PowerColor HD 7950 3GB Boost State Review Comment Thread

[Dave Baumann]

Originally Posted by SKYMTL

My main concern at this point in time is really the downwards pressure this places upon existing stocks of the HD 7950. If the "Pro 2" as you put it hits the $319 price point, what's the incentive for consumers to buy the "older" card other than additional discounts?

Wouldn't your readers want additional discounts and potential bargains?

Sure there will be some transition but we'll monitor the channel and see how things are playing out. We'll also see how the AiB's take things; some may chose to prioritize their slightly more premium designs for the Boost Edition as they did with the GHz Edition while default SKU's are selling through.

[GT7R]

The only thing I still struggle to understand is why on earth did they change the reference design? Instead of the good old and friendly blower design they have made one which isn't any better in terms of acoustics, performs worse temperature wise, and exhausts some of the hot air into the case on top of that.

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by Dave Baumann

Wouldn't your readers want additional discounts and potential bargains?

Yes, of course!

But like I said, I likely shouldn't be thinking of the AiBs and channel in all of this. As they say: never look a gift horse in the mount.

[great_big_abyss]

Originally Posted by GT7R

The only thing I still struggle to understand is why on earth did they change the reference design? Instead of the good old and friendly blower design they have made one which isn't any better in terms of acoustics, performs worse temperature wise, and exhausts some of the hot air into the case on top of that.

The card tested wasn't a reference AMD card. It was a Powercolor card with a 'custom' cooler. Not a very good custom cooler, but custom nonetheless. AMD will still retain their original reference blower.

[Arinoth]

One thing I really wish AMD would do is have better drivers. There are times where I've been between an AMD and a nVidia card (personally or recommending) that have had similar performance/price in the past, but tend to recommend nVidia for the single fact that nVidia tends to have better drivers. I can't count the number of times I've had to deal with driver issues on AMD/ATI cards in the past and again just would love if AMD could come out with drivers that help boost their products, aren't a hassle/problem to the user, and with some of their cards COME with native support. I remember the 6870 launching without any official drivers from AMD for over a month...that was great support/planning from them...

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by great_big_abyss

The card tested wasn't a reference AMD card. It was a Powercolor card with a 'custom' cooler. Not a very good custom cooler, but custom nonetheless. AMD will still retain their original reference blower.

On the contrary. This is the "secondary reference cooler" which many board partners are and will be using on their non-custom HD 7950 cards. I think the review was clear on this.

[great_big_abyss]

Originally Posted by SKYMTL

On the contrary. This is the "secondary reference cooler" which many board partners are and will be using on their non-custom HD 7950 cards. I think the review was clear on this.

So, will AMD's original blower style reference cooler not be available anymore? If this is the case, that is indeed quite sad, as this new cooler seems to have all the drawbacks of a blower cooler (loud noise, poor cooling) and none of the benefits (rear exhaust).

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by great_big_abyss

So, will AMD's original blower style reference cooler not be available anymore? If this is the case, that is indeed quite sad, as this new cooler seems to have all the drawbacks of a blower cooler (loud noise, poor cooling) and none of the benefits (rear exhaust).

It is still available on some cards. But not many. Just check out Newegg or NCIX to see how many are still using it.

I count zero on Newegg: Newegg.com - hd 7950

One on NCIX: NCIX.com - Canada's Premier Computer Store - Online PC Discount Store, Buy Computer Accessories

[terrybear]

not too off topic, but i read over on fud here sapphire has released a vaporx 7950 oc with a tweaked clock of 850 base & 950 boosted ... supost to be @ $350 price point .... so take that for what its worth .. :)

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by terrybear

not too off topic, but i read over on fud here sapphire has released a vaporx 7950 oc with a tweaked clock of 850 base & 950 boosted ... supost to be @ $350 price point .... so take that for what its worth .. :)

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100352VXSR Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

$329....but no stock.