Upgrading from HD4870 -> HD7950 DCu II TOP

Zehnsucht · Jul 31, 2012

I'm tired of running with medium settings when I'm gaming.
I think that my CPU is still good, so I don't see the need for upgrading there.

I have a Corsair HX520, will this be enough?

I am looking at the ASUS Radeon HD 7950 DCU II Top - is this as good as any other?

Thanks in advance.

Capitan Harlock · Jul 31, 2012

i have a q9400 oc at 3.2ghz cause ram and mobo,i make upgrade to a hd4670 to hd6950.
i think is good go with my same card or bring a 7850 or 7870 why both are good overcloker and i think you cpu like mine can handle it.
for the psu on the amd site tell this 500W (or greater) power supply with two 75W 6-pin PCI Express power connectors recommended.
no info on the asus site

TheMailMan78 · Jul 31, 2012

Zehnsucht said:
I'm tired of running with medium settings when I'm gaming.
I think that my CPU is still good, so I don't see the need for upgrading there.

I have a Corsair HX520, will this be enough?

I am looking at the ASUS Radeon HD 7950 DCU II Top - is this as good as any other?

Thanks in advance.

Honestly I would go for a 670 man. Or at least wait for a 660Ti to see what the specs are. I was a LONG time ATI man. I made the jump from a 5850 to a 570 and I can honestly say I won't be going back to ATI anytime soon. Now for any of you jackasses that wanna turn this into an ATI vs NVIDIA thread don't. All I was stating is my opinion.

LDNL · Jul 31, 2012

ASUS Radeon HD 7950 DCU II Top is non referance factory overclocked version. If its not much more expensive than a regular version its a solid choice. And PSU requirement is 500 watts so it should be good if youre not planning on any heavy duty overclocking

E: If the cost is similar to a 670 just go green or wait for the 660ti and go cost effective green

m1dg3t · Jul 31, 2012

You may be bottled a bit but i doubt you will actually notice it during gaming, you may fall short on benchmark scores if that concerns you.

I would go for an MSi twin frozr 3 as they are using reference 7970 boards with 6 x 8 pin & an extra VRM! I scooped mine a few weeks ago for $320 A/R but haven't put power to it yet as i'm waiting on MoBo and a couple other things :eek:

These cards are going for $305 A/R now @ NCIx.ca

I'm not going to go through the hassle of trying it out in my HTPC because the case is in the rack and there it will stay....

radrok · Jul 31, 2012

TheMailMan78 said:
Honestly I would go for a 670 man. Or at least wait for a 660Ti to see what the specs are. I was a LONG time ATI man. I made the jump from a 5850 to a 570 and I can honestly say I won't be going back to ATI anytime soon. Now for any of you jackasses that wanna turn this into an ATI vs NVIDIA thread don't. All I was stating is my opinion.

I respect your opinion and whoever starts a fight about ATI vs NVIDIA should just be ignored

@ OP

I wouldn't go non-reference ASUS right now, they seem to be locking voltages on their DCII cards, let the market speak against this unwanted practice.

Sapphire 7950 OC is a pretty strong card, take a look at Sonda5 thread.

m1dg3t · Jul 31, 2012

Most of the "v2" tf3 cards i have seen are doing 1100Mhz ++ on the core with stock volts and stock cooling. Just thought i'd throw that out there....

Zehnsucht · Jul 31, 2012

Thanks for the input guys, much appreciated.
Well I´ve bought the card now, it was 15% cheaper than all other 7950 alternatives. Im too tired now to install it now, but hopefully it will work when I install it tomorrow

Zehnsucht · Aug 2, 2012

Wow. The asus 7950 DC2T is total CRAP. The entire heatsink can be moved even after I tightened the four (!) screws holding the massive three slot cooling.

After looking around on forums I see I'm not alone in this issue.

Zehnsucht · Aug 3, 2012

Changed to a standard Sapphire card, doesn´t crash now

Some benchies (min avg max) 1920x1080:
Hard Reset 1920x1080 FXAA ULTRA
4870: 10 30 68
7950: 24 64 133

Metro 2033 (medium, AAA, 4xAF)
4870: 2 10 28 (DX10)
7950: 8 62 216 (DX11)

Well, I´m happy

radrok · Aug 3, 2012

I'm glad you picked a Sapphire card, they are very good unlike Asus which has dropped the balls on their DCII cards lately.

m1dg3t · Aug 4, 2012

Nice man! The ol' quads still got some oomph in the tank :rockout:

I think that Sapphire is using same board as MSi, have you pulled the HSF yet?

happita · Aug 4, 2012

Thats a pretty huge upgrade. I did the same when I went from my 3870 to my 5850. The performance was more than double. Enjoy the new card :toast:

I'm gonna be making the same big jump again myself when the next gen cards come out by either AMD or Nvidia.

