PowerColor AX7950 3GBD5-2DH Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

Pros: Powerful
Quiet
Low power consumption
Best bang for buck vs other brands

Cons: Cooler "could" be better.
Hotter than expected

Other Thoughts: I purchased this on sale to replace a GTX460 1gb SC. So far it is great and beats the GTX460 in every way. The cooler is not as large as other brands but it is quiet and does the job. This card runs with 0 lag on BF3 on ultra settings, 16x and max resolution on my 24" monitor on an e8400 3.8ghz dual core setup.

It does run a bit hotter than my old card (50 idle, 68-70 under full load) and it is MASSIVE.. 10.5" so make sure you have the space. If you have the right case non of this is an issue. I hear these are great for overclocking but it runs everything on max right now.. overclocking won't be needed for awhile.

This is my first Powercolor purchase and so far I am very pleased. AMD seems to have corrected any driver issues once associated with their 7-series lineup.

Do not hesitate to buy this card if the price is right :)

Pros: good card, willl max out any game i throw at it and always maintaining over 45 fps in bf3 maxed out completely. for the price i kinda wish i waited for the gtx 670 but the hd 7950 is deff a awesome card i love it

Cons: wont max out final fantasy 14, but which single gpu can? lol

Pros: Great price, outstanding performance. This is my second 7950. Running 12.3 and benching/stressing to weed out any issues. So far, smooth running. Will be CF once I've verified this card is solid. My first 7950 has been perfect.

Cons: None so far. Third Mini Dp would have been nice.

Pros: Plays every game I tested at 60+ fps on max settings. Has never reached 60C, very cool card. I love how short this card is. I'm guess that this card would fit in any and all case I have ever owned.

Cons: The shroud is does not remove hot air from the case as you might think, instead the heat sink and fan remove only some of the hot air from the case leaving the rest inside. If your thinking about buying this card. I would advise you to buy the nonreference card instead. In fact the only reason I removed an egg was because of the shroud. I look at it as a step backwards.

While testing I did notice that skyrim fps stayed at 60fps 90% of the time but somtimes would drop as low as 47fps, also while running is high mode I never got any higher then 60 fps but never droped. This could be a driver error due to these still being brand new, give it 5 more months and it should be fine.

Other Thoughts: This is the first non sapphire card I have bought, and even though in the past I've heard some down right scary storys about PowerColor cards, I can say I'm pleasantly surprised.

Going to see how this card holds up over time.

Games I have tested at max settings:
Skyrim
Oblivion-with graphic update mod
F.E.A.R.
F.E.A.R. 3

Pros: Worked FANTASTIC untill it didn't
Plays evry game i have on ultra no problems
Looks great. Nice high gloss finish
Ran cool and quiet

Cons: I bought this card on 4/24/2012 and after 3 weeks the card just stopped working. I was watching Netflix. I walked out of the room to grab a drink and as soon as i walked back in the room My computer shut off. Tried to power it back up and nothing.. So i started troubleshooting by unplugging stuff 1 by 1. Once i got to the video card and unplugged it the system would power on. So i removed the card and tested it in my sons pc and my wifes pc and the same result.. The computers wouldnt power on while the 2 6pin pci-e were plugged in so im sending it back for a replacement

Other Thoughts: This is my first time buying a high end Powercolor video card. Also. This is the first time i have ever had a video card fail for no reason like this one did. I hope this is not a sign of things to come. It was running very cool 49c max while gaming 29c idle so i know it was not a heat issue. Aslo i never had the need to overclock the card so i know that was not a issue. It just stopped

Manufacturer Response:

I apologize for the issues you've encountered with this card. Please feel free to contact me at jgaray@powercolor.com so that I may further assist you with your video card.

Thank you,

Jonathan

Pros: Haven't found a game it can't run at Max settings yet. The stock cooler rarely needed to ramp up, and when it did I wasn't too bothered. I didn't try to OC on the stock cooler, but I'm sure you could.

I installed an EK FC7950 and now all I hear is the occasional sweet sound of a creek nearby. OC's very easily, running 1000 core and 1500 memory without moving temps more than a few C. Haven't tried taking it further, I don't want to torch it yet.

Cons: I got it closer to launch, before the price drop.

The original shroud clashed with my tubing and MB color scheme, so I got some touch up blue paint and covered the red, it was awesome.

Other Thoughts: .I went with the PowerColor because my previous setup of 2 x PowerColor 3870's lasted until I now. They seem to be of good quality, never had to talk to support.

Pros: -Solid card with no hardware related issues
-Good performance but I'm sure everyone knows what they are buying prior to reading these reviews (I just didn't want this review to seem all negative)

Cons: -This is not really PowerColor's fault as they use AMD's reference heatsink design, but the heatsink this card comes with is inadequate. With the card in it's bare stock form it hits over 90 C in FurMark. I stopped it at 91 C because it was steadily rising and I didn't want to damage the card. The fan was running at 100% from 80 C onward.
-Fan is noisy on higher speed settings but that's to be expected. I use headphones and it doesn't bother me.
-The drivers are still pretty bad as of this posting. The performance in some games is great, but in other games it's confusingly poor.

Other Thoughts: Spend the extra money and buy one with an upgraded heatsink design, I really wish I had.

My case is an Antec Nine Hundred and it's very well ventilated, free of dust, etc. My house is air conditioned 24/7 and when idle the motherboard temperature sensor is 26-27 C with it barely going above 30 under load.

Pros: Very nice Video Card, I am so happy i got this model, so fast, The fan is very QUIET !!! The grafics will make you jump out of your chair!!!!

Cons: no Problems

Pros: Excellent performance in most games out there, including Crysis, COD series, BF3, and many others. Also runs Mass Effect 3 maxed out at 1680x1050 resolution. Currently waiting for a nice 3view 2560 x 1440 IPS screen to really push this card to its limit.

High amount of onboard ram will keep this card competitive in either high screen resolutions or high texture resolutions. Highly recommend downloading AMD's latest catalyst 12.3 drivers before installing the card.

Cons: While installing the drivers, you may have an issue where your screen blacks out, and does not come back on. Let the install process run its course, then press the Windows key, then the right arrow two times. Finally tap the up arrow, and hit enter. This will be the restart option, at least if your OS is Windows 7. Your system should reboot ok, with the new driver installed. I'm currently not sure if this is a problem with the graphics card's bios or with AMD's install routines, but it is a new product, so I won't ding them an egg for that, since I was able to work around the problem.

Other Thoughts: System specs are as follows:

Intel Core i5 2500k oc'd 4.2ghz
Corsair A70 HSF
G-Skill Ripjaws X 4 x 4GB DDR3 1600
Asrock Z68 Extreme 3 Gen 3 Bios 1.30
Seagate 7200.11 1.5TB HDD
2 x WD Caviar Black 1TB HDD
The above GPU
Onboard Realtek sound
Silverstone OP-1000 1KW PSU
Thermaltake A60
2 x LG DVD/RW drives

Pros: The one i recieved overclocks extreamly well and out preforms a stock 7970 except in programing loads

Cons: base fan speed is pretty loud. But thats normal for ati, drop the fan to ~40% cap and things are golden