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I am rethinking my main household computer. Basically this is the last step of how I am re-imagining my computing infrastructure of the house. Once I have the gameplan of my main desktop computer, I'll will fill you all in on how I will restructure the whole house. (Possible blog or forum postings on the progress.)

So what I have in the desktop:
- SeaSonic M12II 520 (power)
- MSI Z77A-GD65 LGA (mobo)
- Intel Core i5-2500K (CPU)
- MSI R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC (GPU)
- [2] G.SKILL Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB)
- AZZA Helios 910 (case)
- a bunch of HDDs

The plan is to build my own case, cannibalizing what I need along with machining or constructing the parts I cannot borrow. The card has not been the best for me and I don't mind exchanging it for something else. For instance, when I play Bioshock Infinite, the the card's fan spins up to the decibel level of the mid setting of my stove's vent fan. However, if there is no real reason to upgrade, I can hold off too.

My requirements:
- Better performance
(Note: my main monitor is the Monoprice 27" IPS LED CrystalPro Monitor WQHD 2560x1440. I would like to add a second monitor and have the games and applications use the full screen best quality settings, if possible)
- Lower power consumption
- Fan spin up that doesn't sound like a hovercraft
- equal to or less heat. I am okay with 7950 temperature range so I don't want to swap it out for something that will get hotter.

- Under $250 or $200?
- Small form factor? (not a deal breaker)

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.


Thank you.

There are certainly better cards out now, though are you unhappy with the performance or just unhappy with the noise levels?

If it's just the latter, you can try tweaking the fan speed yourself with the catalyst control center or using something like MSI's Afterburner software. Catalyst fan control will be static, but I think you can setup profiles for different temperatures using Afterburner.

The 7950 is still a quite decent performer (I have one in my secondary PC), but if the noise really bothers you and you want something small I recommend something like this mini GTX970 for $340. It is noticeably a lot faster than the 7950 in my testing, and makes a lot less noise since it draws a lot less power.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... gnorebbr=1

If you want to upgrade, I'd first see if you can get someone to buy that card either on Craigslist, Amazon or Ebay (probably for $120 to $150). If you can heavily subsidize the replacement, then why not upgrade? I did that recently. Picked up a GTX 760 for $115 after rebate, and sold my 7850 for $75. $40 netted me a decent upgrade, plus got me into Nvidia's ecosystem, which is important since I will probably be getting the next Shield Tablet that comes out for gamestreaming.

Anyways, if you upgrade, go for a GTX 970, if you can sell your card for a decent amount, then a 970 will fit right into your budget.

Thanks for the two recommendations on the nVidia 970. However, I see the newegg posting of the mini GTX970 there are quite a few folks who are unhappy with the card's heat and a few about the fan whine.

I guess I should edit my original post to add heat along with the other requirements.

Yes, the fan whine is a big issue, especially if I want the new PC environment to be almost unnoticeable.

But thank you for your replies!

Has your GPU always been this loud, or was it quiet when you first got it and has been getting louder as of late? Can you let us know what your GPU temps are under load (FurMark). There are a couple explanations on why the GPU fan is so loud: (I doubt case airflow is the reason if you've got an AZZA 910 with all the stock fans in it)
1) The fan(s) is dying/going bad. Usually this is some sort of grinding/rattling/whining noise. To figure out if only one or both fans are bad, gently place your finger on the center of each fan till it stops spinning for a short time. If the [terrible] noise stops, that's the bad fan. Replacement fans are pretty easy/cheap to get on Ebay. If it's just "normal" fan noise because they're spinning at high RPM, see #2.
2) The heatsink isn't transferring heat away from the GPU properly anymore. Heatsink became dislodged or TIM dried out. That means the fan(s) has to work harder. The fix could simply be to re-seat the heatsink.

If it's performance you're looking for... A 7950 IS an R9-280 which is equivalent to a GTX 760. So you'd realistically be looking at a R9-290/290X or GTX 970 for a noticeable improvement.

TheMonkeyKing wrote:

Thanks for the two recommendations on the nVidia 970. However, I see the newegg posting of the mini GTX970 there are quite a few folks who are unhappy with the card's heat and a few about the fan whine.

I guess I should edit my original post to add heat along with the other requirements.

Yes, the fan whine is a big issue, especially if I want the new PC environment to be almost unnoticeable.

But thank you for your replies!

Concerned about the heat? It should dissipate about the same amount of heat as any other comparably clocked GTX970, which for high end GPUs is very little. None of the reviews indicate that the card is throttling on account of heat buildup.

