480 SLI or 7970..

jinxpad

jinxpad

jinxpad

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So I've come to a crossroad...

I've just picked up a second 480 very cheap from the MM, am about to add it to my WC loop, but I just found out that a friend of mine is selling up his rig :(

I told him that I might be interested in taking his 7970 from him, but I haven't used an AMD card since my trust X800 Pro. I've had no problems with my nVidia cards, and I'm kinda looking towards the future and possibly upgrading maybe around spring time next year when the Maxwell series may be looming.

I was wondering what opinions you guys might have, should I stick with my 480's? Or should I grab the 7970 from my mate and sell off the 480's?

Games currently playing:

Guild Wars 2
Battlefield 3
Crysis 3
Tomb Raider

Appreciate the opinions :)


Edit: Dammit, I thought I was in the Graphics card forum, could a Mod kindly move this topic there please?
 
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Depends what it's going to cost you in the end, £50 or below I would say it's worth it, more than that you may as well stick it out till later in the year, is the 7970 watercooled? if not do you want to pay out on watercooling it?
 
Radeon 7970 for sure, less power consumption, noise etc just less hassle to have a single card :)

Also I would rather have a current gen card :p
 
dacads said:
Radeon 7970 for sure, less power consumption, noise etc just less hassle to have a single card :)

Also I would rather have a current gen card :p
Click to expand...

Well he's is water cooling the 480's, so noise won't be an issue, less power? hhmmm, it's all lies:D but it's hardly a deal breaker, current gen cards are good, but only if you have a real purpose for the power of them surely, I just can't see it on a single monitor at 1080p being worth the outlay when a 1 480 will handle it fine and 2 will blow any single new gen card out the water:D
 
I don't see the reason going for two old cards when you can be happier with one single card that uses newer tech etc

FYI 480 sli won't blow any single card out the water especially not the Radeon 7970 after it is OCed ;)

All lies? I think that wasn't a serious statement :p

Also I think it's better coming from me rather than someone who is biased due to owning either of the options ;)
 
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Well I think it's better coming from me, 480 sli, blows a 7970 away as I have used 480 sli and I know a guy using a 7970 and I beast his card in BF3:D

The older cards are cheaper, and so close to next gen cards now, he may as well wait.
 
Thanks for the opinions, as it stands I would be looking to cool the 7970 if I got it. I'm not sure how much my mate would be looking for for his card but I'll hopefully get decent mates rates :D

I am a TAD concerned about temperatures in adding the 2nd 480 into my loop, and will probably get an additional 120 to put in the lower section of my case.
 
I can tell you, 2x 480 really kick out the heat, I had mine on a separate loop in the end as when it they was in the same loop as my cpu the temps on the cpu was at 10-15c higher than when I separated the loop.

I ended up running 2x 480 on a EK xt480mm radiator with 4 bitfenix fans at about 900rpm on there own and they maxed around 66C at full load in BF3, still it was very quiet:)
 
ughh that puts a dapener on things, I currently have a 360GTX + an EK140 installed, fans run at about 1600RPM currently, 1850 during summer which is perfectly fine for me, but 10-15oC to my CPU temp would not be good...
 
I was surprised by it myself as 1x480 in my loop had no effect on the cpu, as soon as the second went in it went up 10-15c, my total rads was the 480 ek xt and a 240 ek xt (which I thought could easily handle it), ended up like I said, separated.

With just the 240 ek xt on the cpu, temps returned back to what I had on the cpu with 1x480.
 
Now I'm leaning towards the 7970, as I really don't like the idea of resetting my loop, especially just to add toward something I'll likely replace next year, my 920 I'm assuming probably runs hotter than your 3770 anyway, and I really couldn't afford that extra 15oC bump... hmmmm decisions decisions...
 
As has already been stated, the additional heat of the added 480 will have implications on the rest of your loop.

So based on this my suggestion would be to get the 7970 to keep the loop simple and cooler!
 
No problems here with 2 OC'ed 480's and a 2700k @ 4.8Ghz in the same loop. I am using 3 radiators though - XSPC EX360, EX240 & EX120.

I haven't seen the top card go beyond 52c, the bottom 1-2c less.

Hasn't held my CPU OC back any.
 
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Not sure if it's still the case, but last time I tried Guild Wars 2 didn't work with SLI. i got better FPS using just a single card.
So if you were hoping for an improvement in GW2 then a 7970 may be the way to go.
 
I run gtx480 sli and i havent seen temps go beyond 50-55, gaming, benching or torture benching. My loop bits are in the sig, order is RES/Pump>CPU>GPU1+2>rad>rad. Both Rads are 60mm Phobya G-Changer 280.

I was expecting higher temps, but, nope, didnt happen. Also, looks like i'm fine running rads passively if idling or low loading. Didnt go beyond 60c and dead silent, because no fans are spinning. Solid state, so to speak (except some external HDDs making more noise than computer itself...)...

#Edit# Erm...need to change my sig to reflect my WC setup i guess... Bits are as follows: EK X-Res140 res-top for D5 vario, XSPC raystorm, Watercool X3 vga full cover blocks, 2x Phobya 280mm x 60mm rads, EK compression fittings, XSPC clear hoses. There... Ah, and Silverstone AP141 fans.
 
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How can I tell if an EK nickel block is an EN version?

I was given an FC480 Nickel/Acetal block for free by a generous member of the OCUK MM, but they're not sure if it's EN or not, and I'm sure we all know the fiasco with the bunch of Nickel blocks which were first released. So I took the block apart and took some pics, I'm not even sure it's been used at all, so I thought I'd get your opinions :)

http://i.imgur.com/n5FlkIrl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/dVLJIeFl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/UM68kPol.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0uZTVPBl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Z0CYgasl.jpg
 
breadturbo said:
I went from 2x 480 sli to a single 7970 @1200, the difference was easily noticeable.

Do eet :P
Click to expand...

So did I.......I get lower framerates on anything upto 1600mb vram on the 7970 but once you play skyrim or tomb raider or metro you get better frames on the 7970 at my res purely from having used more ram than the 480s even have and it buffers the ram occasionally causing stuttering. I know the game I played at the time in SLI Rift ran better on the 480s though and never went over 1500mb.
 
jinxpad said:
How can I tell if an EK nickel block is an EN version?

I was given an FC480 Nickel/Acetal block for free by a generous member of the OCUK MM, but they're not sure if it's EN or not, and I'm sure we all know the fiasco with the bunch of Nickel blocks which were first released. So I took the block apart and took some pics, I'm not even sure it's been used at all, so I thought I'd get your opinions :)

http://i.imgur.com/n5FlkIrl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/dVLJIeFl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/UM68kPol.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0uZTVPBl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Z0CYgasl.jpg
Click to expand...

Nice of the guy to give it to you for free :)

It looks like the pre EN block. I have the same, I bought it used and noticed similar tarnishing when I removed the top.

EK support quoted £60 + shipping for a replacement EN base.

I'll be sticking with the used one me thinks..
 
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