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nvidia or amd card?

Mirrixx

Mirrixx

Mirrixx

Associate
Joined
18 Jun 2011
Posts
27
Location
Newtownabbey
Hi,
My GTX8800 has just died :(
Haven't bought a vid card for last 5yrs (& the naming/numbering is confusing to me now...ggrrr....an age thing!).

Anyway, been looking at 2 cards, 7950 & 680. I know there is a price difference, but:

1. Is it worth it?
2. Which is the better card (ignoring cost)?
3. Which has better upgrade potential (I currently run 2 monitors on Radeon 4800 - dvi (this is going into another computer & replaced)), looking to eventually upgrade these (maybe to 3)).

Any advice would be appreciated before I depart with £300-400 :)

(FYI Computer is i7 oc to 4.2, 8gb mem & 120SSD - looking to change this SSD as wel!)

TIA

Mark
 
The best bang for buck has to be a 670 imo. But if you're set on a 7950 or 680 then I would go with the 680.
 
1. No.
2. 680(ignoring cost).
3. Both have as much upgrade potential.

3X7950 CrossFire setup@£750 v's 680 SLI setup@£800, £50 saved can get you soo much more extra oomph, should it be required.
 
Sliver said:
The best bang for buck has to be a 670 imo. But if you're set on a 7950 or 680 then I would go with the 680.
Click to expand...

Best bang for the buck is a 7950, the 670 doesn't offer much more performance (especially when both are overclocked) but it costs around £100 more. 680 can be ignored at current pricing, it at least 80% more than the cost of a similar 7950, but doesn't offer anywhere near 80% more performance.
 
Sliver said:
The best bang for buck has to be a 670 imo. But if you're set on a 7950 or 680 then I would go with the 680.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree. Best bang for buck (nothing else considered) is the 7850 and 7950 at their respective pricepoints.

tommybhoy said:
1. No.
2. 680(ignoring cost).
3. Both have as much upgrade potential.

3X7950 CrossFire setup@£750 v's 680 SLI setup@£800, £50 saved can get you soo much more extra oomph, should it be required.
Click to expand...

+1.

In pure power terms 3-way 7950's offer just far more power and as such they're able to expand into the extra VRAM headroom for an Eyefinity setup (if you desire).

However, 3-way crossfire is just knackered driver wise and it's hit and miss if it works so overall a 2-way set-up is far more desirable in my eyes.
 
Last edited:
Yeah I woudn't bother with GTX 680, waste of money, if you wanna go Nvidia route go for Gigabyte GTX 670 WindForce OC or MSI GTX 670 Power Edition OC, whichever you can get cheapest.

I would get this and overclock like mad >> HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB £251.99 inc VAT - with FREE Sleeping Dogs, Nexuiz, Dirt Showdown & CODMW2 PC Games

If you don't want the games, you can always sell them and get about £25 back!
 
Nelly said:
Yeah I woudn't bother with GTX 680, waste of money, if you wanna go Nvidia route go for Gigabyte GTX 670 WindForce OC or MSI GTX 670 Power Edition OC, whichever you can get cheapest.

I would get this and overclock like mad >> HIS HD 7950 IceQ BOOST 3072MB £251.99 inc VAT - with FREE Sleeping Dogs, Nexuiz, Dirt Showdown & CODMW2 PC Games

If you don't want the games, you can always sell them and get about £25 back!
Click to expand...

so do you think the his is better than the msi? both the same price
 
Hmmm..some options to consider...Here's another, which I forgot to include...

Noise levels - which setup would be quietest?

Mark
 
chris-82 said:
so do you think the his is better than the msi? both the same price
Click to expand...
It's hard to say, it was hard to find a review site than did a review for both cards, but from guru3d, the MSI is slightly louder under load, but cools better, it uses two fans.

Also MSI have a 3 year warranty as opposed to the HIS 2 year warranty.

Both cards come with Sleeping Dogs £30 rrp, you can sell for around £15, but the HIS has a few extra games, if not fussed about the extra games I would get the MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III OC V2.

MSI Radeon HD 7950 Twin Frozer III review

HIS Radeon HD 7950 ICEQ Turbo review
 
Hi,
Many thanks, for the advice. It seems not a lot in it. Clicked on OC & they are doing the 7970 for £225...looks good :-)

Mark
 
Mirrixx said:
Hi,
Many thanks, for the advice. It seems not a lot in it. Clicked on OC & they are doing the 7970 for £225...looks good :-)

Mark
Click to expand...

If you mean the HIS 7950 at £224.99 then that uses a different cooler than the IceQ BOOST.

The cooler on the cheaper card isn't as good and is louder.

You pays your money....
 
Hehehe..told you at start, numbers are getting tricky :) yes I meant the 7950, but I looked at the wrong one. The IceQ is down to £251.99 (I can't believe I said "....down to" - still a lot of money for a vid card).
Anyway, yep that looks the one :)
Will get at end of month, making do with 7800GT at mo - no gaming :(
(Unless there is something newer out...as there always is :) )
Mark
 
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