7970 GHz edition v's 680 Performance Comparison

oweneades · 13 Jun 2012 at 08:56

sand_dune said:
7970 is a quicker card hands down. Overclock both, test in 2560p

What likes these benchmarks actually did you mean?

When both cards are overclocked they perform largely the same with wins going to each depending on the game in question.

Even at 3620x1920 (my resolution), the HD7970's advantages don't give it any real benefit with frame rates being nigh on identical between each card (I have owned and tested both - stock and overclocked).

Bobisuruncle54 · 13 Jun 2012 at 11:26

jallan said:
So when a 680/670 exceeds its stock rated boost clock do you deem that as "overclocking" because you are going past the stock boost clock.

No, because that is all part of its performance from the factory. Overclocking is specifically a user end action to take a piece of hardware beyond its specified speed. GPU boost is designed to throttle to TDP not a specific clock speed, the speed stated in the spec is a conservative minimum to expect it to boost to.

Rusty0611 · 13 Jun 2012 at 12:15

sand_dune said:
7970 is a quicker card hands down. Overclock both, test in 2560p

oweneades said:
What likes these benchmarks actually did you mean?

When both cards are overclocked they perform largely the same with wins going to each depending on the game in question.

Even at 3620x1920 (my resolution), the HD7970's advantages don't give it any real benefit with frame rates being nigh on identical between each card (I have owned and tested both - stock and overclocked).

Spot the person who has first hand experience and spot the person who doesn't.

zoomee · 13 Jun 2012 at 12:29

Theres a good reason the current 7970 is 'underclocked' - power envelope. As soon as you start overclocking them power useage increases so less to brag about in terms of 'new processes' etc.

IF they release a Ghz edition - its a complete waste of money - even with standard catalyst settings you can hit 1125Mhz on literally all current 7970's (beating out the ghz edition lol!).

tommybhoy · 13 Jun 2012 at 12:44

Rusty0611 said:
Spot the person who has first hand experience and spot the person who doesn't.

+1

Anyone with an ounce of common sense can tell that there's nothing in it either way when they are both flat out.

The constant pedantic posting regarding boost clocks/over clocking is getting pathetic tbh, really can't be ***** with it.

They both achieve the same thing, one is guaranteed with a minimum frequency, the other it's not a given but 99% of the time high clocks will be achieved.

Both have there pro's and cons, one is delivered automatically and dynamically(implemented as a very cool feature), but further headroom is diminished by no voltage adjustment, the other one is delivered manually with voltage tweaking available.

Gregster · 13 Jun 2012 at 13:57

sand_dune said:
7970 is a quicker card hands down. Overclock both, test in 2560p

Idiotic post. Anybody with common sense knows that they both have various games that they surpass each other and if any of us who own either would admit that there is nothing between them.

You didn't even provide any proof to back that claim.

Marine-RX179 · 13 Jun 2012 at 14:18

gregster said:
Idiotic post. Anybody with common sense knows that they both have various games that they surpass each other and if any of us who own either would admit that there is nothing between them.

Indeed. I think it's getting old with the constant arguement between who's the winner between the two cards, and calling the boost a cheat.

Performance wise like most people have agreed it are pretty much on par and win or lose depending on the chosen games. So when choosing between the two, it should really on down to consideration toward price point, games that are gonna be played the most, features that they offer, the amount of confident toward drivers support (single and multi-GPU).

Gregster · 13 Jun 2012 at 14:51

Good points Marine.
Personally if I was going multi monitor, I would be swaying more to a 7970 or 4GB 680 for obvious reasons. If I was going multi GPU, I would be going SLI purely from what I read on these and other forums, it is better supported. This is in no way putting AMD down, more just personal observations.

MAK360 · 13 Jun 2012 at 18:20

Ive read somewhere that these ghz edition cards shown are not the real deal but stock overclocked cards.

AMD Partners have saved their top end GPU`s for ghz cards it seems, soon we will know either way and am hoping nvidia bring the gtx660 for some htpc love otherwise the hd7870/50 is going to have todo.

