need GPU; HD 7950 worth it?

zombine210

zombine210

New Member
I was commissioned to build a computer for an engineer acquaintance.
His instructions were: "i want it to be really fast, and i want to play games."

i chose the following components:

Intel i5 3570k
G.Skill 2x 4GB ddr3 1600
ASRock extreme4
Corsair HX650

will the 7950 compliment this setup well, or should i stick to one of the 7800s?

i'm curious about the 384-bit memory interface, but don't want him to experience all the new bugs that will probably come with the new AMD tech.

I'm not familiar with Nvidia cards, which one would be a better deal atm?

thx
:D
 
I've got a 7950 and its fairly good but not 100% max settings on all games. It's really how much is in your budget. Take a look at this at for detailed performance benchmarks. Bare in mind this test was done with the older drivers so AMD cards will be slightly better in practice.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU12/372
 
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yeah, it's a bigger difference from a 7870 to 7950 than from 7950 to 7970.

he didn't give me a budget, but he does pretty well as an engineer, i just don't want to stick it to him, if you know what i mean.

i want to get him a nice setup that he's comfortable with, give him good workload capacity without going overboard into diminishing returns.

what i understood, was that it's going to be for his wife to work on, but he still wants to use it to play games. not sure what games he's interested in, but he mentioned getting something comparable to xbox. yeah.
 
zombine210 said:
yeah, it's a bigger difference from a 7870 to 7950 than from 7950 to 7970.

he didn't give me a budget, but he does pretty well as an engineer, i just don't want to stick it to him, if you know what i mean.

i want to get him a nice setup that he's comfortable with, give him good workload capacity without going overboard into diminishing returns.

what i understood, was that it's going to be for his wife to work on, but he still wants to use it to play games. not sure what games he's interested in, but he mentioned getting something comparable to xbox. yeah.
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Is he going to be doing any modelling on it? If so find out what programs he'll use as nvidia might be better then, but for gaming the 7950 is killer and with the latest drivers it performs better than those benches show
 
jonnyp11 said:
Is he going to be doing any modelling on it? If so find out what programs he'll use as nvidia might be better then, but for gaming the 7950 is killer and with the latest drivers it performs better than those benches show
Click to expand...

i don't think he will.
like i mentioned, it is mostly for his wife (my coworker) to do work related stuff (not very intensive). he lives out of town, so he'll only use it when he visits, and i doubt he'll want to do work when he does.

his email reads: "Just make it a gaming machine with a terabyte hard drive."
 
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Then he would do fine with and i3 or fx6300, then a 7850 2gb, would be a lot more reasonable price wise and still perform great
 
jonnyp11 said:
Then he would do fine with and i3 or fx6300, then a 7850 2gb, would be a lot more reasonable price wise and still perform great
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it would, but i want to him him that extra "punch", you know. so he can brag about it a bit.
he's the type that would go to Best Buy and buy the most expensive computer because "it's the fastest".
obviously that's not true.
so i want to give him something that is pretty fast, but at the same time, i don't want to stick him with something they can't handle.
i figured i5 is kind of there.
 
Just got my hd7950 and I love it! Much improvement over my hd6870.
The new drivers gave a 10% increase in most games, it's just wonderful. That card is a beast.
 
ok, so i just spoke with him on the phone, i told him it'll be close to 1k. he said it's not a problem, but when it gets to 1500, to let him know :cool:

so he just talked to her on the phone, and what he told her was "i want it to go F*king fast!"
 
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zombine210 said:
ok, so i just spoke with him on the phone, i told him it'll be close to 1k. he said it's not a problem, but when it gets to 1500, to let him know :cool:

so he just talked to her on the phone, and what he told her was "i want it to go F*king fast!"
Click to expand...

you can't say the bolded word in any form, censored or otherwise. johnb will be on you faster than a frat boy.
 
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