$269.99 AR XFX Double D Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 & Free Sleeping Dogs Game

Quote from Eureka7 : i was talking about the diamond 7970 deal that was posted couple of days ago. A i thought the card for $330 was a good deal and was asking since this one is a bit cheaper.

Don't you mean $311 AR?
Will keep my two Diamond 7970s mining till the end of November. Should almost make my upgrade from reference 6950 2GBs free

Quote from WhoBeDaPlaya : Don't you mean $311 AR? Will keep my two Diamond 7970s mining till the end of November. Should almost make my upgrade from reference 6950 2GBs free

Assuming you sold the 6950s for $300 (high-ball total) and pay the US average of 12¢/kWh, it will take 111 days to break even (if you don't pay for electricity, it would be about 64 days).

Edit: also assumed 750W which is probably on the high end

just a note of heads up

I was about 2 minutes from pulling the trigger on this card and stopped.

It's a non reference model, meaning its an xfx only pcb. For most of you this will not matter, but I liquid cool and none of the current full blocks will fit this card. the universals will, but the vrms on this card get pretty toasty during load/overclocking.

the card is a good card i'm just giving a buyer beware if you plan on going liquid or aftermarket cooler.

Quote from FierceDeityLink : Assuming you sold the 6950s for $300 (high-ball total) and pay the US average of 12¢/kWh, it will take 111 days to break even (if you don't pay for electricity, it would be about 64 days). Edit: also assumed 750W which is probably on the high end

Pretty much. Electricity is free for me and the two 7970s are giving about 0.24BTC/day, so it should be doable just about right before the block reward halves and BFL ASIC miners start coming online en masse.

One last hurrah for GPU mining

Quote from Shade00 : As a pure value proposition, it looks like the HIS 7870 at $200 AR is a better deal. Any thoughts on that?

If you're only gaming at 1080p or below, then yeah, I'd say that's the better deal. Otherwise, the extra performance is mostly lost at the lower resolutions. The 7950 would handily outclass the 7870 in 2560x1600 or eyefinity, so those are situations where this is a much better deal for a fair bit more power.

How long could I go gaming at 1920x1080 with max/high settings on a card like this? In terms of years.

I'm looking to upgrade from my HD 6770. Mostly planning on waiting for a price drop/deal on an HD 7970 so I can upgrade and be done but this deal looks very tempting.

Quote from hieuhef : If you're only gaming at 1080p or below, then yeah, I'd say that's the better deal. Otherwise, the extra performance is mostly lost at the lower resolutions. The 7950 would handily outclass the 7870 in 2560x1600 or eyefinity, so those are situations where this is a much better deal for a fair bit more power.

That was my thinking. I game at 1920x1080, so the 7870 seems like a better fit.

Quote from FierceDeityLink : Assuming you sold the 6950s for $300 (high-ball total) and pay the US average of 12¢/kWh, it will take 111 days to break even (if you don't pay for electricity, it would be about 64 days). Edit: also assumed 750W which is probably on the high end

Wattage estimate is definitely on the high end. I have my two Diamond 7970's running at ~490 watts from the wall. Running at 1ghz core, 1.049v core, memory downclocked to 300mhz and 1.5v.

http://pcper.com/reviews/Graphics...-7970/GPU-

3gb(ati) vs. 2gb(nvidia), and nvidia does better. I might either return it, or lower the physx. I'm only mildly impressed at $300.

but then again....its also $300(ati) vs. $450+(nvidia).

Quote from Shade00 : As a pure value proposition, it looks like the HIS 7870 at $200 AR is a better deal. Any thoughts on that?

I agree. This card costs 35% more than a 7870 @$200. In most benchmarks, the 7950 is ~10% or so faster than a 7870, going up to about a 25% performance advantage in a few. [anandtech.com]

While this is a good deal for a 7950, its performance does not justify the cost over a 7870 @$200. It consumes more power as well.

I tend to look at bang for your buck over specs such as the clock speed, number of stream processors, ect. How well does this card run the games I play and at the resolutions I play them at? At the end of the day, that is what matters most.

Be warned that all XFX cards with a listed "Lifetime Warranty" have fine print that requires that you register within 30 days of purchase (and can prove it). Expect a typical 2 year warranty or less if you miss the deadline. Newegg and other venders like Amazon should put this "fine print" in the description with the warranty information. I'm not saying the card isn't good, but the lifetime warranty is only as good as the honesty of the company behind it.

This XFX Double D 7950 is probably the worst 7950 out there. It's noisy and hotter than even reference design 7950s.
I bought this card and then returned it for MSI 7950.