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[blitztech]

Hi guys

After finishing my gaming rig I got a bit of a surprise from my GF, she bought 6 Acer 1080p monitors. 3 for me and 3 for her. if you didn't know about my rig find it here: http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?p=605048.

Now should I get a secondhand GTX 480 for $150USD or get a brand new HD7950 for $280USD?

Will be playing FC3 in DX11 and NO AA
Skyrim with NO AA
BF3 High with NO AA
Crysis 3 with NO AA
Rage with High settings NO AA
MW3 and that can be maxed

So...... you guys choose the card for me, just remember i will be water cooling it and overclocking it.

 

[airdeano]

well if the intention is water-cooling then look at reference cards. there are some
non-reference PCB waterblocks, but far and few and could be a nightmare getting
the correct one.

the 7950 would be my choice for the game titles listed..

 

[USAdystopia]

Get an XFX 7970 TDBC and run it with all the AA available!

 

[Destro521]

i would reccomend the 7950.

 

[Deejeta]

7950 ftw . 480's are little ovens.

 

[UkGouki]

as you already have a 480 in your rig getting another for sli wouldnt be a bad choice but you would be very limited due to vram.

i agree with the others tbh in tripple screens you would be better off with the 7950 3gb vram version.

 

[jamesriley94]

With triple screens, both options will probably struggle at highest settings.

I run the same resolution, on a single 670. High settings on BF3 sees about 30FPS, if that. But, dropping to medium settings, the FPS doesn't drop below 60.
The 7950 is the better option. If that means holding off watercooling it for the time being - then it's still what I'd do. I would probably advise Crossfire in the future if you do want to max out the games you've said.

Also - you mention MW3...
Over triple screens, CoD games fail completely. They stretch a single 1920x1080 screen across 3, rather than adjusting to let you see more.
It's hard to explain but:

Add the screen boarders in, and try to picture that blown up... It's completely unplayable like that.
You need a 3rd party program to fix that bug, which will get you VAC banned on steam if you use it in multiplayer.

 

[NRG!]

7950 no contest

 

[tinytomlogan]

480 is a terrible card, a 7870 LE can outperform it and use less power.

You will want the best card you can afford for 3 screens though.

TBH look for a 7970 used if you can

 

[blitztech]

7950 ftw . 480's are little ovens.

LOL you didnt check the link did you?

480 is a terrible card, a 7870 LE can outperform it and use less power.

You will want the best card you can afford for 3 screens though.

TBH look for a 7970 used if you can

i wouldn't call it a abad card just yet. spotted one on sale on amazon for 149.99USD and its new then its a good card beyond getting i DIRT ASS CHEAP then its a kinda bard card.

i will search for a HD 7970 used, then save for another 2 weeks to get a EK waterblock.

 

[alienware]

as you already have a 480 in your rig getting another for sli wouldnt be a bad choice but you would be very limited due to vram.

i agree with the others tbh in tripple screens you would be better off with the 7950 3gb vram version.

It's a bad idea. Triple screen gaming is bad enough but when you add SLI into the mix it just makes it more aggro. I know this coming from running surround with SLI.

You're much better off with a modern GPU that uses less power and has enough VRAM to span across three displays.

 

[blitztech]

guess what gents. i have hit that wall and i will be upgrading this week. took a while to wait for my suppliers to get in reference based cards and now the REFERENCE HD Radeon 7950 is $319.98 and the puts it bang on with the GTX 670 FTW LE 2GB model REFURBISHED at $319.79.

Will get the 7950 for that extra gigabyte of ram, easier to get a waterblock, overclockable and i use OpenCL quite a bit.

Thanks for the help lads and lass and i will post an update when the rig is up and running with the new GPU.

Respond if you want me do a video for it as well
will review the monitors i use as well if you wish