Choosing a video card for my first build need help

[missionnaut]

Hello guys I'm having difficulty with choosing a video card.I'm stuck between 2 cards and I will be getting 2 of them (crossfired) just looking for.

Card 1:
name: XFX FX-787A-CDBC
chipset: Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition
Memory: 2gb
Core clock: 1.05 ghz

Card 2:
Name: XFX FX-795A-TDFC
Chipset: Radeon HD 7950
Memory: 3gb
Core clock: 800mhz


Processor: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core
Cpu cooler: Corsair H80i 77.0 CFM Liquid
Motherboard: Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z ATX AM3+
Ram: Kingston Beast 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-2400
Storage: OCZ Agility 4 128GB 2.5" SSD
Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM
Case: Cougar Evolution-W (White) ATX Full Tower
Sound card: Asus Xonar DSX
Power supply: OCZ 1000W ATX12V / EPS12V

Please if jave some information I'd apreciate it and there only a 10 $ difference

 

[clutchc]

If there's only a $10 difference, why would you NOT opt for the HD 7950s?!
http://www.hwcompare.com/12036/radeon-hd-7850-vs-radeon-hd-7950/

 

[bigshootr8]

Get the best card you can get do not crossfire. Unless you are needing more horsepower, for multi monitoring I don't see the point for you. I would get the 7950 or the 7970 and leave your computer alone.

 

[missionnaut]

If there's only a $10 difference, why would you NOT opt for the HD 7950s?!
http://www.hwcompare.com/12036/radeon-hd-7850-vs-radeon-hd-7950/

The reason being is that the cose clock drops by 200mb/s but has a higher video Memory then the othet but the other has a a hight core clock with a little lower video Memory so I wasn't sure what is better to have

 

[missionnaut]

Get the best card you can get do not crossfire. Unless you are needing more horsepower, for multi monitoring I don't see the point for you. I would get the 7950 or the 7970 and leave your computer alone.

I will be dual screening all the time and recording on both screens at the same time one will be recording a game the other will be recording a camera

 

[bigshootr8]

Well a decent jump in memory bit. It's kind of the same argument with people with the 660Ti and the 670. And you have 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs with the 7950 versus the with the 7870. Its worthwhile to get at 7950 over the 7870.

 

[missionnaut]

Well a decent jump in memory bit. It's kind of the same argument with people with the 660Ti and the 670. And you have 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs with the 7950 versus the with the 7870. Its worthwhile to get at 7950 over the 7870.

Its either that or I buy one card for 400 $-500 $ but I don't know if just one card could handle all of that

 

[clutchc]

Its either that or I buy one card for 400 $-500 $ but I don't know if just one card could handle all of that

Your board has X16, X16 PCI slots w/2 cards installed. So it can provide the bandwidth necessary for 2 of those cards in Xfire in the most demanding situations. I'd go for Xfire if cost isn't an issue. Back when the GTX 500 series was top of the line, I added my 2nd GTX 570 SC and was amazed at the improvement in gaming. Yours will be considerably better.

 

[bigshootr8]

What games do you play? With how strong graphic cards are now its becoming less and less needed to have a 2nd graphics card I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't need one. Are you running a standard 1920x1080 screen?

 

[missionnaut]

What games do you play? With how strong graphic cards are now its becoming less and less needed to have a 2nd graphics card I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't need one. Are you running a standard 1920x1080 screen?

Well the man games ill be playing is dayz and diablo 3 and civ 5

 

[missionnaut]

Plus any other games that my friend start playing dwad space 3 far cry 3

 

[bigshootr8]

Yea you will only need 1 GPU get the best you can afford whether its a 670 from nvidia or 7950/7970 from AMD.

 

[missionnaut]

Yea you will only need 1 GPU get the best you can afford whether its a 670 from nvidia or 7950/7970 from AMD.

I am running for screens are a32in 1080p and a24in 1080p

 

[Kingtr011]

Dual 7950 will smoke the dual 7870's but for pure performance get a 680 or 7970

 

[DarkSable]

I am running for screens are a32in 1080p and a24in 1080p

Just to let you know, the size of the screen does not matter whatsoever. You could have an 11 inch screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 and it would be JUST as hard to play games on as a 40" TV with a resolution of 1080p. All the size of the monitor does is make the pixels bigger or smaller, which the graphics card doesn't care about - it only cares about how many million pixels worth of information it has to send for every frame.

