Was literally seconds from buying a 670...

[bemaniac]

If there was a way to unlock the voltage on my xfx 7970 it would be better than the 680 but as it is I can't do that so it's comparable.

 

[Twirlywoos]

still deciding I see lol

Is there anyone who has posted their benches after flashing their cards to unlock the voltages on the 7970?

But I agree it's not a 7 min decision, it's a life time choice, get it right

 

[F1aw1ess]

7970's have the performance crown on the Heaven benchmark thread.

I have a WF 670 and love it, tried 5870, 5970 and had terrible driver trouble so will never buy AMD again but thats just me.

 

[Snodge]

OP do you play BF3? if not then I would recommend a 7970 as Nvidia cards are a lot better when dealing with MSAA and Battlefield 3 so if your not planning to play BF3 I would get that 7970 right now

 

[Ice213]

still deciding I see lol

Is there anyone who has posted their benches after flashing their cards to unlock the voltages on the 7970?

But I agree it's not a 7 min decision, it's a life time choice, get it right

Haha, at this rate the HD8xxx and gtx7xx series will be out . Yes! It is a big decision, if only my girlfriend would begin to understand that .

OP do you play BF3? if not then I would recommend a 7970 as Nvidia cards are a lot better when dealing with MSAA and Battlefield 3 so if your not planning to play BF3 I would get that 7970 right now

At the moment Snodge I do not play BF3, however I was going to pick it up after this upgrade to see what my new machine was capable of (cpu, gpu, ram, mobo, ssd all being changed/added), and push it to the limit with ultra settings. Do the 7970's really struggle on BF then?

 

[pgi947]

Neither struggle on bf3, didn't find any games to struggle on either card. Having owned both a 670 windforce and two 7970's I can promise you that you wont be disappointed in either card.

 

[HankScorpio]

correct me if I'm wrong but you can't sell just one of the three can you?

Yes, they're three separate codes on a single card OcUK send you. I kept Nexuiz and sold the other two. Nexuiz is good, but Not been able to find a game online, pretty much dead when I've tried it

 

[spixelspixel]

I'd say the windforce 670 is a better choice. It's only 2 slot so no problems adding another. Due to the sheer size + weight of the 7970 the card will probably bend quiet a lot. Gigabytes RMA service is much better than asus.

 

[Rusty0611]

7970's have the performance crown on the Heaven benchmark thread.

True but unless the OP is interested in benchmarking then it doesn't really mean much. And in truth, while the majority of us may run a benchmark every now and again, most of us won't let it affect a purchase decision.

If there was a way to unlock the voltage on my xfx 7970 it would be better than the 680 but as it is I can't do that so it's comparable.

It would be better or worse depending on the game, hence the term "trading blows"

 

[Amraam]

GTX670, then in 6 months when they're down in price, get a second in SLI

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

Also remember that if you're planning to use a 120MHz monitor without a DisplayPort (or any one that requires DVI-D Dual Link) you'll need an adaptor with the 7970 as I believe both DVI-D ports are Single Link.

 

[Martini1991]

I'd take the GTX670 due to lack of overclocking ability on that kneecapped 7970.
And I wish people would stop giving incorrect information on the DCII 7970's.
Current crop are voltage limited, doesn't matter what flipping BIOS you put on.

Its a tough choice, you can now over volt the 7970 dcu to 1.4v with a BIOS flash, but the 670 windforce will give you just about 680 performance out of the box. IMO you can't loose what ever you choose.

You can't.
Unless things have changed in the last day I again looked up current crop 7970 DCII overvolting?

 

[pgi947]

Also remember that if you're planning to use a 120MHz monitor without a DisplayPort (or any one that requires DVI-D Dual Link) you'll need an adaptor with the 7970 as I believe both DVI-D ports are Single Link.

Wrong, kind of anyhow, afaik only certain 7970's come with single link only DVI sockets, one of those being the MSI Lightning. I do know the ref PCB cards come with dual link DVI connectors and would imagine the DCUII do as well.

You can't.
Unless things have changed in the last day I again looked up current crop 7970 DCII overvolting?

Was genuinely under the impression from various forums that flashing another bios (can't remember if it was the TOP or Asus OC) allowed the current crop of DCUII's to over-volt to 1.4v. Apologies if thats not the case.

 

[Martini1991]

Was genuinely under the impression from various forums that flashing another bios (can't remember if it was the TOP or Asus OC) allowed the current crop of DCUII's to over-volt to 1.4v. Apologies if thats not the case.

I flashed an old TOP BIOS on my card, while it ran at 1000MHZ it was still voltage capped.

I think they're using different VRAM's.
And I saw a link on the MSI Lightning thread, couldn't see any such BIOS.

 

[LambChop]

A stock 7970 will beat a stock 670, but when both are overclocked they're around the same.

I'd go with that windforce 670 personally. Don't think the vram will be much of an issue. Only applies to resolutions greater than 1080p

No it doesnt, VRAM has never and never will be an issue.

 

[psychodil]

No it doesnt, VRAM has never and never will be an issue.

It is if you like high Res and high AA. 8xMSAA needs some serious vram.

 

[Freddie1980]

I flashed an old TOP BIOS on my card, while it ran at 1000MHZ it was still voltage capped.

I think they're using different VRAM's.
And I saw a link on the MSI Lightning thread, couldn't see any such BIOS.

You can hotwire the card with some asus boards and supply voltage directly to the card that way.

 

[Ice213]

Sorry for being missing from the thread for the past few hours, some really useful information been posted in that time though so thank you all for the input.

True but unless the OP is interested in benchmarking then it doesn't really mean much. And in truth, while the majority of us may run a benchmark every now and again, most of us won't let it affect a purchase decision.

To be honest I think I am in the same boat as you here in that although benching is sometimes nice to do, I only really care about the gaming performance of the card I'm buying, I don't do anything else GPU heavy except game to be honest with you so pure gaming performance is all I am trying to base this decision off. I might as you say run the occasional bench but it will mostly those little in game benches you can run that give you an idea of what your fps will be.

GTX670, then in 6 months when they're down in price, get a second in SLI

This is something I am seriously leaning towards as that 7970 could potentially be impossible to crossfire. Although I could be wrong on that one obviously.

In terms of sli with the windforce I am getting this mobo: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-390-GI and I will be using a soundcard in what I think is the only pci slot on the board, and it seems to hug the above pci-e x16 (x8) slot which looks as though I may be forced to choose between sli/xfire and the sound card...which is a tad annoying.

And in terms of the locked voltage of the 7970, does the card overclock half decently at stock voltage?

Thanks again everyone

 

[alfalavala]

I'm making the same decision and think I'm going with 670 windforce! But a useful thread nonetheless.

 

[wozzizname]

I've ordered a Windforce 7970 from OCUK as they're on offer at the moment.

It was a tough decision between that and the 670 and I'm sure either one would be excellent.