GTX 670 or AMD 7970?

RogerMesenseless · 11 Jul 2012 at 08:50

In benchmarks I've seen, the 7970 is (apparently) better than the GTX 670, but it costs about the same.
So my question is; Which is the better card in terms of performance, temperature, noise level, ect...?

Gregster · 11 Jul 2012 at 09:24

So many threads on which is better.... They are pretty equal with the 7970 winning some and 670 winning others.

Go with what colour you prefer (red or green) and what price you want to pay.

psychodil · 11 Jul 2012 at 09:28

What resolution are you running?

up2nogooduk · 11 Jul 2012 at 09:54

I had the 670, then Chanced it for Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7970 Windforce 3X.
Reason being, was as i only play rfactor f1, (and of course BF3)
i couldn't get AA to work proper in rfactor. and in BF3 i was getting the stuttering everyone was talking about, which i just couldn't sort out.
i hear a lot of people have sorted it out now. not everyone has these issuies tho.

So going to a 7970 sorted out my issiues. not knocking the 670 at all, it just didn't work out for me thats all

I also favour the Control settings in AMD, as i find it easyier to setup then then the nvidia settings. most will say they leave in on default! but i have to change mine to get the best out of rfactor via eye candy

but hey that's just me and what i need!

Every favour different cards and names, so maybe just flip a coin

Good luck!

RogerMesenseless · 11 Jul 2012 at 11:47

psychodil said:
What resolution are you running?

1080p

RogerMesenseless · 11 Jul 2012 at 11:51

Thanks for the help.
Looking at reviews, I think the GTX 670 is for me, although the 7970 is still very tempting

KraniX · 11 Jul 2012 at 12:21

As was stated above some games prefer one card, others another as you can see on Anandtech here. If you are a big BF3 player then Nvidia seems the way to go with the current crop of cards but can't comment on the stuttering issue up2 mentioned. I'd probably have a chat with folks in an rfactor forum to see how their cards are performing if that's the main game you are concerned about.

I'd find it hard to spend that on the 7970 tbh though when you could get a 7950 for a fair bit less and easily overclock it to perform almost a good as a 7970 without touching the voltages.

Ciff1 · 11 Jul 2012 at 12:55

I was in the same dilema as the op in the end i went for the 7970 as it is a true high end card with duel bios switch voltage control to an extent. 670 is not a true high end card no duel bios no voltage control and looks poor value component wise to a 7970 with short pcb/fan etc apart from the couple that use 680 pcb and custom coolers. Granted they are quick but more like a mid range card which i guess it would have been if they weren't so quick.

opethdisciple · 11 Jul 2012 at 13:15

Ciff1 said:
I was in the same dilema as the op in the end i went for the 7970 as it is a true high end card with duel bios switch voltage control to an extent. 670 is not a true high end card no duel bios no voltage control and looks poor value component wise to a 7970 with short pcb/fan etc apart from the couple that use 680 pcb and custom coolers. Granted they are quick but more like a mid range card which i guess it would have been if they weren't so quick.

There is no doubt that overall a 680 is better than a 7970.

A OC variety 670 is on par with a stock 680.

Based on this logic one of these (one or two) is a better purchase than a 7970.

Quieter and cooler and add better drivers and physx and your on to a winner.

It depends what resolution the op plays at?

Here is a nice article I just found.

The Best Gaming Graphics Cards: 1920x1200 & 2560x1600

As of today, the high end card to get is the 670.

Gregster · 11 Jul 2012 at 13:24

Ciff1 said:
I was in the same dilema as the op in the end i went for the 7970 as it is a true high end card with duel bios switch voltage control to an extent. 670 is not a true high end card no duel bios no voltage control and looks poor value component wise to a 7970 with short pcb/fan etc apart from the couple that use 680 pcb and custom coolers. Granted they are quick but more like a mid range card which i guess it would have been if they weren't so quick.

A mid range card that beats AMD's top end card at certain games

RogerMesenseless · 11 Jul 2012 at 14:20

Ciff1 said:
I was in the same dilema as the op in the end i went for the 7970 as it is a true high end card with duel bios switch voltage control to an extent. 670 is not a true high end card no duel bios no voltage control and looks poor value component wise to a 7970 with short pcb/fan etc apart from the couple that use 680 pcb and custom coolers. Granted they are quick but more like a mid range card which i guess it would have been if they weren't so quick.

I don't really want to buy a GTX 680, they are a lot more expensive than the 670's and I just can't justify the big price increase and the relatively small performance increase. Plus, custom coolers for the 680's take up 2+ slots, and I may want to upgrade to a SLI configuration in the future (the case that I'm looking at has 4 PCI expansion slots)

As far as the 670 vs 7970 goes, i'll probably go for the 670 (Maybe a factory overclocked one) as I do enjoy Battlefield 3

And some of the Non-Reference 670's have full length 680 PCB's and offer even further overclocking headroom from the factory.

LOAM · 11 Jul 2012 at 14:22

Ciff1 said:
Granted they are quick but more like a mid range card which i guess it would have been if they weren't so quick.

This is one of the most amazing things I have ever read in my life.

In a similar vein this tea that I am drinking wouldn't taste like tea if it didn't have tea in it.

KraniX · 11 Jul 2012 at 14:28

LOAM said:
In a similar vein this tea that I am drinking wouldn't taste like tea if it didn't have tea in it.

