What are your views on XFX HD 7870 DD Edition 2GB GDDR5
Yojimbo
England Join Date: 2009-03-19 Member: 66806Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
England Join Date: 2009-03-19 Member: 66806Members, NS2 Playtester, NS2 Map Tester, Reinforced - Supporter, Reinforced - Silver, Reinforced - Shadow
in Off-Topic
Has anyone bought this graphics card before? If so, what is the performance like, particularly NS2?
http://www.ebuyer.com/489317-xfx-hd-7870-dd-edition-2gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-dual-mini-fx-787a-cdfc?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products&gclid=COmur8yYnL0CFekBwwodHzAADg
I do not wish to spend anymore than £150 as that's a stretch as it is, any other cards for similar price that offer better performance?
http://www.ebuyer.com/489317-xfx-hd-7870-dd-edition-2gb-gddr5-dual-dvi-hdmi-dual-mini-fx-787a-cdfc?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products&gclid=COmur8yYnL0CFekBwwodHzAADg
I do not wish to spend anymore than £150 as that's a stretch as it is, any other cards for similar price that offer better performance?
Comments
Because they perform almost identical, you might also want to compare cooler performance
http://www.ebuyer.com/579363-sapphire-dual-x-r9-270x-2gb-gddr5-oc-dual-dvi-hdmi-displayport-pci-e-11217-01-20g
Never mind XFX. Go for the MSI 270x Gaming. Best cooler on the market.
Proof? Check out techpowerup.com
That's because they generally are? As far as i'm concerned some particular R9 series models are actually inferior to their HD 7000 series counterparts given the default clock rates; for example the HD 7970 GHz Edition is on average 3% faster than the R9 280X GPU, that come with a 50 MHz lower core clocks.
As far as I understand though, both the R9 270X and the HD 7870 GPU use the exact same silicon and the exact same memory chips; what differs between them is the default clocks.
There aren't any GDDR5 chips rated at 1400MHz; the closest step is a 1500 MHz chip (the same employed on the HD 7970/GTX 780/Titan) and then a 1750 MHz chip beyond that.
An example of this is the original GTX 480 that came with 1000 MHz GDDR5 chips, with the default at 924 MHz, or even the R9 290X that currently boasts the fastest video memory in all video cards once overclocked (it manages to outperform even the Titan Black in this aspect due to the 512 bit bus that actually ended quite overclockable).
A stock R9 290X has 320 GB/s of mem bandwidth (at 1250 MHz), while it can reach over 450 GB/s by overclocking the memory. Other hand, my original Titan for instance, at stock setting it has 288 GB/s (at 1500 MHz); by bumping it to the next "rating" (something that it can do with relative ease) it will reach 336 GB/s (at 1750 MHz, the same as a 780 Ti or Titan Black at stock); but it'll max out at something like 367 GB/s (3825 (which is something like 1912.5 MHz in real speed) is the absolute fastest it can go depending of the core clock I use before finding extreme stability issues even at a otherwise stable core speed, since the memory controller + chips cannot take it. 780 Tis and Titan Blacks can reach similar levels at 400 GB/s, but I am 100% sure that at this point, the frequency is too high and the 384 bit bus simply won't cut it against the Hawaii's lower clocked 512 bit one.
Regardless that is a fine choice if you are absolutely handicapped at 150, and the BIOS flashing should work regardless should you want to have it called a R9 270X though that is absolutely unnecessary as both perform identically and 100% the same at the same clock speeds.
They don't differ that much performance-wise (it's the same chip, duh, just a slight factory overlock here or there).
Fan noise is where the great manufacturers separate the wheat from the chaff.
I recently bought the MSi 270X Hawk and even after 1hour of NS2 it sticks to 900 RPM; temperatures never go above 60°C.
At idle I could touch the card with bare hands, because it sticks around 25-30°C.
I also managed to squeeze out a few extra FPS. Thanks to MSi Afterburner GPU clock went from 1150 to 1200MHZ and Memory clock from 5600 to 6400MHz.
@BoRRiS
£150 = ~180€
http://geizhals.de/msi-r9-270x-gaming-2g-v303-002r-a1013474.html
http://geizhals.de/msi-r9-270x-hawk-v303-004r-a1013432.html
As the MSi 270X Gaming wasn't available, I went for the Hawk. Full recommendation.
@DarkLaunch357
It might be just the Hawk, but 2 different reviewers mentioned that its memory is rated at 1500MHz. http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/msi_r9_270x_hawk/2.htm
And: http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?page=1&itemid=1122
So, in fact, there is GDDR5 memory beyond 1400MHz.
The Hawk overclocks nicely to 1600MHz without any extra voltage.
I can upload GPU-Z screenshots later.
I think you misunderstood me dude.
I mentioned that there aren't chips rated specifically at 1400 MHz; they are all 1500 MHz or 1750 MHz chips. Pretty much every single modern graphics card will be able to run these chips at their marked frequency, since their memory controller is generally good enough. These graphics cards come gimped from manufacturer to create some sort of "headroom" or to save some energy :P
GPU-Z can now tell you which brand of memory your graphics card is packin', so that should be some good tweaking guideline in the models that do not use the same memory modules.
There is no way to control the memory voltage on my particular card, as far as I know. I tried just about every BIOS out there; ironically the only one that is 100% stable and throttle free on my card is the engineering sample's BIOS; a pre-release, completely unlocked BIOS from NVIDIA that some very kind, life saving dude posted on hwbot