7870 or 7950?

[njallday]

So in a few days I'll be selling my gtx 570 to a friend for his new build. I was planning on upgrading to a HD 7950, but after looking at some benchmarks, I'm thinking about the MSi 7870 HAWK. Nvidia isn't really an option, since I'm looking to spend a maximum of $300, and at that point the 7950 beats the 660 Ti and with the new drivers the 7870 seems to be neck and neck with the 660 Ti. So my question is should I save about $60 and go for the 7870, or bite the bullet and get the 7950? At the moment I play Battlefield 3 and CS:GO, but I'm definitely going to pick up Far Cry 3 and Crysis 3. I'm also playing at 1080p.

Thanks for the input

 

[seumasbeathan]

Personally I would go for the 7950

 

[grassman]

Far Cry 3? Lol best you can afford. It's actually one of the first games I noticed that dropping the resolution actually makes it look significantly worse.

 

[SieB]

If it's for BF3 and FarCry 3 then defiantly the 7950, BF3 will run great but FarCry 3 is demanding on high settings.
If you use Radeonpro with sweetfx though, you can turn in game AA off and not notice the difference, apart from the FPS boost.

I get between 80-100+ FPS in BF3 on Ultra with sweetfx and in game AA disabled at 1080p. In Farcry 3 I get about 50fps with settings maxed out.

Plus you can OC the 7950 and performance wise it will last you slightly longer than a 7870.

 

[grassman]

If it's for BF3 and FarCry 3 then defiantly the 7950, BF3 will run great but FarCry 3 is demanding on high settings.
If you use Radeonpro with sweetfx though, you can turn in game AA off and not notice the difference, apart from the FPS boost.

I get between 80-100+ FPS in BF3 on Ultra with sweetfx and in game AA disabled at 1080p. In Farcry 3 I get about 50fps with settings maxed out.

Plus you can OC the 7950 and performance wise it will last you slightly longer than a 7870.

I'm getting 45-47 with same settings that's pretty crappy for $100 more, I think the real performance gain will come from turning on in game MSAA due to increased steam processors. MSAA just murders the 7870's

 

[SieB]

I'm getting 45-47 with same settings that's pretty crappy for $100 more, I think the real performance gain will come from turning on in game MSAA due to increased steam processors. MSAA just murders the 7870's

I do get up to 60 fps in FC3 but it mainly sits around 50, sometimes even dropping lower. With an OC I could probably get an extra 10 fps or so though.

I haven't played it much though because i'm getting stuttering and lag which is a common problem that a lot of people seem to be having, so i'm waiting to see if they release a patch to fix it and optimize it a bit better for the PC.

EDIT Just tried with an 1150mhz OC and i'm getting around 60-65 fps now with everything maxed out

 

[SavageCupcake]

My 7870 hawk plays fc3 at around 60 on high with aa turned down to 2x i've overclocked a fair bit mind.

 

[njallday]

I think I'm going to save the money and go for the 7870. It'll be fun to overclock and I'm sure I'll be quite content with the performance.

 

[SavageCupcake]

Hawk edition one or another?

 

[seumasbeathan]

A 7950 really isn't that much more expensive than a 7870, sure you don't want to save for one?

 

[njallday]

Hawk edition one or another?

Yes, Hawk.

A 7950 really isn't that much more expensive than a 7870, sure you don't want to save for one?

They're about $70-$80 more. I do have the money but I'd rather put it towards other things atm. I'm just trying to dump my Fermi card and the 7870 isn't looking too bad.

 

[dragoonk]

No the 7970 isn't looking too bad, but I think you could easily get the same performance with the 7950 if you overclock it a bit. the 7950 is a great card.

 

[SavageCupcake]

The hawk edition is great for overclocking got mine to 1200 core and 1450 memory. Plus you get fc3 and 20% off moh could always go xfire when you need to.

 

[dragoonk]

That is a good overclock! Plus the free games you are getting. it's beautiful! I think AMD beats nvidia with the 7000 series all the way.

 

[SieB]

There's the 7870 LE out now as well, which is faster than a standard 7870 and is closer to the 7950 performance wise.
If you can't quite afford a 7950 maybe the LE would be a good choice, I haven't read any reviews on them yet so I can't say for sure.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...+Exclusive**+++4+FREE+Games!+?productId=53474

 

[MrWizard]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127681
= $259 for the Hawk can run close to a 7950
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131478
= $294 for a 7950 with a $20 MIR so $274 after all is said and done and overclocks to a 7970 so is it realy worth it not to spend the extra $15

I think i would spend the $15 extra and get
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16800995140
the 4-in-1 Game Coupon worth $170

Call me silly but thats just what i would do

 

[Xtreme00boy]

My advice is to go for the 7950 from a good brand, Check TTL's tests on the Club3D 7950. If u have good cooling u can overclock it to 7970/680 performance. Hurry up^^ u will get many free games as bundle, good luck with the buy.

 

[grassman]

The hawk edition is great for overclocking got mine to 1200 core and 1450 memory. Plus you get fc3 and 20% off moh could always go xfire when you need to.

I've had 4 7870's and they've all gotten to that with just 20+volts

 

[alxcsb]

I had to send my Sapphire 7850 back because of some black screen issues, and I pondered the choice between the 7870 and 7950 for a while. I decided that the extra headroom and overall improvement on horsepower was worth the extra cash, so I got a Gigabyte 7950. Never looked back.

 

[dragoonk]

Very good choice! Well done!