BrotherMuzone · 13 Jun 2012 at 18:22

Happy with my 680 =)

Surveyor · 13 Jun 2012 at 18:32

MAK360 said:
Ive read somewhere that these ghz edition cards shown are not the real deal but stock overclocked cards.

AMD Partners have saved their top end GPU`s for ghz cards it seems, soon we will know either way and am hoping nvidia bring the gtx660 for some htpc love otherwise the hd7870/50 is going to have todo.

They don't have to be cherry picked chips to go in the 1GHz cards.

From what I've read basically any HD 7970 will do 1GHz and most, if not all, a fair bit more than that.

They can just take the same cards they're selling now and use a different BIOS which gives a 1GHz stock speed instead of 925MHz.

tommybhoy · 13 Jun 2012 at 18:41

Surveyor said:
They can just take the same cards they're selling now and use a different BIOS which gives a 1GHz stock speed instead of 925MHz.

Exactly this, if anyone thinks it's cherry picked cards, then well done Amd, mission accomplished, it worked!

It's probably an excuse to bump the prices up even further, Amd and Nvidia must be sitting back ******* themselves laughing at everyone suckered into paying the prices this time round!

jallan · 13 Jun 2012 at 18:42

I've not heard of a 7970 that can't do 1 Ghz

psychodil · 13 Jun 2012 at 19:02

Let's all hold our horses a little. Perhaps there is something different about these new chips. Maybe they are cherry picked and have higher overclocking potential, perhaps they are a new stepping and run at lower voltage, or perhaps they are exactly the same chips with a different bios and a 1ghz sticker on them. Let's not make any assumptions until someone gets hold of one.

Rusty0611 · 13 Jun 2012 at 19:05

psychodil said:
Let's all hold our horses a little. Perhaps there is something different about these new chips. Maybe they are cherry picked and have higher overclocking potential, perhaps they are a new stepping and run at lower voltage, or perhaps they are exactly the same chips with a different bios and a 1ghz sticker on them. Let's not make any assumptions until someone gets hold of one.

How are you going to tell if they're cherry picked from people getting their hands on them? Only AMD/partners are going to know for sure. All it takes is one bad apple for the theory of cherry picked cards to implode.

As tommybhoy says above AMD are going to be happy people thinking this. Same with nVidia if they did something similar (1.1ghz card anyone

). It adds a selling point to their product for what is likely to be no work their end.

psychodil · 13 Jun 2012 at 19:25

Rusty0611 said:
How are you going to tell if they're cherry picked from people getting their hands on them? Only AMD/partners are going to know for sure. All it takes is one bad apple for the theory of cherry picked cards to implode.

As tommybhoy says above AMD are going to be happy people thinking this. Same with nVidia if they did something similar (1.1ghz card anyone ). It adds a selling point to their product for what is likely to be no work their end.

We will know if either they all over clock a lot better than vanilla 7970's, or if they show a different stepping in gpu-z, or if they ship at a lower stock voltage I guess. It could well all be rumours of course like you say and could just be marketing, but we don't know either way so let's not jump to assumptions yet

arc@css · 13 Jun 2012 at 19:36

More likely to be marketing and to help keep the wheels turning. I can't see it being anything much different from the original release, but we'll see.

TheRealDeal · 13 Jun 2012 at 19:56

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/06/08/computex-2012-amd-to-launch-tahiti-2-next-week/

Semiaccurate seem to agree that the 7970 ghz will have better binned cores.

BodgeITandRun · 13 Jun 2012 at 20:18

If they are better binned, then going for 1ghz is pretty lame anyway. Ship them out with 1.2 stock and then I will be more impressed.

TheRealDeal · 13 Jun 2012 at 20:23

BodgeITandRun said:
If they are better binned, then going for 1ghz is pretty lame anyway. Ship them out with 1.2 stock and then I will be more impressed.

I think you missed the point and they said 1050-1075 for the core. They are trying to up the stock speeds for the same tdp or less. There's no way they could do this at 1.2ghz core. I think 15-20% on the core speed (if true) with the same tdp is a decent step forward.