Sapphire OC 7950 or Evga OC 670 or ASUS OC 670?

[real world]

Hi guys. I need help deciding between these 3 cards. I play BF3 exclusively on a single 24" 1080p monitor. I hope to one day run an Eyefinity set up with 3 monitors, but since I don't currently have the space for 3 monitors, that may never happen. My 5850 plays BF3 at medium settings without issues. At High it runs well for the most part (I keep it at Medium). At Ultra it's challenged. At any rate, my set up is as follows:

8 GB Ripjaws RAM
i5-750 CPU
Sapphire 5850 1GB
Corsair HX650 PSU
CM Hyper 212 HSF
ASUS P7P55D EVO LGA 1156 Intel P55 ATX Intel Motherboard
COOLER MASTER Storm Scout ATX Mid Tower Case


My narrowed choice of cards:

$389 - SAPPHIRE 100352OCSR Radeon HD 7950 OC 3GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102991&Tpk=SAPPHIRE%20100352OCSR

$419 - EVGA 02G-P4-2678-KR GeForce GTX 670 FTW
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787

$429 - ASUS GTX670-DC2T-2GD5 GeForce GTX 670
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121638



My questions are...

1) Will my Mobo and/or case be an issue with either of the above video cards? Size, slot, heat etc.

2) Is the Evga or Asus GTX 670 worth $30 & $40 more than the latest Sapphire OC'd 7950? Even if I OC the 7950 further myself?

3) Which card do you recommend?



I see where most benches score the 670 better. I also know that there is a debate for some with respect to clock to clock performance. 7950's OC very well, so is it worth spending $30-40 more for either of the 670 cards? I picked these 3 cards because most owners and reviews have mentioned them as being both quiet, and cool, compared to other models. I don't want a card that is loud, nor one that runs too hot. The room my comp is in can heat up a little bit when i run my pair of PC's, and my TV in the summer. I've seen that some of the reference 670's could be on the higher side of noise and heat. At least more so than I'd like. Anyhow, all comments are appreciated.



Thanks in advance!


**I know the Sapphire says $409 at the egg but I have one at $389 available to me**

 

[jonpaul37]

Plan on overclocking? I know ASUS covers overclocking in their warranty.

Ps. Go RedSox!

 

[real world]

OC'ing depends on the performance of the card out of the box. If I can run on Ultra settings without any issues with performance, then I won't custom overclock. Not at first at least. If I feel I need or want more from the card, then I would.

Doh, I'm a Yankees fan btw. hahaha

I see ur avatar is written in Italian. Sie italiano?

 

[jonpaul37]

Sì, io parlo italiano, ma anche che non tutti possono capire, è Molto meglio di quanto lo parlo.

I'd have to say it's all a matter of preference from here, perhaps see what price the 660's or 660Ti's come out at, maybe grab two of them for SLI. If it's price then the 7950 might be the best, if it's warranty, Sapphire and ASUS are legit, EVGA too

 

[xtreme5]

asus has high standard.

 

[maximillion82]

Overall I heard EVGA are very good GeFroce cards, I don't know too much about ASUS, other than their motherboards are great.
Personally I have a Sapphire 7950 OC at 950MHz and no game I tested so far with max settings managed to dip below 60 FPS for more than a quarter of a second. nVidia makes for sure better drivers and CUDA is nice. What I like about the Radeons is Eyefinity and the fact that they drop now 3GB of GDDR5 onto their cards.
If you use the system mainly for gaming, you will probably like the nVidia cards better unless you have more than 2 screens.
For other applications the Radeon are closer designed to the high end 3D rendering cards such as the quadros.
I am very happy with my 7950, it's fast, very quiet and can be overclocked like crazy. Sapphire offers the TRIXX tool which makes OCing a walk in the park, just know what you are doing, as in don't go over your limit, it's not fun to fry a $400 card.
I have no clue how well nVidia cards OC, but I am sure they are good at that too.

