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Dual 7970 3GB or Dual 680 2GB?

snedie

snedie

snedie

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Joined
26 Aug 2009
Posts
1,299
Gaming on a Dell 27" screen and already with dual 5970 2GB cards I'm hitting a VRAM wall. Can't decide between these two cards as both are great performers but VRAM is a major decider for me.

Just wanted to get some opinions on them, just to note I will be upgrading to triple/quad cards in the future when I get more dell screens.
 
Skyrim and BF3, amongst L4D2 :D

Skyrim I can hit maximum settings with no AAA (Etc) with around 40-60 fps. Bf3 however I can't even get over the high preset.
 
Just been looking at a review on Hexus between the two cards, and at 2560x1600 both cards are pretty nifty. Maybe price is going to be a better decision maker......
 
I have a GTX680 and I run BF3 on ultra with FXAA mod at around 60 - 90FPS on a 27" screen 1920x1080. And I just bought skyrim and haven't tried to play it yet. :P
 
This is what I'm hearing all over the place, Nvidia drivers simply aren't mature yet: Released to early to compete with AMD?

I've settled with the 7970, price is cheaper, has more VRAM and will OC plenty under water. Thanks guys.
 
Skeng said:
I have a GTX680 and I run BF3 on ultra with FXAA mod at around 60 - 90FPS on a 27" screen 1920x1080. And I just bought skyrim and haven't tried to play it yet. :P
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yer at 1080 the 680 tears through everything, which is pretty bad ass for a single card. Doesn't fair to well at 1440p though.
 
At higher resolutions, an especially if AA is applied, the 7970 is the performance winner if overclocked, compared to an overclocked 680. The bandwidth advantage really shows at these settings. However with 3 cards, you are asking for trouble with either brand IMO. Wont 2 cards be enough?
 
psychodil said:
At higher resolutions, an especially if AA is applied, the 7970 is the performance winner if overclocked, compared to an overclocked 680. The bandwidth advantage really shows at these settings. However with 3 cards, you are asking for trouble with either brand IMO. Wont 2 cards be enough?
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In my basket I've gone with two for now, I figured that should be plenty for my resolution and this way I won't have to buy a new board and CPu either (Saving me around £550).
 
snedie said:
yer at 1080 the 680 tears through everything, which is pretty bad ass for a single card. Doesn't fair to well at 1440p though.
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People seem to really badly estimate performance of cards at different resolutions. If my 5870 (2GB) tore through most things at 5760x1200, a 7970 or a 680 will be beyond tearing through it.

My current 6950 in fact does very well at 7680x1440. 1920x1080 really is nothing special, old cards eat it for breakfast, never mind the best of the best.
 
spoffle said:
People seem to really badly estimate performance of cards at different resolutions. If my 5870 (2GB) tore through most things at 5760x1200, a 7970 or a 680 will be beyond tearing through it.

My current 6950 in fact does very well at 7680x1440. 1920x1080 really is nothing special, old cards eat it for breakfast, never mind the best of the best.
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I just go off benchmarks bud, simple as. Drivers make a massive difference at higher resolutions though, when I got my 5970's at 5760x1080 they couldn't run jack. Now (if I chose to hook my screens up again, after digging them out a cupboard :D) they can run quite a few things at that res. However they do suffer with a lack of VRAM and slow clock speeds.
 
snedie said:
Oh, 7970's :) The additional VRAM and lower price made the decision for me, got to factor in the cost of water blocks too.
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Thanks, but I meant what model cards :p

Hope you have luck with watercooling them and you get some good clocks.
I can honestly say Im not jealous in any possible way, thats right, not at all ;)
 
psychodil said:
Thanks, but I meant what model cards :p

Hope you have luck with watercooling them and you get some good clocks.
I can honestly say Im not jealous in any possible way, thats right, not at all ;)
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Code: 
Asus HD 7970 DirectCU II 3072MB [HD7970-DC2-3GD5]
:D

I always hate putting blocks on cards, especially given it voids the warranty :(
 
snedie said:
I just go off benchmarks bud, simple as. Drivers make a massive difference at higher resolutions though, when I got my 5970's at 5760x1080 they couldn't run jack. Now (if I chose to hook my screens up again, after digging them out a cupboard :D) they can run quite a few things at that res. However they do suffer with a lack of VRAM and slow clock speeds.
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Dual GPU cards are a rare case in that regard because they are more often subject to software quirks, I would imagine a 5970 wouldn't be too great at multi monitor resolutions due to the 1GB per GPU, but my 2GB 5870 coped very well with near enough everything at 5760x1200.

I only have a 6950 now because I swapped with my friend because my 5870 didn't like my new monitors, I could only get 2 out of three to output at any one time.
 
Snodge said:
However their drivers for the 6xx series are terrible to be polite :D
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Examples? Not knowing any generic issues other than the stuttering at all. Especially for single card set-up's.

Comments like that don't really carry any weight without backing them up.
 
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