Hello peeps. I recently sold my GTX 670 due to unforseen expenses. I am keen to get my rig back to its full compliment and was considering going straight back to the 670 when I get paid next week. I have had a look around and for 1080p gaming, the HD 7950 seems as if it (currently) striked a decent balance between price and performance. (Found them for around £230 online) Bit Tech stated when reviewed here:- http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2012/01/31/amd-radeon-hd-7950-3gb-review/5 that the card would have rated higher if it wasn't £300. I will be gaming at this resoluton for the forseeable future. Recent games I have played include Max Payne 3 and I would like to play Dishonored to give you some idea of what the card will need to be able to manage with decent settings.
I got the 7950 almost on release, I game @ 2560x1440 and it has handled Skyrim, GW2 and others at max settings just fine. Overclocks nicely too, got my direct cu ii running at 1100Mhz with a small increase in voltage, I have seen better results also with people running at 1200+. 3GB of Ram is nice to have for the future too.
Just one quick question, this review:- http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/07/24/his-radeon-7870-iceq-2gb-review/6 consistently shows that this card outscores the 7950 @ 1080 across a range of games and can be had for £180 or thereabouts compared to around £230 for the cheapest 7950. They seem quite closely matched at 1080p, is it worth spending the extra £50 or so on the 7950?
Well that is a (factory) OC'd 7870 vs a stock 7950. Stock 7870 < OC'd 7870 = stock 7950 < OC'd 7950. 7950 is better option since you can OC it to be even better.
Also, wasn't that review posted before the new Radeon drivers were released? Or rather, the posted scores for the 7950 in that review was with the older drivers? The 79xx cards benefitted massively from that update.