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7950 v 7970

IceShock

IceShock

IceShock

Soldato
Joined
16 Dec 2005
Posts
4,054
Location
Halifax W'Yorkshire
hey there, need to buy a new card,

is the 7970 worth the 80 quid or so more than the 7950?

thanks :)

and also how much faster will both of these cards be than a 4870x2? as i cant find any reviews to compaire the two.

ta
 
You can clock a 7950 to surpass a stock 7970 but don't forget you can clock a 7970 also. It is upto you to decide if the extra grunt is warranting the extra £80.
 
They're definitely not worth the extra money, at the same clock speeds the performance difference is about 5% in favour of the 7970.

7950s overclock pretty well really, and will have a lot more headroom to overclock than a 7970. I don't think you'd ever get £80 more performance from going with a 7970 even if it's a really good clocker.
 
okay ta, 7950 it is, how much faster thana 4870x2 would one of these be?

and when are ati 8000 series out does anyone know?

thanks
 
Check with anandtech.com for comparisons (at work or I would do a link for ya) I believe Q1/2 for the next iterations from AMD and Nvidia.
 
spoffle said:
They're definitely not worth the extra money, at the same clock speeds the performance difference is about 5% in favour of the 7970.

7950s overclock pretty well really, and will have a lot more headroom to overclock than a 7970. I don't think you'd ever get £80 more performance from going with a 7970 even if it's a really good clocker.
Click to expand...

Worth is entirely subjective but apart from that I agree.
 
gregster said:
Check with anandtech.com for comparisons (at work or I would do a link for ya) I believe Q1/2 for the next iterations from AMD and Nvidia.
Click to expand...

Anandtech/bench doesn't have the 4870x2 but aside from that, their benches are not as good as the like of techPowerUp or computerbase since they never re-test with new drivers.

AMD have made huge performance boosts with their drivers since GCN came out (at least 5%-30% depending on the game). Also, if you buy the 7950 you should be able to get up to 40-50% overclock so it will be hard to get a review which has the 4870x2 in it and benches their overclocks.

This is the only index I could find:

http://ht4u.net/reviews/2012/msi_radeon_hd_7970_lightning_test/index32.php

so versus 4870x2, that makes a stock 7950 around 155%, a stock 7970 around 182% and the Lightning around twice the speed. But even Catalyst 12.4 is a bit old at this stage.
 
Ive got a xfx dd ghost edition thingy 7950.

Running Bf3 at ultra default settings, haven't done a long test, but was getting over 60fps consistently, not messed with aa etc yet.

Used to run an X2, and a 1gb 4870. Never tried them to compare.
 
KompuKare said:
Anandtech/bench doesn't have the 4870x2 but aside from that, their benches are not as good as the like of techPowerUp or computerbase since they never re-test with new drivers.

AMD have made huge performance boosts with their drivers since GCN came out (at least 5%-30% depending on the game). Also, if you buy the 7950 you should be able to get up to 40-50% overclock so it will be hard to get a review which has the 4870x2 in it and benches their overclocks.

This is the only index I could find:

http://ht4u.net/reviews/2012/msi_radeon_hd_7970_lightning_test/index32.php

so versus 4870x2, that makes a stock 7950 around 155%, a stock 7970 around 182% and the Lightning around twice the speed. But even Catalyst 12.4 is a bit old at this stage.
Click to expand...

AMD should have had their drives in a state to make incremental improvements to rather than overhauling improvements and the whole "old drivers" thing on reviews would be removed.

As I've said before it is a large time/money sink to re-review a card when the only variable is the drivers and it's not surprising so few places actually do this other than for ad-hoc reviews.
 
go for the 7950 and overclock it to the 7970 speed also you could get the bios update as well which will increase performance as well but the i think it is only by 2-4% but everylittle helps
 
If you are talking about 'worth' as in 'performance for the price', then no, the 7970 is not worth it as it doesn't offer a third more performance, despite costing around a third more.
 
trickynickyuk said:
go for the 7950 and overclock it to the 7970 speed also you could get the bios update as well which will increase performance as well but the i think it is only by 2-4% but everylittle helps
Click to expand...

how tricky are these bios updates? do they have the potential to ruin the card or? would u be able to rma it if that happened?
 
chris-82 said:
how tricky are these bios updates? do they have the potential to ruin the card or? would u be able to rma it if that happened?
Click to expand...

They won't warrant a botched BIOS flash (unless there are any manufacturers that do that I don't know about) so I wouldn't risk it. Yes, there is the potential to brick your card, so I wouldn't risk it personally- especially not for very slight performance increases. Overclocking through afterburner is warranted by MSi, plus they won't know it's been done anyway, plus it is super easy to get a load more performance without any risks.
 
Nuclear Fusion said:
They won't warrant a botched BIOS flash (unless there are any manufacturers that do that I don't know about) so I wouldn't risk it. Yes, there is the potential to brick your card, so I wouldn't risk it personally- especially not for very slight performance increases. Overclocking through afterburner is warranted by MSi, plus they won't know it's been done anyway, plus it is super easy to get a load more performance without any risks.
Click to expand...

thanks for the info nuclear fusion i feel the same that its not worth the possible problems for what is gained.
 
chris-82 said:
what would people recomend from these two cards:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-148-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-065-HS

im ready to buy just wondering which to get! do you think there will be any more price reductions? do you think this card will last a good 3-4 years?
Click to expand...

Personally? The MSI one.

Will it last 3-4 years? Yes probably but be prepared for poor frame rates at medium to low settings in that time scale.

No GPU will last and push decent frames in 3-4 years. A better way is to sell when the new generation comes and then use the proceeds from that towards a new GPU. This way you have incremental spending rather than a big wadge of cash every 2 years or whatever and you'll always have a decent graphics card :D.
 
Rusty0611 said:
Personally? The MSI one.

Will it last 3-4 years? Yes probably but be prepared for poor frame rates at medium to low settings in that time scale.

No GPU will last and push decent frames in 3-4 years. A better way is to sell when the new generation comes and then use the proceeds from that towards a new GPU. This way you have incremental spending rather than a big wadge of cash every 2 years or whatever and you'll always have a decent graphics card :D.
Click to expand...

thanks so do you think i should buy now or hold on untill the next round of cards?
im currebtly running a oc'd 6850
 
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