I want to get a 7970, but there are so many to choose from?!

[rosmac526]

Can anyone help me determine just what on earth is going on?

Powercolor?
Sapphire?
XFX?
MSI?
Asus?
Gigabyte?

Do I get a double dissipation sink? What's the difference between this, this and this?

I'm so confused.

As it stands, I can get the Powercolor model for £408, or the Asus model for £440 at the lowest. The others are priced as shown. I'm considering buying them separately to the build I buy from PCS, as it allows me to get the main components now and add the GPUs later when I obtain them. Alternatively, I could just get them from PCS, depending on what exact model they stock (I emailed asking - I'm assuming it's Powercolor). Can anyone clarify what is different/better/worse about these different aftermarket brands?

 

[JakAttack]

The coolers tend to be different on them and that's about it, this is the version we sell, http://www.powercolor.com/us/products_features.asp?id=390

Despite it's sheer size and power, we have not actually had any thermal issues with these, they tend to run cool and quiet most of the time which is good.

 

[rosmac526]

Righto, thanks for clearing that up. In that case, I'll stick with the PCSpecialist cards. They seem to work out cheaper than buying separately, and at least I'll have a far more experienced person putting it all together. Knowing me, I'd probably end up blowing up the build just attempting to plug them in!

 

[JakAttack]

No problem, glad I helped