Widjaja · Aug 4, 2012

Yeah I think the Core 2 Quads are being talked down by people who don't know any better just because they are old and there is new hard ware.

The fact is they are still doing the job in current games.

Anyway back on topic.

dieselcat18 · Aug 11, 2012

m1dg3t said:
Nice man! The ol' quads still got some oomph in the tank

I think that Sapphire is using same board as MSi, have you pulled the HSF yet?

Widjaja said:
Yeah I think the Core 2 Quads are being talked down by people who don't know any better just because they are old and there is new hard ware.

The fact is they are still doing the job in current games.

Anyway back on topic.

I went from a 4890 to a Sapphire 6970 running a Q9550 and I had no problems at all. I would guess that 7950 would be more power effecent than my current card and if you did see any slow downs, that 9550 OC's real well.

*+

System Name	Water
Processor	Q9550 Stock
Motherboard	Asus P5Q Pro
Cooling	Noctua big ass cooler
Memory	Corsair Dominator PC8500 4 GB
Video Card(s)	Sapphire HD7950
Storage	Velociraptor 300 GB, Samsung 500 GB, MyBook 300 GB
Display(s)	1: Eizo 23" LCD Foris FS2331-BK 2: Samsung 226BW
Case	Cooler Master ATCS 840
Audio Device(s)	Asus STX
Power Supply	Corsair HX520

System Name	Xeon build X58 / Main Rig X79
Processor	Intel Xeon x5650 @ 4.2Ghz with HT / Xeon E5 1650 v2 @4.5Ghz
Motherboard	Asus Rampage II Extreme socket 1366 / Asus P9X79 Pro socket 2011
Cooling	Thermalright Archon +Ty 140mm\|Fans : 2 front-1top-1rear-1bottom/ Gelid Phantom Twin Tower
Memory	16gb DDR3 1600mhz Kingstone Hyper x Quad Channel / 16gb DDR3 1600MHZ Patriot Viper 3
Video Card(s)	Sapphire hd 7950 3gb Boost edition dual fan X / ZOTAC 1080 Ti Blower Edition
Storage	Kingstone AV400ssd 120gb+Seagate B 2Tb+WD g 1tb+WD g 3tb+WD r 3tb+Seagate B 4tb+Lexar 2Tb NVMe
Display(s)	AOC E2460S 24" 1080p 60hz 1ms / LG 32UK550B 32" UHD 4K HDR 10 with Freesync
Case	Enermax Phoenix / Fractal Design Arc midi
Audio Device(s)	SoundMaxHD+5.1 BHT1100 BLUESKY,Fiio E10 Olympus+SuperluxHD668b+KZ HBB pr2,Superlux E205.
Power Supply	Sharkoon WPM Gold Zero 650W semi modular / Corsair RM 850 Fully Modular
Mouse	Generic Mice / Corsair M90
Keyboard	Generic Keyboard / Microsoft WK600
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64 /Windows 10 Pro 64

System Name	TheMailbox 5.0 / The Mailbox 4.5
Processor	RYZEN 1700X / Intel i7 2600k @ 4.2GHz
Motherboard	Fatal1ty X370 Gaming K4 / Gigabyte Z77X-UP5 TH Intel LGA 1155
Cooling	MasterLiquid PRO 280 / Scythe Katana 4
Memory	ADATA RGB 16GB DDR4 2666 16-16-16-39 / G.SKILL Sniper Series 16GB DDR3 1866: 9-9-9-24
Video Card(s)	MSI 1080 "Duke" with 8Gb of RAM. Boost Clock 1847 MHz / ASUS 780ti
Storage	256Gb M4 SSD / 128Gb Agelity 4 SSD , 500Gb WD (7200)
Display(s)	LG 29" Class 21:9 UltraWide® IPS LED Monitor 2560 x 1080 / Dell 27"
Case	Cooler Master MASTERBOX 5t / Cooler Master 922 HAF
Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC1220 Audio Codec / SupremeFX X-Fi with Bose Companion 2 speakers.
Power Supply	Seasonic FOCUS Plus Series SSR-750PX 750W Platinum / SeaSonic X Series X650 Gold
Mouse	SteelSeries Sensei (RAW) / Logitech G5
Keyboard	Razer BlackWidow / Logitech (Unknown)
Software	Windows 10 Pro (64-bit)
Benchmark Scores	Benching is for bitches.

