• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Ordering tomorrow

Leeroy123

Leeroy123

Leeroy123

Permabanned
Joined
29 May 2009
Posts
2,085
Ok guys i have a number of things selling tomorrow. that will give me the funds i need to order my new card. Ive been looking at a few and i think im wanting (rather than needing) a 680 4gb. Im going to steer clear of the EVGA ones simply because the coolers are awful and i can't be bothered changing them like i have before. I have seen a few, phantom gainward 4gb and palit jetstream 4gb, which are nice cards. So maybe will be one of them. I am a little confused though. Im selling my nvidia 3d kit which I thought would give me the option of using amd, and I was under the impression that if i was to get a 7970 lightning or something along those lines, i could use 120hertz with it with my Benq XL2420T monitor. But I see the amd cards don't seem to come with dual dvi ports? Am i missing something there??? How on earth would i get 120 hertz with an amd card on my monitor, if I was to go down that route.

Thanks for advice guys
 
It's only the Lightning's I know of that are single link DVI. The Sapphire 7970 OC is supposed to have dual link. I'm getting mine tomorrow as I must have barely missed the cut off point.

Also I'm sure whyscotty and Rusty that 4GB 680s are only needed if going tri-SLI but I'll let them or someone else confirm that.
 
Please note that both DVI ports are single link, which means they only support up to 2048x1536. To run 2560x1440 or 2560x1600, or anything using 120 Hz, you must either have a monitor with DisplayPort input or buy an active DisplayPort to dual-link DVI adapter. These retail around $100, and I had major problems getting dual link DVI via adapter to work on the HD 7970 Lightning. I ended up buying four adapters total over the course of two weeks, and only the final one gave me a somewhat satisfying experience. Nevertheless, even with the "best" adapter I still experienced intermittent black screens or "link failures". These could be fixed by closing the game using ALT+F4 or CTRL+ALT+DEL and task manager. I asked the adapter manufacturers for firmware updates, but my adapters already had the latest firmware.
Given this nightmarish experience I strongly recommend to not use the HD 7970 Lightning with a dual link DVI monitor. Either buy a native DisplayPort monitor or buy a different graphics card.
Click to expand...

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/HD_7970_Lightning/3.html
 
+1, no point in getting a 4GB card as a single card, there are some very limited circumstances where it's useful in SLI but really you can max out 2 GPU's before 2GB becomes a limit so really you would need to be thinking 3 cards for a 4GB setup or it's just wasted money

a GTX670 also offers 95% of the same performance for less money, so if you went for a proven good OC card like a windforce 670 then you'd save even more over your original idea... you could then keep your nvidia 3D kit, although the windforce 670 has been cheaper on OCUK so it might be worth waiting for it to be on todayonly/thisweek only or shop around for a good price

alternatively if you are set on moving to AMD then this card has dual link DVI and is the cheapest custom cooled card on OCUK right now

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-007-VX&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938
 
Last edited:
Agreed. 4GB isn't needed unless you're going multi-monitor and Tri-SLI. It's a large premium and you won't see the benefit. Regarding the 7970 I am also of the opinion that it's only the Lightning which doesn't have DL DVI.
 
Also another thing to consider is that for the price of a single 680 4GB you could comfortably get two good models of 7950's and crossfire them.

At the end of the day it is your money and we can only advise based on the facts. If you do want more VRAM for whatever reason then 7950 crossfire offers you 185% of the GPU power of a single 680 and enough VRAM to just take the debate out of the question.

While people (95% of the time AMD owners) like to talk about VRAM... Testing and general observation of what has happened historically shows that when a game gets to the point where it's going to use more than 2GB of VRAM on a single 1080 screen as standard the GPU won't be able to push those settings anyway so you'd need to lower settings to achieve acceptable frame rates and as such lower the VRAM requirement in the process :).
 
Last edited:
Ok guys, reason I was saying about a 4gb card, is mainly for future proofing, I want a card thats going to be powerful enough to max games out for the next maybe 2 - 3 years. So for my single monitor are you saying there is absolutely no benefit from a 2gb card to 4gb? if that really the case ill settle for a 2gb 680 / 3gb 7970. How are these 2 in comparison? I do have my mind set on a 680 of some type and i defo don't want to change that. I understand the 670 comes close, but you know how it is. you get your mind set on something and thats it lol
 
Leeroy123 said:
Ok guys, reason I was saying about a 4gb card, is mainly for future proofing, I want a card thats going to be powerful enough to max games out for the next maybe 2 - 3 years. So for my single monitor are you saying there is absolutely no benefit from a 2gb card to 4gb? if that really the case ill settle for a 2gb 680 / 3gb 7970. How are these 2 in comparison? I do have my mind set on a 680 of some type and i defo don't want to change that. I understand the 670 comes close, but you know how it is. you get your mind set on something and thats it lol
Click to expand...

