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** SINGLE GTX 580 3GB VS SINGLE 7970 3GB REVIEW BY OcUK **

Gibbo

Gibbo

Gibbo

OcUK Staff
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
38,500
Location
OcUK HQ
Hi there


Right due to having such a busy day I've only just finished testing both single card setups at their maximum possible overclocks.

System Specification
Intel 8 Core Xeon (16 threads)
Asus P9X79 Pro X79 Mainboard
16GB Corsair Dominator GT 2133MHz
NVIDIA Palit GTX 580 3GB Twin Fan (Latest Official Drivers) (OC: 902MHz Core / 4355MHz RAM / 1.1v - Very minor and rare corruptions due to memory, fans at 100% and getting hot)
ATI MSI 7970 3GB (Supplied Drivers) (OC: 1125MHz / 6300MHz / Stock voltage - Zero corruptions and at OverDrive limitation, I reckon these cards are good for 1200-1250MHz core and 6500MHz RAM, which will give a further good boost)
NVIDIA Fans set too 100% during testing - Quite Audible
ATI Fan set to 66% during testing - Same loudness as NVIDIA at 100%
Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit


To start the ball rolling, here is the Heaven 2.5 Benchmarks:-


Heaven 2.5 @ 1920x1080 & 2560x1600 with 4x and 4x enabled for testing

heaven580oc1920.jpg


heaven580oc2560.jpg


heaven7970oc1920.jpg


heaven7970oc2560.jpg



ATI 7970 OC is 25% faster than GTX 580 3GB OC at 1920x1080 resolution on average FPS.

ATI 7970 OC is 30% faster than GTX 580 3GB OC at 2560x1600 resolution on average FPS.



3D Mark 11

3dm11580oc.jpg


3dm117970oc.jpg



ATI 7970 OC is 20% faster than GTX 580 3GB OC at Graphics Score on Default Extreme 3D Mark 11 settings.



3M Mark Vantage

3dmvantage580oc.jpg


3dmvantage7970oc.jpg



ATI 7970 OC is 17% faster than GTX 580 3GB OC at overall score on 3D Mark Vantage default test.



Quake 3 Timedemo 001 FPS Test - 2560x1600 resolution, High Res texture pack

GTX 580 3GB OC = 784fps
ATI 7970 3GB OC = 885fps

ATI is 13% faster than NVIDIA is this old yet classic game.



Maximum Temperatures underload/gaming

ATI = 57c (66% Fan ATI)
NVIDIA = 82c (100% Fans NVIDIA)



I was unable to do any further BF3 testing as RJK owns the game he is off ill, I've tried creating an Origin account but can't get anywhere with it. I shall re-attempt again in the new year. :)

What this test shows is ATI is a clear winner, they shall be very similar price to each other and ATI may become a little cheaper a few weeks after launch.

What I did notice is the colours in games seemed more vivid on the ATI cards which to my eyes was more pleasing, I felt the ATI card gave a visually better gaming experience.

I also believe the ATI card has a further good 5-10% more to give yet due to extra headroom in overclocking, as the card hits Overdrive maximums easily on stock voltage. Wheras the NVIDIA card was on the edge of stability, If ATI can reach 1250MHz core and 6500MHz you can add close to an additional 5-10% to these scores further extending ATI's lead.

I've not had time to do stock benchmarks, but both cards were overclocked, with NVIDIA as far as it could go and ATI as high as the Overdrive would allow me.

The ATI cards also have superb scaling in Crossfire and in the few games we tested the Crossfire stutters, flickers of the past seemed to be completely gone, even in Tri-Fire.

Overall its a great card, however if your already on a GTX 580 its not a worthwhile upgrade unless your sole intentions are gaming at 2560x1600 then going forward a 2GB or greater card is a must.

Right now a GTX 580 3GB is a great card and NVIDIA are known for better drivers plus you have the additions of PhysX and 3D Vision.
Yes ATI's new card is faster than NVIDIA's current fastest and will likely get faster with driver updates and as the cards can be clocked higher.

Over a 6950 or lower this is a very good upgrade as one 7970 overclocked performs within reaching distance of a pair of 6950's or a single 6990. :)

Nice one ATI, though I fear this victory will be short lived as Keplar when it comes in April/May will be very quick, though ATI will have their 7990 by then as well. :)
 
intresting what you mentioned about the ati having more vivid colour as its the reason i changed from nvidia to ati, at the time i changed from a 8800gts to 3870 xfire and thought the nvidia colours looked a bit washed out compared to ati, ive said it before here and other forums but pretty much been told im talking out my rear end, i used to go to quite a few lan partys and could tell who was using ati or nvidia just by looking at the screens
 
old gamer said:
intresting what you mentioned about the ati having more vivid colour as its the reason i changed from nvidia to ati, at the time i changed from a 8800gts to 3870 xfire and thought the nvidia colours looked a bit washed out compared to ati, ive said it before here and other forums but pretty much been told im talking out my rear end, i used to go to quite a few lan partys and could tell who was using ati or nvidia just by looking at the screens
Click to expand...

just by looking at the screens? that would assume all screens are identical.. :p

However.. ATI are more vivid out of the box. perfect for gaming and watching films etc but as much use as a chocolate fire guard for photo work.

Nvidia can be tweaked after all so "vivid colours" are a little pointless.
 
old gamer said:
intresting what you mentioned about the ati having more vivid colour as its the reason i changed from nvidia to ati, at the time i changed from a 8800gts to 3870 xfire and thought the nvidia colours looked a bit washed out compared to ati, ive said it before here and other forums but pretty much been told im talking out my rear end, i used to go to quite a few lan partys and could tell who was using ati or nvidia just by looking at the screens
Click to expand...

