6970 CFX to 7970 CFX or GTX 680 SLI or GTX 670 SLI?

[LordJummy]

I'm sure this is a thread that is beaten over and over and is totally FUBAR at this point, but I've been away for a while and I'm looking to do some upgrades

I currently still have two of my 6970's in crossfire. Running at stock speeds all the time.

My system specs are current for the machine.

I could upgrade mobo/cpu/ram, but I'm not really sure I care to do that right now just out of laziness. I think I still have enough processing power at this point. Will PCIE 3.0 make a difference?

I'm totally unsure of what cards I want to upgrade to. Should I keep the 6970 CFX? I play at 5760x1080 eyefinity or on my 30" 2560x1600 depending on what I'm playing so I need some serious juice. I had a trifire setup but gave one of my cards to a buddy.

I'm under the impression that the 7970's really shine when in crossfire and super high res, but I also see the 680's are beast mode. I kind of want to stick with AMD but I need a reason to.


Fanboys from both sides please come to the rescue! I'm totally 50/50 on the fence at this point...

[cadaveca]

7970's or GTX680's. 7970's are cheaper.

Don't bother with Tri-Fire with 6-series, I have 4 6-series cards, and only two cards are usable in games, unless you use drivers from 2011, and even with those drivers, it's touch and go with which ones work with more than two cards without giving negative scaling. I have spent os much time with fresh Windows installs on differnt boards and more than two cards...don't go down the same path!

[LordJummy]

Originally Posted by cadaveca

7970's or GTX680's. 7970's are cheaper.

Don't bother with Tri-Fire with 6-series, I have 4 6-series cards, and only two cards are usable in games, unless you use drivers from 2011, and even with those drivers, it's touch and go with which ones work with more than two cards without giving negative scaling. I have spent os much time with fresh Windows installs on differnt boards and more than two cards...don't go down the same path!

Yeah I haven't really noticed a big difference since I dropped the third card, although that was quite some time ago now. I haven't really gamed much in the past 6 months.

Two 7970's is pretty close to two 680's from what I'm seeing, although there appear to be some mixed reviews & results.

I'm leaning towards the 7970's at this point unless I find a reason to spend more money. I'm guessing the 7970's are more than enough power for 5760x1080.

[cadaveca]

Well you know, to be honest I kinda question playability with three screens. I've had three since before the 5-series launch, had hoped three of four 6-series cards would be enough ,but then I'm left with al lsorts of problems.

That said, get the most powerful cards you can afford. MIght be worthwhile to wait for some of teh 7970 GHz edition cards to come with custom clocks from the OEMs...like the Sapphire Toxic @ 1200 MHz....

[LordJummy]

Originally Posted by cadaveca

Well you know, to be honest I kinda question playability with three screens. I've had three since before the 5-series launch, had hoped three of four 6-series cards would be enough ,but then I'm left with al lsorts of problems.

That said, get the most powerful cards you can afford. MIght be worthwhile to wait for some of teh 7970 GHz edition cards to come with custom clocks from the OEMs...like the Sapphire Toxic @ 1200 MHz....

Yeah I find myself playing Diablo & skyrim on my 30" Dell panel lately due to some performance issues in some games. I enjoy eyefinity when it runs well like with Dirt 3 and flight sims, but when the performance isn't enough it's like a nightmare. That's why I want to go with some serious power. I have no problem spending the extra money if a solid performance increase is there, but I won't throw away money if the increase is tiny and not justified.

I'm willing to lose 3-5 FPS and save $50-$100 dollars for example. Not that that is the actual difference, but just an imaginary example.

[crazyeyesreaper]

well from what i remember NVIDIA can do 3 screens using jsut DVI no display port shenanigans, has less screen tearing issues etc depending on the setup.

might be better off with 2x custom GTX 670s same price as the 7970s but run cooler quieter get a few extra benefits as well, but really for the most part depending over overclocks etc

670 sli / 680 sli, 7970 xfire are all within spitting distance of each other.

[LordJummy]

Anyone else think I should go with gtx 680's or 670's instead? I'm still undecided at this point ;\

I don't mind the displayport stuff, I actually prefer it. So really it's just about performance on multi monitor / super hi res.

[crazyeyesreaper]

could cheap out a bit, 670 4GB in sli lol cheaper than 680 2GB has more memory than the 7970, overclock the bastards and your pretty much good to go, from what i remember they use the longer PCBs as well same as the 680 if im not mistaken so you can water cool them relatively easily i would expect. (might want to double check first)

so yea id vote for 4GB 670 SLI, for multi-monitor

[LordJummy]

Originally Posted by crazyeyesreaper

could cheap out a bit, 670 4GB in sli lol cheaper than 680 2GB has more memory than the 7970, overclock the bastards and your pretty much good to go, from what i remember they use the longer PCBs as well same as the 680 if im not mistaken so you can water cool them relatively easily i would expect. (might want to double check first)

so yea id vote for 4GB 670 SLI, for multi-monitor

I like that idea. I think I'm now just looking at either GTX 670 SLI or 7970 CFX. I don't see any real benefit in going with 680's at this point. These cards will be going under my water setup from day 1, so overclocking is a YES.

