The HD 7950 is significantly more powerful than the 7870. With the 7950 you get a total of 1792 GCN cores, 3GB of video memory and a 382bit wide memory interface. That's 40% more GCN cores over the 7870s 1280 cores, 50% more video memory and a 50% wider memory interface. However the 7950 core edition is clocked lower (800mhz vs 1000mhz) than the 7870, so the performance improvement will not be 40%, more in the range of 25%-30% and because it's the core edition, it will not have adequate cooling for overclocking.
I would high recommend grabbing a non-reference 7950 like the Sapphire dual-X, the 15 pounds you pay extra are well worth it, because it will give you the ability to really open the taps up and overclock this card to outperform 680s/770s & 7970 Ghz editions.
The extra 1GB of memory will also come in very handy with upcoming titles, especially considering both next-gen game consoles dedicate more than 4GB of memory for graphics. The higher memory bandwidth and capacity also gives you the option to upgrade to a higher resolution monitor down the line without having to worry about memory constraints. The better game bundle is also a plus.
BradDodi got a reaction from Theo in Plants vs Zombies 2 is free in the Play Store right now
