how long normally between ref and non-ref release of AMD cards

[TedShackley]

Although the 7950/70 is supposed to have a vapor chamber style cooling, if the have a blower, I'll probably pass

I have finally have a very quiet rig, don't want to rune that with a loud GPU blower

I'm pretty new to all this, use your memory hats folks, typically how long after a new card releases do the non-ref models with fans start appearing?

I might go for MSI this time

[Masteroderus]

There is an alternate solution. Many after market coolers are based off reference design.

[FreeKnight]

IIRC it can be pretty quick, a month or two at most. Sapphire's Vapor-X for the AMD 5870 was out pretty darn quickly after the reference 5870. I can't speak for the MSI. Of couse there's no certainty that this will be the case with the next gen.

[Adzsask]

2-3 months, but you can grab a reference, and by the time the non reference coolers are out the reference aftermarket coolers will be released, and cool better.

[TedShackley]

1 month would be long enough, rumors say they release for demo at a Las Vegas tech show around Jan 10-12

I made it this far without CFing, I better wait it out a little extra