7970 for 2560x1400 and some noob questions

[rickybalboa]

Hi all

I'm new on here and a bit in awe of the depth of knowledge to be honest, so please go easy…

I am building a new exclusively gaming PC, to use on my existing 27" 2560&1440 monitor that I work on.
I come from a background of Macs, so it's very interesting for me to get control over so much of the hardware.

It will probably be based on an overclocked i3570K bundle that I'll buy from here at OC, mostly because I have no experience at OCing and don't have a lot of patience and don't really want to blow anything up either.

After studying this forum as much as possible I've pretty much sussed out that a 7970 would be a good choice for a graphics card for this screen, but I was wondering if anyone could offer a bit of advice on the following:

• In the specs of the Gigabyte Windforce GHZ 7970 that I am eyeing up it requests a minimum PSU of 600W. I have a Corsair 650W lined up, but as I am using an OC'd bundle which I understand will draw more power will that kind of PSU be powerful enough to accommodate such a system? (single HD and optical drive only installed)

• Would the after market 7970 cards such as the Windforce or Lighning physically fit in a mid tower case like the Corsair Vengeance C70 or Carbide 500R?

• I am still going around in circles as to which 7970 to buy. As mentioned, I have no OCing experience and might not try it for years, but of course I'd want to get hold of one that is already factory OCd, but probably without going as expensive as a Lightning. I have display port on my monitor but I would prefer the option of a Dual Link DVi output also, just to keep my connection options open. Looking at about £350 with the free games, is the Gigabyte GHZ Windforce 3 a decent choice?

Any pointers would be very much appreciated and apologies in advance for leaching your forum.

Rick.

 

[Gregster]

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1 x Gigabyte ATi Radeon HD 7950 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £259.99
Total : £271.39 (includes shipping : £9.50).



That at stock will be fine for gaming and once you have got comfortable with it, the guys here will give you all the info you need on overclocking safely.

That PSU will be plenty for this GPU and what case do you have/intend on getting so we can check that it will fit

Edit:

Just checked and no problems with either of those cases

 

[Chrisoldinho]

I too would go for a 7950 over the 7970, there is approximately a 10% difference in speed, but a good saving to be had, the 7950 uses the same architecture and the only reason it's slower is due to the lower shader count and clock speeds.

But if your after a 7970, the Windforce ones are good, and use a custom PCB for what it's worth, it also generally suffers less from coil whine than some other cheaper 7970 brands, but it's still luck of the draw to a degree, personally I went with the HIS IceQ's, not sure if they do a 7970 model but the cooler is excellent, probably one of the best out there and is very good if you ever intend to crossfire 2 cards later due to the design.

Finally the only difference between Ghz edition and regular editions is the BIOS, and if you are careful it's easy to "upgrade" this, and Ghz cards will not offer more in terms of manual overclocking, worth noting.

Chris.

 

[rickybalboa]

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated.

Interesting stuff with the 7950 / 7970 thing, I hadn't considered that and I'm guilty of being blinded by numbers and charts at the moment if I am honest.

Although money is always an issue, I'm not that bothered about a £70 ish difference between them, the main reason I was leaning towards the slightly higher spec one was because I am sort of forced into playing on my existing work monitor which is native 2560x1440 - so I originally intended to just buy the best I could reasonably afford. I'm pretty new to all this stuff but I don't want to drop down to poor frame rates in fps games or have to scale up the monitor res too much.

At the risk of asking you to repeat yourselves would you still stand by the 7950 at this res?

27" monitor is not out of choice to be honest, if I was buying a monitor from scratch I'd just plump for a 1080p which I'm sure would be plenty and enjoy faster FPS but my hands are tied really.

I have considered crossfire as a possible way of getting more performance in maybe 12 months or so if I think I need it, so I suppose that £70 put towards another card next year only leaves me with £200 to fork out then rather than £350 on another 7970 (at today's prices). Which looks very significant.

I've been a Mac user for 20 years, the very idea of being able to add to the system in 12 months without having to saw off a limb is very refreshing!

Thanks again
Rick.

 

[Gregster]

I have seen 7950s score higher in benchmark threads than an overclocked 7970. If the difference in price isn't a worry, go for a 7970. Value for money makes the 7950 the better option but stats makes the 7970 the better option.

 

[rickybalboa]

Thanks to all for your help.

Rick.