Anyway there seem to be just as many user reviews stating the card is incredibly quiet as there are stating it is incredibly loud. I wouldn't put too much stock in user reviews, beyond seeing if there are a lot of them and the average score is good. The card gets 4/5 average, which is good. Also keep in mind the GM204 can get up to ~90C and still operate just fine. If you think the stock fan profile is too loud you can easily adjust it to be more conservative (hotter) and quieter.

I have this MSI model, and I can vouch that it is quiet and very fast. I haven't even bothered to find the OC ceiling on it since at stock it's more than fast enough for me. Is normal length though, if that's a problem.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... gnorebbr=1

One more thing - coil whine. Some GTX970 models seem to be very whiny, which can be annoying if you're sensitive to those frequencies (some folks can't hear it). Something to consider. Of course my MSI card doesn't whine (my GTX670 does so I know what it sounds like), so ymmv.

GTX 970 makes sense as a reasonable upgrade for 1440p over a 7950. It's only going to be 50% faster or so, but it's enough that it's worth doing if you want more performance.
My advice is to get the physically largest GTX970 that you can fit into your case. Larger heatsink, larger fans, more fans.

These "compact" cards are stupid gimmicks at best, and a great (profitable) way for companies to sell you more for less because they are genuinely unnecessary for almost everyone; The actual number of shoebox mITX cases that can't fit a regular GTX970 is tiny, even the diminutive 11-litre Silverstone SG05 has room for a 10.2" graphics card, and a full-length, reference GTX980 card is only 10.5"

You're not alone in doubting the cooling capacity of compact cards. The physics behind it says that fewer, smaller fans with less heatsink surface area will require the fan to spin faster and louder. It's not magic or guesswork, it's simple laws-of-physics. Even if the compact cards use higher-quality fans, a single-fan, 6" heatsink is nowhere near as effective as a dual-fan 10" heatsink!

How about throwing an aftermarket heatsink on it? That'd be the cheapest option.

Usacomp2k3 wrote:

How about throwing an aftermarket heatsink on it? That'd be the cheapest option.

I'm not convinced there are (m)any aftermarket heatsinks that are better than the Twin Frozr; It's already a well-made, multi-heatpipe, full-length, dual-slot heatsink with two shrouded fans that generate very high static pressure. Whatever overclock he already has is unlikely to get much better without hardcore watercooling.

I replaced a dieing HIS 6850 with a Twin Frozr 7850 and man what an upgrade. That fact that you have the 7950 and the Twin Frozr would make me initially say no, don't get rid of the card. The newer R9 cards are mostly just re-hashes of the 7xxx series anyhow, so I don't see a point in buying them if you can get the 7xxx series cheaper like I did (Brand new for $80ish on Newegg sale).

Once the newer R9 3xx series comes out with HBM like was recently announced, you may want to consider one of those if they pan out and your card is still annoying you.

TheMonkeyKing wrote:

Thanks for the two recommendations on the nVidia 970. However, I see the newegg posting of the mini GTX970 there are quite a few folks who are unhappy with the card's heat and a few about the fan whine.

I guess I should edit my original post to add heat along with the other requirements.

Yes, the fan whine is a big issue, especially if I want the new PC environment to be almost unnoticeable.

But thank you for your replies!

The tough spot is making sure you get good 1440p performance at max detail. Honestly, if you don't need a mini GTX 970, I'd get a full length one. ASUS' STRIX model (which I owned briefly) was silent the vast majority of the time. I don't recall ever being able to hear it above my case fans even at load for games at 1920x1200, and temperature was never a factor.

If that isn't going to work for you due to case size concerns, or price, a hot-clocked Geforce GTX 960 will cost less and consume less power. It will also accelerate H.265 video if you're looking for your PC to do home theater duty. However, with 2GB of RAM and less ROPs, you may have to turn down a few settings at 1440p.

Replace with what? You're looking at a 970 or a 290.

$250 is not enough for the 970 and I'm not even sure what that memory interface means for future games that need more memory performance at higher resolutions and the 290 has higher power and heat numbers.

the 7950/280 was/is a great guy.

One other option to consider --if you like the Radeon 7950 for everything except the noise, why not get an aftermarket cooler for it? Arctic Cooling makes some options that could take care of this.

As noted, the GTX 970 is the obvious upgrade that hits all of your points except price. You'll need to spend a fair bit more than $250 to get a worthy successor to a 7950.

I went from a GTX670 which is about the same as a 7950 (incidentally I also have a 7950 in my little rig ) to a GTX970 and it was a terrific upgrade. Nearly double the FPS across the board with my stock i7 3770K.

That said the HD7950 is still a great card. My brother still uses it and he can run most games at the same settings as my 970 since his monitor is only 1440x900. But even for 1080p it is a great card.