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7950 advice

Associate
Joined
16 Aug 2011
Posts
1,569
Location
Ireland
Hello all, been a while since IO've really posted anything but havnt been doing much tinkering to be post worthy lol.
Anyways, I've been considering getting a new gpu for a while (pretty much since I build the rig, but couldn't afford a gpu at the time), came home the other day and had a cheque from the tax man saying I paid to much last year, not a lot but decided that since this was money I hadn't had I may as well treat myself :P lol, looking around at different gpus, and adding some money to the cheque I might be able to push and get a http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-065-HS

question really is if it's worth it, or would you recommend a different brand 7950 (*current his card was purchased from oc and I've had no issues with it thus far) The free games are a nice incentive - esp. sleeping dogs tbh, I'm open to playing any genre of game, recently become fixated on Diablo 3 - which isnt the most taxing of games, but I also have a good few hours racked up on skyrim and some BF3, so going from the 5670 will be a nice boost in performance for me on all games really. I currently only have a 720p tv so I admit a lot is lost me not being 1080p etc, but I've been planning on getting a monitor also, and would rather get the gpu first, than get the monitor had have my experience with it sub-par because my gpu couldnt handle it, looking at either a dell with 1200 or a benq 120hz, undecided, based on that would you recommend the 7950 iceq, perhaps a different brand, or even drop down to say a 7850/70

many thanks in advance for your advice.
 
Well I don't have any specifics brand-wise although I though the HIS IceQ is more of a blower type design (so it's like an enhanced reference design) and blower cooler are best for CrossFire/SLI since you really don't want 2x 150-250W dumped into your case.

But regarding 7870 vs 7950, the 7950 should be a lot better for Skyrim. This is from computerbase's recent GPU roundup:

Skyrim.jpg


That's with some mods (CB call it 'Skyrim + ENB Grafikmod') and while the 7950 is only 7% faster than the 7870, that's for a 800Mhz reference clock design and there's really no reason not to run a 7950 at 1000Mhz+. Once it's above 1050 or so, it should be as fast as the 7970GHz edition. Whereas the 7870 doesn't overclock that well (well some go up to 1200Mhz but the scalling is not as good as with Tahiti).

So if you have the budget, get the 7950 and OC it.
 
thanks for the chart, been looking around at some reviews for the 7950 etc, I have no problem with overclocking it either so I should see a boost, just seen some reviews saying to go for twin frozr etc but I think I'l be happy with the HIS and free games, thanks again
 
Just an update, received the gpu today, would have gotten it yesterday but I was stuck in work, very happy with the speed of delivery (ordered it on the 16th of sept. and I live in N.I. so very fast), installed the card and everything seems to be working fine
 
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