HD 7870, Which Brand to Go With?
 

Hi guys, I am new here on the forum. A friend of mines directed me here so I can get better information about computers/etc, instead of just reading outdated reviews.

As of yesterday, December 27th 2012, Newegg announced that they've ran out of Gigabyte HD 7870's. This is irrelevant, but in the back of my head I was screaming "Nooooooooooooooo!" The reason I was so disappointed was because I wanted to purchase a Gigabyte (GB) HD 7870. The GB HD 7870 comes with 3 cooling fans. From my perspective, that is more than enough if not enough, to keep the GPU from burning out. My question is, what is the best GPU that matches up to the GB HD 7870 in temperature/durability/performance?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. One last thing, please explain to me why your suggested card is good/better. Please do not give me answers like, "Nvidia GTX (insert numbers), because AMD sucks.

GPUs these days are using less power and outputting less heat for how much performance you get. As long as you have 2 fans, you're good to go. The main reason the single fans are bad is because of the noise; they need to ramp up the RPM to keep the card cool.

Well, to be Frank (I'm not though :bleh:) reading benchmarks is the best way to gauge thermals, power requirements and general performance.

I have always used Sapphire (or ATI when they built them) reference cards. I hear the Vapor-X and Toxic are solid designs. As far as durability, look at the warranty. Someone can correct me if I am wrong but I think Asus leads in that dept.

It's been a while but since XFX started building AMD cards their so-called lifetime (limited?) warranty added up to nothing. I'd stay away from them. I have heard mixed reports from people owning both MSI and GB. Keep in mind that when you see a bunch of negative reviews on the egg for example, there will be many many more that are satisfied with their purchase.

What is your criteria for purchase? Price? Performance? Acoustics? Thermals? Connectivity?

That's not always the case.

well unless you are looking at a fancier model, I have an MSI 7870 Twin Frozr III and 3 of my freinds have 7870 and 2 7850s we use a mix of the card I have and of the sapphire models(dual fan of course) for us here in Canada, MSI for thier warranty/return in country for the states lads Sapphire for same reason, we all get similar overclocking performance, similar temperatures though the sapphire 7870 is slightly better at both, a bit cooler, a bit quieter, a bit more overclockable.

As for the gigabyte one having lots of cooling because it has 3 fans, lol is all I can say. This is what they would like you to believe. I have read lots on them and previous gigabyte trifan cooled cards, and they always seem to have the same issue, more pronounced with overclocking(themselves or you) they tend to keep the core cooled really well, but the memory-Vreg are not, for them this is ok, cause they only have it warrantied for what 2 years? and I am sure there are well within spec, but that said tri-fan cooler is one of the noisier-least effective of the custom coolers used on the Radeon 7k lineup, its big, bulky, and doesnt work so well, kind of like ASUS DCII this round, last generations 5k and 6k were a very good cooler, and this time they fell on thier head :P

Firstly, buy from NCIX as they have the GB still in stock. If you can handle 1 fan, then buy the power color MYST edition

The MSI 7870 hawk was on for 225 after rebate at directcanada.com.

You should definitely check the MSI Hawk out. It comes with some very cool features and doesn't seem to be the most expensive of the designs. I picked it up myself, :). Haven't got it yet, though.

Yeah, NCIX has the GB 7870 in stock for $235. Gigabyte Radeon HD 7870 OC 1100MHZ 2GB 4.8GHZ GDDR5 DVI HDMI 2XMINIDP PCI-E Video Card

Or, you could get an MSI twin frozr 3 for $200. MSI Radeon HD 7870 OC Twin Frozr III 1050MHZ 2GB 4.8GHZ GDDR5 DVI HDMI 2XMINIDP PCI-E Video Card

Or, know someone that knows how to modify stock "properly". Like the GFX 690 I am waiting on. Overkill, yes, but large dual fan modification on the original ASUS design. =) Looks rather nice. Now I just need a new board, CPU and PSU to handle the damned graphics card. I wouldn't suggest getting the card I got. You'll be spending $1000 or more.

newegg has a msi and I had good luck with my GTX 470's which were MSI,but I am sure if you look around you can find another G.B.