7970 vs 670

[shadow_boxer]

Again the 1123MHz is corresponding to the incremental 13MHz jump in boost clock.

Cynical hat on, I wonder whether NVIDIA has cherry picked review cards that will surpass the 980MHz boost to send to reviewers.

We'll found out tomorrow I guess when we get some user reviews out.

Sorry op for slight thread derailment, but out of the two you are considering, I'd go for the GTX670. If you're someone who likes to do serious overclocking and tweaking then the 7970 edges it.

 

[Redemption80]

I thought this was normal for Kepler if there was a lot of headroom, sure i read about users getting higher default "boost" than 1058mhz on the GTX680's on some games.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is from one of the reviewers on Hexus:

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-revie...orce-gtx-670-graphics-card-3.html#post2443745

I can give you a bit more insight into the GPU Boost frequencies of a partner card. We have a KFA2 GTX 670 EX OC card in atm. It is clocked in at a default 1,006MHz core and 1,085MHz GPU Boost, based on NVIDIA's average frequency-adjusting speed.

However, tested inside a Corsair 600T chassis with the ambient temperature at 24°C, we can log the frequencies in each of our real-world games and then present them to you. The following core/shader clock is the one that is running the majority of the time in the following games, though it does drop just a touch when dealing with particularly intensive gaming sections.

AvP

1,188.9MHz

Batman

1,175.8MHz

Battlefield 3

1,188.9MHz

Crysis 2

1,188.9MHz

Just Cause 2

1,175.8MHz

Shogun

1,175.8MHz

What you can see from these results is that the GPU Boost is far more aggressive than NVIDIA alludes to, to the tune of being around 100MHz higher. This is the reason why the GTX 670 benchmarks so well; it bombs past its nominal GPU Boost, which equates to an 80MHz uptick over default. Memory speeds remain at the default 6,008MHz. Compare this with a stock GTX 680 and the in-game speeds are higher for this second-rung partner GPU.

Now considering that the card we have is being sold by retailers across the country it is unlikely to have been cherry picked. We can't know this for sure until we receive an identical card from the stock of a retailer, absolutely, but the feeling is that NVIDIA's declared GPU Boost frequency for the GTX 670 is way too conservative. Indeed, as you will see tomorrow, this partner-overclocked GTX 670 is as fast as a stock GTX 680.

Bottom line is that the highly aggressive nature of GPU Boosting on GTX 670s makes them an even better buy, though, on the flipside, you may not have too much scope to manually overclock the card much further.

 

[ToejaM]

In the market for a 7970 or a 670 myself tbh.. not sure which works out the cheapest/bang for buck. With the AMD 3 for FREE, how much can you sell those games for on average?

Really not sure which to go for.. been using ATI for years now but nVidia has always felt more solid to me.. hmms!

 

[Jasonst888]

In the market for a 7970 or a 670 myself tbh.. not sure which works out the cheapest/bang for buck. With the AMD 3 for FREE, how much can you sell those games for on average?

Really not sure which to go for.. been using ATI for years now but nVidia has always felt more solid to me.. hmms!

Funny I've always found the opposite.

But tbh at this point I'd say its best to wait a little bit longer. Prices won't go up, but amd might decide to drop the standard 7970 prices down a bit and put the new 7970 ghz editions at the current price point....

Would make sense. cheaper Cherry picked 7970s goin up against 680s. And bog standard 7970s priced the same as the 670....at which point the 7970 bog standard would be my choice.

Edit: just looking at reviews, it is amazing the difference what game you will play makes. So dependent on that you can pick your team!

 

[Krono5]

Just reading the Anandtech review now and using their bench comparison tool I'm starting to swing back to 7970. They're similar performance with the 670 hitting 1084Mhz or something like that. Thus when overclocking will leave a lot more room for the 7970 to expand into and with both around the £360 mark it seems exacvtly the same as the 680 launch.

 

[Mal X]

Just reading the Anandtech review now and using their bench comparison tool I'm starting to swing back to 7970. They're similar performance with the 670 hitting 1084Mhz or something like that. Thus when overclocking will leave a lot more room for the 7970 to expand into and with both around the £360 mark it seems exacvtly the same as the 680 launch.

but the standard ref 7970 is not the best for OCing, it doesn't go anywhere near as high as an OC Edition, plus it runs hotter and is much noisier, this is why it costs less.

 

[Krono5]

but the standard ref 7970 is not the best for OCing, it doesn't go anywhere near as high as an OC Edition, plus it runs hotter and is much noisier, this is why it costs less.

Who said anything about standard refs? Don't you have some varnishing to do...

 

[dave_beast]

but the standard ref 7970 is not the best for OCing, it doesn't go anywhere near as high as an OC Edition, plus it runs hotter and is much noisier, this is why it costs less.

