New GPU - HD7970 or GTX670 vs GTX680

[Wingo101]

Hey guys,


I'm currently in the market for a new graphics card. Here are my current considerations:

Nvidia GTX670 OC
Nvidia GTX680
ATI HD7970

I'm looking for the best upgrade in terms of future proofing, keeping in mind value for money. I'm not afraid to spend extra if i get a decent performance increase from it.

Playing all latest games at 1920x1080. I love to max out the settings when possible.

What would the performance difference between the listed cards be?
Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[radrok]

Either get a 4GB 670 or a 7950/7970 in my opinion.

In terms of raw performance vs value the 670 and 7950 are the best bang, you get a marginal increase from 670->680 or 7950 -> 7970 based on price.

The 7950 is heavily downclocked and it can get back on track with some overclocking, the 7970 and 670 trade blows because the 7970 is not clocked to what it should be, they can easy achieve 1100Mhz on the Core up from 925MHz stock.

The GTX 670 or GTX 680 2GB versions aren't future proof if you ask me, they may be fine now for 1080p but it's going to be reach it's limit soon.

This is my perspective and some will probably say that 2GB is enough


So in the end:

best choice money wise is 7950 or 670

best choice money wise and future proofing is 7950 for the 3GB VRAM frame buffer.

best choice overall 7970 or 670 4GB.

 

[Ravenas]

Well this generation AMD cards are not as fast as the nvidia cards. A measure of how fast the cards are in terms of benchmarking can be found in the reviews section.

Keep in mind all 3 of the cards you had previously mentioned in your original post will run most games at max settings @ 1080p. Honestly the 7950 or 7870 can do this as well with the exception of AA or AF (with most games).

In conclusion, both of the nvidia cards will be faster, however, all three of the cards will run the games perfectly well at maxed settings on a single monitor. Price is what you should look at.

SIDE NOTE: 3gb of ram or greater does not mean you are future proofed. The only time this would be sure you are future proof is if in the future you plan to have a 3 (or more) montior display.

 

[hsew]

If you happen to be concerned about power consumption, just get the 670, set and forget it. However, a 7970 for just $50 more that is flashed to the GHz edition BIOS with some good undervolting for lower heat and power consumption will get you more performance than a 670 and about the same performance as a 680 in some games! The 680 is not worth it. Not enough of a performance boost, especially not against an OC 670. That's not even a 5% difference in that case.

 

[the54thvoid]

Most 7970's overclock a treat and this pretty much makes them the faster card. The problem is that the games are driver dependent. Nvidia generally has better driver performance and more sponsored games. They heavily optimised their drivers for BF3.

AMD have the stronger card and this shows clearly when used in the right environment. Older but stressful games (Crysis, Metro 2033, AvP) all run better on the back of a 7970's power.

But MW games like Nvidia more. BF3 needs an overclocked 7970 at 1.05GHz (no sweat for most) to match a GTX 680 (that generally runs between 1GHz and 1.1GHz).

No bones about it a 7970 at 1.1GHz is a tremendous card.

But fact is a 7870 provides GTX 580 performance and at your resolution, even with eye candy on, that's enough.

Choice is yours but any 7950/7970 or 670 would be absolutely plenty with 1080p.

And there is no such thing as future proofing. If your gfx card gives you max details for 2 years with high resolution, you're doing well.

 

[phanbuey]

if i sat you down in front of all 3 of those cards, you would not be able to tell the difference in 90% of the games.

go with whatever one is cheapest.

IMO I would not spend money on an OC card. Just get the normal edition for cheap and OC it yourself with MSI afterburner.

 

[radrok]

IMO I would not spend money on an OC card. Just get the normal edition for cheap and OC it yourself with MSI afterburner.

I agree, just don't buy a card with reference cooling, you'll regret it.

 

[m1dg3t]

I decided on a 7950, once clocked it is a no brainer

 

[Phusius]

msi twin frozr 3 7950, 329.99 free ship, 309.99 after rebate, 3 free games.

MSI R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC Radeon HD 7950 3GB 38...

 

[Elmo]

Nvidia GTX670 + the reliable drivers. This is my personal preference if you have the budget get the 4GB version but i think for now if youre not getting a higher res monitor a 2gb is more then sufficient.

 

[Phusius]

I still say that twin frozr 3 7950 for 309.99 free ship is hard to beat price wise, and it OC's easily to 1125/1575 virtually making it faster than stock 7970...

 

[Xzibit]

I would go for a 7970 @ 429.

I wouldnt look at the 7970 GHZ edition for the same reasons i would stay away from any Nvidia Kepler with GPU boost. Really look into it and see if your comfortable because it can be a deal breaker.

Drivers are give an take with either company.

AMD (12.6 & 12.7) default
-Good color representation in 2D & 3D
-Video playback Reds are dominate. You can adjust in CCC
-Video playback browsing is improving from driver to driver but has issues with some content depending on how its coded still not as good as Nvidia.

NVIDIA (192 thru latest 301) default
-Gradient and Glaze color representation in 2D & 3D, Cant be fixed in 2D
-Gradient in 3D once you start using AA the Gradient look starst to go away. x4 is when I dont notice it anymore.
-Glaze overlay look you cant get rid of, its there in 2D and 3D.
-Video playback browsing is friendlier with varioust content but same issue with AMD on HD playback browsing.
-Mouse issues with drop down menus and in-game button transparencies.

