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Am I mad for considering this?

pgi947

pgi947

pgi947

Soldato
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As some of you may know, I've had an absolute stinker of a weekend, faulty motherboard wiped out my beloved 7970 Lightning, so I've been looking for a stop-gap solution i.e. hunting around for cheap semi-powerful cards to fill the void so to speak.

Having not found anything to catch my eye I started checking 7970 pricing again and found the MSI 7970 OC (reference design) is on offer this week only (when does this end btw?) for £299.

I did plan for another lightning, but I'm thinking the reference design may be a god send, as I only bench (3dmark, heaven etc...) on a single card, which can be the Lightning once its back from RMA, the reference design would give me the option of dual link DVI without having to arse about patching drivers or using a £70 adaptor for 120hz, using the ref design as a primary card.

Am I mad for considering this??
 
So I've been weighing up the pro's and cons so far have come up with this:

Pro's
  1. Very Cheap!!
  2. Nice stock clocks
  3. Should play nice with my Lightning when its returned
  4. Gives me direct dual-link DVI
  5. waterblocks available

Con's
  1. Slightly shorter then the Lightning
  2. May not clock as high as the Lightning
  3. ???
  4. Probably won't be able to use a link bridge with waterblocks

Oh and I have realistically until tomorrow dinner time to decide, offer ends the 7th and I need to have it shipped tomorrow...

any thoughts?
 
Refrence cooling is loud and very toasty.


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The bad thing is that the voltage is locked from what people say. There was even a thread a day or 2 ago about this card ;]
 
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Why is a card being shorter a con?

Overclocking is abit of a lottery, on paper the Lightning 'should' clock better but you never know, get a reference 7970 on water and you are likely to beat a Lightning i'd imagine.

If you are thinking/do have a WC'd rig i'd deff go reference really, Or if you are feeling lazy: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-059-OE&groupid=2180&catid=2183&subcat=

But you can also WC a Lightning ;) http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=WC-234-EK
 
Wasn't you thinking of changing monitor?? Is that for 21:9, poss 120hz?? If so surely they will have DP, if it were me i'd stick to the lightning.
I'm still torn about going xfire, 2 lightnings + waterblocks is quite a big layout and i'm hoping/thinking that a 8970 lightning will do what i'm after in a single unit so less hassle and should be cheaper overall.
Which monitor are you currently using?
 
Reference cooler will be coming off as soon as I've confirmed the card is working so noise is a non-issue...I know what you mean though, I've had a reference 7970 before, nearly fell off my chair when I put the fan to 100% :p

Voltage locked is a big no-no for me, though that windforce appears to be reference design, no reason why the Asus test bios can't be flashed to it to unlock voltage to 1.4v...btw that 7970 @ that price is out of stock, I need to buy tonight/tomorrow.

Just to avoid confusion...

I WILL be keeping the lightning, but its going away for RMA, expected to take 7-10 days but could take up to 28 days, once its returned It'l be going in crossfire.

Haven't heard any more news on 21:9 120hz either, the way money is at the moment it may have to wait until next year.

The lead card will be the reference giving me dual link out with the lightning as a 'slave'. Motherboard has the option to disable/enable PCI lines so I can bench the lightning on its own.

Shorter is down as a con as it may look odd, cosmetic con only ;)
 
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pgi947 said:
Reference cooler will be coming off as soon as I've confirmed the card is working so noise is a non-issue...I know what you mean though, I've had a reference 7970 before, nearly fell off my chair when I put the fan to 100% :p

Voltage locked is a big no-no for me, though that windforce appears to be reference design, no reason why the Asus test bios can't be flashed to it to unlock voltage to 1.4v...btw that 7970 @ that price is out of stock, I need to buy tonight/tomorrow.

Just to avoid confusion...

I WILL be keeping the lightning, but its going away for RMA, expected to take 7-10 days but could take up to 28 days, once its returned It'l be going in crossfire.

Haven't heard any more news on 21:9 120hz either, the way money is at the moment it may have to wait until next year.
Click to expand...

Yep, i can see it says pre-order now.
Sorry i didnt notice.
 
I've got that card, its been great for me max clocks of 1250 on the core and 1875 on the memory.
 
Hmm decisions, I can realistically afford a £300 card and a block for it, I can't realistically afford a £380 card and another block which is why this is becoming an option.

I do have a lightning block, but as I said earlier, its reserved for my replacement Lightning.

Is that on air matt? what volts?
 
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pgi947 said:
Hmm decisions, I can realistically afford a £300 card and a block for it, I can't realistically afford a £380 card and another block which is why this is becoming an option.

I do have a lightning block, but as I said earlier, its reserved for my replacement Lightning.

Is that on air matt?
Click to expand...

Can you still get a refund?
Than go refrence.
 
I could but I like to push things a little harder, which makes water a must. Xmas is coming, then my new born cash vacuum... :p

Refund is not an option either as the card is over 28 days old, already tried that one :p
 
Cash vacuum?? Case??

Edit. Oh and thought you were going for aesthetics as well as performance on your next build??
Gotta be same card:D


Sorry just a quickie, did you use the pads or TIM on the vrms for the ltg block?
 
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300GBP for a reference MSI is a good price. No doubt about that. Whatever you buy though just check that it's not volt locked beforehand. Most aren't, but better to check anyway.
 
Pads on everything apart from the core which gets treated to some mx-4 :)

Cash vacuum = child :p

Already dipping into my case fund for this card.

I'll see if I can sell a kidney or something tomorrow and see what my finances look like before I decide on which card.
 
Get the cheap ref, add a water block and link that up with CF when you get your LTG back. No need for them to match up as you can easily make your own link system (you know this better than anyone).

CF and future proofed :)
 
I'm confused, did I not already tell you to kill yourself for considering this Paul? :p

Why not buy a cheap AMD card off the MM for its dual link DVI and use that?
 
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