My reference 7970 goes to 1250mhz/1800mhz on 1.25v for benching no problem, and I run at 1150/1650 at stock volts 24/7 and it's extremely quiet.

 

[Jasonst888]

Well both cards listed by op are windforce cooler, a very good cooler. I had one on a very oc gtx 570 soc and it was silent with very silly low temps.

Now whilst the 670 is cooler/quiter than the 7970 both can be said to be cooler than a heavy oc 570....in which case I would guess both suggested cards will be near silent. In which case its a matter of whether the 7970 is worth the extra £10...and with its huge headroom i think the answer should be pretty simple.

 

[Mal X]

even so, i still wouldn't swap my 7970 for this 670... no way

 

[Mal X]

My reference 7970 goes to 1250mhz/1800mhz on 1.25v for benching no problem, and I run at 1150/1650 at stock volts 24/7 and it's extremely quiet.

well thast's pretty good then

 

[Krono5]

How much would the average 7970 clock to?

As a 1296/1600 gpu/mem clock windforce 670 performs the same in Heaven as a 1150/1575 7970 according to the Unigen Heaven benchmark thread (was actually 1125/1575 that performed slightly lower and 1125/1860 that performed higher so 1150/1575 would be about right).

Using anantech's benchmarking tool here: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/508?vs=598 we can see a stock 670 will perform around 6-7% better. we can then use this figure in their Skyrim benchmark at 1920*1200 to normalise the results and show the 670 at it's max overclock still performs around 6% better on Skyrim with these settings than a 1150/1575 7970.

So the question remains, what will the best <£370 7970's overclock be for the average user?

 

[Krono5]

Or even the £377 windforce 3X 7970 as it's only £10 more.

EDIT: I've jsut thuoght that the 1296/1600 670 would not necessarily be for 24/7 use so would need 24/7 figures for both instead of just 7970.

 

[psychodil]

Or even the £377 windforce 3X 7970 as it's only £10 more.

EDIT: I've jsut thuoght that the 1296/1600 670 would not necessarily be for 24/7 use so would need 24/7 figures for both instead of just 7970.

I am also very intereseted in this comparison, as stock benchmarks are of no interest to me as I never run at stock. The 7970's typically are slightly ahead in the heaven benchmark thread, but the 670/680's are ahead in other games (batman AC I think and possibly others.)

 

[Krono5]

I am also very intereseted in this comparison, as stock benchmarks are of no interest to me as I never run at stock. The 7970's typically are slightly ahead in the heaven benchmark thread, but the 670/680's are ahead in other games (batman AC I think and possibly others.)

Exactly. Since the latest driver update the 79** are much better in Batman AC and surpass the 6**. However in Skyrim (probably not with high res mods) and particularly BF3 the 6** shoots ahead.

If I can find conclusive evidence that a Windforce 3x 7970 of average OC ability can perform the same as a Windforce 3X 670 of average OC ability in BF3 at 1080p then it's a no brainer because of the free games, better performance at higher resolutions and extra 1GB Vram.

It's very tough for me to choose with most of the best games performing better for Nvidia cards, but a lot of other games performing better on AMD cards, slight price difference and no solid evidence either way.

 

[Lokken86]

Silly thread if you're an overclocker. Has everyone forgotten that 7970 when overclocked competes with 680 overclocked...not 670. The only reason the "stock" 670 is so close to the performance of a "stock" 680 is because of the auto boosting. I rekon if you look at the max overclocks on all cards 680=7970>670.

 

[masscrazy]

I've barely been able to go over 1125/1510 with my windforce 7970, which is why its going back. Temps got to 86C (76 with side panel off) at 100% fan speed. Maybe its just my card...

 

[Mal X]

it's about for mine:-

1.25v ......1280......1860

you can go higher but it will probably get unstable at 1.3 v, but i think much of this will depend on your cooling as well and right now i'm not happy with my intake fans

 

[psychodil]

Exactly. Since the latest driver update the 79** are much better in Batman AC and surpass the 6**. However in Skyrim (probably not with high res mods) and particularly BF3 the 6** shoots ahead.

If I can find conclusive evidence that a Windforce 3x 7970 of average OC ability can perform the same as a Windforce 3X 670 of average OC ability in BF3 at 1080p then it's a no brainer because of the free games, better performance at higher resolutions and extra 1GB Vram.

It's very tough for me to choose with most of the best games performing better for Nvidia cards, but a lot of other games performing better on AMD cards, slight price difference and no solid evidence either way.

Didnt know that about the new drivers helping batman performance, I thought the gap had closed a bit on BF3 though.

Anyway if its any help to you, I looked at 2 reviews of the windforce 7970. Guru3D hit 1238/6200 and HardOCP hit a colossal 1305/6440 although i assume these were just bench speeds and not 24/7 speeds.