Confused with Performance of 7950..

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kalvus5

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I'm looking for a new graphics card to replace my 6950 and I've narrowed it down to the 7950 or the 670. Normally, I would've thought that the 670 blows the 6950 out of the water after seeing the original reviews and benchmarks when they were released. But after checking out this review of the best cards:
http://www.techspot.com/review/603-best-graphics-cards/page4.html
it seems as if the 7950 "boost" edition is better than or very close to the 670 in all games. This was not the case in all the other benchmarks I've seen between the two cards. Is this because of new drivers that have been released? I'm also unsure which 7950s are "boost" cards. Are they all boost editions now? Or is there only a couple and one that you would recommend? Finally, should I forget the 7950 and go with the 670 because it's way better and the benchmark i posted was simply wrong? :sol: I'm just very confused at the moment..Thanks for the help.
 
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DarkSable

DarkSable

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The ones that are "GHz" editions are the overclocked ones. The increase in performance is because of drivers, correct, though Nvidia just came out with a large upgrade of their own to counter it. (Though it's still in beta at this point.)

I personally would go with a 670 or 7970 - those two are the ones that compete with each other.
 
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wolfkraut

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It looks like those benches are using the latest drivers for both cards. That's why you are seeing such big differences, the latest AMD drivers were a real success, they gave 10-15% boosts in most games. This test appears to also use the latest Nvidia drivers, too. So I'd say these benches are an accurate representation of the current state of these cards. So I'd just take from that what you will, but AMD have definitely done well in their latest driver updates.
 
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kalvus5

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ok sounds good, do you guys recommend a particular 7950? Is there one that is dramatically faster or overclocks better than all the others? I was going to get a 670 windforce so that's what I was going to compare it to.
 
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mrlime09

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I would get a GTX 670 dude. I am on 310.64 and holy hell is it a massive upgrade from 306.97 I am seeing amazing numbers now well above 15fps to 30fps increase in most of the games I play.
 
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mrlime09

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Don't go down that dark road man, I did with a 7950 and it sucked ass. 12.11 or not I would stay in the green camp, The peeps on here seem to have a AMD love crush. i know i sound like a raging moron and fanboy but trust me AMD anything is a dark dark road of only pain and suffering.
 
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prototype18

prototype18

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Well i would go with 670 anyday. It can OC like a beast and its very cool.

Asus / Gigabyte anyday . Also that 670 FTW has a PCB 680 and cooler. So it is a great deal and have increased clock .

I also have the new drivers and noticed the FPS increase.

Also the 670 needs less power =less heat.

So dont think it twice get the 670 !

Edit : Nvidia does have better drivers and each update supports old cards too. While AMD stoped updating the 4xxx .
 
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echondo

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All 7950s are the same in some way, I recommend finding the best brand you can with a long/decent warranty and a good cooler. The brands I buy from for AMD are; MSI, Sapphire and HIS. MSI, to me, has the best cooler and a decent warranty. Sapphire I have always heard they have good coolers and the cards always work and I still own a HIS 4870x2 and it works amazingly!

HIS 7950 IceQ Cooler
HIS 7950 Regular Cooler
MSI 7950 Twin Frozr III(3) Cooler
Sapphire 7950 Regular Cooler

The MSI 7950 has an older generation style cooler from their current line, the 7950 has a Twin Frozr III cooler while the 7970 and 7870 has the Twin Frozr IV cooler. Both generations have phenomenal cooling ability, but you might want to look into the differences between the two coolers to see if you want to wait for MSI to add the IV cooler to the 7950 line. If not, I would recommend Sapphire because of their excellent track record I hear about their support and cards overall. The only thing I don't like about Sapphire's 7950 is the blue PCB, I don't mind it but if I were going to do a colored build with window, I would want it to match up accordingly, just something to note. Then finally I would recommend the HIS version, like I said before I still have a dual GPU 4870 card that my brother has been using for light computer gaming(Mw3, Source Games). I haven't had the time to benchmark the card personally with newer games, anyways back on topic, my experiences with HIS cards are that they are reliable and well worth the price, don't know if you would like the cooler on the HIS version however.

I'd also like to note that each of these 7950s all have the gift of 3 free games! Of course, from Newegg purchase only ;)
 
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kalvus5

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I was originally leaning towards the 670, I'll wait to see if there are any good deals before Christmas and buy one, and if not, I'll try to find a 7950. I feel safer with a 670 than a 7950 for getting a good framerate. Thanks for all the suggestions!
 
