bigcyo1, but we need to know if you plan to overclock or not. If not, there are cards $50 cheaper. You do not need anything more than reference coolers if you do not plan to overclock.

 

[redh4t]

There are some Vapor-X with locked voltage. Anyway, great card. Owning one Great looking, OC'ing like crazy, silent. One of the best out there.

 

[dudewitbow]

There are some Vapor-X with locked voltage. Anyway, great card. Owning one Great looking, OC'ing like crazy, silent. One of the best out there.

a tech savy person would just flash the vapor-x bios to a 7950 normal bios(albeit at the risk of bricking) but sort of in the first place, deciding to overclock already makes the warranty slightly shifty.

 

[helper800]

What about ASUS? I think this cooler is better and worth the extra money: http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=AS-795DC3G&c=CJ

 

[s3anister]

a tech savy person would just flash the vapor-x bios to a 7950 normal bios(albeit at the risk of bricking) but sort of in the first place, deciding to overclock already makes the warranty slightly shifty.

While I have flashed the BIOS on a number of cards to unlock higher clocks or extra shaders, this is usually an unnecessary risk for the average tech user. If they brick their card and try to send it in they'll never get their warranty claim since they voided it by using the card "in an improper manner" as the manufacturer would say

Anyway, on the topic of best Radeon brands; from experience I'd have to say that Sapphire's Vapor-X cards are some of the best with the MSI Lightning and Gigabyte's three fan cards with "triangle cool" being neck and neck or a very close second to the Vapor-X cards. I've had great personal success with MSI and Gigabyte cards in the past but from what I've heard it sounds like Gigabyte has been having QC issues lately. Therefore, if I'm recommending a 7950 specifically (and I am lol), I'd recommend this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202003

 

[s3anister]

What about ASUS? I think this cooler is better and worth the extra money: http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=AS-795DC3G&c=CJ

Unfortunately, it's $350 price tag puts it out of the running when you can get the Sapphire Vapor-X for $310 w/ FS after MIR.

 

[dudewitbow]

While I have flashed the BIOS on a number of cards to unlock higher clocks or extra shaders, this is usually an unnecessary risk for the average tech user. If they brick their card and try to send it in they'll never get their warranty claim since they voided it by using the card "in an improper manner" as the manufacturer would say

which why later in the statement that if one was interested in OCing, bricking through an OC technically would void warranty too(to all companies except for XFX, I think, as the limited lifetime may or may not cover it). Albeit Flashing a bios is more challenging than overclocking a card, both have risks, and you only need to raise voltage by a large amount only if you are a heavy duty overclocker, which I'm making an assumption that user knows what hes doing and probably is capable of learning to flash a card. There is almost no reason to have a voltage unlocked card if the user isn't going to use it, and the ones who use it most likely know what their doing.