 

[Recus]

NVIDIA (192 thru latest 301) default
-Gradient and Glaze color representation in 2D & 3D, Cant be fixed in 2D
-Gradient in 3D once you start using AA the Gradient look starst to go away. x4 is when I dont notice it anymore.
-Glaze overlay look you cant get rid of, its there in 2D and 3D.
-Video playback browsing is friendlier with varioust content but same issue with AMD on HD playback browsing.

Googled for these problems. And only you have them.

Get GTX 670. You don't need to wait for 100 driver updates till game is playable.

 

[erocker]

What would the performance difference between the listed cards be?

There are lots and lots of reviews comparing these cards. Why not look some of them up?

That being said, the GTX680 is the most powerful card of the bunch, but the newer 7970 GHz edition cards are almost neck and neck with them at a lower price.

 

[Xzibit]

Googled for these problems. And only you have them.

Look at my other post and you will know I hadnt owned a AMD card in over 5years strickly EVGA Nvidia over 4 generations of cards.

Check the Nvidia Forums once there back on.. Fan boys are funny.

 

[Hilux SSRG]

Get the GTX 670 but one that has a 680 pcb for overclocking headroom and stability!

I myself got the Gigabyte and love it immensely.

Be wary of the ASUS, some specific cards are having stability issues but overall a great card.

Gigabyte 670 OC http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125423

Evga 670 FTW http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787

Asus 670 DCU2T http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121638

 

[Nordic]

Since you play at 1080p, get the 670. If you are going to play 1440p or higher someday, get a 7970.

 

[Lionheart]

HD7970 or GTX 670 easily

 

[Shou Miko]

i would say GTX 670 or GTX 680 depends on if u wanna use the last bucks on the GTX 680.

if u only running single monitor at 1920x1080 get the 2gb version it should be enough i have got that told aswell, it's only for modded Skyrim u can use more and maybe a couple of other games.

 

[happy]

There are lots and lots of reviews comparing these cards. Why not look some of them up?

That being said, the GTX680 is the most powerful card of the bunch, but the newer 7970 GHz edition cards are almost neck and neck with them at a lower price.

Is a Sapphire 7970 OC Edition considered a GHZ edition?

 

[radrok]

Is a Sapphire 7970 OC Edition considered a GHZ edition?

Technically no because it has no power boost, in practice any 7970 clocked at 1050/1100 is a GHz edition

 

[Shurakai]

Excellent suggestions all-round in this thread, but I'll add one major factor for myself. Do you like Saints Row the Third? If so, Nvidia is your only options due to either Volition or AMD just not caring about the game anymore, which leads to horrible performance on my HD 7970.

 

[erocker]

Excellent suggestions all-round in this thread, but I'll add one major factor for myself. Do you like Saints Row the Third? If so, Nvidia is your only options due to either Volition or AMD just not caring about the game anymore, which leads to horrible performance on my HD 7970.

Works great on my 7970.

 

[Shurakai]

Works great on my 7970.

My 7970 with WHQL 12.4 (bit old, but it doesn't seem to list SRTT in any of the future patch notes) runs rather nice, but during large freeway chases in the glaring daytime or flying a VTOL over the city brings it down to the 30-45 range. My 680 on the other hand doesn't dip below 58fps. I loved the 7970, but with SRTT being near the top of my favourite game list the 7970 will remain in my partners computer. I'd love to swap though, the DCUII is easily one of the best looking cards I've had, plus is ran other games just as well as the 680.





v Not trying to sound like the bad guy here, but are you sure? I've had people claim that then in the situations I've described the framerate hasn't been up to snuff. Plus there's a good 600+ reply topic on the official forums involving this problem. I can't see how it would be a system problem when the 680 runs it flawlessly and every other game with the 7970 was fine, plus I do fresh installs of windows with new generations of GPU's.

Edit: Sorry, just noticed you mentioned the 12.7 Beta drivers, I see they don't mention SRTT, but I'll sure as hell give em a go.

Edit 2: The 12.7 drivers have certainly improved in the performance area, but having tested them with the 7970 paired with an i5 2500k and i5 660 still doesn't get Saints performing up to the 680 standards, try flying the VTOL around the city, dodging and weaving through building upside down, that's the real taxing area. General fighting and driving it so much better though

 

[crazyeyesreaper]

something wrong with your system then Shurakai, and im gonna guess its the old driver

im running Saints Row The Third with 8xAA in game and 2x SSAA via control panel max settings 60FPS pegged. have 0 dips in frame rate, and i like to blow stuff up so you know, full Gang notoriety, and full police notoriety 2-3 tanks 2 choppers couple of Brutes 10-12 police 10-12 gang members plus homies and saints back up no issues stays pegged 60fps, but then again im running catalyst 12.7 beta

so essentially

me on weird hover bike thing...
2 Tanks minimum
3-4 humvees with soldiers
3-4 riot squads
2-3 cop cars with cops
3-4 gang vehicles with 2 of them being brutes
2-3 saints gang vehicles with gang members
etc etc and im just shooting things from the sky watching it all blow up, works like charm played for 22 hours so far never seen my frame rate dip.

So give the 12.7 Beta's a try