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echondo

echondo

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I love AMD just as much as Nvidia, to me AMD has won this generation. I had a problem with my 7870, it was a driver issue but with the recent 12.10/12.11 CAT drivers the issues are gone and I have had incredible performance boosts in multiple games. The driver issue only affected the 7850/7870 series cards, the 77xx and 79xx were unaffected by the 12.8/12.9 drivers. I could go more into detail about the issue, but it isn't relevant.

It's personal preference and I'm here to help Kalvus5 with what questions he has. If he wants a AMD card then great, if he wants a Nvidia card then great again! I can't sway your opinion on the brand, but if you are going to say that one side is crap, please explain as to why it is crap. I know some people just don't have luck with AMD, but I have and I love AMD's GPUs and will always recommend them.




You can see my 7950 post above and what I recommend. For the 670, it's pretty much the same story. Brands I recommend are; MSI, EVGA and Gigabyte. I don't like ASUS, but that's another brand you can look into, haven't had much luck with their support personally and I don't buy their products, some love ASUS and same hate them.

The MSI 670 does have the Twin Frozr IV cooler, which with personal experience with on my 7870 HAWK, the cooler does keep it under 60C for me even with an extreme overclock, haven't had the time to officially benchmark the cooler's performance for maintaining a decent temperature, but it does the job very well.

Gigabyte has the Windforce cooler(like you have said before) and it shows great performance for heat dissipation. The only thing about the card I don't like is the three big fans, you might get lucky and get a near silent GPU, but others have had some complications with the three fan setup being noisy.

And finally, I would recommend EVGA after these two awesome companies because of it's warranty, support, and it's step up program that allows you to upgrade your card if a new one is released in a X amount of months. Also, EVGA has finally moved away from the reference design board and has made a 2 fan setup.

Just like to note that the 670s are having the "buy the GTX 670 and receive Assassin's Creed 3 and Borderlands 2 for FREE" promotion. Also you might want to be weary about the 670 power edition cards from MSI. If you have anymore questions about certain brands or the cards themselves then ask away/PM me!

Best of luck :3
 
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mrlime09

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I have the MSI GTX 670 PE haven't had an issue with mine at all other then my boost clock being awesome sauce. I think MSI pulled those Cards though as they are now Revision A2 and not A1 which I think suffered from the voltage issue. You can't and do not win a Generation when you're videocards don't sell as well. Nvidia is way ahead in sells and 310.64 seems to put Nvidia back on top with a few games and other games the GTX 670 and 7970 seem to trad blows and the 680 seems to be on par with the 7970GHZ edition.
 
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azraa

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As an AMD defender (which I hope doesnt make me biased, I recognize success when I see it, on both teams), I suppose if you look for RAW performance, you should get the 670. IF we speak of right out of the box performance, the 7950 fights and slightly beats the 660Ti but cannot match the 670, by a small margin. (EDIT: I believe this changed but I havent studied it yet. The new drivers managed to tight up the fight between the 670 and 7950, or so it seems)

HOWEVER i have to tell you, even if the 670 can be overclocked, the thing is that most 670s with a decent cooler are quite expensive (dont get me wrong, the 670 is a beast, even I like it, but the decent models, with custom coolers, are as I said, way more expensive). If you want to take the most advantage from overclocks, the 7950 is the king, no one can argue that, specially with the sapphire and msi ones. Now, you probably can match the same overclocking capability with a 670 but it will cost you a whole lot more money. Besides, you can pretty much max every game now and for a year with a non-overclocked 7950 or 670.

If you ask me, I'd go for the price/performance ratio of the 7950 and its huge oc headroom, thing which you do not get with the 670 unless you pay about 50 to 100 more. And on top of that, you wont be able to recognize the difference: both max everything.

Oh and by the way, you should balance your purchase depending on what titles you wanna play. Some times the 7950 fails before the 670 in a particular game, and sometimes, the (generally) more expensive 670 fails against the 7950. Pick some games, and see what card gives you better fps and then consider how much will it cost you get said fps.
 
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kalvus5

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This decision is pretty hard, I agree, the 7950 has great OC headroom and I've heard when pushed fully on stock voltages it nips at the heels of the 7970. The 670 though does come with Borderlands 2 and Assassins Creed III, both of which I was really interested in in the first place and although Physx only works for a couple games, it's nice to have that feature on the 670. I play mostly battlefield 3, GTA IV, Skyrim, and many other first person shooters. Basically to me it comes down to FPS. The one that gets the most FPS in game I would probably go for. If that means OCing the 7950 to surpass the 670, that's fine by me
 
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prototype18

prototype18

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Well the Gtx 670 can oc too. So its still ahead of the 7950.

