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Should I buy a 7970 or a 7950?

mattius1989

mattius1989

mattius1989

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I am selling my two 6870s to get some money together for a new graphics card.

I am looking at either 79xx series card and the cost difference between the two isn't a factor. Obviously, the 7970 is more powerful etc but is it worth the extra money? I only game at 1080, so would a 7970 be overkill?
 
I think the answer is both yes and no.

For most games a 7970 at 1080p is silly overpowered.

However with next gen games such as BF3 which push hardware to the max, the power of the 7970 makes the game playable even at the most demanding of times.

Is it worth it..... I dont know.

I dont think any gpu is worth £400, simply becuase they get outdated so quick.

I would say if you really dont mind spending the money on a 7970, study the benchmarks and find out if a 7950 will still deliver the frames in the games you want to play at your res. Becuase if it does, the extra frames the 7970 will deliver wont really benefit you.

If it was me, I would get a GTX680, as I want a change from AMD to Nvidia.

I think the Nvidia offers more. TXAA, the new vsync tech (which I admit I do not know anything about) and physx.
 
I wonder if a pair of HD7850 2GB cards would be worth considering??

TBH,though I would be more inclined to get one of the second generation 28NM cards from AMD and Nvidia as hopefully by then price/performance would have got better.
 
I have read an article on Hexus, which says that bumping up the 7950 to 7970 clocks gives 7970 performance. I was thinking of the 680, but my MB is Crossfire only (thinking of the future).

But then I will probably switch to Intel by the end of this year so that may not be an issue...
 
The 680 offers more for the price. It beats the 7970 and is cheaper by £10 currently on OcUK. Personally, since the 680 has only recently been released, I would wait to see if AMD does a price drop on their 7900 series to make it more competitive against the 680.
 
CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
I wonder if a pair of HD7850 2GB cards would be worth considering??

TBH,though I would be more inclined to get one of the second generation 28NM cards from AMD and Nvidia as hopefully by then price/performance would have got better.
Click to expand...

I'm not in much of a rush to splash out on crossfire again from the start, as I did with my 6870s due to niggling crossfire issues that seem to crop up (waiting for CAPs etc).

When might we expect the 2nd gen of cards?
 
Orcvader said:
The 680 offers more for the price. It beats the 7970 and is cheaper by £10 currently on OcUK. Personally, since the 680 has only recently been released, I would wait to see if AMD does a price drop on their 7900 series to make it more competitive against the 680.
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Hmmm. Looking at the 7970 vs 680 thread on this forum, the perfromance graphs seem to indicate a much more steady frame rate on the 680, where as the 7970 seems to fluctuate a lot more. Is that a common AMD thing?
 
Either card is going to be amazing, no doubt.

But I think the Nvidia card offers more benefits such as TXAA, the new vsync tech, physx and the usual agument that Nvidia have more refined drivers.

However I have not consider OC if thats important too you. The 7970 maybe a better OC'er.

The GTX will also run cooler and quiter which is a first for Nvidia!
 
As a rule, I like to leave things at stock. But that article did make me realise I could get 7970 performance and a save a few quid.

I am leaning a bit towards the 680 now, based on what people are saying.
 
You could always just save some money and grab the 7950. I run mine at 7970 clocks without needing a voltage increase (It will probably go further if I wanted to). Runs BF3 on ultra no problems :)
 
mattius1989 said:
I'm not in much of a rush to splash out on crossfire again from the start, as I did with my 6870s due to niggling crossfire issues that seem to crop up (waiting for CAPs etc).

When might we expect the 2nd gen of cards?
Click to expand...

I would say around November to December. The current generation does not have that great price/performance.

If I were you I would wait a bit longer until the GTX670 and GTX670TI are out.

The top end cards will not be that great for price/performance once both companies have fully released their ranges. I would expect that to happen by around summer for Nvidia.
 
simple think about what games your playing now and whats coming the rest of the year (nothing to special or taxing imo) if your buying it just for bf3 yes its nice to have all the bells and whistles but only in single player as its best to turn things down on multiplayer as all the extra crap makes it harder to see the enemy etc.so the way i see it is crazy money for one game at res just for sp then yeah if money is no option then 7970,if you want to max all games apart from bf3 then the 7950 will suit you better BUT for a bit less you can get a oc 7870 that will match a 7950 stock keep it till next year see what happens games and hardware wise then spend silly money if needed ;)
 
Oh another very important consideration is do you have any plans to increase the resolution of your screen at any point?

If you do, then 7970 will probably be better due to more vram.

If not then well its a toss up.

If your interested in 3d, then it would be the GTX 680.
 
I think I'll be sticking to 1080 for the forseeable future.

The main reason I am upgrading now rather than later is because I want to sell my cards while they are worth something. The longer I wait, the less they are worth.

I play games like Shogun, BF3, Fifa 12 and usually the latest shooters to so some degree.
 
I just randonly read this review.

It seems to put the 680 ahead, but to be honest I didnt get that impression from the looking at the benchmarks myself. Its pretty close on average.

BF3 is better on the 680 tho.
 
a 7970 is only overpowered this and next year on 1080p, but i'd go for this card because it has more Vram, rather than the other two
 
Mal X said:
a 7970 is only overpowered this and next year on 1080p, but i'd go for this card because it has more Vram, rather than the other two
Click to expand...

I am still waiting for you to tell me what games require 3GB of vram next year?

Mal X said:
no it isn't, the 7970 has more VRAM.......2GB ram wont be enough for next year, i've been told this more than once..

``make sure it has no less than 3GB ram, but the card you choose isn't so important; just make sure you get this right``
Click to expand...
 
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