Nee help in choosing AMD HD 7970 Version

5 posts · originally from https://geek.digit.in/community/threads/nee-help-in-choosing-amd-hd-7970-version.167922/

Hi guys..
After many suggestions I have decided to go with HD7970 .I am having trouble as to which make(Sapphire,asus,MSI..etc) I should buy.And what is the difference between a reference and a non reference card??which one is good for gaming ??I need really quiet ,cooler version with decent power consumption.
.I mostlty plan on playing BF3,Farcry 3,Assasin's Creed 3,Batman Arkham City in highest settings.
my config:
Core i5 3570k
Asus Maximus V gene
Corsair 500R
Corsair Vengeance 2*4 8GB
Corsair GS 600W PSU
Will be playing at 1920*1080 p and will be overclocking the card.
My rig is waiting for the Graphic card and my hands are itching to play these games.
Please help guys.

Thank you

my recommendation is this SAPPHIRE GRAPHICS CARD HD7970 3GB GDDR5 384BIT

Thank you for instant reply techfreak..

will definitely check it out..

reference card is the design that is recommended by chipset manufacturers. when amd/nvidia design the chipsets, they also design a complete pcb and heatsink design to go with it. this is the reference card. refernce card designs are mostly used in low-medium end cards coz these card are not much flexible in terms of OC, and hence do not need much resources apart from the reference design.

in the non-ref card like 7970, they have a lot of OC flexibility. the reference design for these cards are good, but the card manufacturers like sappire, msi zotac, they redesign the pcb and heatsink for better voltage ref, thermal performance to allow more OC headroom and hence increase OC flexibility. for example, Asus has DCII which is essentially the heatsink copper tube in direct contact with the chipset for better heat dissipation.

if you are going to OC, then its always better to choose non ref cards.

Thank you anirbandd....