That being said, ignore the guy who told you to buy a 680 - either a 670 or a 7970 will handle what you're doing with ease. Yes, dual cards WOULD be more powerful, but you don't really NEED them... so why spend the money?

(What you SHOULD do, however, is have two ssds - one for your OS and frequently used programs, and one to use as a scratch disk for recording gameplay to - even if they're slow SSDs, it'll make a HUGE difference.)

 

[bigshootr8]

He's wanting a graphics card not a RAID 0+1 setup. While that may be something cool and yielding of great performance that isn't what hes talking about.

Any top tier card from either company will get the job done period. IF you prefer the AMD solution then get the 7970 hell even a 7950 would be decent.

And with 2 monitors you are just fine with 1 graphics card the second you hit eyefinity with 3 you may want to reconsider that but also you may want to reconsider what monitors you end up using I'm not exactly sure using a tv monitor in conjunction with 2 other monitors would go over to well.

 

[DarkSable]

He's wanting a graphics card not a RAID 0+1 setup. While that may be something cool and yielding of great performance that isn't what hes talking about.

Any top tier card from either company will get the job done period. IF you prefer the AMD solution then get the 7970 hell even a 7950 would be decent.

And with 2 monitors you are just fine with 1 graphics card the second you hit eyefinity with 3 you may want to reconsider that but also you may want to reconsider what monitors you end up using I'm not exactly sure using a tv monitor in conjunction with 2 other monitors would go over to well.

I didn't mention a RAID setup, what I advised him to do is get a scratch disk.
He was asking about solutions that would give him good FPS while gaming - I gave him one.
There's no need to get snippy about one line in a reply that was aimed to give the OP as much accurate information as possible.

 

[bigshootr8]

I mean hell a boot drive would give him a boost in the extent that he needs. And based on his system I doubt he really probably has the funds to purchase 2 decent SSD's. Wasn't being snippy just saw it as a non pertinent thing due to cost.

 

[DarkSable]

Gotcha. I wasn't really worrying about cost - he's looking at buying two 7950s, when it'd likely be more beneficial to get one and a scratch drive.

I don't record gameplay, myself - would a single SSD be okay with writing as much as it has to while reading?

 

[bigshootr8]

I haven't really thought about it I mean what do you think Dark I haven't used a scratch disk before I have a 90 gigabyte SSD laying around would it be more benefitial to be using that with my samsung 830 I have a 500 gig storage drive (thinking on buying a caviar black) would it be a performance increase like you stated.

 

[DarkSable]

I've only used one on a multimedia computer - putting the photoshop files on that ssd while running the OS and photoshop off another. It did make a noticeable difference to the speed of applying actions, and such. I've heard it works the same way with recording, since it has a LOT of write material flooding the drive.

 

[bigshootr8]

Right very true and with the modern SSD's the write is quite a bit faster then if you were to write with a normal HDD. I guess that is what you mean by a scratch drive write to a drive then if you want it moved off to a storage drive you could do that?

 

[DarkSable]

Exactly - basically the drive is used for any temporary project, be it video, photo, recording; what have you. It's nice both for the speed and the simple convenience of having things you're working on be in the same spot every time regardless of what program you're using.

 

[bigshootr8]

Right so perhaps you would be right in suggesting that if he was willing to purchase say two 120 gigabyte Samsung 830's for example. I have a vertex 2 90GB laying around I think I may do that and use it as a FRAPS drive

 

[DarkSable]

Yeah, it's up to the OP, but he'll likely see better performance from that than he would with dual cards - if he has dual cards, he'll still get the sharp lag spikes from when his chosen recording software gets hung up while writing... having a scratch drive should virtually eliminate that, and a 670/7970 can basically max out every game anyways.

(If you try it, let me know how it goes... I ordered an SSD a while back to go in a laptop that turned out to require an IDE drive. I was going to return it, but I might just throw it in my comp...)