7970 Sapphire vs 7970 Gigabyte

Hey members,

I am about to kill my 7970 Sapphire card and get a Gigabyte card for it.
I had a Gigabyte before i had this Sapphire 7970.

But when i just had the card it had coil whine really loud, then i went back to the store told them and they gaved me a Sapphire.

But the problem was. The Sapphire card had a single blower cooler. While the Gigabyte had 3 big fans. And Direct CU + already overclocked to 1Ghz.

My problem now is
The card runs hot, what will kill the lifespan faster.
And it makes a annoying loud sound.

I'm not about to upgrade my computer anymore. Also not going to continu gaming anymore for the comming years because i have to study ..

So i'm worried about the card i now have that it wont last for long.

Thats why i came up with the idea to kill it somehow and then bring it back for warranty and go for a cheaper model, the model from Gigabyte with a cheaper pcb version + 3 big fans and direct CU.

But i'm a bit worried the pcb of the Gigabyte version, i had it in my hands before i had the Sapphire 7970 and it's much cheaper the pcb seems to be poorly finished. Some componenets seem to be poorly soldered on it and the fans are what i call risky. Because they came out of the box with already some clearance between them. (had that with two pear of XFX cards and the fans both died in less then a year of usage)

Please le me know what you guys think about it.

What is better? To go for Gigabyte and get some money back,
Or to go for a aftermarket gpu cooler for my Sapphire card.

Also i have the bad feeling that my Sapphire is failing. Sometimes i get grey vertical lines through my screen and my computer freezes. I had this after i tried to overlock the card to the max, i also was ****ing around with the voltage of the card.

Edit: The Sapphire seems to be much better in build quality, but the only problem there is is the stock cooler. It just sucks, the card runs hot and makes a loud noise under load.

~NitrOwow

I love the single blower fans as they tend to last longer and provide solid cooling. One of the things I have been doing is running the fan speed on manual. Go into CCC and enable manual control, I usually run 50-70% depending on what I am doing. Run a few games and monitor the temperature to see how fast you want to run it. It maybe alittle louder but it's a constant cooling speed so it keeps temperatures in check. I also periodically slide it to 100% fan speed to blow it out as well.

Sapphire is a brand that I have had good luck with over the last 13 years.

Sapphire didn't make or design anything on that card, it's all AMD (reference card). They just slapped their name on it and put it on the shelf.

Sapphire's custom cards are a dual fan heatsink, marketed as the Vapor-X series.

Try getting the vapor-x version from sapphire, it's much better. I got the 6950 toxic which also comes with a single fan, but has the vapor-x chamber, it's very loud at 100% fan, but the card never gets to that point, it's rather silent in any game or any usage.
So when I go for the 7970 it will be the sapphire one with the dual fan (it's the Ghz version)

Knufire said:

Sapphire didn't make or design anything on that card, it's all AMD (reference card). They just slapped their name on it and put it on the shelf.

Sapphire's custom cards are a dual fan heatsink, marketed as the Vapor-X series.

Click to expand...

I know but i have the reference card. And it's just stupid that the card makes a insane loud noise when i need to cool it if it runs at 80 - 90*C when it is a hot day. When the room temp is about 25 - 30*C

~TrOwow

NiTrOwow said:

I know but i have the reference card. And it's just stupid that the card makes a insane loud noise when i need to cool it if it runs at 80 - 90*C when it is a hot day. When the room temp is about 25 - 30*C

~TrOwow

Click to expand...

As I said set it to a preset fan speed, you probably won't even notice the fan sound between 50-70%. Mine generally stays between 40-51c.

woh, you brought a gigabyte non reference back and they gave you a reference card?!? id be going back and being like yea i want to trade back lol

this one?http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125439

for htis one? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127645 (all references are same they dont have the sapphire )

I wouldn't worry about temps between 80 and 90°C on a hot summerday. Quite frankly, most cards I've owned ran around 80°C, nvidia included, though that is some years ago.
Your card will be obsolete before it blows out due to heat.

Reference cards are usually loud, yes. Better get one with an aftermarket cooler.
But again, stop worrying about temps. The card will cool itself properly on default fan settings.