Crossfired 7970 Lightnings or SLI Asus 670 DCIIs?

[Enmitynz]

On the note of framebuffer. 2gb on the 670s vs 3gb on the 7970s. Do u think that the 2gb might limit some gamee in the next year or so? Right now 2gb is not a problem, but when I got my 5850s 1gb was more than enough too but is not so ideal these days. Thoughts?

[james888]

Originally Posted by ThunderStorm

Probably not since the definition of TDP of AMD and nVIDIA differs.

I would go for 2x HD 7970 lightnings, these cards are just amazing with 3Gb VRAM and Ocing capability. 2x GTX 670 is not a bad choice if you like NV cards though.

Maybe... but 670's do run a ton cooler... so...

Originally Posted by Enmitynz

On the note of framebuffer. 2gb on the 670s vs 3gb on the 7970s. Do u think that the 2gb might limit some gamee in the next year or so? Right now 2gb is not a problem, but when I got my 5850s 1gb was more than enough too but is not so ideal these days. Thoughts?

You play on 1080p? I doubt you will run into too many problems if any at all. If you do it is an easy fix with graphics settings. If you go to a higher resolution than yes.

[Enmitynz]

Yeah right now im only 1080p but as part of this upgrade im going to be getting a new 27" ips either 2560×1600 or 2560 x 1440. So 7970s best choice in this regard?

[silapakorn]

If that's your concern you can always go for GTX670 4GB sli.

I use 670 sli myself and I never have any regret. Nvidia's driver is very solid comparing to when I used HD5750 about a year ago.

[james888]

Originally Posted by Enmitynz

Yeah right now im only 1080p but as part of this upgrade im going to be getting a new 27" ips either 2560×1600 or 2560 x 1440. So 7970s best choice in this regard?

Judge for yourself. This is just a single gpu.

Honestly though, two 670's are going to kill any game out there. I think the lower temps is a very very valid reason for getting 670's. I got a single 7970 and am very happy with it. The 4gb 670's would solve any vram problems you fear. I have used both nvidea and amd drivers. Both good.

[Enmitynz]

Yes 4gb 670s sound like the perfect option for me, just need to find some within my budget.

See what you can find guys. Heres the site I use www.pricespy.co.nz budget is 1300nzd...possibly 1400

[james888]

Originally Posted by Enmitynz

Yes 4gb 670s sound like the perfect option for me, just need to find some within my budget.

See what you can find guys. Heres the site I use www.pricespy.co.nz budget is 1300nzd...possibly 1400

Only option they got. http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=1241904

[Enmitynz]

Yeah thats what I thought. Bloody nz and its lack of pc hardware lol

[Jack1n]

http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?e=1379701

This one seems cheap and is significantly quieter/cooler than the reff design.

[james888]

Originally Posted by Jack1n

http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?e=1379701

This one seems cheap and is significantly quieter/cooler than the reff design.

Thats my card. It is quiet. It does run pretty cool for a 7970. A 670 will always run cooler than a 7970 though.

[Enmitynz]

I kinda wish there was a 670 lightning coz the 680 lightning is just stupid expensive here in nz. Cant even find the 670 power edition here. oh decisions decisions.

[james888]

Originally Posted by Enmitynz

I kinda wish there was a 670 lightning coz the 680 lightning is just stupid expensive here in nz. Cant even find the 670 power edition here. oh decisions decisions.

Why is it that you want the lightnings?

[Enmitynz]

Just for their renowned performance and reliability. Plus they just look like a damp shaven pussy in your pc, making you want to bone it every time you see it

Edit : All jokes aside. They look great, the twin frozr design keeps temps down, noise down and has great ocability

[james888]

Originally Posted by Enmitynz

Just for their renowned performance and reliability. Plus they just look like a damp shaven pussy in your pc, making you want to bone it every time you see it

You should be in marketing. Too bad I don't fall for most marketing. Those lightnings are nice cards. I just don't think its worth the price.

