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HD 7970 Matrix Platinum Replacement

Stalker_26

Stalker_26

Stalker_26

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Joined
18 Jun 2009
Posts
313
Location
Rugby
Morning all,

Currently have a HD 7970 Matrix Platinum.
Looking to upgrade as want a change.
Is it worth it yet?
What would be a worthy upgrade?
Looking to stay with AMD, and ideally a 3 slot card (Cosmos 2 looks empty with a 2 slot!!)
Is it worth getting 2 lesser cards or a 280x/290x??

Budget will be about £400 once my 7970 sells.

Suggestions welcome!!

Stalker
 
your card is about the same as a 280x so i would go to one of those. id personally keep it another 6 months as you wont see a massive jump.
 
Struggling to find another Matrix Platinum brand new (missed a trick when OCUK had them cheap:( )
the auction site has a few but dont wanna risk 2nd hand from an unknown seller.
And as for a 280x for crossfire - did think of that but my budget wont stretch.
i have about £160 ready and the rest will come from the sale of mine, which im hoping will be in the region of £250-£300. Im also getting rid of an unused GTX260 so that might add a few quid on top :D

The one thing i am looking for in my GPU is to have a backplate on it, the Matrix has a tidy looking one so i dont want to go back to looking at bare naked PCB :)

Was also looking at getting 2 of the HD 7970 Direct CU cards, a friend is selling his (both) and is looking for around £400.
But again, i dont know!!
 
Well you can get good money back for your cards at the moment thanks to this mining lark, id say if you can shift yours then getting a 290 would be worth while upgrade, but then depends on what you game at and what games you play, you might not notice a huge difference in some as the 7970 still a decent card to own tbh

Getting £250 to £300 yours may be a bit optimistic, but with this mining craze then you never know, good luck ;)
 
Cheers, have seen 2 of my card go at over £280 so far, with the latest one going for £325.
But as with everything, its hit and miss about the right buyer coming along :D

I game @ 1920x1080 on one screen (32" LCD) and only really BF4, although once in a while i may venture into Ghosts/BLOPS2, with my nephew getting a bif of mincraft in when he's round :)
 
Stalker_26 said:
Cheers, have seen 2 of my card go at over £280 so far, with the latest one going for £325.
But as with everything, its hit and miss about the right buyer coming along :D

I game @ 1920x1080 on one screen (32" LCD) and only really BF4, although once in a while i may venture into Ghosts/BLOPS2, with my nephew getting a bif of mincraft in when he's round :)
Click to expand...

Wow, i should have bought the lot when they where £220 :( who would have guessed they be worth more at a later date, well its a no brainer then mate, sell it, get the 290 ;)
 
:D so now onto the more pressing question - which 290/290x.
Only real requirement is a backplate, would be nice to get a 3 slot card but 2 will do.
Colour setting in my case:
Blue LED
Yellow Coolant in tubes
White Ram & White Fan blades.
 
a 280x will play nice in crossfire with a 7970 btw. Not officially supported but has been tested and confirmed by a few review sites.

What's the refresh rate of your screen. If it's 60hz, unless you're also upgrading the screen or adding more screens, I don't think you'll see much benefit.

I went from a 7970 to a 7990 when they were reasonably priced. I was going to sell the 7970 to fund it, but I'm justifying keeping all of them by mining :).
 
The MSI one has a backplate, or at least my 290x does... Only downside is that its red so may not go with the rest of your system?

Performance wise, the 290x knocks the socks off my old HIS 7970 Ghz
 
cwgk91 said:
The MSI one has a backplate, or at least my 290x does... Only downside is that its red so may not go with the rest of your system?

Performance wise, the 290x knocks the socks off my old HIS 7970 Ghz
Click to expand...

I did not see much difference at 1080p 60Hz but at 1440p 60Hz the 290x is superb.

I have the MSi 290x and although I find it a bit loud it is a great performer especially at 1440p.
 
At 1080p and 60Hz less so, though does make sure that it never dips below 60fps and will definitely be futureproofing for new games coming out

Flip side, it does get quite hot and if you have a aggressive fan profile it can get quite loud, though not that much louder than system fans. Speakers definitely drown it out.
 
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