PowerColor HD 7950 3GB Boost State Review Comment Thread

[SKYMTL]

You guys asked for it. We bought the card.....now you get to see the results WITHOUT shortcuts like BIOS flashes, etc.

AMD's Boost BIOS for the HD 7950 was launched amid a fair amount of controversy but retail cards are now available and in this review, we take PowerColor's HD 7950 Boost State out for a spin. Does it have what it takes to compete against what NVIDIA has to offer? More importantly, is this new card really worth its $50 premium over the GTX 660 Ti it was meant to upset?

Read more here: PowerColor HD 7950 3GB Boost State Review

[BVickery]

Great review as always. Choices can be a good thing, but also bad. Even though I'm at low Res now, I do hope to eventually get into a bigger monitor. Choices, choices.

[Dzzope]

Originally Posted by BVickery

Even though I'm at low Res now, I do hope to eventually get into a bigger monitor. Choices, choices.

Just wait till you decide to get the monitor... then you can save for both (and they will likely be cheaper by then too or have better cards available at the same price..)

Good review.. Very much a go-to card if you want a lil more than the 660 can give but don't want to go all out on a 670... smart by AMD.

[BootlegUsher]

It's too bad about that heatsink, I think boost could have been better.

[GT7R]

Very solid card. I really don't know why NVIDIA took and significantly bottlenecked their great kepler architecture memory wise (speed/bus/bandwidth). As of now, if you want a good multi-monitor experience, AMD is the only choice.

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by BootlegUsher

It's too bad about that heatsink, I think boost could have been better.

No, it wouldn't unfortunately. Unlike NVIDIA's Boost, AMD's can't take advantage of lower temperatures for higher frequencies.

[BlueByte]

To bad about the price, pretty stupid move on AMD part I think. Should have kept the same price point since its the same physical card. Or if it is more expensive at least stick a better heat sink on the thing.

[Leviathan-]

Is this a stock product or some "special" version made by Powercolor ?

[great_big_abyss]

For that price, there's a lot of custom heatsink equipped 7950s that come with a factory overclock (880MHZ, for example) that run a lot cooler and a lot quieter.

This 'boost' edition only makes sense if equipped with a custom heatsink.

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by Leviathan-

Is this a stock product or some "special" version made by Powercolor ?

It is the new reference design:

Newegg.com - VisionTek 900492 Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Newegg.com - HIS H795F3G2M Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Newegg.com - PowerColor AX7950 3GBD5-2DH Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Hence why testing the Boost on the original card is pretty much pointless....