KFA2 GTX 670 4096MB anyone using?

[psychodil]

111mhz still greater than 100mhz ass hat, so I'm still right about the original subject on which I posted - I never said the the EX OC had amazing headroom I said it had the same headroom as a normal 670, just because AMD deliberately underspecced all their stock clocks isn't necessarily a good reason to have a go at nvidia for making better use of their chips by default

I did a quick search on 7950 twin frozr reviews and wasn't overly impressed, he asked for an OPINION and that is mine, you have a different opinion and that is absolutely fine also, as my crystal ball is out at the dry cleaners we'll have to wait and see who is right

I also said not to get a 4GB card because 670 SLI can't drive 4GB either, and imo 7950 crossfire can't drive 3GB (except for maybe one specific game with poorly optimised texture packs)

Secret World is out in 3 days time so we should get a first view on TXAA then.

You actually said the kfa2 card has more headroom earlier in the thread, now you are claiming you said they have the same headroom. Never mind let's move on.

Don't pay too much attention to reviews at stock speeds, the 7950's performance is transformed with a 50%+ over clock on the core, as it would on any card. At that speed its performance is very close to an overclocked 670, so crossfired it closer to driving 3gb than 670 sli is to driving 4gb but i get your point.

Txaa has already been removed from the secret world but let's hope they get it sorted, supposedly a patch coming out to enable it. Let's not make baseless claims about it though, you sound like you are just spinning nvidias PR.

 

[tommybhoy]

Seems appropriate, no need to junk a thread guys, Clees quote came from a thread that ended badly.

I think someone in that thread has had their Gfx access suspended, so it's not worth it.

 

[Rusty0611]

Don't pay too much attention to reviews at stock speeds, the 7950's performance is transformed with a 50%+ over clock on the core, as it would on any card. At that speed its performance is very close to an overclocked 670, so crossfired it closer to driving 3gb than 670 sli is to driving 4gb but i get your point.

In fairness it doesn't matter how close you are to hitting the VRAM cap. If you're underneath it and you don't have the GPU power to run the higher settings anyway then you could have 10GB, 1GB or 5GB it doesn't matter. It's all just useless overhead for which you've paid for and not getting any benefit from.

That comment doesn't really apply to 7950/70 as they come with 3GB as standard but it does to 670/680 2GB/4GB.

Let's be honest: 7950 crossfire is going to run out of GPU a long, long time before it can get close to utilising even 2GB never mind 3GB.

 

[Apem]

Let's be honest: 7950 crossfire is going to run out of GPU a long, long time before it can get close to utilising even 2GB never mind 3GB.

Now im really really confused about what way to go. This is getting more and more confusing to me and im totaly stumped.

So what im getting from what you said and what ive been asking you think a 670 4gb single card will last and perform better than xfire 7950's for a couple of years + on a dell 27"?

 

[andybird123]

You actually said the kfa2 card has more headroom earlier in the thread, now you are claiming you said they have the same headroom. Never mind let's move on.

Don't pay too much attention to reviews at stock speeds, the 7950's performance is transformed with a 50%+ over clock on the core, as it would on any card. At that speed its performance is very close to an overclocked 670, so crossfired it closer to driving 3gb than 670 sli is to driving 4gb but i get your point.

Txaa has already been removed from the secret world but let's hope they get it sorted, supposedly a patch coming out to enable it. Let's not make baseless claims about it though, you sound like you are just spinning nvidias PR.

I only said that it had more based on the figures that other people had quoted for claiming the opposite

111 is more than 100 : how is that statement not true? Unless I managed to get a GCSE in maths without being able to count to over 100

it's all largely moot as my actual recommendation for buying a card would either be a standard EVGA 670 2GB with a view to watercooling, or a windforce if you plan to stick on air

the reviews I could find on the twin frozr showed it's results overclocked to 1200 and it still didn't beat a stock 680 which is the same or slightly below the figures I get with an overclocked 670 (even with only a 10% OC)

as I said, I personally wouldn't buy a 7950, I'd go for a 7970 instead as it does OC further and play harder at the top end - I'm not flat out saying don't buy an AMD card, I'm also saying don't neccessarily be afraid of a 2GB card as I don't think (based on my own 2560 results and every review I can find) that 2GB will be a limit at that resolution before GPU power will be

I googled TXAA games and the first link that came up was an article written yesterday that said TXAA is being released in Secret World on the 13th of this month... ?

