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choice between 2 7950's, which one? The HIS at £162 or the IceQ boost at £191?

TonyTurbo78

TonyTurbo78

TonyTurbo78

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Hi guys, decided im throwing a 2nd 7950 in my rig for upcoming games, I've had my heart set on the IceQ Boost but its varying price is driving me nuts lol. I just came home to order it but now noticed the HIS 7950 at a very low £161. Yes it doesn't come with 3 new games or have free shipping but how would the card stand up? 1100/1500 possible you think? I expect the voltage would have to be unlocked too, but I like the look of the cooler. The IceQ Boost, looking at the picture, slightly worries me as it looks very large and bulky.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-049-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-065-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673


thoughts?
 
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If you can spend the extra and get the Ice-Q. The other card won't have much overclocking headroom due to no vrm plate and less than stellar overall cooling performance. That said if you're happy to run it at stock or a light overclock 1000-1025 core you'll be ok.
 
LtMatt said:
If you can spend the extra and get the Ice-Q. The other card won't have much overclocking headroom due to no vrm plate and less than stellar overall cooling performance. That said if you're happy to run it at stock or a light overclock 1000-1025 core you'll be ok.
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Boost it is lmao. Cheers Matt..Should I be concerned about the size of the boost? You have 2 of them correct? any chance you can measure your weapon for me ;) I need to make sure itll fit
 
TonyTurbo78 said:
Boost it is lmao. Cheers Matt..Should I be concerned about the size of the boost? You have 2 of them correct? any chance you can measure your weapon for me ;) I need to make sure itll fit
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LtMatt said:
7 inches on a bad day.
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Oops wrong weapon. Sorry i was talking about my weapon of mass destruction. :o

Not sure on the length of the gpu, about 12 inches i guess mate. Google will probably give you a better length. (that's what she said :p)

Are we talking about length, in every sense of the word or am i missing something? :D
 
LtMatt said:
Oops wrong weapon. Sorry i was talking about my weapon of mass destruction. :o

Not sure on the length of the gpu, about 12 inches i guess mate. Google will probably give you a better length. (that's what she said :p)

Are we talking about length, in every sense of the word or am i missing something? :D
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Good Grief man....:rolleyes::p
 
That was my problem with the IceQ - too long for my case (Windforce just about makes it with 2-3mm to spare). So it is worth checking (29.5cm long from memory but also the watch the height of that blowerat 15.5cm). There was no way to fit in my case without a hacksaw.

cj
 
LtMatt said:
If you can spend the extra and get the Ice-Q. The other card won't have much overclocking headroom due to no vrm plate and less than stellar overall cooling performance. That said if you're happy to run it at stock or a light overclock 1000-1025 core you'll be ok.
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Was tempted by that card, but the cooler is supposed to be awful.

Apparently HIS undervolt that card to make it seem that the cooler is better than it really is? That's quite shocking if true :p

But yeah apparently it hardly shifts any air at all.
 
Orangey said:
12.2 inches according to Amazon.
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The boost or matt?

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NB: The non-boost is a ref model so can simply be flashed with a ref boost BIOS which the card should be able to handle, maybe something to consider if you want to save £30, or if you plan on going water so don't need the IceQ cooler.
 
Toms hardware did a good comparison of the iceQ and the normal 7950 and the iceQ outperforms it in every way possible, it ended up being the HIS iceQ and Asus dirct 2 being a mix of first and second on both cards

IceQ am best bet
 
I had the 7950 reference ones in crossfire, I would not go further than 1000/1400.
at 1ghz the top one would get 88C on the core (this with only 1.055V)

anything over 1ghz they get really hot, noisy and the vrm temperatures reach 100C+.

If you need your cards running at 1.1ghz you should go for the iceq, if you are ok with 900mhz or 1ghz if you have a good case you can save £60 and go for the reference ones.

About your question 1100/1500 on the reference ones, it is possible but they will get really really hot, I could do this on my cards, but only for benching and fan on 100%, for gaming I would never go over 1000 on the reference ones.
 
lol Matt.

My WF3 is 12 inches fully aroused, got a little room to spare but not much. If the IceQ Boost is 13 inches I should be ok.

Question, with the WF£ having the 3 fans on the underside of the card, wouldn't this draw the heat from the IceQ and place it right on my WF3 :( and the other way wouldn't work with the IceQ on top because 1 the cooler looks massive and 2 wouldn't it then draw the heat from my WF3 blowing upwards? The woes of Xfire :(

edit..just checked on the length, they are both pretty much the same so all is ok on fitting me thinks

Hey Matt, how is BF4 BETA??
 
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This reminds me of the time our science teacher was showing us an astronomy video.

People referred to their telescopes in terms of inches and you can guess the rest.
 
According to the official specs, the IceQ Boost is 29.5 cm long, just managed to squeeze one into my old case after moving my HDD's down a slot to make room! Were as my previous card (a Sapphire Toxic 5850) fitted in nicely with a little room to spare.
 
ubersonic said:
The boost or matt?

--------

NB: The non-boost is a ref model so can simply be flashed with a ref boost BIOS which the card should be able to handle, maybe something to consider if you want to save £30, or if you plan on going water so don't need the IceQ cooler.
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Tbh hardware reviews from the big sites don't mean much. The vendors tend to send 'golden samples' or tweaked cards, and the review sites, keen to get their reviews in early, will use whatever card they're given.

It'd be different if they went out and bought the hardware they review, but they don't.

I'd rather put my trust in user reviews, and a lot of them point the the IceQ Boost cooler being awful. And the cards being difficult to clock because the cooler performs so badly.

Otherwise I'd have bought one by now :p
 
FoxEye said:
Tbh hardware reviews from the big sites don't mean much. The vendors tend to send 'golden samples' or tweaked cards, and the review sites, keen to get their reviews in early, will use whatever card they're given.

It'd be different if they went out and bought the hardware they review, but they don't.

I'd rather put my trust in user reviews, and a lot of them point the the IceQ Boost cooler being awful. And the cards being difficult to clock because the cooler performs so badly.

Otherwise I'd have bought one by now :p
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I bought my WF3 after reading several different review sites testing of said card, they all said this card overclocks like a beast and they weren't wrong..I can get just shy of 1700mem and just over 1200 core before artifacting and that's on air. So, review sites do need to be listened to, and of course there are dozens of people here that swear by the IceQ
 
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