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Gigabyte 7970 3GB Crossfire vs EVGA GeForce GTX 380 2GB Signature + w/Backplate SLI

capt_aubrey

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Hello,

As you can probably tell already, I am brand spanking new here. Here is my situation:

I current have Crossfire Gigabytes 7970 3GB installed on my rig right now. I picked up 2 EVGA GeForce GTX 380 2GB Signature + w/Backplate, because I got them at a really great price. When I was building my rig, I kept going back and forth on the GPUs. I ultimately went with AMD because I have only owned AND cards. However, since putting them in Crossfire, it is becoming a hassle to play some games. Although, I can use a 3rd party app, like RadeonPro, to stabilize some games, I don't want to do that. So, I am thinking about making the switch to Nvidia.

Anyhow, I am worried about the longevity of 2GBs compared to the 3GBs from the 7970s. I want to make sure that I am good to go for the next few years, as I will not be able to upgrade for a while. I have mulit-monitor setup, but that is strictly for work. I only game on 1 1920x1080 60Hz monitor and that will not be changing. I play games like Skyrim, Battlefield 3, Batman, Arma series and the Total War series, just to name a few.

So, is it worth the switch from the 2 7970s to the 2 680s? I have the hardware to not cause any issues with whatever I choose. I would really appreciate anyone who is willing to help me out here.

Thank you in advance for your time, help, suggestions and advice.

The Capt.
 

cadaveca

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Ram size matters little for gaming right now, unless running triple monitors, it seems. Most apps are fine with 1 GB @ 1920x1200. Sure htere's a few "AAA" titles that are not...but you've got 2 GB, anyway.
 

capt_aubrey

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Thank you for the quick reply!
So, do you think the 680s SLI is better than the Crossfire 7970s? Sorry, I am kind of new at this and definitely new to Nvidia, if I decide to go that route. Oh, what what about the 256 bit interface of the 680 compared to the 384 bit interface of the 7970?
 

cadaveca

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Thank you for the quick reply!
So, do you think the 680s SLI is better than the Crossfire 7970s? Sorry, I am kind of new at this and definitely new to Nvidia, if I decide to go that route.

Honestly, that's something i'd like to find out for myself. I have dual 7970s, and dual 7950s, and like you, I have run into issues. According to a lot of info that has come into public light recently, it's been exposed that these issues are driver related, as you mentioned, so they might fix it, for sure.


But because I have been burned trying to run Eyefinity since 5870 launch, I am not so quick to move over to NVidia no matter how satisfied people are. I seem to be more sensitive to these things than other people are.

That said, NVidia does appeal to me a bit more right now, but without having the cards, I don't really have any real input for you on that, honestly, just opinions.
 

capt_aubrey

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Yeah, me too. That is why I am trying to get all of the information that I can before I throw the 680s into my rig. This may sound silly, but I am hesitant to get rid of the 7970s because of its specs, but my gut is telling me to go with Nvidia...if that makes any sense :laugh:. So, would anyone think it is an "upgrade" going from what I have now to the 680s?

Edit: So, I have a buyer already for the 2 x Gigabyte 7970s. So, I guess I have to make a decision soon...ughhh!
 
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the54thvoid

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I have had two 7970's and had various experiences. I eventually moved them out to make way for a single Titan.

Although the 7970's were faster(?) they were also dubious. Some games (BF3 for example) were very smooth indeed, so much so there is no improvement from a single Titan. However, other games such as MOH Warfighter didn't work for me in crossfire. Other games, despite running at high fps didnt seem quite as smooth as te fps counter was telling me.

I do think this will get mostly fixed if AMD concentrate on the software side but i the end of i go dual card again it would be a waste of i didnt double up on Titans.

