• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

FRONTPAGE PowerColor HD7950 PCS+ Review

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

Overclockers.com

Member
Joined
Nov 1, 1998
Powercolor HD7950 PCS+ Review

Oh, what a glorious day it is here in Tahiti...no, you didn't just jump in to my vacation blog. We are here today to review the PowerColor HD 7950 PCS+. If this card is anything like its big brother, the HD 7970, this card should be another monster. Let's see how it compares against that and other high-end GPUs.

... Return to article to continue reading.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Nice review :thup:

I was really waiting for cheaper version of 7970 and now I don't know what to think. It's still too expensive and after looking at some benchmarks ( especially older ) I can compare it to my GTX470 after higher oc ... wait this card is 2 yo :eh?: ... cpu limit it seems.
I live in Poland and here we have retail prices about 2000zł for 7950 and 2300zł for 7970. 1zł = ~3.3$ now so ~600$ for 7950 and ~700$ for 7970 including our 23% tax. I doubt that anyone will even look at 7950 here. What happend with ~300$ cards that weren't much slower than top versions :rain:
 
ya was dissapointed at the price point with it as well but great review even tho the tests show this card slightly behind the 7970 i dont think itd be worth the drop if 7970 isnt much more then this card i assume after the excitement drops and nvidia starts releasing there cards we will see price adjustments worth to jump on these cards
 
Great review.

I do have a question about your opinion on the value of a 7950 though EarthDog. Just like you originally said in your article, I was expecting the 7950's to land at $400, up to $450 for the non reference ones. Not start at $460, and go up to $500 for non reference ones. Sure the card is a top performer, and can overclock like a beast, but I feel for $90 more dollars, a 7970 is a better buy.
 
We were told, after publishing, the proper msrp for this card is 469. I would assume the reference ones are less. The pricing you are seeing now is new card inflation. Also, my expectation was up to $450 for the reference cards really. Wait until non reference 7970's hit newegg at $550+... note this Gigabyte non reference 7970 is $610, still keeping the $100+ between aftermarket solutions.

Does anyone know anything about crossfire performance. Have they improved this over the 6000's?
We did not get the chance to run it in crossfire as we only have one card. I would imagine the performance/scaling in CrossfireX to be similar if not a bit better over the 6 series.

There are other reviews which show 7970 scaling. It should not be any different with the 7950.
 
Last edited:
I was an editor mistake, but I cannot be deleted or things will break. Blame Earthdog. No, seriously...blame Earthdog. :p
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hey ED, didn't you try any 7970 BIOS flash?

EDIT: And, of course, nice review, as usual! But no need to say:p
 
Last edited:
The card looks to be a solid performer, although it mostly looks to trade blows with the GTX580 (depending on the game/review/settings/resolution) - for better or worse. Had the card launched at $400 it would give people a serious thought of not buying a 580, but at this moment there isn't much reason to upgrade (unless it is to a 7970) for someone who already owns a 580 (or two, in my case). I will be interested to see if the performance increases along with new drivers.

To note - 10% increase over a 580 isn't too shabby, but a 580 is also over a year old at this point.


With all that said - Nice review Joe, I can't wait to see what it can do when it is frozen solid :)
 
Nice review! Looking like a nice option.. Still going to wait for kepler details before I make a decision..
 
Back