GPU suggestions up to 350$

[BillyCool]

So I am selling my current 7850 from Gigabyte to a friend of mine and I am looking for a new GPU. I am looking @ the 300$ price point. I had a nice and beastly 7950 by ASUS in my cart for a while and today I was unhappy to see that it's no longer available. Yes, the only great looking card that matches by black and red themed machine was gone so I had to replace it. Here's my alternatives along with cons that I found in a basic research. Please correct me if I'm wrong somewhere.


For the 7950s these are my options:

Sapphire 7950 OC VaporX - Voltage locked, waste of money for a 7950.
MSI 7950 Twin Frozr III Boost Edition - According to recent posts, some of these cards tend to be very hot and noisy and only capable of overclocks up to 1100MHz.
Gigabyte 7950 OC - Recent models ship with the new 1000MHZ stock clock instead of 900MHz and are volrage locked (source). Though some report that they come with a reference 7970 PCB and with 8+6 power connectors, I wouldn't like to risk anything.
Sapphire 7950 OC Edition V3 - Haven't read much about it yet.
HIS 7950 IceQ Boost - Too ugly. Sorry :P
HIS 7950 - single fan design, bad for overclocking and an "open" chassis like mine.
Sapphire 7950 with Boost - Reference design cooler, again bad for overclocking and an open chassis.



For a 7870 I would only consider a Tahiti LE card which are close to 7950s. My options are:

Sapphire 7870 XT with Boost - Not the best looking card in the world, heard about bad temperatures. Actually I saw many "custom" coolers where people removed the cover and added their own fans.
PowerColor 7870 Myst Edition - Single fan, blower design, bad for overclocking and an open chassis.


What I'm thinking is buying a Sapphire 7870 XT for now and possibly upgrade it once the 8000 series is out later this year. I believe it's powerful enough to run most modern games in high settings considering how well my current 7850 performs when overclocked. If I instead go with a 7950, my next upgrade will probably be with the 9000 series. I'd love to hear your opinions about this. I live in Australia and specifically Victoria, Melbourne if you have some other alternatives for me. Thanks in advance.


* I am not interested in nVidia, it's too overpriced here in Australia and I don't really need their CUDA and PhysX technology anyway.
** I do plan to overclock as much as possible so I'm looking for a good overclocker.
*** Though I use 2 24" monitors, I only game in 1 in 1080p so anything above a 7950 would be pretty much useless.
 

 

[killerx525]

G'day mate, at Centrecom, they have the Asus 7950 in stock from where you can order from :)

 

http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/hd7950-dc2t-3gd5-asus-radeon-7950-directcu-edition-hd7950-dc2t-3gd5-with-tweak-p-60789.html?sort=3a

[CaseySean01]

You're being wayyy to picky on video cards. You've listed almost every freaking brand of video card, and found something very small to pick at. I have a 7970 in my system right now, and I don't have problems with temperature or anything, and the 7950 is very similar. None of the listed cards should have a problem with heat. 

 

Personally, I would go with the ASUS branded video cards. They come with great coolers and they overclock well.

 

Also, you shouldn't make a choice on a video card based on how it looks. I have a PowerColor 7970 and it's not the best looking card, but if performs fantastically. Doing so will limit your options drastically.

[Maverik5124]

Definatly go with a 7950. Either decide by the looks or roll a dice. Or you could look at reviews and pick the one with the lowest temperature