GTX 670 or AMD 7970?

[tommybhoy]

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.

It's your money, your choice, which you are happy with, I'm pleased for you there, I have no problems with that at all.

But like most, the stock argument is partly why I threw the WF 7970 into the equation, it's performing on a par with the 680 for much less.

Manual OC'ing has been forgotten about(for you know who users) these days though since the Nvidia chaps done it for us, again it's a great feature but it doesn't mean AMD cards can't be OC'ed to match/surpass boost clock performance.

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.

Some reviews keep forgetting to add MSAA though don't they.

Mods and/or ingame settings can be far surpassed with respective CP IQ settings, so we won't know for sure until reviews indicate otherwise(but they won't).

Remember this time last year before BF3?

Who knows what the next game brings with it, like yourself with your 5870, not everybody upgrades every year.

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

You jumped on the driver bandwagon bigtime I've noticed, but you certainly picked the wrong series of Nvidia gpu's to talk about better drivers, that's for sure.

If AMD's drivers were as poor as you imply in various threads, why did you keep your 5870 for 2 years or more?

 

[Cutshaw]

I'm in a similar position and I don't want a new card with less than 3gb of vram(texture modding and the rest of it) so it rules out most of the 670s.

But I think I'm down to these two.
KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 4096MB £369.98
or
Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7970 Windforce 3X 3072MB £359.99

Free games aside, there's less than a tenner difference. I've been fancying a switch to nvidia as well. From what I gather the Windforce and DCII are the best 79xx coolers and that the cooler on the KFA2 is really quiet but a bit warmer than some of the other 670s.

So what I have gathered is the 670 is going to be a bit easier on the electricity and cooler, but performance wise it's to and fro? As for getting a 7950 and clocking it to 7970 speeds isn't that a moot point if the 7970 will overclock as well as the 7950?

 

[Gregster]

Above any kind of argument, you have 4 cards to choose from the TOP end (not mid), 680/70/7970/50. Now with the current crop of games, any of these cards will cope nicely @ 1080P and if I was to put 4 PC's sbs and put one of those cards in each, you would be very very clever if you could distinguish which was which.

I read PC Format and a while ago they put a top end GPU (7970 I think) along with a cheapo £100 one (might have been less) and bought in some testers. They sat the testers down on the same games and asked them to play for a couple of mins...The result was even with settings turned down on the budget card, they couldn't tell which GPU was in which computer.

I am not saying that us hardened gamers would not be able to spot the imperfections, just pointing out the top end differences. I feel both AMD and NVIDIA have done well, even though the prices are a little harsh...Go with your head and budget and MTFU

Ohhhhh and wooooooooooooooooo Ric Flair is da man

 

[Rusty0611]

The bias hasn't disapeared in here then.

Didn't see any real bias to be fair here.

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

680/7970 or 670/7970?

Nothing between the 680 and 7970 and barely anything between the 670 and 680. That's assuming the OP will even overclock. So I'm not sure "most will know".

You talk of bias above and then post a some stuff which is only as bias as the stuff you've just called out. Odd. I'm not saying either is biased (as stated above) but just that your post is in exactly the same vein. You can disagree all you like but that's how it looks

 

[McBain]

Ohhhhh and wooooooooooooooooo Ric Flair is da man

Damn right he is mate

 

[tommybhoy]

Didn't see any real bias to be fair here.

As I said I haven't bothered to post since I'm on holiday but some of the posts from the last week have been shocking.

The thread where a guy asked about what gpu to buy got the usual answers, but when he said he needed an AMD gpu, nearly everyone fled the thread and didn't offer any more advice.

680/7970 or 670/7970?

Nothing between the 680 and 7970 and barely anything between the 670 and 680. That's assuming the OP will even overclock. So I'm not sure "most will know".

Turn it around, your asuming the OP won't overclock, while asking in a forum entitled overclockers where, you know, PC enthusiasts reside that's going to discuss/advise overclocking.

You know the answer to what you asked so why make out you don't?

You talk of bias above and then post a some stuff which is only as bias as the stuff you've just called out. Odd. I'm not saying either is biased (as stated above) but just that your post is in exactly the same vein. You can disagree all you like but that's how it looks

Painting a fake picture again I see.

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

You failed to read/ignored my op in order to take from it as you see fit?

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.

 

[Gregster]

As I said I haven't bothered to post since I'm on holiday but some of the posts from the last week have been shocking.

Shocking...That's crazy.

The thread where a guy asked about what gpu to buy got the usual answers, but when he said he needed an AMD gpu, nearly everyone fled the thread and didn't offer any more advice.
?

Maybe the guys fled the thread because they owned NVIDIA and gave advice that they know about? I have no idea, just seeing it from another perspective. Can you link the thread please?

 

[KraniX]

some of the posts from the last week have been shocking.

Feel your pain.

Whenever I start to think that humanity has a future, we can be all nice to each other in a Star Trek: TNG kind of way and equality will exist for all I just go look at some YouTube comments and realise that we're doomed... most people are a. thick, b. evil or c. both.

 

[Cutshaw]

if I was to put 4 PC's sbs and put one of those cards in each, you would be very very clever if you could distinguish which was which.

I firmly believe this to be true. But what about some of things I wasn't 100% sure about, like power draw, overclocking, heat and noise?

