Best 7950?

[Chrisoldinho]

I read and listened to the videos in the review below - comparing 6 7950's and went with the Asus . Nice ,big, card and to me quiet enough (I only hear it before windows starts and ,occasionally , when gaming & even then it's not too intrusive).

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7950-review-benchmark,3207-12.html

I also have heard that the Asus PCB is of 'standard' design - assuming that this is true then it should be straight foward to watercool/add a non-standard cooler.

From experience coming from a 7970 DCII TOP, the problem with the ASUS card is it is not possible to do any form of voltage adjustment, additionally they seem to struggle with over clocking when compared with other reference brands. I do not know if the same is true of the 7950, but I imagine it is the same given the small difference between the 7950/7970.

Also bear in mind running a CF setup would be challenging in the future as it's a 3 slot design, so even if you could get it to fit, the temperatures would be off the scale.

My recommendation would be the HIS 7950 IceQ, very cool, nearly silent in operation and run very very well in CF (better than any other card from every review I have seen).

 

[HankScorpio]

Those VTX double fan coolers are pretty good. Quite noisy on benchmarks and 100% constant use, but I've yet to play a game that does this and I've only noticed the noise on mine when benching.

 

[McNutter]

Well if the OP does RMA a perfectly good card (raising the price for the rest of us) go for a VTX3D HD 7950 X-Edition. I have one here sitting at 1,200Mhz Core and 1,700Mhz mem @ 1.15v and is quiet and cool. Mind you a good 50%, mine included, suffer from coil whine so he'll probably RMA it again...

 

[thefogo]

Well if the OP does RMA a perfectly good card (raising the price for the rest of us) go for a VTX3D HD 7950 X-Edition. I have one here sitting at 1,200Mhz Core and 1,700Mhz mem @ 1.15v and is quiet and cool. Mind you a good 50%, mine included, suffer from coil whine so he'll probably RMA it again...

My card was hitting 85% fan speed at those clocks and was loud as hell - this is something that I didn't want and I've returned it under DSR (I haven't RMA'd it).
Keep crying if you want though, I don't really care.

 

[AgedIdiot]

From experience coming from a 7970 DCII TOP, the problem with the ASUS card is it is not possible to do any form of voltage adjustment, additionally they seem to struggle with over clocking when compared with other reference brands. I do not know if the same is true of the 7950, but I imagine it is the same given the small difference between the 7950/7970.

Also bear in mind running a CF setup would be challenging in the future as it's a 3 slot design, so even if you could get it to fit, the temperatures would be off the scale.

My recommendation would be the HIS 7950 IceQ, very cool, nearly silent in operation and run very very well in CF (better than any other card from every review I have seen).

I have not felt the need to adjust voltage etc , but having installed tonight the Asus tweak utility software which came with the card found , in the advanced mode (which took a bit of finding), a section where one can adjust voltages - I have not tested it but would assume that it would work.

Would agree that a CF set up of 2 of them would be 'very' challenging - obviously depends on board & case but not easy.

The noise produced by the IceQ was imo worse than the noise produced by the Asus but this opinion is very subjective and a n other might well feel differently.

Possibly the Sapphire vaporx o'clock might be the best of the lot - it was not , so far as I remember, available when I made my purchase and I have not 'heard' it running but the limited reviews I've seen do say that it is very quiet & it's on offer at the moment.

 

[Naitachal]

I'm flip-flopping between the HIS and Sapphire, plan to get one now and a 2nd for CF later - any further input appreciated!

Will be OCing
Quieter the better

(They're going in a Cool Master HAF X)

 

[thefogo]

I'm flip-flopping between the HIS and Sapphire, plan to get one now and a 2nd for CF later - any further input appreciated!

Will be OCing
Quieter the better

(They're going in a Cool Master HAF X)

I got the 7950 Vapor-X from Sapphire this morning - it's a great card

The fan barely spins up when gaming and I can't hear it over my case fans. Temperatures are great too - mine was hitting about 55C in the overclocked 950Mhz mode.

The only problem is that it doesn't seem to have voltage control
I have it stable at 1115Mhz on stock voltage and it just creeps over 60C in Heaven

 

[Chrisoldinho]

I have not felt the need to adjust voltage etc , but having installed tonight the Asus tweak utility software which came with the card found , in the advanced mode (which took a bit of finding), a section where one can adjust voltages - I have not tested it but would assume that it would work.

Glad it works for you! I do recall certain DCII's not being voltage locked actually, but there was a BIOS update (for the 7970 anyway) that locked things down. From memory the max voltage my 7970 DCII TOP would go to was 1225 under "game" mode (in GPUTweak), but as standard it ran at 1217.

I'm flip-flopping between the HIS and Sapphire, plan to get one now and a 2nd for CF later - any further input appreciated!

