Best Radeon 7950?

[spartin503]

I am in the market for a better GPU, and I was looking a the AMD Radeon 7950, but I don't know which one is better for cooling, coil whine, performance, and which type of cooling (shroud or open) is the best. So which 7950 is the best for under $380 USD?

[Brendan]

II got both a gigabyte and xfx 7950. Both are good and i got then for far less thab 380. I think i got lucky because the xfx r7950 had 2048 processors. The 3d mark tests also reflected it. Maybe you'll get lucky too

[ericlee30]

I would personally say the XFX DD 7950 Black edition, right now that card is very hard to find for some reason. The card overclocks like I have never seen before.

I have mine overclocked to

1150 on the core clock

and 1725 on the memory clock

by far I have not seen any of the 7950 series of cards hit that high of an overclock but this one

[ericlee30]

II got both a gigabyte and xfx 7950. Both are good and i got then for far less thab 380. I think i got lucky because the xfx r7950 had 2048 processors. The 3d mark tests also reflected it. Maybe you'll get lucky too

LOL do also have the XFX DD 7950 Black edition? Mine also says that it has 2048 shader cores :) I thought I was the only one that has one, so this is very cool to see that someone else also has one :)

[BeyondNight]

Gigabyte or ASUS, there coolers are cooler and quieter than the rest and they overclock like beasts (it was nothing for my card to do 1100Mhz/1725Mhz) some have even gotten past 1200Mhz with the cooling capability thses cards have, id stay away from XFX as anything other than the Double D has bad cooling and quite a few people have had problems.

[TechFan@ic]

I would personally say the XFX DD 7950 Black edition, right now that card is very hard to find for some reason. The card overclocks like I have never seen before.

I have mine overclocked to

1150 on the core clock

and 1725 on the memory clock

by far I have not seen any of the 7950 series of cards hit that high of an overclock but this one

Actually Vapor-X 7950s have been taken all the way to 1200mhz .

None the less that's still an epic overclock you got there .

[TechFan@ic]

The best 7950 is the Asus DCUii but it's a triple slot card, the best dual slot 7950 is the 7950 Vapor-X Boost .

[ericlee30]

I would personally say the XFX DD 7950 Black edition, right now that card is very hard to find for some reason. The card overclocks like I have never seen before.

I have mine overclocked to

1150 on the core clock

and 1725 on the memory clock

by far I have not seen any of the 7950 series of cards hit that high of an overclock but this one

true but I have yet to see the Vapor-X 950 reach 1725 on the memory clock, I have pushed my core clock to 1250mhz but my memory clock only would go to 1700mhz, so I backed off a little so I could get my memory clock higher :) and thats without messing with the vcore.

and Thank you TechFan@ic thats very nice of you to say that :)

[TechFan@ic]

Here is a comparison of all the different 7950 cards, the vapor-x isn't there though , but I can tell you that it has the same temperature & noise levels of the HIS IceQ.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7950-review-benchmark,3207-10.html

here is another comparison that includes the XFX 7950 DD .

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5476/amd-radeon-7950-review/17

Avoid the Gigabyte & the XFX models, both are voltage locked .

[R4STABAN]

exhaust: HIS ICeQ

non-exhaust:dcuii/windforce

[ericlee30]

Gigabyte or ASUS, there coolers are cooler and quieter than the rest and they overclock like beasts (it was nothing for my card to do 1100Mhz/1725Mhz) some have even gotten past 1200Mhz with the cooling capability thses cards have, id stay away from XFX as anything other than the Double D has bad cooling and quite a few people have had problems.

The thing about the XFX DD 7950 black edition is the 1150mhz core clock and the 1725mhz memory clock I have I got without touching the vcore, same went with when I got 1250mhz on the core clock and 1700mhz on the memory clock, no vcore there either. I know that if I mess with the vcore I can get it to go even higher then what I have it at right now. I bought my 7950 2 weeks after they came out in January of 2012 and personally the DD cools the card great and I have not had one issue with the card since I have had it, which is just over a year now.

[ericlee30]

Here is a comparison of all the different 7950 cards, the vapor-x isn't there though , but I can tell you that it has the same temperature & noise levels of the HIS IceQ.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7950-review-benchmark,3207-10.html

here is another comparison that includes the XFX 7950 DD .

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5476/amd-radeon-7950-review/17

Avoid the Gigabyte & the XFX models, both are voltage locked .

? so then why can I mess with my voltage on my XFX 7950? I have it unlocked in MSI after burner

[TechFan@ic]

Here is a comparison of all the different 7950 cards, the vapor-x isn't there though , but I can tell you that it has the same temperature & noise levels of the HIS IceQ.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7950-review-benchmark,3207-10.html

here is another comparison that includes the XFX 7950 DD .

