GTX670 or HD7950 ?

Aryube · 6 Oct 2012 at 22:53

hi, i noticed these two cards are similar in price so which is better? And would this PSU http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-014-PP suffice?

OR if you could suggest another card (£299 budget) that would be greatly appreciated as usual, cheers!

arc@css · 6 Oct 2012 at 23:15

At stock, the 670 is faster. However, if you get a 7950 that's a decent overclocker, it can then reduce the difference between them significantly.

I would imagine the cheapest 670 (KFA2) would be somewhat noisier at load than the dearest 7950, so I would say it does sometimes pay to go for a card with a recommended cooler. However, as I'm sure you'll appreciate, noise is subjective, and personally I doubt the aforementioned 670 would be that bad in that regard.

Aryube · 6 Oct 2012 at 23:37

MSI Twin Frozr V2/OC HD7950
Cores: 1792
Memory: 3GB
Bit Rate: 384 Bit
Core Clock: 880 MHz
Mem Clock: 5000 MHz

EVGA GTX670 FTW
Cores: 1344
Memory: 2GB
Bit Rate: 256 Bit
Core Clock: 1006 MHz
Boost Clock: 1084 MHz
Mem Clock: 6208 MHz

With the GTX being £60 more expensive... hmm - now i wish i bought the msi frozr when it was on sale.

Baron C · 6 Oct 2012 at 23:41

the magic word there is 'if' you get a good clocker. ;-)

If its to play games and you don't want to mess about under the hood then get the 670 (I got the evga 670ftw and simply fired it up and forgot about it)

If you want to nerd it up and get angsty about whether your card is a good clocker then get the 7950. (also had this and well..i sent it back)

Either is great card, and apart from some software giving you higher numbers your actual real world experience is going to be imperceptible.

Cash wise the 7950 isn't bad.

Good luck with your choice.

Twirlywoos · 6 Oct 2012 at 23:41

arc@css said:
At stock, the 670 is faster. However, if you get a 7950 that's a decent overclocker, it can then reduce the difference between them significantly.

I would imagine the cheapest 670 (KFA2) would be somewhat noisier at load than the dearest 7950, so I would say it does sometimes pay to go for a card with a recommended cooler. However, as I'm sure you'll appreciate, noise is subjective, and therefore I doubt the aforementioned 670 would be that bad in that regard.

IF being the important word.

Aryube · 6 Oct 2012 at 23:47

Baron C said:
the magic word there is 'if' you get a good clocker.

If its to play games and you don't want to mess about under the hood then get the 670 (I got the evga 670ftw and simply fired it up and forgot about it)

If you want to nerd it up and get angsty about whether your card is a good clocker then get the 7950. (also had this and well..i sent it back)

Either is great card, and apart from some software giving you higher numbers your actual real world experience is going to be imperceptible.

Cash wise the 7950 isn't bad.

Good luck with your choice.

i've held back on buying the 7950 because i keep reading how good the 670 is. i'm torn, the 7950 is good value for money but is it worth the extra £60~ for a 670? I'm not very convinced but i also keep hearing that Nvidia software is better than ATI so i'm really torn. Everything points to 670 but i'm on a tight budget...

edit: oh, found a better 7950 card.. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-304-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673 i might go for it... what do you guys think?

TheRealDeal · 6 Oct 2012 at 23:50

Even at 1100 core which most 7950's will do then its faster than a stock gtx670. Theres no card in the top end gtx670/gtx680/7970 that really offers much more than a 7950 (good overclocker) for the money. Clock for clock the 7950 is only 5% slower than the 7970. Puts it in perspective against the top end cards.

arc@css · 6 Oct 2012 at 23:50

I'm no expert on psu's, but I think the one you linked should be fine. AFAIK, the brand is decent.

arc@css · 6 Oct 2012 at 23:56

Aryube said:
i've held back on buying the 7950 because i keep reading how good the 670 is. i'm torn, the 7950 is good value for money but is it worth the extra £60~ for a 670? I'm not very convinced but i also keep hearing that Nvidia software is better than ATI so i'm really torn. Everything points to 670 but i'm on a tight budget...

edit: oh, found a better 7950 card.. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-304-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673 i might go for it... what do you guys think?

Out of the ones there, that's the card I'd go for if I was buying now.

Gregster · 6 Oct 2012 at 23:57

Aryube said:
i've held back on buying the 7950 because i keep reading how good the 670 is. i'm torn, the 7950 is good value for money but is it worth the extra £60~ for a 670? I'm not very convinced but i also keep hearing that Nvidia software is better than ATI so i'm really torn. Everything points to 670 but i'm on a tight budget...

edit: oh, found a better 7950 card.. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-304-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673 i might go for it... what do you guys think?

7950 is the card to get for the price but I am sure I have heard a couple of people say that Vapor X is voltage locked...Maybe someone can confirm?

Also consider warranty and if you have something fail, sapphire are not the best by any standards.

Baron C · 6 Oct 2012 at 23:59

Aryube said:
i've held back on buying the 7950 because i keep reading how good the 670 is. i'm torn, the 7950 is so good value for money but is it worth the extra £60~~ for a 670? I'm not very convinced but i also keep hearing that Nvidia software is better than ATI so i'm really torn. Everything points to 670 but i'm on a tight budget...

not to upset anyone here but this was my experience with card buying over last few months.

7850 - installed every driver version never got it to work.
7950 - installed every driver version never got it to work. Installed win7 6times and card wouldn't work.

bought a new mobo (awesome btw) thinking that was problem, it wasn't it was the card.