I would use your 680's for now. Wait for the feedback on the crossfire fixes in summer and check the inevitable reviews out. If AMD get the crossfire as finely tuned as sli, AMD will storm out in front, their cards are awesome, drivers just need to catch up.
 

capt_aubrey

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Thanks for the reply! There are a few things that concern me and one of them is the driver fix. I would hate to wait and have it not work, or switch them out and have them work. I guess that is the AMD "fan", for lack of a better term, in me. You know, just trying to hold on to what I have always used. However, I would not mind checking out the 680s, or Nvidia for that matter.

My other concern is the 2GB of VRAM, as mentioned earlier. I don't know how ling 2GBs will be relevant with future games. Will I even notice a difference between 2-3GBs in 1080p? Will there me a difference between the 256 bit interface of the 680 and the 384 bit interface of the 7970?

I just want a smooth experience and I don't want to use third party applications to monitor and "fix" the problems with Crossfire.
 
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I would use your 680's for now. Wait for the feedback on the crossfire fixes in summer and check the inevitable reviews out. If AMD get the crossfire as finely tuned as sli, AMD will storm out in front, their cards are awesome, drivers just need to catch up.

This. It is not like the second hand price for either one will drop much by summer.

Memory bandwidth doesn't really matter. Both are proven to be well performing cards, even up to eyefinity resolutions.
 
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My other concern is the 2GB of VRAM, as mentioned earlier. I don't know how ling 2GBs will be relevant with future games. Will I even notice a difference between 2-3GBs in 1080p? Will there me a difference between the 256 bit interface of the 680 and the 384 bit interface of the 7970?

I don't think anybody can give you now a correct answer to whether 2GB VRAM will be enough one or two years from now. Today there is absolutely no difference between 2 or 3 GBs at 1080. Also, as an end user you shouldn't be preoccupied with the memory interface as long as the performance is there and the GTX680 is slightly faster than a regular 7970.

On the other hand, the PS4 and probably the new xbox will have installed 8GB DDR5 which can be used by the processor and the GPU inside the machines so next generation games might very well use more VRAM. To what extent this will affect users with 2GB VRAM or less cards which will still be the vast majority of PC people remains to be seen.
 

capt_aubrey

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^^^
That is what I am afraid of. So, I don't know!

I guess a question is will the next gen consoles actually start off with using all 8GBs of VRAM? And, excuse my ignorance, won't some PC games start using RAM if they need to?
 
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^^^
That is what I am afraid of. So, I don't know!

I guess a question is will the next gen consoles actually start off with using all 8GBs of VRAM? And, excuse my ignorance, won't some PC games start using RAM if they need to?
8GB is shared RAM and VRAM. So no, next gen consoles don't have 8GB VRAM. But, it is very likely VRAM usage will increase in next year(s). How much, who knows.

You cannot substitute VRAM with RAM on PC. You will be running sub 10fps when that happens.
 

cadaveca

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You cannot substitute VRAM with RAM on PC. You will be running sub 10fps when that happens.

I guess maybe you'll have a surprise coming then. PS4 uses GDDR5, and from what I see reported elsewhere, so will some AMD desktop APUs in the future(Kabini). That's still some ways out though. The revised XBOX360 APU itself had to be physically slowed down because everything ran so much faster, and next-gen consoles will only take this to the next level, times 10.

With the CPU and GPU sharing the same address space, memory usage is far different than how it works in current PC design though, for sure.
 
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In my opinion if you're playing your games at 1080p and not really interested in benchmarking, I see no reason for SLi or CrossFire. A single 7970 or 680 will be enough.
 
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I guess maybe you'll have a surprise coming then. PS4 uses GDDR5, and from what I see reported elsewhere, so will some AMD desktop APUs in the future(Kabini). That's still some ways out though. The revised XBOX360 APU itself had to be physically slowed down because everything ran so much faster, and next-gen consoles will only take this to the next level, times 10.

With the CPU and GPU sharing the same address space, memory usage is far different than how it works in current PC design though, for sure.
Actually I am very familiar with shared memory. I am digital HW engineer (ASIC/FPGA). Should have maybe written at the moment. ;)

There is nothing else I wait more than shared memory between all major components of PC. :rockout:
 

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In my opinion if you're playing your games at 1080p and not really interested in benchmarking, I see no reason for SLi or CrossFire. A single 7970 or 680 will be enough.