 

[Rusty0611]

Now im really really confused about what way to go. This is getting more and more confusing to me and im totaly stumped.

So what im getting from what you said and what ive been asking you think a 670 4gb single card will last and perform better than xfire 7950's for a couple of years + on a dell 27"?

No. 7950 crossfire is far faster.

What I was saying is that crossfire 7950's won't be able to utilise all their VRAM as it won't have enough GPU power to do so.

A 4GB 670/680 is not worth it unless:

a) you're planning on going tri-SLI
b) you're planning on going multi-monitor
c) you game a huge amount on modded versions of games which increases VRAM usage considerably

The reason a 4GB 670/680 is not worth it is because it does not have enough GPU power to run the settings to which would require greater than 2GB of VRAM hence the recommendation that it should be considered only if going tri-SLI (as you'll have a large amount of GPU power with 3 670's).

Hope that's cleared your mind .

 

[Apem]

Well I wont be going multi monitor but want the headroom for any games with lots of mods for the next couple of years +

 

[Rusty0611]

Well that's only a decision you can make really.

Are the games which you play, or plan to play, worth the extra whatever it is for 2GB more of VRAM?

 

[Gibbo]

Hi there

I shall give my oppinion. 4GB over 2GB first of all, not really required, you will be hard pushed to see any performance difference unless your on a 27" or 30" IPS or running a surround vision setup.

To answer about KFA2, well if I was buying a 670 it would have to be a KFA2, Gigabyte or EVGA FTW, simply because they all use better quality components, mainly GTX 680 components and far higher quality coolers that are quieter than the cheap nasty stock affair.

As to the card in question, yes its a superb card, if you want the 4GB go for it as out of ther 670's its probably the best 4GB card for sure and is very quick out of the box due to KFA2 have not only great out of the box boost speeds but they also have great OC headroom.

 

[tommybhoy]

What I was saying is that crossfire 7950's won't be able to utilise all their VRAM as it won't have enough GPU power to do so.

Two 7950's(especially overclocked)@1440p will have enough grunt to utilise the extra vram if needed, whether it's now or 18 months down the line, considering the op's planning on keeping the gpu's a few years.

Next gen consoles I imagine will be out this time next year or very close, meaning PC titles will get much more demanding.

It's getting close right now@1080p on 2Gb without any mods on some titles, whether it's storing textures in the buffer or not, it's doing it for a reason- to keep frame times down as low as possible for better performance/visual quality.

 

[Apem]

Thats why ive asked about going xfire with 7950's as it would only cost £140 more than the 670 4gb card. Which would give from what ive read in this thread least chance of running out of vram say over a single 2gb card but keep the gpu power there for fps in game. But I would still prefer a single card option to keep heat and noise down in my case but that doesnt seem like a option from what ive read. As a single card would run out of gpu power so loose fps before it would run out vram (with the single 4gb card), and with the 2gb card I would run out of vram before gpu power if playing games with lots of addons. (Taking into account its to last 2+ years and run on 2560x1440)

Really hope that makes sense as this is all getting very confusing.

 

[Rusty0611]

Two 7950's(especially overclocked)@1440p will have enough grunt to utilise the extra vram if needed, whether it's now or 18 months down the line.

They won't. I can't run 5760*1080 (~50% more pixels) at max settings and get decent framerates in BF3. And according to the 3DMark11 thread I've got the best graphics cards on here .

Granted 'decent framerates' is a subjective thing but GPU power is still the limiting factor right the way to the top end of cards in this series.

 

[Apem]

Hi there

I shall give my oppinion. 4GB over 2GB first of all, not really required, you will be hard pushed to see any performance difference unless your on a 27" or 30" IPS or running a surround vision setup.

To answer about KFA2, well if I was buying a 670 it would have to be a KFA2, Gigabyte or EVGA FTW, simply because they all use better quality components, mainly GTX 680 components and far higher quality coolers that are quieter than the cheap nasty stock affair.

