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Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7950 vs 7970 Worth the upgrade?

kronos13

kronos13

kronos13

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Joined
7 Mar 2013
Posts
126
Hello all,
I'm thinking of upgrading from my current Gigabyte WF3 7950 to a Gigabyte ATI 7970 WF3 3072MB. It's going to mean more money obviously. Is the extra cash worth the performance gain, and is there really such a big difference in everyday use.

I'm not taking overclocking ability into account as you never know what the silicon lottery will give you in terms of that. Any thoughts welcomed.
 
When they're at the same clock speed the 7950 is less than 5% slower so I wouldn't say it is worth it for you.

I know you said you aren't factoring in overclocking but all 7950s reach 7970 stock speeds so this is a safe assumption. Of course the 7970 will overclock past stock levels as well to some degree but but the 7950s also overclock further.

Hope that helps.
 
Rusty0611 said:
When they're at the same clock speed the 7950 is less than 5% slower so I wouldn't say it is worth it for you.

I know you said you aren't factoring in overclocking but all 7950s reach 7970 stock speeds so this is a safe assumption. Of course the 7970 will overclock past stock levels as well to some degree but but the 7950s also overclock further.

Hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Hi, on my current 7950 I cannot get the clock speed past 1050ghz the memory to 1350, so it is pretty limiting. I'm not sure if the 7970 will be a bit better at overclocking though. I'm just thinking in terms of longevity of the product, maybe the 7970 will give me a couple of extra months down the line…
 
Well if you had a 7970 at the same clock speeds as your 7950 it'll be ~5% faster. I'd say you've got a fairly good chance of getting one which goes further though.

Avoid the Gigabyte ones if you do swap as they're voltage locked. I still don't think it's worth it though. Realistically if you get a good 7970, compared to your 7950 you'll be looking at an increase in performance of 10-15% at best. If you get an average one you're looking at under 10%.
 
Short answer: doesn't worth.

but sometimes you need the 10% more performance... this 10% sometimes can be the difference between a smooth gameplay or not.
 
Having the extra £50 in a few years = 20% of your next graphics card.

Having a slightly more powerful GPU = few extra FPS; imperceptible differences.

I know which option I would take.
 
kronos13 said:
Hello all,
I'm thinking of upgrading from my current Gigabyte WF3 7950 to a Gigabyte ATI 7970 WF3 3072MB. It's going to mean more money obviously. Is the extra cash worth the performance gain, and is there really such a big difference in everyday use.

I'm not taking overclocking ability into account as you never know what the silicon lottery will give you in terms of that. Any thoughts welcomed.
Click to expand...

Stick with what you have or put another 7950 in your machine.

Drangueos said:
but sometimes you need the 10% more performance... this 10% sometimes can be the difference between a smooth gameplay or not.
Click to expand...

That is true but i still don't think its worth it. He'd be better off doing what i said above.
 
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