Help on deciding!! Radeon 7950 vs 7870 vs 7770

thepattyv · Jul 20, 2013

Planning in upgrading my GPU to one either: 7950, 7870 or 7770. Clearly, the 7950is the most superior out of those 3. But my worry is the performance/price ratio and the longevity of the cards (how good will they be able to run future games).

7950: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202026

7870: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202025

7770 : http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202011

The 7950 is really attractive because of it's price (on sale at the moment). The 7870 has great price and has 1050 Mhz core clock. And someone once told me there's no point in investing in high end GPUs since technology is constantly changing, so that's where the 7770 comes in.

- What worries me is the video ram. I'll be playing at 1920x1080p on a single monitor. Will 2 GB GDDR5 or even 1 GB GDDR5 be enough???

-How long will these cards be able to run future games???

-And what are the most important specifications on a GPU???

I'm also taking in consideration their physical size. The 7870 and 7770 have perfect size for my case. The length and height 7950 doesn't worry me, it's the width. Can you guys tell if the 7950 will fit??? It's the nearby capacitor (close to the PCIx16 slot) that worries me and the RAM sockets as well.

My PC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp1Zva22rqk

Note: By future games I mean like in '14 and '15 and possible even '16.

Please help me decide guys.

SNA3 · Jul 20, 2013

forge all and get GTX 760 for 250$

your best choice

ingtar33 · Jul 20, 2013

i'm rolling with a 1gb vram 7770ge, and seem to be alright at 1080p. can't play all the games on ultra but there are a good many i can.

i would say if you can get the 7950 for less then you can get a 760, buy it now. The 7950, if overclocked well, can be a faster card then the 770, 670, and 660ti. heck... for a long time it was the THG recommended buy at 350 and at 300, there just wasn't a better price/performance card out there on the high end of things. though nvidia came out with a bunch of new cards, it still holds it own well (tahiti is a beastly gpu). The 7950 is also right about on the top end of what you need at 1080p. Its doubtful you'll need more gpu there for years yet...

thepattyv · Jul 21, 2013

ingtar33 :

Can you check the dimensions of the 7950 in the link above and tell if you think it'll fit?

mr91 · Jul 21, 2013

I Agree, the 760 is a better choice in my opinion - I disagree with the guy that told you not to get a high since the technology is constantly changing, a perfect example is the gtx 590 it came out in 2011 and still is more powerful than the 760.

What games are you planning to play?

thepattyv · Jul 21, 2013

mr91 :

Well this coming fall, Rome total war 2, fifa 14, arkham origins, battlefield 4, watch dogs, possible assassin's creed 4. gta 5 when it comes out on pc.

ingtar33 · Jul 21, 2013

thepattyv :

it should fit. seems like in the video there is a bay cutout across from the first pci-e slot to allow super long cards

sam_p_lay · Jul 21, 2013

+1 to the GTX760. Faster and cheaper than the 7950.

Mousemonkey · Jul 21, 2013

mr91 :

Comparing a dual GPU card to a single GPU card is hardly fair though is it?

muzzpro · Jul 21, 2013

Mousemonkey :

it is fair to compare the gtx tita and gtx 690 since they are at the same price range.
so please dual gpu can be compared with a single gpu. the 9800gx2 is destroyed completely by a gtx 650ti

for the OP get a gtx 760 or HD7950, performance difference is pretty close

thepattyv · Jul 21, 2013

ingtar33 :

Could you please point out bay cutout??
So you think it the ram sockets and the capacitor next to the PCIx16 slot won't be a problem ??

mr91 · Jul 21, 2013

The Gtx 760 should be enough to play the games you mentioned however you might have to turn down settings and anti aliasing and you still might experience occasional slow downs in some of the graphics intensive titles you mentioned... What Cpu are you planning to use? Because this will impact your gameplay as well. I recommend a sandy bridge quad core I5 or better, However at the end of the day, I think you will need to upgrade in a couple
years.