Will be OCing
Quieter the better

(They're going in a Cool Master HAF X)

HIS IceQ IMO, have just bought 2 myself for CF, although I must confess I haven't seen reviews on the Sapphire one. This will be going in a CM Storm Trooper case, a similar size to a HAF X.
The blower on the IceQ sits at the end of the card and sucks air in from the side, which is great for CF as the top card is often starved of cool air.
There is a really good review of this card on youtube, that shows how good this card is in CF.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZeo_xepHrU

Another good read:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7950-review-benchmark,3207.html

The HIS card is near the top on power consumption, temperatures (top) and noise 3rd. The DCII TOP also looks good, but from experience in 7970 form is not always all it seems (see above posts) and I question it's CF abilities due to it being a full 3 slot design. Just a pitty the Vapor-X isn't in the above comparison really, as I imagine it would do pretty well

If you go for the HIS, I imagine you'll be getting the newer boost version, which is actually clocked slightly lower (850mhz), but boosts higher than the turbo model, this should acoustically speaking make things even quieter, finally (and I cannot find the thread to substantiate this!) I believe the HIS card is the only one which can actually turn off it's fan when idle to kill all noise

Hope this helps,
Chris.

 

[bigmac121]

Well if the OP does RMA a perfectly good card (raising the price for the rest of us) go for a VTX3D HD 7950 X-Edition. I have one here sitting at 1,200Mhz Core and 1,700Mhz mem @ 1.15v and is quiet and cool. Mind you a good 50%, mine included, suffer from coil whine so he'll probably RMA it again...

how did you do this?

 

[Twirlywoos]

I got the 7950 Vapor-X from Sapphire this morning - it's a great card

The fan barely spins up when gaming and I can't hear it over my case fans. Temperatures are great too - mine was hitting about 55C in the overclocked 950Mhz mode.

The only problem is that it doesn't seem to have voltage control
I have it stable at 1115Mhz on stock voltage and it just creeps over 60C in Heaven

Can't you move the voltage sliders in TRIXX?

 

[thefogo]

Can't you move the voltage sliders in TRIXX?

Only one version of Trixx shows GPU Voltage (4.1.0), and even then it detects the voltage as 1250mV and moving the sliders does nothing. It's strange as I've read reviews of the card and the reviewers managed to overvolt it with Trixx.

 

[humbug]

Well if the OP does RMA a perfectly good card (raising the price for the rest of us) go for a VTX3D HD 7950 X-Edition. I have one here sitting at 1,200Mhz Core and 1,700Mhz mem @ 1.15v and is quiet and cool. Mind you a good 50%, mine included, suffer from coil whine so he'll probably RMA it again...

1200Mhz core clock on 1.15v is pretty bloody good.

 

[humbug]

Only one version of Trixx shows GPU Voltage (4.1.0), and even then it detects the voltage as 1250mV and moving the sliders does nothing. It's strange as I've read reviews of the card and the reviewers managed to overvolt it with Trixx.

Try 4.3.0 https://www.sapphireselectclub.com/ssc/TriXX/TriXX.aspx its what i use, it works perfectly.

 

[thefogo]

Try 4.3.0 https://www.sapphireselectclub.com/ssc/TriXX/TriXX.aspx its what i use, it works perfectly.

The voltage stays dead straight at 1.056

 

[nitram100]

Love my MSI, fan has never gone above 60% always keeping it cool at about 50c, very good card and great warranty.

Originally ordered the Windforce but turned out that would't have fit in my case.

 

[Menty]

Love my MSI, fan has never gone above 60% always keeping it cool at about 50c, very good card and great warranty.

Originally ordered the Windforce but turned out that would't have fit in my case.

Have you got it clocked as mine runs hotter than that on autofan.
Just finished BF3 with 1000 core 1500mem and the temps peaked at 66 degrees.

 

[nitram100]

I haven't got it clocked mate, still on stock 880 core. Is it worth OC'ing this card?

 

[Menty]

I haven't got it clocked mate, still on stock 880 core. Is it worth OC'ing this card?

It oc's very well (well mine does at least).
I have took it up to 1100 core 1500 mem and the volts were quite low (about 1.14).
I might try the 1200 core just to see what voltage it needs but for what I play at 1080p it does not need to be pushed any further really.

 

[Vass0131]

Im running the XFX R7950 Black Edition Double Dissipation 3gb.

Play BF3 on ultra no oc on the card and run's great low temps and quiet too.

 

[jimhaumman]

Im running the XFX R7950 Black Edition Double Dissipation 3gb.

Play BF3 on ultra no oc on the card and run's great low temps and quiet too.

you might have lock voltage depends on bios version
other guy bought xfx hd 7970 (version 3.1 with Dual DVI Ports) and is lock on stock voltage