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As above really.

Considering either (2x)7850 or 280x/7950

Difference in price is about £150 currently on individual cards.

Running:
3570k,
Asrock Pro4,
Corsair vengeance 8gb,
250gb samsung 840,
2tb baracuda,
xfx 850w psu.
Zalman Z11 case
- Still yet to buy a decent monitor so running an old HP 19" but will upgrade to a decent 24" after GPU

Mining wise - Im new to. So just dabbling around in making a few coins here and there for the hell of it.
Gamin wise - Only every now and then. Steam games really.

What do you reckon?

280x's are a lot better then 7950's and 7950's arent sold new as much anymore, trying going for an MSI or gigabyte 280x mining will be around 720KH/s

Yep, we got a bunch of Gigabyte 280x. A little VBE7 to undervolt the BIOS, and they're hashing in Linux and Windows just fine @ 725Kh/s. Very quiet, and cool.

Looking at the following two -

http://www.dabs.com/products/gigabyte-amd-radeon-r9-280x-1050mhz-3gb-pci-express-3-0-hdmi-inc-battlefield-4-9528.html?q=280x&src=16

http://www.dabs.com/products/sapphire-technology-amd-radeon-r9-280x-870mhz-3gb-pci-express-3-0-hdmi-dual-x-90MZ.html?q=280x&src=16

What do you reckon chaps?

Edit/ looks like the gigabyte is a winner - only problem is stock levels.

Gigabyte WF3 all the way.  The Dual X HSF can kiss it.

VBE7 bios editor (http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/vbe7-vbios-editor-for-radeon-hd-7000-series-cards.189089/). Works like a charm.

R9 290 hands down. You can mine AND game at the same time.

Of the ones you've mentioned R9 280x. I wouldn't touch 7950. Some do 650kh some can't pass 520. It's a lottery.

290 is out of my price bracket :(

Wanted as close to £200

Hence why I was thinking two 7850's?

What voltage do you use?

No point in buying a GPU to mine anymore. Wait for the scrypt ASICs.

Don't be silly.

OP if you're from UK and want a 7950 on the cheap side, with only 2 months of use, I'm trying to get shot of my rigs, so I can start a new life in a different country. Message me.

I'm not into spending mega money mate - and a little bit of mining with a GPU that is capable of gaming aswell is all I want.

725Kh/s @ 1025/1500 @ 1.019V

What's the advantage of using VBE7 instead of Trixx or Afterburner?

1.019V is really low. I can't go lower than 1.100V using Trixx.

Are the voltages that are displayed in Trixx or Afterburner different form the "real" voltages?

The advantage is that I'm using Linux. I can't use Trixx or AB. Also, because it's hard-coded into the BIOS, it will ALWAYS run at that voltage, without having to run another piece of software that adds another point of failure. KISS.

ALso, 1.019 is really low. But that's what I set VBE7 to, that's what cgminer reports, and I cut 200W off at the wall or the 5 card rig.

Try VBE7, and make sure to keep a backup of the original BIOS. If you can go lower than 1.1V, great! You can go down in steps: 1.09, 1.07, 1.05, 1.01, etc. If it doesn't work for you, then flash the stock back and keep using TRIXX.

THe electricity savings will pay for it and the lack of hassles with driver versions will be priceless!

Yeah, but what sort of cost are we talking when they are released?

Thing is I'm only a GPU and decent monitor away from a decent complete desktop.

Something like this ->  https://alpha-t.net/product/scrypt-asic-miner/

Can someone enlighten me here - Surely the company producing it would make more money just mining with them rather than actually producing and selling them??

The OP posts an almost ready PC, is crystal clear he wants a device for mining and gaming, and some ignore his doubt and start pushing ASICs and talking about power efficiency.  ::)

Sapphire or Asus 280x are the best choices imho. The ATI drivers aren't so good, throw crossfire and some games under-perform/crap out.

Thanks for giving me some info which relates to my OP.

Whats up with the ATI drivers? Not thinking of multi-gpu unless I build a mining rig

I have had games that played fine on Nvidia 8800gt and mis-behaved/crashed when upgraded the card to 2xATI 6950. Could be settings stored on Steam Cloud, could be a problem with my cards, however I don't really have a good experience with ATI on gaming.

That said, you're going for single card and recent drivers, so...

My post relates to the OP because he can skip worrying about a card for mining and focus on a card best for gaming.