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Graphics card decision £200-£250

Richeh

Richeh

Richeh

Soldato
Joined
24 Jul 2003
Posts
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South East Coast
Hello,
I posted a thread a few days ago here http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18537688

Generally asking for BF4 should I add another 7850 or get a single 7950. I decided on the single and as you can see in that thread I was quite clear about not wanting to put much time into OC.

However, as the 7950 is currently on pre-order I decided to have a look at a few benchmarks and for the same price as the 7950 +/- £10 I could get a 670 which according to 80% of benchmarks i'm reading seems to beat the 7950 quite cleanly in most benchmarks. To this point I wouldn't mind spending a bit more on a single card (I can't see myself ever crossfiring/sli as I don't play enough games) to just get the graphics out of the way for a few years. I am planning on playing Rome 2 as well as BF4 so want the best I can get now.

Budget I would say is £200-250 which leaves me with:

HIS 7950 Boost 3GB
Any (Asus 4GB?) 670 2-4GB
GTX680? These are still about £250 but are due to come down soon?

Any others I should consider and also I think I am clearly missing something as people recommended a 7950 over a 670 despite benchmarks so could someone explain why 7950 over 670 for less than £10 difference?

Cheers.
 
Most benchmarks showing GTX 670 vs AMD 7950 are using AMD's older driver, they brought new drivers out and performance now exceeds the GTX 670 in most games. Overclocking also favours the AMD 7950 too and can push it past GTX 680 levels quite easily.

The HiS 7950 Boost is currently the best card for around £200, but I think you can get a MSI 7970 Twin Frozr III for £260, or at least you could last week when I was looking! Anyway, HiS 7950 Boost has an excellent cooler, and is great for £190! Bought one myself! ;)
 
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SouthEastBlue said:
Most benchmarks showing GTX 670 vs AMD 7950 are using AMD's older driver, they brought new drivers out and performance now exceeds the GTX 670 in most games.
Click to expand...

Citation needed..... Almost every review i have read shows them trading blows pretty equally between games.
 
Yeah - benchmarks normally use the reference 7950 (low clocks, ancient drivers) compared to the 670. The 7950 boost and 670 on current drivers are close, but the 7950 tends to come out a bit ahead overclocked. With the extra memory spec too it's the better buy in my view.
 
This is fairly well known on enthusiest forums, not much between the 7950/670, so it comes down to price/bundles/actual needs. The bigger memory bus and vram of the 7950 swung it for me. Its also well known the 4Gb 670 is a waste if not for multiple screens, hasn't got the grunt to properly use much more than 2Gb. :)
 
Not seen that review no, only reviews from the 7950's themselves when I was looking at them specifically which nearly always had the 7950 behind but were clearly on older 2012 drivers, main reason I didn't buy a GTX 670 for similar price was the 2GB ram limitation, and smaller memory bus width which could be a problem with 'next gen' titles like BF4.

I just had a look for 2013 reviews of 7950s, and this one is ahead of the GTX 670 in every game apart from Crysis 3 and Lost Planet 2. The card in the review is the newer version of the His card on sale at the moment (has a different cooler).

There isn't much difference in stock performance by the looks of it, but it's really the overclocking of the 7950 that people generally recommend it for.
 
At stock the 670 and 7950 Boost will vary depending on the game. BF3 favours nvidia so is naturally ahead on the 670, likewise Serious Sam for AMD.

The 7950 boost though easily overclocks to stock 7970 GHz Edition performance - when both cards are overclocked the 7950 comes out ahead (it becomes more like a 680 vs 7970 GE at stock).
 
Also to note that Battlefield 4 is mentioned in the OP, and that is an AMD title is it not? So would expect to see 7950 beating the GTX 670 in that title too. There were some leaked VRAM usage graphs somewhere from the Alpha, which had a 7970 and GTX 780 I think both using more than 2GB of VRAM, which means that 1GB extra on the 7950 could possibly make a difference.
 
SouthEastBlue said:
Not seen that review no, only reviews from the 7950's themselves when I was looking at them specifically which nearly always had the 7950 behind but were clearly on older 2012 drivers, main reason I didn't buy a GTX 670 for similar price was the 2GB ram limitation, and smaller memory bus width which could be a problem with 'next gen' titles like BF4.

I just had a look for 2013 reviews of 7950s, and this one is ahead of the GTX 670 in every game apart from Crysis 3 and Lost Planet 2. The card in the review is the newer version of the His card on sale at the moment (has a different cooler).

There isn't much difference in stock performance by the looks of it, but it's really the overclocking of the 7950 that people generally recommend it for.
Click to expand...

So you passed judgment on a review of an overclocked 7950 vs a stock 670. How is that fair :confused:

I have done extensive reading of reviews for 670's vs 7950's as i was in the market for one or the other recently.

It was clear that both are pretty evenly matched and trade blows depending on the game. I chose the 670's in the end as they performed better in the games i actually play more ( and interestingly those using more modern engines..), and were better on power consumption ( and heat in some cases)
 
teppic said:
At stock the 670 and 7950 Boost will vary depending on the game. BF3 favours nvidia so is naturally ahead on the 670, likewise Serious Sam for AMD.

The 7950 boost though easily overclocks to stock 7970 GHz Edition performance - when both cards are overclocked the 7950 comes out ahead (it becomes more like a 680 vs 7970 GE at stock).
Click to expand...

But overclocking is a lottery. You might be lucky and get a 670 that boosts to 1300mhz taking it beyond 680/7970GE performance. You might however get a 7950 that sucks at overclocking.
 
SouthEastBlue said:
Also to note that Battlefield 4 is mentioned in the OP, and that is an AMD title is it not? So would expect to see 7950 beating the GTX 670 in that title too. There were some leaked VRAM usage graphs somewhere from the Alpha, which had a 7970 and GTX 780 I think both using more than 2GB of VRAM, which means that 1GB extra on the 7950 could possibly make a difference.
Click to expand...

The extra VRAM will make a difference in BF4 - if nothing else, it will allow for caching which will help to avoid any stutter at highest settings. It could have more of an impact, we'll have to wait and see.
 
Jono8 said:
But overclocking is a lottery. You might be lucky and get a 670 that boosts to 1300mhz taking it beyond 680/7970GE performance. You might however get a 7950 that sucks at overclocking.
Click to expand...

I've got a 670 at 1293MHz and it doesn't perform as well as a stock 7970 GE. The 7950s pretty much all overclock to 7970 GE levels, but higher than that depends on luck or quality of the cooler.
 
teppic said:
I've got a 670 at 1293MHz and it doesn't perform as well as a stock 7970 GE. The 7950s pretty much all overclock to 7970 GE levels, but higher than that depends on luck or quality of the cooler.
Click to expand...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6025/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-catching-up-to-gtx-680/13

In half those games a stock 670 matches or beats a 7970GHZ Edition. The 680 is even faster in over half the games. I would imagine a 670 boosting to 1300mhz will run quicker than a stock 680, so......

I am not saying either is better. They both have their pluses and minuses. Where some people get this idea that the 7970's and 7950's are faster is beyond me though. I have read many, many reviews and i haven't read one that unanimously shows the 79XX series being faster than the 6XX series...
 
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For me it if i was looking at buying today, i'd get a 7950 and overclock it;)
Both are pretty close but the bigger memory bus and extra vram sway it in the 7950's direction, for me at least.
 
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