Bit the bullet grabbed the 670 installed...not a hitch or a glitch.

Remember the 7850 and 7950 were returned at my expense so add £20.

personally I would say wait little longer , save the extra £60 tbh.

;-)

Geo-Gamer · 7 Oct 2012 at 00:01

I'm in the process of getting the 7950 as it is best bang for the buck, overclock it and it competes with a 670! But I'm gutted to as I've missed the offer for the msi and now it's 24 pounds higher! I was going to bag the sapphire vapor but unfortunately it is true and it is voltage locked so I am avoiding that.

If you go to the review of the vapor x on the ocuk website there is s guy thst left a review saying its voltage locked

Aryube · 7 Oct 2012 at 00:10

Geo-Gamer said:
I'm in the process of getting the 7950 as it is best bang for the buck, overclock it and it competes with a 670! But I'm gutted to as I've missed the offer for the msi and now it's 24 pounds higher! I was going to bag the sapphire vapor but unfortunately it is true and it is voltage locked so I am avoiding that.

If you go to the review of the vapor x on the ocuk website there is s guy thst left a review saying its voltage locked

ah, what a shame :/ let me know what 7950 you end up going for if you can

TheRealDeal · 7 Oct 2012 at 00:15

Baron C said:
not to upset anyone here but this was my experience with card buying over last few months.

7850 - installed every driver version never got it to work.
7950 - installed every driver version never got it to work. Installed win7 6times and card wouldn't work.

bought a new mobo (awesome btw) thinking that was problem, it wasn't it was the card.

Bit the bullet grabbed the 670 installed...not a hitch or a glitch.

Remember the 7850 and 7950 were returned at my expense so add £20.

personally I would say wait little longer , save the extra £60 tbh.

If it was 2 faulty cards then very unlucky. If the cards were fine then take a good look at yourself as the problem. As theres no way in hell you could get 2 different cards with a change of mobo and new windows and not get drivers to install.

Geo-Gamer · 7 Oct 2012 at 00:23

Aryube said:
ah, what a shame :/ let me know what 7950 you end up going for if you can

Sure but at the moment it's most likely the msi tf3. However, I've been reading that the sapphire oc (non vapor -x) which is £251 is the same cooler as the vapor x but without the 950mhz boost and no voltage lock. People are getting good overclocks with it.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-305-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673

It looks like its the same as the vapor x but with out the 950 MHz boost and no voltage lock. So you could possibly oc it higher than the vapors 950 MHz boost as there is no voltage lock.

tommybhoy · 7 Oct 2012 at 01:03

Not to upset anyone here but this was my experience with card buying over last few months.

Bought a Gigabyte WF 7970@£325 - installed whatever driver was out at the time but I think it was 12.6, worked as advertised although the card died 2 nights later-Duff gpu.

Then came a His Ice-Q 7950@£240 - installed 12.8's, worked as advertised but the card while having easy on the lugs noise levels@load, it was too noisy@idle(in my very quiet rig), so it got sent back under DSR.

Bit the bullet and then bought a MSI 7970 OC@£300 -installed 12.9 Betas, worked as advertised but the card doesn't appear to be any faster than the His Ice-Q 7950 unless you pour over logs or run Heaven or similar.

Note that all of the above was used with running a 9800GT with Nvidia drivers installed too for Hybrid PhysX, without having to reinstall OS or anything other than a gpu driver.

Personally I would say, if I bought a 670, I would have been able to install the drivers for it too and it would work as advertised.

Get what one you want, they are both good cards, if you want to believe the doom and gloom that is AMD drivers, then stump up the extra...

...although I am well aware to the fact that the AMD drivers only worked properly because Nvidia drivers were also installed at the time.

dave_beast · 7 Oct 2012 at 01:50

Baron C said:
not to upset anyone here but this was my experience with card buying over last few months.

7850 - installed every driver version never got it to work.
7950 - installed every driver version never got it to work. Installed win7 6times and card wouldn't work.

bought a new mobo (awesome btw) thinking that was problem, it wasn't it was the card.

Bit the bullet grabbed the 670 installed...not a hitch or a glitch.

Remember the 7850 and 7950 were returned at my expense so add £20.

personally I would say wait little longer , save the extra £60 tbh.

You should have given me a shout mate, I would have come over and got it working first time

arc@css · 7 Oct 2012 at 01:59

Geo-Gamer said:
Sure but at the moment it's most likely the msi tf3. However, I've been reading that the sapphire oc (non vapor -x) which is £251 is the same cooler as the vapor x but without the 950mhz boost and no voltage lock. People are getting good overclocks with it.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-305-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673

It looks like its the same as the vapor x but with out the 950 MHz boost and no voltage lock. So you could possibly oc it higher than the vapors 950 MHz boost as there is no voltage lock.

I finally found the review of the above card. Great cooler.

Loosecannon · 7 Oct 2012 at 07:54

Thanks for that review. I was put off the msi card by the fan noise which seemed VERY lound in the reviews. That review makes the sapphire sound almost silent. I think I may have found my new card!

Although the Toms hardware review makes the asus version MUCH quieter and is silent! But Overclockers dont have that card!

MAK360 · 7 Oct 2012 at 09:51

TheRealDeal said:
If it was 2 faulty cards then very unlucky. If the cards were fine then take a good look at yourself as the problem. As theres no way in hell you could get 2 different cards with a change of mobo and new windows and not get drivers to install.

+1 (I smell fairy tales)