7970 brand

[dukeReinhardt]

which of these three would you buy, and why?

Asus directcuii (non-top version) 7970

sapphire 1ghz oc dual-x version

xfx dd 7970 (non-oc)

i hear the sapphires suffer from coil whine a lot of the time, while the directcuii is poorly designed, doesn't let you increase voltage, and is generally disappointing (high vram temps), while the xfx dd cooler is meant to have the same performance in cooling as the reference leafblower. so many negatives for high-end pricing! if anyone has info or actually owns these cards i'd ve grateful to hear about them.

 

[seumasbeathan]

I would personally get the xfx, they have a fantastic warranty and customer service

 

[SieB]

The Gigabyte Windforce 7970 is a good card if you don't mind the blue PCB.

 

[dukeReinhardt]

hi thanks for the responses, but warranties and other models aside, which would you choose based on the physical traits and merits of each card? or even if you have any one of those and know that the negatives i mentioned aren't actually true?

 

[SieB]

They are all essentially the same card so there wont be too much difference between them, the only differences being cooling and factory OCs.

The Asus ones do suffer from not being able to increase the voltage though. For coil whine, that can happen on any card, it's not specific to one make or model it's just down to luck of the draw.

For all out overclocking the Gigabyte Windforce OC or the MSI Lightning would be the best. The Saphire or XFX would be good for a moderate overclock and if your not bothered about overclocking the Asus DCII.

 

[Nathlm]

SieB is right on the money here, the gigabyte card is brilliant for overclocking and the lightning just has it all (besides the price).

I have the 7950 version of the gigabyte and boy does it go, while staying very cool and quiet

 

[killablade]

I have my 7970 DirectCU II running at 1100 mhz core and it's nice and quiet.

 

[Nathlm]

SieB is right on the money here, the gigabyte card is brilliant for overclocking and the lightning just has it all (besides the price).

I have the 7950 version of the gigabyte and boy does it go, while staying very cool and quiet

Also people have been getting pretty high clocks with the saphire 7950 version and I think it's tom's favourite 7950

 

[Pr3d4t0r]

i always loved the asus styling, but performance wise id go with sometimg like 3x airforce from gigabyte or sapphire dual x, dcuII isnt bad but it doesnt quite compare

 

[dukeReinhardt]

so that essentially rules out the asus for having a lack of voltage control, and leaves the sapphire as the only viable option it seems (given the xfx doesn't cool better than the leafblower). thanks for all the input