[EarthDog]

Originally Posted by james888

You should be in marketing. Too bad I don't fall for most marketing. Those lightnings are nice cards. I just don't think its worth the price.

It isnt for you (its made for extreme cooling, not daily overclocks) anyway really.

[Enmitynz]

Haha no i like the lightnings because they are within my budget and ive narrowed my choices down to the lightnings and dcii because i dont want reference design this time around. I want the cards to be as cool and quiet as possible without having to void warranties. So its not the marketing as such thats won me over, its the dozens upon dozens of reviews ive read proving those facts that are important to me for my new build.

[james888]

Originally Posted by EarthDog

It isnt for you (its made for extreme cooling, not daily overclocks) anyway really.

I'm going to water so I can have extreme cooling and daily overclocks. He isn't comfortable doing that though.

Originally Posted by Enmitynz

Haha no i like the lightnings because they are within my budget and ive narrowed my choices down to the lightnings and dcii because i dont want reference design this time around. I want the cards to be as cool and quiet as possible without having to void warranties. So its not the marketing as such thats won me over, its the dozens upon dozens of reviews ive read proving those facts that are important to me for my new build.

My last gpu was a Msi PE 6950. It was a great card, but I was not impressed enough with it to get non reference again.

[raghu78]

OP first get a single HD 7970 lightning. overclock it to the max stable clocks with voltage tweaking. you should be happy with the performance. At 1080p you can max any game out with MSAA 4x. at 1600p a few games might require a reduction in MSAA from 4x to 2x or turning off.

[Enmitynz]

Thanks man I understand your reasoning for recommending a single gpu but if I dont buy in the next few weeks my funds will be burnt up on something else I can guarantee that lol so before the mrs gets a chance ill be grabbing as much as I can afford which will be crossfire or sli one way or another

I just read a thread on guru3d about 7 series cards and flickering issues, there was one hell of a list of games people are seeing flickering in...not only crossfire users either, single gpu users are experiencing a lot of this also. Id be pissed if this happened to me and its putting me off the 7970 route tbh.

Nvidia 600 series users ( single or sli ) are you getting flickering in some of your games?

[FreedomEclipse]

Bad company 2 used to cause a shit load of flickering with water textures but they fixed it eventually. guildwars 1 and 2 have quite a bit of flickering for me sadly. afaik it was mainly AMD folks who were having this issue

[ALMOSTunseen]

Just get a single 680 Lightning, loving myne.

[Rei86]

About a week late.

A member on Overclock.net did a comparsion of MSi Twin Frozr 4 design vs the Asus DirectCu II.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1286218/t...ectcu-ii/0_100

As you can see size is deceiving. Not only that having a triple slot cooler is just stupid unless it gives you ungodly cooling performance on air...which it doesn't at all.

Also I should've gotten a 7970 like you but I stepped into a two eVGA GTX680 Classified. But its hard to justify nVidia cards when AMD 7970/50 cards are the better price per performance ratio. The only issue for me is the makers as I find MSi's CS/RAM process very iffy.

[Enmitynz]

Just ordered 2 x Sapphire 7970 Ghz Edition Vapor X cards

the lightnings were out of stock so decided with the vapor x's - they will be far better suited to multi monitor if I look at doing that in the future anyway - can't wait for them to turn up! probably gunna be a couple of days before I see them though.

for the same price I could have got the DCII 670's, but the 7970's are just much more powerful especially when taking into consideration that crossfire scales better than sli.

Boxing day sales FTW, usually those two cards would have cost me $1450NZD, today they were down to $1230NZD.

Rather stoked

[MicroUnC]

Anyone here suffering from RSOD's with GTX 670 sli???

[hardcore_gamer]

I've been using 670 DC2T SLI for ~6 months. There were some frame rate issues mainly due to my multimonitor setup (5670*1080). Other than that, the setup was very stable thanks to good drivers from nvidia. If you are planning to use a single monitor, I recommend 670 SLI. 7970 crossfire might provide some extra juice in 3+ monitor setups.