Heh, liking that!

Ciff, can I ask if the 6950 I had briefly counts as a high-end card as it had a dual-bios?

Ciff1 · 11 Jul 2012 at 14:38

If i can recall didn't the 6950 unlock to 6970 when they first came out, in which case high end card yes.

psychodil · 11 Jul 2012 at 14:43

who cares what label you want to put on a card, high end or low end.
You can call it bell-end for all I care as long as the price/performance is good.

tommybhoy · 11 Jul 2012 at 14:43

The bias hasn't disapeared in here then.
:rolleyes:

Due to it being a right pita, typing all this out on the xoom has held my toungue.

Been reading a lot of posts here for the last week but decided to break my holiday home from home silence since I'm housebound at the mo due to the wee man being ill.

opethdisciple said:
There is no doubt that overall a 680 is better than a 7970.

Tends to be the train of thought from most Nvidia users though.

opethdisciple said:
variety 670 is on par with a stock 680.

Much the same as the Windforce 7970 on offer performs about the same Out The Box as a 680 for £359.99

OC the card yourself and most are aware what's the fastest.

opethdisciple said:
A OC Based on this logic one of these (one or two) is a better purchase than a 7970.

As above the Windforce 7970 is probably going to outperform those two.

opethdisciple said:
Quieter and cooler and add better drivers and physx and your on to a winner.

Talking about stock 7970's yes, the 670 is quieter and cooler.

PhysX is the only better part of your argument there that Amd is lacking, slight consolation being more vram in Amd's favour.

As has been stated before when Nvidia resort to AMD's tactic of deleting forum posts due to faulty drivers, you know there's a problem.

That's when you can get onto the forum of course, their Facebook page is taking a thumping right now.

Forgeting about the stuttering and no native PCI-E 3.0 from Nvidia v's Amd's zero core problems and 3X(or more)CrossFire issues.

Both teams drivers leaves a lot to be desired tbph.

opethdisciple said:
It depends what resolution the op plays at?

SoundDoctor said:
1080p

opethdisciple said:
Here is a nice article I just found.

The Best Gaming Graphics Cards: 1920x1200 & 2560x1600

As of today, the high end card to get is the 670.

Pity the article doesn't max out all the games though.

KraniX said:
Ciff, can I ask if the 6950 I had briefly counts as a high-end card as it had a dual-bios?

Being a software crippled 6970, then yes, it was AMD's highest end single gpu.

To answer the op, check as much reviews as you can(forget the bias reviews), see what performs best in the games you play and weigh up your options that way.

They are all fantastic performing gpu's when working as advertised and you will be hard pushed to tell the difference in game anyway regardless what you plump for.

psychodil · 11 Jul 2012 at 14:49

Nice summary Tommy. You chould have mentioned the VTX card though, faster than the windforce and cheaper (£336)

tommybhoy · 11 Jul 2012 at 14:55

Thanks, it's meant as the flip side to the story though, not just a buy a 7970 point of view.

I'm not convinced about the VTX though due to the coil whine complaints I've noticed about it.

Plus I'm forgetting about the 3 free games that can combat the extra outlay of the windforce as well.

opethdisciple · 11 Jul 2012 at 14:56

tommybhoy said:
The bias hasn't disapeared in here then.

Due to it being a right pita, typing all this out on the xoom has held my toungue.

Been reading a lot of posts here for the last week but decided to break my holiday home from home silence since I'm housebound at the mo due to the wee man being ill.

Tends to be the train of thought from most Nvidia users though.

Much the same as the Windforce 7970 on offer performs about the same Out The Box as a 680 for £359.99

OC the card yourself and most are aware what's the fastest.

As above the Windforce 7970 is probably going to outperform those two.

Talking about stock 7970's yes, the 670 is quieter and cooler.

PhysX is the only better part of your argument there that Amd is lacking, slight consolation being more vram in Amd's favour.

As has been stated before when Nvidia resort to AMD's tactic of deleting forum posts due to faulty drivers, you know there's a problem.

That's when you can get onto the forum of course, their Facebook page is taking a thumping right now.

Forgeting about the stuttering and no native PCI-E 3.0 from Nvidia v's Amd's zero core problems and 3X(or more)CrossFire issues.

Both teams drivers leaves a lot to be desired tbph.

Pity the article doesn't max out all the games though.

Being a software crippled 6970, then yes, it was AMD's highest end single gpu.

To answer the op, check as much reviews as you can(forget the bias reviews), see what performs best in the games you play and weigh up your options that way.

They are all fantastic performing gpu's when working as advertised and you will be hard pushed to tell the difference in game anyway regardless what you plump for.

Maybe. But before I made my purchase, I looked at a lot of benchmarks over the space of a few months.....

What I gathered was that at stock, the 680 was faster than the 7970, in most games and that the WF 670 was either 5fps on average slower than a 680 or slightly ahead.

Thats what I based my purchase on.

The 3Gb vram as you can see from benchmarks makes no difference at current resolutions. Maybe 3+ screens then yea, more vram will be necessary.

For me I think the big reason I went from 5870 to GTX670 was for the Nvidia drivers and better game integration.

McBain · 11 Jul 2012 at 14:56

LOAM said:
This is one of the most amazing things I have ever read in my life.

In a similar vein this tea that I am drinking wouldn't taste like tea if it didn't have tea in it.