I've heard the 7970 GHz editions & toxics can overclock like a MFer. Do the 7970's have better OC scaling per MHz than the 670/680's? Since I'm putting these on water I want to OC them quite a bit unless they already come significantly boosted (ie: 1.2Ghz on the 7970's).


PS: These toxic 6GB cards look freakin' awesome. Very tempting.....

[puma99dk|]

many ppl buy the GTX 670 instead of the GTX 680 bcs of it's close performance to the GTX 680 and if u need more memory than 2gb i will go GTX 670 bcs of the price vs. performance plus u get 4gb card for nice value.

even still thinking of doing that change with my KFA2 GTX680 2gb even ppl say no ^^;

[LordJummy]

Originally Posted by puma99dk|

many ppl buy the GTX 670 instead of the GTX 680 bcs of it's close performance to the GTX 680 and if u need more memory than 2gb i will go GTX 670 bcs of the price vs. performance plus u get 4gb card for nice value.

even still thinking of doing that change with my KFA2 GTX680 2gb even ppl say no ^^;

Are you playing at 1920x1080? If I were doing single screen at 1080 I would probably go with a single gtx 670 judging by their performance numbers at 1080p.

Unfortunately I have eyefinity + my 30" all running off the same machine. Some games the dual 6970's are still just not cutting it. I don't want to have to lower my settings just to get 60+

[puma99dk|]

yap only single screen, but i am counting on have this card for like one and a half year or a little more, bcs my future won't allow me to use as much as a GTX 680 costs.

but i will say take 2 GTX 670's with 4gb and test out on ur multi screen setup and if u still need some more buy one more for 3-ways sli.

but still how many games even support more than 2 videocards?

[INSTG8R]

Originally Posted by LordJummy

I like that idea. I think I'm now just looking at either GTX 670 SLI or 7970 CFX. I don't see any real benefit in going with 680's at this point. These cards will be going under my water setup from day 1, so overclocking is a YES.

I've heard the 7970 GHz editions & toxics can overclock like a MFer. Do the 7970's have better OC scaling per MHz than the 670/680's? Since I'm putting these on water I want to OC them quite a bit unless they already come significantly boosted (ie: 1.2Ghz on the 7970's).


PS: These toxic 6GB cards look freakin' awesome. Very tempting.....

Well 7970's definitely have plenty of overclocking headrroom and they overclock the old fashioned way unlike the 6xx's which use a "Dynamic Overclock" which to me seems a pain in the ass to me. Plus you get 3GB of RAM on the 7970's so Eyefinity with lots of eye candy should never be an issue.

[crazyeyesreaper]

yea but 3gb vs 4gb on a 670 makes the memory comparison irrelevent yes 7970 overclock a bit better in terms of being more tradition and they tend to offer a better performance gain with said overclock, problem is overclocking is still a crap shoot, and more 670s and 680s will clock on average a bit better than 7970s, as a whole, that or you end up with issues like AMD borking drivers making cards unclockable example 7970 DCuII i have for 4 driver releases i couldnt overclock period do a few files being neglected took sapphire trixx fixing a specific issue to let my card clock at all. So keep these annoyance factors in mind.

in terms of high resolution id take the 670 4GB in SLI, if he water cools them they should still be withing a few % points of each other

Crossfire seems to just be all over the place as cadaveca pointed out, hell some resolutions work others dont and in high profile games thats just unacceptable. 670 4GB offers same performance as 7970 offers larger vram buffer for multi monitor, should overclock fairly well, and at $450 give or take for the Zotac model its roughly same price as the 7970s as well.

[Jetlaw]

Offhand: On ultra at 1920x1200 (The dying breed of 16:10) my single 7970 can peak at using 2.3GB of the 3GB memory available on the card just in single player Battlefield 3, I haven't seen any indication of what memory usage multiplayer could have but can naturally assume just as much or more. With a reasonable overclock it's smooth as silk to play.

I don't know if crossfire will increase the total memory you have available, (ie. A couple of 2GB cards adds to 4GB of total memory or still just 2GB) but you'd PROBABLY want higher than 2GB card for plain old 1920x1080 if you want to turn all the eye candy on in high graphical fidelity titles.

