Some do some don't, like all Maxwell cards as long as they are running with in certain parameters the efficiency of them is good. really good, if they ain't operating in that zone (which can be true of even factory overclocked Maxwell cards) the power consumption goes up a lot, not just a bit, a lot and they end up supping just about as much power as a 290/X.
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Best upgrade from a 7950
- Thread starter WilliamC
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Some do some don't, like all Maxwell cards as long as they are running with in certain parameters the efficiency of them is good. really good, if they ain't operating in that zone (which can be true of even factory overclocked Maxwell cards) the power consumption goes up a lot, not just a bit, a lot and they end up supping just about as much power as a 290/X.
Yeah i noticed this with my 7950s, i found it was way more efficient to run 2 under clocked cards rather than one overclocked. I could get my system using 100 less watts, and producing 10-20% more FPS using 2 cards. The efficiency just seems to go out of hte window when you start overclocking.
Yes, there is a certain point with GPU's and CPU's where they will run with really good efficiency, if thats what one wanted to do one could do it without too much performance loss, its just about finding the right settings., just by reducing the volts to run a core clock of about 60 to 100Mhz less you could shave 80 Watts off the GPU (not an accurate description, it varies a lot)
Soldato
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my power draw with my 970 @ 1450/2000 is within a few watts of my 7950 at 1100/1250. I cant push it any further - really having a hard time seeing how it could come anywhere close to the draw of a similarly overclocked 290x. sure if im running compute it's a different story but in gaming the draw is miles off a 290x.
Thats quite high, i think thats higher than mine at 1450/1900 and don't forget Hawaii (GCN 1.1) is more power efficient than Tahiti (GCN 1.0)
I`ve been thinking about upgrading my 7950, but @ 1100/1500 it still performs well enough @ 1080.
A GTX970 would be an improvement, but it's not a big enough improvement to make me want to shell out £250+ at this point. A GTX980ti would be a big enough improvement, but £500+ is a lot of money to spend when there's a new generation of GPUs within 12 months or so (supposedly a big step up in performance from what we have now).
I'm going to try to wait. Yes, could keep waiting forever for something better to come along, but the 7950 still does a decent job.
A GTX970 would be an improvement, but it's not a big enough improvement to make me want to shell out £250+ at this point. A GTX980ti would be a big enough improvement, but £500+ is a lot of money to spend when there's a new generation of GPUs within 12 months or so (supposedly a big step up in performance from what we have now).
I'm going to try to wait. Yes, could keep waiting forever for something better to come along, but the 7950 still does a decent job.
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Soldato
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Not really, no. take anand's comparison as an average; a stock 290x will draw about 40w more than a 7970 ghz. my 7950 would have drawn no more than a 7970ghz, probably about the same. my 970 draws about the same as my 7950 both overclocked.
My entire pc pulls 300w from the wall. There are people here with 290xs pulling 300w + per card - power draw is mentally high on hawaii when pushed.
Getting a second 7950 or a 980 probably won't work because although yes I'm upgrading I'm also upgrading my cpu and motherboard and I have a spare case and Psu so I'm buying a new build for uni basically and keeping my 7950
Build for when I come home or whatever so I don't have to lug a huge pc up and down England on trains etc.
Build for when I come home or whatever so I don't have to lug a huge pc up and down England on trains etc.
I reckon 1-2 years is how long the 970 will last. 4 years is being optimistic. With games like GTA V and Shadow of Mordor already using more than 4GB when using Ultra settings a lot of the cards with less than 4GB will start to struggle when more DX12 games come out.
As an example, my current 7950 crossfire setup is as fast or faster than a 980 yet I still find games where the cards can stutter when textures are loaded. I can't even thing of running SoM with HD textures since I don't have 6GB VRAM. The 970 has 3.5GB or fast VRAM and 0.5Gb of slower memory which is only 0.5GB more than a 7950.
The lower memory coupled with Nvidia's slack support for older cards when new cards are released, you will be lucky to get 2 years out of the 970.
Soldato
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well it's already been out for a year so we'll see how long it lasts.