Was going to say this as well.
 

capt_aubrey

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Hey, I am back with the new 680s installed. I have to say that I think I like the 7970s. I did a few benchmarks and I noticed that is more or less the same. The one that I thought would definitely be better, actually was not, Batman Arkham City. The 680s really performed not as well as the 7970s. That really surprised me. Anyhow, I am beginning to think I made a poor decision giving up those 7970s.

I think that I am done with Crossfire and SLI. Now, I just need to find a powerful single card that I can run everything maxed out with for my little 1080p 60Hz single monitor. I guess, I could have just kept one of the 7970s and that would have been it. Oh well, what are you going to do?

I am looking at these two for my single card:

AMD:
SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100351-6GVXSR Radeon HD 7970 GHz ...

Nvidia:
EVGA 04G-P4-3688-KR GeForce GTX 680 Classified 4GB...

What do you all think?

Thanks again for the help!
 
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In my opinion if you're playing your games at 1080p and not really interested in benchmarking, I see no reason for SLi or CrossFire. A single 7970 or 680 will be enough.

my sentiments exactly ;)

get a strong card for 1080p gaming = sanity
get dual cards for 1080p gaming = vanity
 

capt_aubrey

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I had to learn that the hard way, that is why I posted what I did above your post. It sucks learning that way, but I did.
 

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like i told ya before keep 1 7970 sell off everything else, if you need more performance buy a new high end card when GTX 700 and AMD 8000 series launches, and then sell the 7970. :roll:
 
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Dude at 1080p the 6GB HD 7970 is the better cards it's faster has more VRAM and is cheaper also it has unlocked voltage and as such should be able to out OC the Classified. I can guarantee that it will hit over 1150mhz if you get the voltage control chip to do what you tell it which was really hard for me.
 
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Dude at 1080p the 6GB HD 7970 is the better cards it's faster has more VRAM and is cheaper also it has unlocked voltage and as such should be able to out OC the Classified. I can guarantee that it will hit over 1150mhz if you get the voltage control chip to do what you tell it which was really hard for me.

6gb for 1080p? I would think the 3gb version would be better as nothing at 1080p would even need 3gb and wouldn't have the higher latency of a 6gb card.
 
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Was going to say this as well.

the point is not benchmarks but eye-candy @ 1080
having downgraded to a 670 from 7950xfire the visuals are pretty sore and i can't run v-sync on all the games like i used to
both sides have their issues with drivers even on single card
 

ueutyi

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380? Gtx 300? Are you sure?
 
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6gb for 1080p? I would think the 3gb version would be better as nothing at 1080p would even need 3gb and wouldn't have the higher latency of a 6gb card.

I'm just picking the better of the 2 he suggested which is the 4gb way overpriced EVGA or the 6gb 7970 which is way overkill for 1080p. It's still the better card of the 2 he suggested. It also has a better PCB and VRM than the regular 3GB Vapor-x and is still cheaper than the EVGA. Also those aren't high density chips there's memory on both sides of the PCB and these OC better than the ones on the 3GB Vapor-x
 
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Benchmark Scores Benches are silly
Dude at 1080p the 6GB HD 7970 is the better cards it's faster has more VRAM and is cheaper also it has unlocked voltage and as such should be able to out OC the Classified. I can guarantee that it will hit over 1150mhz if you get the voltage control chip to do what you tell it which was really hard for me.

6GB is so unnecessary. He has 1 1080p monitor, not 6 running eyefinity.
Even with just 1 GB on my 7850, it is adequate for almost all gaming situation running 1080p.
At 3 GB, he is set for pretty much anything currently available and for the next 2 years. He'll probably run out of horsepower before he runs out of memory. Even in the most highly modded game, it should be more than enough unless it is just a horribly coded game.
 
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