System Name	m1dg3t \| DeathBox \| HairPi 3
Processor	3570k @ 4.0 1.15v BIOS \| q9550 @ 3.77 1.325v BIOS
Motherboard	Asrock z77e iTX \| p5q Dlx 2301 BIOS
Cooling	Custom Water \| D-14 & HR-03gt \| Passive HSF
Memory	Samsung MV-3V4G3D 4g x 2 @ 1866 1.35v \| OcZ RpR 2g x 4 @ 1067 2.2v
Video Card(s)	MSi 7950 tf3 @1000 / 1350 \| Asus 5870 V2 @ 900 / 1275
Storage	Adata sx900 256Gb / WD 2500 HHTZ \| WD 1001 FALS x 2
Display(s)	BenQ gw2750hm \| 46" Sharp Quatron
Case	BitFenix Prodigy - m0dd3d \| Antec Fusion Remote MAX
Audio Device(s)	Onboard Toslink > Yamaha HTR 6290 \| Xonar HDAV1.3 > Yamaha DSP z7
Power Supply	Ocz mXp700w \| Ocz zx850w \| Cannakit 5v 2.5a
Mouse	Logitech G700s \| Logitech G9x - Cable Repaired
Keyboard	TT Meka G1 - Black w Cherry Blacks\| Logitech G11
Software	Win7 Home \| Xp sp3 & Vista ultimate \| Raspbian
Benchmark Scores	Epeen!! Who needs epeen??

Processor	8700k Intel
Motherboard	z370 MSI Godlike Gaming
Cooling	Triple Aquacomputer AMS Copper 840 with D5
Memory	TridentZ RGB G.Skill C16 3600MHz
Video Card(s)	GTX 1080 Ti
Storage	Crucial MX SSDs
Display(s)	Dell U3011 2560x1600 + Dell 2408WFP 1200x1920 (Portrait)
Case	Core P5 Thermaltake
Audio Device(s)	Essence STX
Power Supply	AX 1500i
Mouse	Logitech
Keyboard	Corsair
Software	Win10

Processor	i5-7600k
Motherboard	ASRock Z170 Pro4
Cooling	CM Hyper 212 EVO w/ AC MX-4
Memory	2x8GB DDR4 2400 Corsair LPX Vengeance 15-15-15-36
Video Card(s)	MSI Twin Frozr 1070ti
Storage	240GB Corsair Force GT
Display(s)	23' Dell AW2310
Case	Corsair 550D
Power Supply	Seasonic SS-760XP2 Platinum
Software	Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

System Name	Darth Obsidious
Processor	Intel i5 2500K
Motherboard	ASUS P8Z68-V/Gen3
Cooling	Cooler Master Hyper 212+ in Push Pull
Memory	2X4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600
Video Card(s)	ASUS R9 270x TOP
Storage	128GB Samsung 830 SSD, 1TB WD Black, 2TB WD Green
Display(s)	LG IPS234V-PN
Case	Corsair Obsidian 650D
Audio Device(s)	Infrasonic Quartet
Power Supply	Corsair HX650w
Software	Windows 7 64bit and Windows XP Home
Benchmark Scores	2cm mark on bench with a razor blade.

System Name	My 1st System Build (Up-Grade #4.5)/ Wife's PC
Processor	Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550@3.5GHz / AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ 2.4Ghz
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4/ GIGABYTE GA-K8NSNXP-939 socket
Cooling	Zalman CNPS9700 110mm CPU Cooler / CM Hyper N520
Memory	G.Skill 8GB (4x2GB) DDR2 1066 (PC28500) 5-5-5-15@2.1v/ G.Skill 4GB DDR PC3200 400MHz 2.5CL
Video Card(s)	Sapphire Radeon HD 6970 2GB/ ATi X800 XT PE 256mb
Storage	WD Caviar SE16 640GB 7200rpm SATA (x 2) in Raid 0 / Acomdata 500GB external HHD/ WD Raptor 10K 150GB
Display(s)	HP LP2465 1920x1200 S-PVA Panel/LG Flatron 20.1/ HP LP2465 1920x1200 S-PVA Panel
Case	Lian Li (Lancool) PC-K63 / BMW Aluminum Mid-Tower
Audio Device(s)	Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro/ Sound Blaster Audigy2 Z5
Power Supply	COUGAR-SX850 850W 80 PLUS SILVER Certified Modular/ Corsair 400w 80 plus certifed psu
Software	Windows Vista Ultimate X64 (retail) w/ SP-2/ Windows XP Pro w/ SP-3

Upgrading from HD4870 -> HD7950 DCu II TOP

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