Interesting Delimma

I just rec'd 2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127667 from newegg today to run in Crossfire along with a bunch of other goodies as well as from performance-pc's (more on that later to see what I have up my sleeve). The situation as it unfolds... Mind you, they were both ordered with qty x2 in my shopping cart, not days, weeks, etc apart from each other. Immediately, I noticed that the R7950 moniker on the box was different, one was solid black and the other was glittery silver and upon closer inspection of the box, realized that one had a "win8 ready" sticker applied along with differing UPC #'s. Still just thinking that they just have changed the packaging to include the "win8" info. Put them aside, to inspect other stuff I rec'd. Came back to cards and opened each one and being mindful of which card came from which box. I then realized that the vsn # printed on the bottom of the PCB just above the pci-e contacts are different....glittery moniker w/ win8 sticker is vsn 277 and the solid black moniker one is 276. Here's the real kicker, the vsn 277 is 8 + 6 pin and the vsn 276 is 6 + 6 pin. Perhaps, my order caught the last of the vsn 276's and the first of the vsn 277's. I was aware that the 7950's are physically the 7970's pcb, with less power, but apparently, MSi is now manufacturing the 7950's with 8 + 6 pin. Of course, if I had my druthers, I would choose the newer 8 + 6 pin versions. About 10% of the back of my mind is "hoping" the "older" version is a dead card and send for RMA and hoping to get a newer version replacement. I'm 99.99% sure that I will have no issue with crossfiring these two cards, but with one obviously 8+6 and the other 6+6 connections. Of course power supply connections is not an issue, but will have to order an 8pin sleeved extention cable from performance-pc to match the color scheme, which I need to place a second order from them for more rotary fittings as it's almost impossible to foresee all the one's you need until you start getting the watercooling parts (oops, cat's peering out the bag). Thoughts anyone?

Edit: Also, there is conspicuously no mention of power connections on the newegg details page nor on the MSi link for said card as far as I could find. All pictures at the time of this writing of the power connections are for 6 + 6 pin on newegg and MSi website.

Ouch that wall-o-text hurts the eyes...


I believe the 6/8 pin card is based off of the 7970 pcb. Maybe they changed it mid production or ran out of stock 7950 pcbs

Either way its not a big deal nor does it effect the peformance of the cards, although an overclocking comparison would be interesting to see...

Sorry for "wall-o-text", I tend to try to explain things in too much detail. Upon further inspection there is an ever-so-slight cosmetic difference in the twin-frozr heatsink. And peeking around under the heatsink some of the capacitors (not sure that's what they are, the little round canister type do-hickies) are in different places, especially in the area just under the power connectors. That leads me to believe that one is reference design and one is not, which might pose a problem as I intend to water cool these units eventually.

Upon closer inspection of every inch of the back of the pcb, one is EXACTLY like a reference 7970 with the exception of 8 + 6 instead of 8 + 8 pin power connectors and one is reference 7950 pcb. I wish my bank would do the same... next time I cash a check for $50 they will say we're out of 50's here's a $100 instead??