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Gigabyte 7970 or EVGA GTX 670 FTW

boobaca

boobaca

boobaca

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Joined
25 Nov 2011
Posts
209
Location
Liverpool
i know the 7970 is good , but if i pick one it would have to be a £320 maximum but i heard the 670 FTW is near a 680 or something and its around £310-15 , can anyone recommend a 7970 and would a OCZ ZS Series 650w power it all , Full build below.

CPU: i5 3570k
GPU: Undecided
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77X D3H
HDD's: OCZ 120gb SSD , 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3
Cooler: Corsair h60
Memory: 16gb Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz 1.5v
Fans: 2x 200mm Fans , 2x 120mm
 
If you don't mind a reference fan then this is a good card and then tend to clock pretty well as well. 1150-1250 Core. Plus its on offer atm only £299, absolute bargain.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-155-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938


This card has a better cooler, but it might be voltage locked. Ask ocuk first.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-311-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

This card is definitely voltage locked, but has a really good cooler. Quiet and efficient.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-097-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

That is keeping within your budget.

I'll leave the nvidia side of things to others.

If you had to choose per your title id go with the 7970 WF though, even with it being voltage locked.
 
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LtMatt said:
If you don't mind a reference fan then this is a good card and then tend to clock pretty well as well. 1150-1250 Core. Plus its on offer atm only £299, absolute bargain.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-155-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938


This card has a better cooler, but it might be voltage locked. Ask ocuk first.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-311-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

This card is definitely voltage locked, but has a really good cooler. Quiet and efficient.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-097-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

That is keeping within your budget.

I'll leave the nvidia side of things to others.

If you had to choose per your title id go with the 7970 WF though, even with it being voltage locked.
Click to expand...

Is the voltage lock just for overclocking and stuff or ? and also do the fans on the refrence cards just mean they have more noise.
 
7970 is faster and similar ish price. No brainer IMO.

Unless you're locked to nVidia (preference/monitor/PhysX) then AMD offer better value for money at the mo.
 
Rusty0611 said:
7970 is faster and similar ish price. No brainer IMO.

Unless you're locked to nVidia (preference/monitor/PhysX) then AMD offer better value for money at the mo.
Click to expand...

Yep, ive been looking at http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/508?vs=598 , sorry if i wasnt allowed to link that , let me know and ill remove it .

I think i will go with the gigabyte 7970 aslong as i know that the power supply will be fine and the voltage lock is just for overclocking and stuff , im not going to be overclocking if thats the case so i could go for the gigabyte one.

This is my current PSU : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-056-OC
 
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boobaca said:
Is the voltage lock just for overclocking and stuff or ? and also do the fans on the refrence cards just mean they have more noise.
Click to expand...

If you dont intend to overclock the card then get the 7970 Giga WF card. It is voltage locked.
 
Would i be stupid to get the MSI one because of the looks ? :p the gigabyte one looks so bad but i think its better cooling right ?
 
boobaca said:
Would i be stupid to get the MSI one because of the looks ? :p the gigabyte one looks so bad but i think its better cooling right ?
Click to expand...

Its up to you, the gigabit has the best cooling of the three cards i posted but its voltage locked.

I know the MSI is unlocked as i and several others have bought one and they tend to clock pretty well from reports ive seen.

However its a reference cooler so it will be the nosiest of the three cards posted. The fan is quiet up to around 60% (which is enough for a good overclock) after that its hoover time.
 
LtMatt said:
Its up to you, the gigabit has the best cooling of the three cards i posted but its voltage locked.

I know the MSI is unlocked as i and several others have bought one and they tend to clock pretty well from reports ive seen.

However its a reference cooler so it will be the nosiest of the three cards posted. The fan is quiet up to around 60% (which is enough for a good overclock) after that its hoover time.
Click to expand...

Im not too worried about noise to be honest , at the min i have my
EVGA GTX 560ti 448core at 4500 rpm and it sounds like its going to take off :p , also would it needed to be overclocked to perform well in games such as wow , bo2 , bf3 etc ? my plan was to stay away from overclocking the graphics card as i have no experience doing it and just stick with overclocking the cpu.
 
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Ok so turns out the 7970 is voltage locked. If you're looking to save pennies the best bet would be to buy the gigabyte 7950 OC and just clock that bad boy up to 1200 core and laugh.
 
boobaca said:
Im not too worried about noise to be honest , at the min i have my
EVGA GTX 560ti 448core at 4500 rpm and it sounds like its going to take off :p , also would it needed to be overclocked to perform well in games such as wow , bo2 , bf3 etc ? my plan was to stay away from overclocking the graphics card as i have no experience doing it and just stick with overclocking the cpu.
Click to expand...

It will perform well at stock but to get the best performance you'll be wanting to overclock.

You can overclock with the 7970 WF but because of the voltage lock you won't be able to clock as far. You need to decide if you think its worth it or not.
 
LtMatt said:
It will perform well at stock but to get the best performance you'll be wanting to overclock.

You can overclock with the 7970 WF but because of the voltage lock you won't be able to clock as far. You need to decide if you think its worth it or not.
Click to expand...

Yer i think ill just go with the 7970 , aslong as my 650w PSU is big enough ? , ill just overclock it a tad i mainly play wow and i think the 7970 will destroy wow even at stock speeds. If i get into bf3 i can bump it up :)
 
I've owned both the MSI 7970 reference design and the Gigabyte 7970. The new Gigabytes are hard voltage locked. I've read dozens of accounts of people trying to unlock and no amount of flashing or tweaking has been unable to unlock voltage control on these cards. Apparently it's a hardware limitation with the VRMs.

Also, the MSI card looks worse in pictures than in the flesh.
 
NinetyOne said:
the best bet would be to buy the gigabyte 7950 OC and just clock that bad boy up to 1200 core and laugh.
Click to expand...

Or cry when it doesn't hit 1200Mhz.:(



I have played about with 2 7970's and 2 7950's and only the MSI OC could get to 1200MHz with a lot of tweaking.

Both 7950's were struggling to go past 1100Mhz with voltage.

1050-1100Mhz is a more likely clock on stock voltage.
 
kissenger said:
I've read dozens of accounts of people trying to unlock and no amount of flashing or tweaking has been unable to unlock voltage control on these cards. Apparently it's a hardware limitation with the VRMs.
Click to expand...

There is an unofficial Asus gpu Tweak that unlocks my 7950DD voltage in W7, but it doesn't unlock in W8.:(
 
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