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5476/amd-radeon-7950-review/17

Avoid the Gigabyte & the XFX models, both are voltage locked .

I'm pretty sure all gigabyte & XFX 7950 cards sold during the Christmas season and thereafter are voltage locked , coming from owners I personally know .

[TechFan@ic]

exhaust: HIS ICeQ

non-exhaust:dcuii/windforce

The windforce 3x cards get really loud when overclocked.

You can check tomshardware chart . the windforce was clearly the loudest .

[TechFan@ic]

I would personally say the XFX DD 7950 Black edition, right now that card is very hard to find for some reason. The card overclocks like I have never seen before.

I have mine overclocked to

1150 on the core clock

and 1725 on the memory clock

by far I have not seen any of the 7950 series of cards hit that high of an overclock but this one

You just got lucky with the silicone lottery Eric .

[ericlee30]

Here is a comparison of all the different 7950 cards, the vapor-x isn't there though , but I can tell you that it has the same temperature & noise levels of the HIS IceQ.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7950-review-benchmark,3207-10.html

here is another comparison that includes the XFX 7950 DD .

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5476/amd-radeon-7950-review/17

Avoid the Gigabyte & the XFX models, both are voltage locked .

Do you mean this Christmas season or last years holiday season?

[ericlee30]

Here is a screen shoot of my XFX with the vcore unlocked with MSI afterburner

Dang that pic didn't come out so good on here :( if you right click and click view image, then zoom in you can see it is my XFX 7950

[TechFan@ic]

Here is a comparison of all the different 7950 cards, the vapor-x isn't there though , but I can tell you that it has the same temperature & noise levels of the HIS IceQ.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7950-review-benchmark,3207-10.html

here is another comparison that includes the XFX 7950 DD .

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5476/amd-radeon-7950-review/17

Avoid the Gigabyte & the XFX models, both are voltage locked .

December 2012, they started using a different PCB, which inadvertently locked the voltages on all XFX 7970 & 7950 cards .

[ericlee30]

I would personally say the XFX DD 7950 Black edition, right now that card is very hard to find for some reason. The card overclocks like I have never seen before.

I have mine overclocked to

1150 on the core clock

and 1725 on the memory clock

by far I have not seen any of the 7950 series of cards hit that high of an overclock but this one

I alway's thought I might have hit the silicone lottery. but I have to be the most unlucky person in the world lol because I don't get awesome stuff like this very often. My 3570k overclocks like crap lol. I can get it to 4.6 but my voltage must be bumped to 1.48v, temps are good but man the volts for me are just to high

[TechFan@ic]

Here is a screen shoot of my XFX with the vcore unlocked with MSI afterburner

Dang that pic didn't come out so good on here :( if you right click and click view image, then zoom in you can see it is my XFX 7950

You said you bought your 7950 more than a year ago though .

[ericlee30]

Here is a comparison of all the different 7950 cards, the vapor-x isn't there though , but I can tell you that it has the same temperature & noise levels of the HIS IceQ.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7950-review-benchmark,3207-10.html

here is another comparison that includes the XFX 7950 DD .

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5476/amd-radeon-7950-review/17

Avoid the Gigabyte & the XFX models, both are voltage locked .

I did not know that TechFan@ic,I learn something new everyday. So it most of been because I was one of the first to buy it?

[TechFan@ic]

XFX 7950 DD voltage locked : http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=23613920

XFX 7970 DD Black Edition Voltage locked : http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/367048-33-black-edition-7970-locked-voltage

[R4STABAN]

exhaust: HIS ICeQ

non-exhaust:dcuii/windforce

Can't find it on there. Regardless the windforce is a good cooler and I can't just leave an asus recommendation there as I live in the UK. If the asus dies you're looking at a ridiculous 5 week turnaround or something for a replacement whereas gigabyte is a 40 minute drive from me.

[ericlee30]

Here is a screen shoot of my XFX with the vcore unlocked with MSI afterburner

Dang that pic didn't come out so good on here :( if you right click and click view image, then zoom in you can see it is my XFX 7950

Yes I did, I bought mine 2 weeks after they first came out in January of 2012

[ericlee30]

When I first installed MSI after burner the vcore was locked but then I changed stuff in the registry and it unlocked it for me.

here is how I unlocked it http://forums.overclockersclub.com/i...owtopic=182403

I guess AMD cards you have to mess with the registry in order to unlock it, you do not have to do this with Nvidia cards