I bought the Radeon before the 670s were released and I am happy with the card, but if I have to buy one today I might go nVidia, solely because of the drivers which use the cards performance much better. You can see that very well in benchmarks, 670s are on average a tiny bit faster in games than 7950s (stock clock), even though theoretically the Radeons should blast by the GeFroces (384 bit vs. 256 bit, and 3GB GDDR5 vs 2GB GDDR5), the main advantage the 670 has is the driver and a slightly higher stock clock speed.

Overall I think it's personal preference and brand loyalty that makes the deciding factor. My recommendation is if you have a store close to you that has both cards on a demo machine, ask them if they can start up the same games and compare which one looks better, because the 1 or 2 fps difference is not noticeable to you, but the quality of the picture will make a difference, though only if you see them side by side.

 

[maximillion82]

Overall I heard EVGA are very good GeFroce cards, I don't know too much about ASUS, other than their motherboards are great.
Personally I have a Sapphire 7950 OC at 950MHz and no game I tested so far with max settings managed to dip below 60 FPS for more than a quarter of a second. nVidia makes for sure better drivers and CUDA is nice. What I like about the Radeons is Eyefinity and the fact that they drop now 3GB of GDDR5 onto their cards.
If you use the system mainly for gaming, you will probably like the nVidia cards better unless you have more than 2 screens.
For other applications the Radeon are closer designed to the high end 3D rendering cards such as the quadros.
I am very happy with my 7950, it's fast, very quiet and can be overclocked like crazy. Sapphire offers the TRIXX tool which makes OCing a walk in the park, just know what you are doing, as in don't go over your limit, it's not fun to fry a $400 card.
I have no clue how well nVidia cards OC, but I am sure they are good at that too.

I bought the Radeon before the 670s were released and I am happy with the card, but if I have to buy one today I might go nVidia, solely because of the drivers which use the cards performance much better. You can see that very well in benchmarks, 670s are on average a tiny bit faster in games than 7950s (stock clock), even though theoretically the Radeons should blast by the GeFroces (384 bit vs. 256 bit, and 3GB GDDR5 vs 2GB GDDR5), the main advantage the 670 has is the driver and a slightly higher stock clock speed.

Overall I think it's personal preference and brand loyalty that makes the deciding factor. My recommendation is if you have a store close to you that has both cards on a demo machine, ask them if they can start up the same games and compare which one looks better, because the 1 or 2 fps difference is not noticeable to you, but the quality of the picture will make a difference, though only if you see them side by side.

UPDATE:
My Sapphire 7950 OC blew up after 33 days of purchase and 29 days of use, I have to RMA it, takes up to 8 weeks, so I am getting a GeForce 670 not impressed with Sapphire's service so far, I will keep you posted to see if they at least will cross ship it to speed up the process, by the sound of it I am screwed and really have to spend the money to get the GeFroce 670, now the question is if evga or asus.

 

[maximillion82]

UPDATE:
My Sapphire 7950 OC blew up after 33 days of purchase and 29 days of use, I have to RMA it, takes up to 8 weeks, so I am getting a GeForce 670 not impressed with Sapphire's service so far, I will keep you posted to see if they at least will cross ship it to speed up the process, by the sound of it I am screwed and really have to spend the money to get the GeFroce 670, now the question is if evga or asus.

I am very happy with the EVGA it is definitely more responsive than the Sapphire, I'd only recommend the Radeonif you plan on using Eyefinity, otherwise go nVidia.

As to Sapphire, this is a tedious RMA, my card is busted now for over a week (which is when I contacted them first), I am still waiting on a response on what the game plan is.
Get an XFX if you buy a Radeon, I heard their warranty and RMA policies are much more efficient. The only way to buy a Sapphire is if you get an in-store warranty plan with it.
All manufacturers take some time to replace your card. I heard EVGA is one of the fastest one, XFX is very good too, and Sapphire is one of the worst manufacturers when it comes to customer service. By now I sent them 7 emails, posted 8 posts on their website under my ticket, and had to call them 3 times and I am still waiting on how they want to proceed. Even my retailer is still waiting to hear back from Sapphire and it's been 10 days now.
The only good thing about their customer service is, that the Canadian RMA shipping contractor does not have long waiting times on the phone.