Below is a example based on the previous generations.

The 590 came out in march 2011 for $700 & two years later it is still one of the most power cards on the market however the 560 ti
that came out 2 years ago for $249 and is not powerful enough to play many of todays games unless you turn down the settings to medium.

I personally like Nvidia Cards and got myself a gtx 780 which I upgraded from a gtx 670 and I'm glad I did because the 1080p and 1440p performance
is exceptional far better than the gtx 670 however if you like AMD I suggest you spend a extra 140 and get the 7970 ghz ed because it will last you longer than the 7950 and your game play will be smoother for the titles you mentioned.

thepattyv · Jul 21, 2013

mr91 :

I got an i7 3770 at 3.4 ghz. Is 2 gb GDDR5 video ram enough to play 1080p on a single monitor ?

But I also want to take the GPU dimensions into consideration. Could you please check the video and tell if the 7950 or 7979 fit inside ??

mr91 · Jul 21, 2013

Your processor is Awesome! 2 gb of GDDR5 is fine for most games on a 1080p display however to give you a example max panyne 3 uses more 2gb of memory with the settings maxed and 8x msaa enabled and the game came out more than a year ago... If you want to future proof your system, I recommend 3gb of memory or more.

The Dimensions for the 7970 ghz edition is 11.25 long 1.8 inches wide 5.25 height which is similar to the 7950, I'm not sure it will fit into your case - do you have the exact dimensions for your case?

Below is the link for the card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202001

SNA3 · Jul 21, 2013

thepattyv :

mr91 :

I got an i7 3770 at 3.4 ghz. Is 2 gb GDDR5 video ram enough to play 1080p on a single monitor ?

But I also want to take the GPU dimensions into consideration. Could you please check the video and tell if the 7950 or 7979 fit inside ??

GET GTX 770 !!!

you will loose this :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1ZHfJRrFLU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWFkDrKvBRU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD-KDwq3qeM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE_lnS7TfDI

sam_p_lay · Jul 21, 2013

Or GTX760 for PhysX and better price/performance ratio ;-) GTX770 is brilliant though - will max anything at 1080p (even Crysis 3).

ingtar33 · Jul 21, 2013

sam_p_lay :

no it won't... lets tone down the fanboyism... the 770 is a faster then the 680, when you take the adaptive turbo boost II out of the equation it's actually pretty much identical to the 680... a card which the 7970 has roundly beat by 5%-15% performance for a while. Turbos disabled on both cards and the 7970 is about 10-15% faster then the 770... that said the 770 has an awesome turbo, which is definitely a feature of the card. the result is unless you really push the 7970 to the wall, the 770 will be faster then the 7970. But it's not by much.

We know the 7970 can't MAX out Crysis 3 at any resolution 1080p or above (average fps is like 48fps). If the 7970 can't do it, the 770 certainly can't do it. To max crysis 3 you need a 780 or Titan, as a sidenote, at 1080p max settings crysis 3 uses MORE then 2gb of vram. (2.2gb) Any gpu with less then 3gb of vram will be handicapped trying to max crysis 3 even in xfire/sli.

thepattyv · Jul 21, 2013

ingtar33 :

sam_p_lay :

no it won't... lets tone down the fanboyism... the 770 is a faster then the 680, when you take the adaptive turbo boost II out of the equation it's actually pretty much identical to the 680... a card which the 7970 has roundly beat by 5%-15% performance for a while. Turbos disabled on both cards and the 7970 is about 10-15% faster then the 770... that said the 770 has an awesome turbo, which is definitely a feature of the card. the result is unless you really push the 7970 to the wall, the 770 will be faster then the 7970. But it's not by much.

We know the 7970 can't MAX out Crysis 3 at any resolution 1080p or above (average fps is like 48fps). If the 7970 can't do it, the 770 certainly can't do it. To max crysis 3 you need a 780 or Titan, as a sidenote, at 1080p max settings crysis 3 uses MORE then 2gb of vram. (2.2gb) Any gpu with less then 3gb of vram will be handicapped trying to max crysis 3 even in xfire/sli.