As to the card in question, yes its a superb card, if you want the 4GB go for it as out of ther 670's its probably the best 4GB card for sure and is very quick out of the box due to KFA2 have not only great out of the box boost speeds but they also have great OC headroom.

I will be using a Dell 27" Gibbo thanks for giving your input.

 

[Rusty0611]

@Apem: Go for a single 7970 or 7950 mate. It'll keep you going for ages and has the best of both worlds. Roughly same level of GPU power as a 670/680 when overclocked respectively and it takes the VRAM question completely out the question.

Then when it starts to struggle add another in a years time or so. Sorted .

 

[andybird123]

I don't think you are going to get what you want with 1 or 2 of any of the graphics cards currently available

no 2 cards (be it 7950 or 670) are going to last for 2+ years at high resolution, I would say that 2x 7950/670 are borderline for maximum settings even now, in 2 years, no chance, regardless of 2, 3 or 4GB of VRAM, they just don't have the GPU grunt

 

[tommybhoy]

There's more titles out there just now, never mind to come rather than just BF3, anyway, the op can decide Rusty coz we ain't agreeing on this one so there's no point in the long posts again.

 

[OptimaLnrg]

And according to the 3DMark11 thread I've got the best graphics cards on here .

Challenge accepted

 

[Apem]

This is what someone said about their 4gb card (yes its the 680 one but still applys)

"Got the card today after pre-ordering. Card came down in price by £10 same day it came into stock - complained and got the refund for the £10. As for the card it's great as you'd expect. Previously I had 2 MSI Twin Frozr III 570s in SLI which were scoring 11000 in 3DMark11 with an i7-2700k OC 4.6GHz. However with only 1280Mb VRAM and a 27" screen at 2560x1440 I was struggling. BF3 with everything at ultra and AA/AF turned off was playable but stuttered heavily once AA/AF was added.

This new card scores 10489 in 3DMark11 but everything is totally smooth with AA/AF turned right up. Total VRAM usage is around 1900-2000Mb i.e right on the limit of a 2Gb card. Wouldn't surprise me if that's deliberate on Nvidia's part to ensure that you need to upgrade in 18 months even though the GPU is fine. Feel happy that I shouldn't hit any more brick walls memory-wise for a while."

 

[Rusty0611]

There's more titles out there just now, never mind to come rather than just BF3, anyway, the op can decide Rusty coz we ain't agreeing on this one so there's no point in the long posts again.

True but BF3 is a good example as it uses a lot of GPU power and VRAM.

Challenge accepted

Ha ha. Go for it mate. The crown is ready to be taken. My 680's aren't what I'd call amazing - they're just 'very good'. They just happen to be the fastest so far in the 3DMark11 thread .

 

[J.D]

This is what someone said about their 4gb card (yes its the 680 one but still applys)

"Got the card today after pre-ordering. Card came down in price by £10 same day it came into stock - complained and got the refund for the £10. As for the card it's great as you'd expect. Previously I had 2 MSI Twin Frozr III 570s in SLI which were scoring 11000 in 3DMark11 with an i7-2700k OC 4.6GHz. However with only 1280Mb VRAM and a 27" screen at 2560x1440 I was struggling. BF3 with everything at ultra and AA/AF turned off was playable but stuttered heavily once AA/AF was added.

This new card scores 10489 in 3DMark11 but everything is totally smooth with AA/AF turned right up. Total VRAM usage is around 1900-2000Mb i.e right on the limit of a 2Gb card. Wouldn't surprise me if that's deliberate on Nvidia's part to ensure that you need to upgrade in 18 months even though the GPU is fine. Feel happy that I shouldn't hit any more brick walls memory-wise for a while."

You could order the 670 2gb and If you don't like it send it back to get the 670 4GB. I don't think the 680 2GB/4GB is going to give you the value you're paying compared to the 2/4GB 670s.

If you don't want to mess around then there's only 4 left of these 4gb cards in TODAY ONLY. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-031-KF

Only £359.99 which is pretty good as the best 2GB 670s (IMO) are the KFA2 EX OC @ £329.99, EVGA FTW £339.95 and the Gigabyte Windforce x3 @ £349.99. So my advice would be to grab the 4GB while you can.

(2GB cards on OCUK as listed above in order http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-018-KF&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2294 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-195-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2294 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-095-GI&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2294)