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GTX970OC vs 7970

snedie

snedie

snedie

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26 Aug 2009
Posts
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I'm looking to move away from watercooling to a more modest setup, given I don't have the stock coolers for my 7970's any more I was thinking to just sell them and buy new cards.

I can't find (didn't look too hard admittedly) a direct comparison between the Inno3D GeForce GTX 970 OC 4096MB (Stock Code:GX-039-IN) and the 7970. Can anyone tell me if it's a worthwhile upgrade from two 7970's to two of these cards, they seem to still retail around the same price however the 970 has significant advantages in clock speeds and VRAM space.

Any info greatly appreciated!!!
 
What res do you game at ? If above 1080p I wouldn't bother with 970

In fact if it was me I would keep your current setup and wait for the new AMD cards coming in a few months time
 
2560x1440

The 7970's game at this res without missing a beat, I need to downsize my rig a bit and to cut down on the upkeep and without access to the old coolers it's difficult to do.

Anyone know of an aftermarket cooler which will fit a reference 7970?
 
Not worth it imo

I went from a 280x(7970ghz) clocked at 1100mhz to a 970,i knew it was wouldnt be a massive pref increase,i mostly bought it for the extra Vram,which now turns out to have been a big mistake.

A 7970>970 right now is a very minor upgrade
Two 7970's in CF are a lot faster than a single 970.There is no single card atm that could give you the same performance you have been using.

For now just use one 7970,sell the other and hold out till the 3XX series.A single 380x will prob match your CF setup without the issues associated with Crossfire/sli.
 
snedie said:
I'm looking to move away from watercooling to a more modest setup, given I don't have the stock coolers for my 7970's any more I was thinking to just sell them and buy new cards.

I can't find (didn't look too hard admittedly) a direct comparison between the Inno3D GeForce GTX 970 OC 4096MB (Stock Code:GX-039-IN) and the 7970. Can anyone tell me if it's a worthwhile upgrade from two 7970's to two of these cards, they seem to still retail around the same price however the 970 has significant advantages in clock speeds and VRAM space.

Any info greatly appreciated!!!
Click to expand...

If you are after a 970 I would not recommend the basic Inno3d gtx 970 OC. I bought one originally and RMA'd it since the cooler is very poor. The card goes to 80degC under load while most of the other 970's only get to 65-70C. Also the card is limited to a power limit of 106% which severely restricts how much you can overclock it.

Overall the gtx 970 would not be a major upgrade frpm a 7970crossfire setup. It might even be slower because I only noticed about a 20-30% increase from my 7950@1200MHz.
 
MrMD said:
Not worth it imo

I went from a 280x(7970ghz) clocked at 1100mhz to a 970,i knew it was wouldnt be a massive pref increase,i mostly bought it for the extra Vram,which now turns out to have been a big mistake.

A 7970>970 right now is a very minor upgrade
Two 7970's in CF are a lot faster than a single 970.There is no single card atm that could give you the same performance you have been using.

For now just use one 7970,sell the other and hold out till the 3XX series.A single 380x will prob match your CF setup without the issues associated with Crossfire/sli.
Click to expand...
I doubt that R9 380x will match CF 7970,I don't think even 390x will be able to do it...
 
Just to clarify I will be replacing 2x 7970 with 2x more GPU's.

I should still get around £300-£350 for these with the water blocks on (PM me if interested, can sell via MM) so the new cards won't cost all that much extra.

The other option is to put on after market coolers and try to sell the blocks, doubt they will be worth much if I can even find a buyer.
 
snedie said:
Just to clarify I will be replacing 2x 7970 with 2x more GPU's.

I should still get around £300-£350 for these with the water blocks on (PM me if interested, can sell via MM) so the new cards won't cost all that much extra.

The other option is to put on after market coolers and try to sell the blocks, doubt they will be worth much if I can even find a buyer.
Click to expand...

You will open up the buyer market if you sell them with air coolers as not everybody has a W/C loop ;). However it could end up being false economy spending money to make money.
 
2 x 290 for £460 max not sure the 970s are worth the extra £100+

But as others have mentioned it may be better to wait until the 380X comes as 7970 crossfire are still great performers. Are you really struggling on any games?
 
A 7970 (it's basically a 280X) has about 80% the power of a 970 or 290 at 1440p so for now I'd see what AMD come out with as at least we may see the 970 dip below £250 even if the 380X itself is not a hit.
 
jimhaumman said:
I doubt that R9 380x will match CF 7970,I don't think even 390x will be able to do it...
Click to expand...

I dunno,i think its possible.

I mean honestly how many games can manage 100% scaling in CF or Sli,not many.

If the leaks ect are to be believed about the 380x,it seems like it would be hard to distinguish it from 7970's in CF in actual gaming performance.

Plus it wouldnt have the inherent issues that Multi-gpu setups face.Profiles/scaling/heat/ ect
 
Reason for switching GPUS is primarily to get shut of my watercooling and move to a more portable easily maintained rig. I can either buy after market air coolers for £150 or spend a little more and just get two new cards. I'd rather spend the cash on new cards, it feels like I'm not throwing money at a dying horse that way.

Currently at 1440p these cards don't have any issues at all, only games which push them are BF4 and Titan Fall when using AA, which generally at 1440p isn't needed anyway.
 
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