Removing the chip lottery from the equation do they all overclock as well as each other and when all overclocked perform within the same distance of each other as stock? Does one or the other lose any power efficiency advantage when overclocked or start pumping out excessive heat?

 

[andybird123]

Painting a fake picture again I see.

to be fair to Rusty, I was drawing the same conclusion from the tone of your posts... if you start off a post by calling everyone biased toward nvidia it does tend to flavour every other comment thereon as being of an AMD bent, so comments like "I think we all know what the fastest card is really" or words to that effect does come across as looking like you are saying that 7970 is faster than 680, whether or not that's what you are saying

asking for clarification on what you meant by that is inevitable so to just jump on someone for asking for clarification is a bit over

 

[KraniX]

I firmly believe this to be true. But what about some of things I wasn't 100% sure about, like power draw, overclocking, heat and noise?

Guru3D can probably do a much better job than me of describing the noise and power.

 

[andybird123]

I firmly believe this to be true. But what about some of things I wasn't 100% sure about, like power draw, overclocking, heat and noise?

Removing the chip lottery from the equation do they all overclock as well as each other and when all overclocked perform within the same distance of each other as stock? Does one or the other lose any power efficiency advantage when overclocked or start pumping out excessive heat?

when fully overclocked, 7970/680/670 all run within a very small percentage of each other frame rate wise even up to 3 screen 5760x1080 with at least some AA in the equation though maybe not the maximums available in the control panel

7970 tends to run a bit hotter and not quite as efficient as 6** from the tests I've seen and the stock 680 cooler is much cooler/quieter than the stock 7970 cooler (I stand to be corrected if I've gotten this wrong)

the stock 670 cooler is also rubbish though so you end up comparing a windforce 670 to a windforce 7970 and then there is a sheet of paper between them - again depending on game it flips back and forth as to which is the fastest

@KraniX - stock noise levels don't help a whole bunch when talking about fully OC'd results

 

[Gregster]

I firmly believe this to be true. But what about some of things I wasn't 100% sure about, like power draw, overclocking, heat and noise?

Removing the chip lottery from the equation do they all overclock as well as each other and when all overclocked perform within the same distance of each other as stock? Does one or the other lose any power efficiency advantage when overclocked or start pumping out excessive heat?

You can't remove the 'chip lottery' as this is probably the biggest win/lose for a lot of overclockers.

As for heat and noise, look at others feedback and work from there. As for power draw, the newer cards are much lower than the older gen.

Out of the box, you still would not be able to tell them apart. I rarely run my card overclocked and I couldn't tell you if it was or wasn't when playing games like BF3/Max Payne 3.

All of your questions have multiple sub questions:

Heat for instance = what case is it going in, what type of cooler is on it.

 

[RogerMesenseless]

Turn it around, your asuming the OP won't overclock, while asking in a forum entitled overclockers where, you know, PC enthusiasts reside that's going to discuss/advise overclocking.

Actually, I probably will overclock a 670/7970, its a free performance increase and OC'ing the 670's offer near 680 performance.
Not to sure what 670's out there are the best overclockers, but I've heard good things about The Windforce, Asus Direct CUII, Palit Jetstream, Gainward Phantom, ect...

 

[Gregster]

Actually, I probably will overclock a 670/7970, its a free performance increase and OC'ing the 670's offer near 680 performance.
Not to sure what 670's out there are the best overclockers, but I've heard good things about The Windforce, Asus Direct CUII, Palit Jetstream, Gainward Phantom, ect...

EVGA and Gigabyte for warranty. The Asus is a good clocker by looking at other posters...I would still go Gigabyte though, purely from the feedback from users.

 

[RogerMesenseless]

EVGA and Gigabyte for warranty. The Asus is a good clocker by looking at other posters...I would still go Gigabyte though, purely from the feedback from users.

Yeah, I'm definitely leaning towards the Gigabyte.

 

[Ciff1]

For what it's worth i bought a 7970 windforce, it was that or the 670 windforce. It is quiet i have no coil whine and it runs very cool hasn't gone above 58° yet in games or heaven bench. Haven't tried o/cing yet.

 

[RizlaKing]

Got my windforce 7970 today put the slider straight upto 1200 and memory at 1450 and sweet as a nut little coil whine when i first started up but seems to have gone and temps so far hasn't gone above 49c when running unigine benchy .

 

[Rusty0611]

Not painting a fake picture Tommy. That's just how it looks I'm afraid.

You've already said that you weren't posting a "buy a 7970" post which is fine. But the tone and the content of what you posted is absolutely no different to the tone and content of opthedisciple's post. However you've already called this out as bias and presumably in your eyes incorrect. To do this and then do exactly the same thing but just the other side of the coin makes the thread of your argument unravel and, in truth, sound completely incoherent.

As the OP is going to overclock (confirmed above) then the 7970 is a decent shout. Just have to factor in warranty, cooler and game performance in the ones he plays to finalise his purchase between that and a 670.

If I were him, I'd buy a 670.

 

[RogerMesenseless]

Not painting a fake picture Tommy. That's just how it looks I'm afraid.

As the OP is going to overclock (confirmed above) then the 7970 is a decent shout. Just have to factor in warranty, cooler and game performance in the ones he plays to finalise his purchase between that and a 670.

If I were him, I'd buy a 670.

Thanks, I will most likely get the 670, seems to be the best in terms of in game performance from nearly all the benchmarks I've seen.