So just get it no more words :)

New drivers are just great and also 670 need less power = less heat.

Focus on EVGA FTW / Asus/Gigabyte

In the order i posted .

FTW has better perf cuz its high clock and asus is cooler and quieter.

Both can OC like beasts.
 
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mrlime09

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Well I would wait to see some side by side benches with 310.64. Physx is great but yeah only works in a few dozen or so games. I have seen about a 20% boost with 310.64 and haven't found but a few compares with the 7xxx cards on 12.11 and 6xx with 310.64. you have to factor in what is in you're budget do you wanna try and max overclock a 7950 to edge out a 670 non oc slightly or do you want to spend more and get a better card. I favor the better card at a higher price. That's right I am calling the GTX 670 a better overall Videocard as it is. Adaptive vsync seems to work in all my titles now with 310.64 beta drivers. Something to consider is Adaptive Vsync and Physx as well as SLI support is leaps and bounds ahead of Crossfire should you ever want to SLI.
 
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dscudella

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GTX 660 Ti is between the 7870 and 7950 (closer to the 7950)
GTX 670 is between the 7950 and 7970 (closer to the 7970)
GTX 680 is equal to the 7970 Ghz Edi (Considering that the 7970 Ghz Edi is just a factory overclocked 7970, that's not saying much)

You have to realize that each company (Sapphire, XFX, Gigabyte, MSI, EVGA) can release their own cards that might edge out the competition. For instance, I've seen the Club3D 7950 surpass a GTX 680. But if you overclock the GTX 670 it can also surpass a GTX 680.

It's a mess this generation.

Edit: How would I pick a model? Price and game bundle. Both GPU manufacturers are offering good bundles with their cards and the GTX 660 Ti just saw a huge price cut from $300 at launch to around $260.

Edit: Also, if I were to upgrade right now, it would be GTX 670 or 7970 non "Ghz Edi"
 
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mrlime09

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I agree with you. However i wouldn't take the MSI Pe out of the running I have one and my friend has one as well both work fine without issues and overclock like champs. I got mine to 1550/6700 stable my friends doe's a bit worse at 1475/6670 but both are good overclocks. All the test i ran show a 20-25% improvement at stock clocks. I saw like 25FPS more in Max Payne 3, Metro 2033 went from 44FPS to 58FPS with max settings, Borderlands 2 went from 77FPs Max settings during action to 82 small gain but I'll take it, BF3 whent from 70 to 78FPS MAx settings AA@4x so mostly max settings, Hard Reset went up 77FPS to 87. Those are the games Ive tested to so far not too bad at all. I must admit my PC is pretty beastly so results may differ slightly. Side note: I aslo tested Sleeping dogs and saw no gains at all other then my Videocard running a whole lot cooler.
 
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dscudella

dscudella

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Nvidia has pulled their support of the MSI Video Cards that offering Triple Overvolting. MSI is on their own with these cards. Buy at your own risk.
 
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mrlime09

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I honestly Feel Tomshardware kind made a big stink out of nothing with the GTX 670 PE. I don't doubt some people have had problems but I haven't seen anything to suggest they have any more problems them any other brand. If you fallow forums you will see tons of problems with every single brand. My final thoughts are if you want a 670 just get it, if you wanna go down that god awful dark a dangerous road of buying AMD then don't say I didn't warn you. I learned after getting burned with Bulldozer and when I bought a XFX 7950. Buying anything other then a AMD APU kit for a home Media center rig is like Taking a Bath with a toaster on the edge of your tube, you just don't do it.
 
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garrettk4

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So why can't he just overclock the card and get more out of it? In my opinion it doesn't seem worth it to upgrade to the next generation especially since pci 3.0 is new. Wouldn't it make more sense to wait for the next generation to upgrade?
 
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mrlime09

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To be honest all joking and screwing around aside from a GTX 670 owner, buy the 7950 if you can. I honestly feel nothing can really justify the $50 to $100 more. I just like winding people up sometimes lol. Get the 7970 if you can though. I think Nvidia released good Videocards this go around but AMD released Great Vidoecards this time around they failed marketing them and with drivers for a while but have made good gains since.
 
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