• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Keep: VTX3D 7970 or swap: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X

Chrisoldinho

Chrisoldinho

Chrisoldinho

Associate
Joined
17 Apr 2010
Posts
461
Hi all,

I currently own a VTX3D 7970 X-Edition, the card itself is great, but I have had issues with inductor buzzing ever since it arrived on the 19th. I RMA'd the card on the 23rd and received it's replacement yesterday, again exactly the same issue.

The noise isn't very loud, and easily drowned out by headphones, but it is clearly audible when gaming, not using headphones and it's irritating to say the least that a £350 card does this.

I am therefore thinking of changing brands, in the hope I can get rid of this annoyance as a same brand replacement doesn't seem to fix it.

What does everyone think about the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X card.

Older reviews I have read put a stock 670 ahead of a 7970 in many games, but more recently with the latest 12.6/12.7 AMD drivers, the 7970 seems to have a slight lead, and also has more room for overclocking due it's ability to change the voltage.

Is the above synopsis correct or is a 670 still better than a 7970 at the big title games (BF3, Skyrim, Witcher 2, Metro 2033), as for me these are typically what I play.

Cheers,
Chris.
 
From what I have seen the 7970 is clearly faster in metro 2033, and a little faster in the witcher 2, the 670 is faster in bf3 and skyrim. Bear in mind your 7970 runs faster than most of the 7970's you will see in reviews.

Are you sure the noise is coming from the card and not the PSU?

Your 7970 is faster overall than the 670 but if the noise is ruining your gaming experience I would consider changing.
 
The noise itself goes away if I use my 6850. I was however wondering if the draw from the PSU was involved when I use my 7970 (additional power draw).

FYI I am using an Antec TruPower 750W.
Do PSU's exist which could help with this issue?
 
Last edited:
Have you tried davebeasts usual recommendation of running heaven 3 on a loop overnight to get rid of the coil whine?

The vtx cards seem to be bad for this from what I've read in here but that may be down to them being a popular purchase due to the offers OcUK put out.

Be aware that both the 6/79 series can suffer from excessive coil whine as well.
 
I'll do that tonight when I go to bed and see if it helps, i'll post back either way.

Just to be clear about the noise. It's like a electrical buzz, not so much a whine. The frequency (pitch and speed) of the buzz change depending upon the FPS being rendered on screen.

Anywhere between 30 and 100 fps it's just annoying, the higher it gets it dissipates, and by the time I hit 200 fps it is almost gone. The pitch has got so high and the speed so fast that's it's practically inaudible.
 
Chrisoldinho said:
Hi all,

I currently own a VTX3D 7970 X-Edition, the card itself is great, but I have had issues with inductor buzzing ever since it arrived on the 19th. I RMA'd the card on the 23rd and received it's replacement yesterday, again exactly the same issue.

The noise isn't very loud, and easily drowned out by headphones, but it is clearly audible when gaming, not using headphones and it's irritating to say the least that a £350 card does this.

I am therefore thinking of changing brands, in the hope I can get rid of this annoyance as a same brand replacement doesn't seem to fix it.

What does everyone think about the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce 3X card.

Older reviews I have read put a stock 670 ahead of a 7970 in many games, but more recently with the latest 12.6/12.7 AMD drivers, the 7970 seems to have a slight lead, and also has more room for overclocking due it's ability to change the voltage.

Is the above synopsis correct or is a 670 still better than a 7970 at the big title games (BF3, Skyrim, Witcher 2, Metro 2033), as for me these are typically what I play.

Cheers,
Chris.
Click to expand...

The 600 series drivers from Nvidia are very imature too. We have only had one WHQL driver since they where released. There should be more to come from the 600 series.
 
psychodil said:
From what I have seen the 7970 is clearly faster in metro 2033, and a little faster in the witcher 2, the 670 is faster in bf3 and skyrim. Bear in mind your 7970 runs faster than most of the 7970's you will see in reviews.

Are you sure the noise is coming from the card and not the PSU?

Your 7970 is faster overall than the 670 but if the noise is ruining your gaming experience I would consider changing.
Click to expand...

I would not agree that a 7970 is faster over all at all!! Maybe faster than a stock 670 yes. But not a WF or any other pre Oc'ed card.

I did a lot of reading of reviews etc for about a month before picking up my 670. Overall the 670 is faster than the 7970.

Are you saying a 7970 is faster than a 680? Becuase the pre oc'ed 670's are within a few % of the 680.
 
Last edited:
opethdisciple said:
I would not agree that a 7970 is faster over all at all!! Maybe faster than a stock 670 yes. But not a WF or any other pre Oc'ed card.

Are you saying a 7970 is faster than a 680? Becuase the pre oc'ed 670's ar within a few % of the 680.
Click to expand...

If you read my post I said 'your' 7970. His is the vtx card which is clocked at 1050mhz stock, so yes it is faster than a 670 overall.
 
He didn't say a 7970 is faster overall, he said the op's VTX X-Edition(1050MHz@stock) is faster than a 670.

The VTX X-Edition is more or less running@7970GHz specs which is=680 so it's faster than most pre oc'ed 670's.
 
bearing in mind I ONLY play BF3 - The difference between a 7970 and 670 is like night and day @ 1440p! - Love my Asus DCU II 670 - runs at boost 1250Mhz which the 7970 I sold couldn't touch (1150 max under water!) - and this is more than enough to keep chugging along with a nice steady 60-80FPS on Ultra 2xMSAA ;)
 
I would'nt bother as you wouldn't get any better or worse gaming experience even if one card is slight faster/slower in game x/y. I'll be surprised if the nose difference was worth the cost in buy ing a new card as well.
 
KillBoY_UK said:
I would'nt bother as you wouldn't get any better or worse gaming experience even if one card is slight faster/slower in game x/y. I'll be surprised if the nose difference was worth the cost in buy ing a new card as well.
Click to expand...

The plan would be to refund one via RMA then use this to purchase another, so no cost.

The annoying thing for me is the performance of the 7970 is actually amazing, I genuinely don't want to switch, but the noise. It bugs the life out of me, and clearly the RMA process didn't make any difference...I'm inclined to think a 3rd card won't improve things either.
 
I'm pretty sure every card has coil whine to some degree but it depends on setup and luck if it is noticeable. Both of the 670's I had suffered from it but as my case is on the ground and only noticeably audible to me when the side is removed, it is not an issue.
If you have perfect hearing at the coil whine's frequency and have a perforated side panel on top of your desk then I think you will have the same complaint with my card.
I think trying to find the most quiet card of any brand and model will be like trying to find the best overlocker, nothings promised.


Having said that, I would try the looping heaven over night trick before even considering anything else.
 
zoomee said:
Love my Asus DCU II 670 - runs at boost 1250Mhz which the 7970 I sold couldn't touch (1150 max under water!)
Click to expand...

The clockspeed difference between the two is irrelevant though. It's the performance you get for the clocks that matter.

A 7770 has a 1ghz core clock compared to the 782 of the gtx580 (stock clocks), but the 580 dominates it.

The only time it's worth busting out the clockspeed e-peen is when you're comparing the same architecture (670vs670)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom