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Should I buy a 7970 or a 7950?

dave_beast said:
BF3 at 1440p can use up to 2.6gb vram. This is now, current, it's only likely to be more in the future as games become more graphically intensive.
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Maybe. I am a 1080P gamer untill they bring out a 3D monitor that is of a higher spec. Also with the Frostbite 2 engine, I believe it will use what you have available? I am not sure on that but have read it on this forum and can prolly find it if need be.

BF3 runs nicely on the 680 as well as the 7970 on tri monitor setups, so this leads me to believe that 2GB is enough for at least another year.
 
gregster said:
Sorry, I thought from your defined statement that you had been informed that 2GB will not be enough next year.
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oh no sorry..............i was just warned about it, because i said i wanted to be future proofed, so they then said, ``get no less than 3GB, because right now we're finding that 1.5 isn't enough``.

but they then said, ``but to be honest on 1080p, you only need a 580, but for future proofing take care, depends how much you want to spend``.

they said ``you would be foolish to get only 1.5GB RAM``......it's just about the only thing they said and that's good enough for me, so this points to 2GB for the GTX 680, not being enough either !

i keep reading this online too, i'm no expert but i'd really watch out for this
.
 
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The only reason you need this sort of power (79xx) is if you plan to do 3D or Eyefinity.

Otherwise? pick up a cheap 6970 or 580 as they are both more than enough for standard 1080p gaming.

I've had mixed results in 3D (running a 7970) some games seem to take next to no hit whilst Crysis drops to around 13 FPS. It's most certainly driver issues or an issue with Tridef, but yes, you need near on double the amount of horsepower to push 3D around as it basically runs two images.

Right at this moment a 580 seems to have enough in the vram department. As does the 480 that was on special.

However, that can all change literally overnight. Up until BF3 came out my 295s were still very very fast cards. They were completely useless for BF3. Even with everything on minimum I was still seeing caching going on and stuttering.

However, 580s don't cost an awful lot now. I've seen them sell as low as £210, which tbh for a year or two's gaming isn't bad at all.
 
Mal X said:
oh no sorry..............i was just warned about it, because i said i wanted to be future proofed, so they then said, ``get no less than 3GB, because right now we're finding that 1.5 isn't enough``.

but they then said, ``but to be honest on 1080p, you only need a 580, but for future proofing take care, depends how much you want to spend``.

they said ``you would be foolish to get only 1.5GB RAM``......it's just about the only thing they said and that's good enough for me, so this points to 2GB for the GTX 680, not being enough either !

i keep reading this online too, i'm no expert but i'd really watch out for this
.
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Fair point. I am asking for my own security. I would hate to think I have spent £430 and for it to be stuffed in 8 months time :(

MoodyB said:
Skyrim with texture mods will frequently go over 2gb at 1920+4xmsaa just now.
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I play Skyrim with mods at 1080P and in 3D but have not seen any stutter (like I got on my 560ti 1GB). I am not saying you are wrong as I have not looked at the vram usage but on the 2GB 680, it is realy smooth.
 
gregster said:
I play Skyrim with mods at 1080P and in 3D but have not seen any stutter (like I got on my 560ti 1GB). I am not saying you are wrong as I have not looked at the vram usage but on the 2GB 680, it is realy smooth.
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It's fairly smooth here with a 2gb 560 Ti and tbh I haven't noticed any stuttering either, but that's maybe because it isn't permanently above 2gb vram usage.

I'm running quite a few texture mods atm, and I imagine if I add any more it could easily sit at 2gb+ constantly, which probably would cause stuttering.
 
ALXAndy said:
The only reason you need this sort of power (79xx) is if you plan to do 3D or Eyefinity.

Otherwise? pick up a cheap 6970 or 580 as they are both more than enough for standard 1080p gaming.

I've had mixed results in 3D (running a 7970) some games seem to take next to no hit whilst Crysis drops to around 13 FPS. It's most certainly driver issues or an issue with Tridef, but yes, you need near on double the amount of horsepower to push 3D around as it basically runs two images.

Right at this moment a 580 seems to have enough in the vram department. As does the 480 that was on special.

However, that can all change literally overnight. Up until BF3 came out my 295s were still very very fast cards. They were completely useless for BF3. Even with everything on minimum I was still seeing caching going on and stuttering.

However, 580s don't cost an awful lot now. I've seen them sell as low as £210, which tbh for a year or two's gaming isn't bad at all.
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yes, but i still sense caution here, because i'm not thinking of two years, more like 3 to 4
 
Mal X said:
yes, but i still sense caution here, because i'm not thinking of two years, more like 3 to 4
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Then forget the 580.

I can't for the life of me remember a GPU, even a £500+ one lasting that long at being able to max games out. Maybe one or two if you got lucky (8800 GTX maybe, although that couldn't even max out Crysis when it launched).

All it takes is one new game engine and you have had it.

These problems have been around for years. IE - games that need far more power than what is available. Fallout 3 for example on launch came out "as was" per se. However, a few weeks later Bethesda quietly leaked out a texture pack that happily ate 1gb+ vram. The problem was at that time most cards had 512-768. They knew if they left it in the game they would get slagged off (see also GTAIV) so they quietly slipped it out for people to install themselves with a disclaimer saying it wasn't intended for use etc.

See also - Crysis 2. By the time you are done installing all of the hefty DX11 textures and enable all of the functions it becomes a game that will only run properly on very few graphics set ups.

RAGE has an uber texture pack too. You can hack it open.

There's no point in developers releasing games we can't all play.
 
yea, well i have the 8800 GTX and Crysis destroyed it, i had to remove the game from my PC, nowadays it's down to 35 FPS, even on Serious Sam !

i also couldn't play Fallout 3 and Bioshock very well

it's playable but you dont see anything at range, it only comes into view as you move closer in, so half of a city is missing, the textures/ details just dont exist on the screen, it's very odd indeed, it's been like this for 2 years... it looks horrible, also you die but see no AI, the card cant load anything at range, it only plays the first FEAR or DOOM 3

so now you know why i want something really good this time around !!!!!!
 
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You're never going to find that card. They always seem to fall short on something, even the 680 (very high resolutions).

I had no issues with Fallout 3 on a 8800 ultra so maybe you didn't update the game? ran far better with the patches.

If you are at the high end then the 7950 offers the most for the cash. Even if it is still too much cash for what it offers.
 
I think I'm just going to go with a 7950.

Which version is best to buy? I am thinking the ASUS DCUII... It will be going into an Antec 1200, so will I have to take out my sound card to accomdate this "beast of a card?"

Or is there a different variation of the card I should be looking at?
 
You don't necessarily 'need' a top top end gpu to get what you are currently having problems with, a card like a 560ti would be fine.

What resolution do you play it? I wouldn't spend to much for something like 7950 as they aren't eactly miles ahead of the previous gen cards.
 
Defy Belief said:
You don't necessarily 'need' a top top end gpu to get what you are currently having problems with, a card like a 560ti would be fine.

What resolution do you play it? I wouldn't spend to much for something like 7950 as they aren't eactly miles ahead of the previous gen cards.
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Also, I'm upgrading from two 6870s (a single of which isn't too far behind a 560ti) and I don't feel they deliver satisfactory 1080 performance.
 
thought i would share my thoughts on 1080p and 7970, i first bought the 7970 to power a 3 screen eyefinity set up and it did the job very well but after the novelty of eyefinity i decided i wanted to claim some desk space back and get a single large screen and got a samsung s27a750d, so now all this has cost me about a grand plus what ive lost selling the 3 monitors and 6970 crossfire and with hindsight i wish i had just bought the samsung monitor and kept one of my 6970's and saved a heep of cash, so my advice is if you have the urge to upgrade then keep the 6870 xfire and buy a realy nice monitor (thats if you dont have one already) as this is where you will see some real improvments because i dont think you will see any difference at 1080p with a 680gtx/7970 and a decent mid range card, just my 2 cents
 
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