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I want thinking of purchasing a MSI Lighting (7970 HD) graphics card, but I noticed that the card was highlighted in red, while the 7950 was highlighted in blue. Does this mean that the 7970 card if prone to problems, or is it something else? Any help would be greatly appreciated since I would like to get started on mining right away.

In my opinion, the Gigabyte 7950s are the best mining card for the buck right now because they are factory overclocked to 1000 MHz and have decent cooling.

I've had a couple of 7970s, but they tend to run very hot and don't overclock that well, so i don't think a 7970 is worth the $100 price premium for the modest performance gain.

Most 7950s will also overclock better than a 7970.

From what I've heard the 7950 is slightly more cost effective, while the 7970 will get slightly more khash but it'll take a bit longer to get ROI on. Could be wrong, if anyone has more thorough views please share.

Definately go for the 7950.

Potentially dumb question, but is it feasible to Crossfire a 7950 with a 7970 or is it recommended to only Crossfire with identical cards?

You can crossfire a 7950 with a 7970, but I don't think it's recommended due to issues like mirco-stutter.

I believe performance of a crossfired 7950/7970 will be in between crossfired 7950s and crossfired 7970s.

to mine you don't activate crossfire  ;D

go gigabyte 7950 3 fans  ;)

So I'd just insert both in the case and have the GPU's mine separately then. I know it's probably not ideal to combine 7970 and 7950 but I already have a 7970 coming my way and have store credit at a store that only sells 7950s.

Have a look here:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison

That's the chart I was referring too. I forgot to put it in the link. :P

I think if you crossfire 7950 and 7970, 7970 card will work with the speed of 7950. The optimum is to have identical cards, otherwise you are wasting the better card.

I would go for a 7950... or four ones...
it's starting at 225€ / 300$
€ : http://www.grosbill.com/redirect.php?site=shopping&ectrans=1&page=http%3A//www.grosbill.com/4-sapphire_ati_radeon_hd7950_bioshock_infinite_crysis_3_-178710-informatique-ati&utm_campaign=178710-carte%20graphique&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=shopping&refresh=ok (http://www.grosbill.com/redirect.php?site=shopping&ectrans=1&page=http%3A//www.grosbill.com/4-sapphire_ati_radeon_hd7950_bioshock_infinite_crysis_3_-178710-informatique-ati&utm_campaign=178710-carte%20graphique&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=shopping&refresh=ok) )
$ : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125414 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125414)

7950!

The increase in hashrate that the 7970 offers does not justify the increase in price. MSI Twin Frozr 7950 or Gigabyte 7950's are probably the best in terms of Hash/$ ratio. Plus they can be overclocked a bunch.

I just put the order for the Gigabyte 7950 yesterday. I hope it turns out better than the 7970 HD from XFX Force. I'm on my third return in just four months (turn around time is almost a month...do the math).

none of them. get an 5850 oc it and get 340MHASH

I kept having problems with (although I only had 1 and the card was bad) 7950.  Ended up changing with two 7870's.

Thing is even when it was stable the fan was pretty high just to maintain 80C.  I can barely hear the 7870's.

7950 - 100% stock is around 450ish - I was able to pull a max at one point of 585MH/s
2x7870 - around 875MH/s overclocked - almost the same as two stock 7950's

And its not BSOD/locking up and going down for 10 hours waiting for me to run back to the office (where I'm not paying for electricity) :D  

I'm currently mining with 2x 7950s, in different machines, and am averaging a combined 1.05Gh/s, without any overclocking. One card is running at about 470-480MH/s and the other at about 525-535MH/s.

Dang, I have just bought a 7970, someone please tell me there is some benefit of 7970  over 7950

dude that is half of what my 7950 gets.

HD7950 for sure because it's more cost effective. I am currently running 3x7950.

I figured he was trolling...

There is no point in buying 7970 for mining. It offers no benefits over 7950, while 7950 is cheaper, delivers same MH/s and drain less power which is impossible to ignore when talking about efficiency ratio BTC/Watt [when you pay for electricity].

One thing which I want to point out. If you can, please avoid cards with 80mm fans (if you work/sleep near PC anyway  :) ). Those are realllly noisy when card is running at full tilt. I know, bought 2 7950 MSI TF3. Jesus what a racket. My GTX580 TF3 (was using it previously for little mining) is nowhere to be heard, but 7950s mounted in same case just klanking like passing nearby Heavy Panzer Battalion.

reallisticly I think they are about the same...

for ref my 7950 pulls ~540 khash in reaper

7950HD is what i will recommend. =)

7950, no doubt.

I have 2 gigabyte 7950.  Running at 530Mh/s x 2, and pretty quite too.