A future proof GPU is a bit of a false hope that's all. There's a thin chance it may be more beneficial to get more VRAM but you're even more likely for the GPU to not have enough power to push maximum settings on a game 3 years in the future.

You're far better buying a high end card, selling it when the next generation comes and then buying the next generations high end card. This way you are only incrementally paying out to upgrade rather than a full shell out every 2-3 years.

As an additional benefit you will also have a decent graphics card all the time rather than just for 66% of the time :D.
 
at 1080p 2GB is definitely fine for the foreseeable future, a single card won't be able to make use of more than that anyway

it is your money at the end of the day but a 680 is a big hike in price for a very small return in FPS... a 7970 is also quite similar to a 680 in terms of performance depending on exactly what game and what settings... a 680 is probably quicker out of the box but a 7970 comes very close or beats it in some games when both are fully overclocked if you get a good clocker on the 7970

even the stock cooler on the 680 is very very good by the way and quiet (nothing like previous gen stock coolers), where as for a 7970 you will definitely want an aftermarket cooler
 
Last edited:
Yeah i guess mate. So say i want to completely max out everygame i play on my 120 hertz monitor smoothly. Which my 460 sli's where struggling on certain games. So for example crysis 2 ultra settings, BF3 max everything full AA, metro 2033 max. And so on. Is a 670 2gb windforce really enough? or would the 680 give me that extra oomph!!
 
a 680 will give you single digit FPS increases over a 670 (if at all depending on how well the 670 OC's vs. the 680)... windforces routinely hit 1300+ where as 680's usually hit 1100-1200 (possibly more if you get really lucky)... so in fact if you got a poor 680 and a good windforce 670 then it may even be faster than the 680!

I don't think there's any cards that can max out Metro 2033 though, lol
 
Leeroy123 said:
No cards can max out metro seriously? and humbug yeah thats another i have been looking at haha
Click to expand...

take a look at that bench that humbug posted, none of the top end single cards can manage an average of 60FPS in metro on full, they all must have dips that would make it unplayable at full settings even on a single screen

from that point of view, maybe you would be better off with 7950 crossfire and again hope for good clockers
 
Last edited:
Ahh ok, all i want is a card to be able to run all games at top settings without missing out of anything like AA and the like and run smooth. I will have 450 - 480 to spend i think after my auctions finish :)
 
Leeroy123 said:
Yeah i guess mate. So say i want to completely max out everygame i play on my 120 hertz monitor smoothly. Which my 460 sli's where struggling on certain games. So for example crysis 2 ultra settings, BF3 max everything full AA, metro 2033 max. And so on. Is a 670 2gb windforce really enough? or would the 680 give me that extra oomph!!
Click to expand...

As Andy said above really. All I'll add in addition that is that I can never see a situation where a game is unplayable on a 670 and smooth on a 680. The cards are just too close in performance.

680 owners get a lot of slack from certain AMD owners on here for being stupid for buying a 680 over a 7970 while failing to understand that at the time the 680's were:

a) cheaper
b) faster
c) had better drivers

I mention this because it's relevant that while that was the case back then, buying now is a completely different ball game and it is very difficult to recommend a 680 over a 670.
 
Last edited:
Leeroy123 said:
Ahh ok, all i want is a card to be able to run all games at top settings without missing out of anything like AA and the like and run smooth. I will have 450 - 480 to spend i think after my auctions finish :)
Click to expand...

well, if you want a single card that can definitely max out all games then you would be looking at a GTX690... however 670 SLI or 7950 crossfire would offer the same performance for much less money

as Rusty says, a single 680 won't offer any more playable of a setting than a 670, particularly when both are fully overclocked, same goes for 7970/7950 as a single card, if you want to keep your 3D kit and buy a single card, the 670 is your best bet at the moment, with a view to getting a GTX780/770 when they come out early to mid next year
 
Leeroy123 said:
Ahh ok, all i want is a card to be able to run all games at top settings without missing out of anything like AA and the like and run smooth. I will have 450 - 480 to spend i think after my auctions finish :)
Click to expand...

I can't see a better option than 7950 crossfire for that amount of money providing you don't get any crossfire issues.
 
Ok guys thanks for all the feedback. It's always a hard choice for me when picking a new gpu, always so much choice. Seriously appreciate the help. And whatever i do order tomorrow night ill post here and let you guys know.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom