Time for the GPU decision...

[Master&Puppet]

So, with the release of the 680 done with it's time for me to make a decision.

I'm thinking 7950. In the several reviews I've read it performs just as well in real games as an OC 7970/680 (although not as well in synthetic benches) but you get a reduced max power consumption (by ~50w) and it's £60-100 cheaper to buy.

Is anybody else thinking the same thing?

Also been looking for reference designs, has anybody got any recommendations? I'm going to watercool it so performance/£ is my only concern. I came across the ScanFX 7950 which looks like the reference version to me although I can't see the AMD logo on the pcb (but on the ScanFX 7970 it is clearly visable). Both the card and the packaging look the same as the vtx3d 7950 so I'm sure it is..

Has anybody tried a ScanFX card? There aren't any reviews - but it's a reference design, so what could go wrong, right?

M&P

EDIT: I've emailed scan to ask if their 7950 is indeed a reference design.

 

[SieB]

It will be a reference design, OCUK and Nova do it as well IIRC.

For performance though, the 7950 is very close to the 7970 and when overclocked matches it. In Most games the level of performance the 7970 has over it is unnoticeable anyway. The 7870 is also a good card to consider if you want to save a bit more money, it's only a few FPS slower than the 7950 and uses less power still and also when overclocked it matches a stock 7950.

 

[Master&Puppet]

Cheers Sieb,

I just received a email from them and they confirmed that it was. I was pretty certain but you never want to spend several hundred £s with some doubt!

Yea I had a look at the 7870 too and it is a fine card but I'm in the market for a 3gb card. These amd cards really are very close together in performance terms and it doesn't seem worth getting the 7x70 over the 7x50 versions if you are an overclocker.