What are the most important specifications on a GPU??

ingtar33 · Jul 21, 2013

thepattyv :

the answer isn't cut and dry. Because there are a lot of parts in a gpu which affect performance and drivers impact it as well, throw in the difference in chip architecture and you run into major problems finding 1 spec or even a few which will tell you the whole story.

Here are some basics though...
TFLOPS - bigger is better (both single and double point)
Memory Clock & type - GDDR5 is best (measured in gb/s)
Memory Bandwidth - bigger the better

generally speaking those can give you a rough idea of gpu power. That said there are a lot of wildcards in the mix. For example, nvidia turbo boost II is an insanely effective auto overclocking feature, which really makes it almost impossible to accurately and CONSISTENTLY measure the effectiveness of the new 7xx lineup. That said, while the new lineups benches are all over the board turbo boost ii is a very effective technology. helping nvidia cards to punch way over their weight class (when in a well ac'ed room with a good case airflow).

by the same factor, the radeon 7xxx gpus all are compute monsters, in the class of business class gpus. Something that nvidia's 6xx/7xx/Titan gpus are quite poor at (heck, the titan's compute power is in the class of a 7850 or 7770ge), not that compute is much of a factor for most people's gpu choices, but it should be something to considered in the event its something you need.

thepattyv · Jul 21, 2013

ingtar33 :

thepattyv :

the answer isn't cut and dry. Because there are a lot of parts in a gpu which affect performance and drivers impact it as well, throw in the difference in chip architecture and you run into major problems finding 1 spec or even a few which will tell you the whole story.

Here are some basics though...
TFLOPS - bigger is better (both single and double point)
Memory Clock & type - GDDR5 is best (measured in gb/s)
Memory Bandwidth - bigger the better

generally speaking those can give you a rough idea of gpu power. That said there are a lot of wildcards in the mix. For example, nvidia turbo boost II is an insanely effective auto overclocking feature, which really makes it almost impossible to accurately and CONSISTENTLY measure the effectiveness of the new 7xx lineup. That said, while the new lineups benches are all over the board turbo boost ii is a very effective technology. helping nvidia cards to punch way over their weight class (when in a well ac'ed room with a good case airflow).

by the same factor, the radeon 7xxx gpus all are compute monsters, in the class of business class gpus. Something that nvidia's 6xx/7xx/Titan gpus are quite poor at (heck, the titan's compute power is in the class of a 7850 or 7770ge), not that compute is much of a factor for most people's gpu choices, but it should be something to considered in the event its something you need.

Is the 7870 GHZ worth it at 240$ or is the 7950 at 290$ a better investment?

Hakumisoso Terror · Jul 21, 2013

you are forgetting the 7870 xt
it is a great card, but i would get a 760.

SNA3 · Jul 21, 2013

thepattyv :

ingtar33 :

Is the 7870 GHZ worth it at 240$ or is the 7950 at 290$ a better investment?

the 7870GHZ is at 170$ only now in newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202025

thepattyv · Jul 21, 2013

SNA3 :

thepattyv :

ingtar33 :

Is the 7870 GHZ worth it at 240$ or is the 7950 at 290$ a better investment?

the 7870GHZ is at 170$ only now in newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202025

I'm from Canada my man

SNA3 · Jul 21, 2013

thepattyv :

SNA3 :

thepattyv :

the 7870GHZ is at 170$ only now in newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202025

I'm from Canada my man

duh .. cant you order from USA newegg ? they are next to you.

thepattyv · Jul 21, 2013

SNA3 :

thepattyv :

SNA3 :

I'm from Canada my man

duh .. cant you order from USA newegg ? they are next to you.

Nope. That would destroy the purpose of newegg Canada. So 7870 for 240 vs 7950 at 290$ ???

Help on deciding!! Radeon 7950 vs 7870 vs 7770

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