So I recently bought a selection of 7950s... and ended up returning most of them... except for a pair which I kept (and another pair which I've since sold, because I missed the return date).
The one's I kept were the vapor-x from sapphire absolutely the best card out there.
HIS w/ iceQ is the close runner up.
reference is 3rd best.
Gigabyte is ok... but don't expect to mine with them in a case. These guys need aftermarket cooling on the backside or extender cables so they don't cook whatever happens to be near them.
avoid everything else unless you're planning on watercooling.
This is the kind of stuff you can't learn from a spreadsheet hardware comparison.. thanks.
Was it mostly disappointing hash rates that disqualified the other cards?