I'm not sure about the memory use of the games you play, but just giving one example of a single game that can break the limits of 2GB memory cards and who knows what the future will hold for eyefinity enabled games.

But if you're unlikely to be playing these graphical blockbuster extraordinaire games then I don't know. Hopefully my little anecdote is helpful.

[radrok]

I have the same issue as you man (gaming on a 30 incher) and I am still waiting for AMD to bloody launch that 7990 but it seems that it won't be launched.

I tried 6990 CFX but performance didn't scale with 3 or 4 GPUs and most games as Dave said aren't even supported for more than 2 GPUs (Skyrim is a prime example for me).

So I tried with trifire (6990+6970) cause I had one spare 6970 lying around, well no way either, 2 GPUs seem to be the sweet spot.

So:
I had two choices, SLI 680 or CFX 7970; I honestly couldn't get over the fact that NVIDIA always seems to put the minimum necessary VRAM to get things done and that makes me bloody angry because they shouldn't skimp on high end, especially because 2GB is so last year.
So they leave the VRAM matter to AIBs and we get in return crazily overpriced 4GB 680s.
Locked voltage is something I can't stand either, because I love to overclock being a water cooler.

So the choice on the green side was to get a couple of classy 4GB + evbot or a couple of 3GB 7970s.

I am still torn but I think I'll just order tomorrow a couple of 7970 Lightning and match em with the new EK full cover WB so I hopefully can get 1200+ core on both and get over it.

Oh and don't worry about upgrading your mobo+cpu+ram, they are fine, in fact I still game on my 1366 rig, Gulftown is a beast.

[crazyeyesreaper]

http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?...b210a3b6bdd680

yea ^ end of Discussion lol Zotac GTX 670 4GB its a 680 PCB and Cooler according to more than a few forums and at $450 yea .... not gonna beat the dead horse

GTX 680 2GB PCB http://www.zotac.com/index.php?page=...100282&lang=en


GTX 680 4GB PCB http://www.zotac.com/index.php?page=...100282&lang=en


GTX 670 4GB PCB http://www.zotac.com/index.php?produ...100288&lang=en

[radrok]

So I guess you can just fit an Heatkiller fullcover or whatever EK/AC etc...

That's good

[LordJummy]

LOL if anything I am even more undecided now! Both sides have some serious benefits right now. I am tempted to get three of these http://www.amazon.com/BenQ-XL2420T-P...G0?ref=prid-20 and a couple gtx 680's lol. Then I could do some serious 3D surround* gaming. In reality though I don't think I would really use 3D, and I'd rather stick with what I have as it's a total Effing pain to redo my whole setup.

I am mostly very tempted by those zotac 670's (those are amazing and save me $50-60 per card over a lightning), but I'm also very tempted by the 7970 lightning or toxic 6GB edition. The 6GB and high OC'ability is calling out to me!

Thankfully I don't play BF3 or any shooters really, and most of the games I play scale pretty well with crossfire and SLI. Some great replies so far. I'm going back and forth reading everything I can. I don't want to hold out too long. I need to make some kind of a decision soon before they start announcing the readeon 8xxx series and the gtx 7xx series lol.

[radrok]

Can you find the 7970 Toxic somewhere? The only one I can find here in Italy is absurdly priced over 700 eur.

[LordJummy]

Originally Posted by radrok

Can you find the 7970 Toxic somewhere? The only one I can find here in Italy is absurdly priced over 700 eur.

I haven't actually checked to order it yet, I've only been looking over the reviews. I would probably go with two MSI 7970 Lightning cards if I go with a 7970. The cost of the toxic isn't going to be justifiable to me, as I won't get any real world performance increase from it.

I think I'm down to 7970 3gb vs. gtx 670 4gb

Probably reference based either way, unless there's a water block for another model.

[radrok]

7970 Lightning has a waterblock from EK (damn circles -.-)



7970 DCII has a waterblock from EK



Although I think I've read somewhere that latest DCII batch are voltage locked, Ray can you enlighten us?

[LordJummy]

Originally Posted by radrok

7970 Lightning has a waterblock from EK (damn circles -.-)

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...93906858_n.jpg

7970 DCII has a waterblock from EK

http://www.ekwb.com/shop/media/catal...c_0271_800.jpg

Although I think I've read somewhere that latest DCII batch are voltage locked, Ray can you enlighten us?

2 x 7970 Lightning's + EK Blocks is looking pretty snazzy from where I'm sitting. Just not quite ready to pull the trigger. I am looking at the nvidia stuff more right now.

[crazyeyesreaper]

not sure on the voltage locking i THINK its only the NON TOP models that are locked,

mine is a Direct Cu II TOP edition and i have the ability to change voltages.