Nvidia have a digital vibrancy setting in the drivers which can boost saturation or lower it depending on personal taste. IQ does however vary between drivers also and the presets for games in Nvidia drivers are at quality, not high quality, which disabled a lot of the texture filtering techniques giving marginally better IQ overall.

Vastly better review this time than last time Gibbo! Atleast now we can see what the cards are actually doing in terms of performance. The overclock on the 7970 gives it a big lead over the 580gtx with over 200mhz core and nearly 2ghz vram difference lol. That'll definitely account for the difference in performance, however its appearing that the architecture itself is very similar in terms of performance, with the brute force of the clocks on the GPU and Vram setting the tahiti based cards apart now.

Interesting stuff!
 
Also gibbo, did either of the cards get cap squeel on quake 3 at those daft FPS numbers? I'd actually fear for my graphics card if it was pumping out that many FPS :| (and I own two of the palit 3gb cards lol)
 
James J said:
Nvidia have a digital vibrancy setting in the drivers which can boost saturation or lower it depending on personal taste. IQ does however vary between drivers also and the presets for games in Nvidia drivers are at quality, not high quality, which disabled a lot of the texture filtering techniques giving marginally better IQ overall.

Vastly better review this time than last time Gibbo! Atleast now we can see what the cards are actually doing in terms of performance. The overclock on the 7970 gives it a big lead over the 580gtx with over 200mhz core and nearly 2ghz vram difference lol. That'll definitely account for the difference in performance, however its appearing that the architecture itself is very similar in terms of performance, with the brute force of the clocks on the GPU and Vram setting the tahiti based cards apart now.

Interesting stuff!
Click to expand...


Yes but the overclocking is unfair still, as NVIDIA card is maxed by a limitation of the hardware and what I would deem safe running for a 24/7 gaming PC.

The NVIDIA card was at the limits on 902MHz core at 4355MHz, plus the fact I had to give it 1.1v to get there which pumped underload temperatures upto a peak of 82c meant I was not willing to try and push it harder simply because most users at home would not as more voltage would have seen the temps climb above 90c.

The ATI card was at a dis-advantage as we are clearly nowhere at its maximum overclocking potential. Its doing 1125MHz and 6300MHz memory ON STOCK VOLTAGE and peaked at 57c whilst gaming with fans set to same audible volume as the NVIDIA card. Infact you can set the ATI card to 20% fan which to me is silent and the temperatures still remain under 75c.

I really wish I could get my hands on that AMD GPU Tool some of the guys of get their hands on at Extreme so I can see what this 7970 can really clock too. :D
 
James J said:
Also gibbo, did either of the cards get cap squeel on quake 3 at those daft FPS numbers? I'd actually fear for my graphics card if it was pumping out that many FPS :| (and I own two of the palit 3gb cards lol)
Click to expand...


No squeals or sounds are power crackling from either cards at all. :)
 
old gamer said:
intresting what you mentioned about the ati having more vivid colour as its the reason i changed from nvidia to ati, at the time i changed from a 8800gts to 3870 xfire and thought the nvidia colours looked a bit washed out compared to ati, ive said it before here and other forums but pretty much been told im talking out my rear end, i used to go to quite a few lan partys and could tell who was using ati or nvidia just by looking at the screens
Click to expand...

+1

Exactly what I've witnessed today. Both cards allow you to adjust gammer, contrast, brightness, colour etc. So no doubt adjustable to match on both but out of the box for me the ATI gave a better visual experience. :)
 
not being funny but have i stepped into a comedy store by accident :D

quake 3 :confused: heaven

how about crysis 1,2
metro
bfbc2
bf3
skyrim

now that would be a benchmark test tbh ;)
 
Gibbo said:
Yes but the overclocking is unfair still, as NVIDIA card is maxed by a limitation of the hardware and what I would deem safe running for a 24/7 gaming PC.

The NVIDIA card was at the limits on 902MHz core at 4355MHz, plus the fact I had to give it 1.1v to get there which pumped underload temperatures upto a peak of 82c meant I was not willing to try and push it harder simply because most users at home would not as more voltage would have seen the temps climb above 90c.

The ATI card was at a dis-advantage as we are clearly nowhere at its maximum overclocking potential. Its doing 1125MHz and 6300MHz memory ON STOCK VOLTAGE and peaked at 57c whilst gaming with fans set to same audible volume as the NVIDIA card. Infact you can set the ATI card to 20% fan which to me is silent and the temperatures still remain under 75c.

I really wish I could get my hands on that AMD GPU Tool some of the guys of get their hands on at Extreme so I can see what this 7970 can really clock too. :D
Click to expand...

Must be quite loud though if its as loud as my palit cards at 100% when its sat at 66%? Well not loud, more annoying than anything else tbh. Having two of them in SLI isn't that much louder than 1 of them :S lol

Personally I look forward to seeing what MSI and HIS do with the cards in terms of aftermarket coolers if the temps are that low. These could be back in 5870 territory when it comes to how quiet they are if the reference cooler is changed to reflect that by 3rd part manufacturers. I also would like to see how far these cards can actually be pushed, but I'd also like to know how much overclocking one of them reflects on the power draw of the system?

Due to that, could you check the draw from the wall on stock and then again when overclocked on that 7970 please mate? Would be useful info for people looking at buying one or two cards in terms of PSU stats they need!

Gibbo said:
No squeals or sounds are power crackling from either cards at all. :)
Click to expand...

edit, forgot about this quote! :D Good to see that theres no cap squeel.
 
just found it funny 7970 is blah blah blah faster we tested it on quake 3 !

buy now ! :D might aswell just left the review until you had the games to sell the cards tbh.

basically most people who will buy these cards or be interested want them for bf3 .
 
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