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Is the AMD HD 7970 6GB a better purchase than the GTX770 4GB?

Tags:
  • Ray Tracing
  • Nvidia
  • AMD
  • Graphics
  • Graphics Cards
  • HD
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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March 22, 2014 12:17:05 PM

Hi, I've been checking the benchmarks and the AMD seems to win on half of them while on the other half the nVidia wins, which one do you guys recommend?

I've been buying nVidias lately because of CUDA, I convert videos a lot, but lately it seems that most apps use DirectCompute.

I found both around - I normally purchase from Amazon or NewEgg.

I need it for HD gaming, ray-tracing and video rendering and to use 3 independent monitors (1 VGA/DVI and 2 HDMI, all different models and sizes).

My specs are: i7 930 + Patriot Viper 12GB Triple Channel + Sound Blaster Fatality Xtreme Gamer

Benchmarks: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/829?vs=768

Thanks!

More about : amd 7970 6gb purchase gtx770 4gb

a b Î Nvidia
a b U Graphics card
March 22, 2014 12:21:17 PM

4GB is a lot of RAM. You don't need 6GB.
Which card is more expensive? and which brand do you prefer?
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March 22, 2014 12:23:28 PM

The 770 4GB is plenty of RAM.

If the AMD wins benchmarks and you can afford it though, take the AMD.
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March 22, 2014 12:26:34 PM

cst1992 said:
4GB is a lot of RAM. You don't need 6GB.
Which card is more expensive? and which brand do you prefer?


Hello, I added more info that answers your question.

There are 4GB 7970's as well but the 6GB is not much expensive and if I decide to get the AMD then I will probrably pick 6GB if I can.

I posted on another thread a suggestion for a GFX card that supports 3 independent monitors, being 1 VGA/DVI and the 2 others HDMI, that's a requirement for me.
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a b Î Nvidia
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March 22, 2014 12:27:30 PM

If you aren't gaming a R7 260X can do that, as I posted before.
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March 22, 2014 12:28:14 PM

AshyCFC said:
The 770 4GB is plenty of RAM.

If the AMD wins benchmarks and you can afford it though, take the AMD.


Hi, I'm using mainly Anandtech to compare and like I said on some games the nVidia wins and some the AMD wins, I've been using nVidia lately (currently have a GTX 560) and that's why I'm asking you guys an advise if it would be a good idea to switch to AMD in this case.

Thank you
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March 22, 2014 12:29:48 PM

AshyCFC said:
If you aren't gaming a R7 260X can do that, as I posted before.


I'm gaming actually, I have 90+ games on Steam, most are heavy on the graphics, my current GTX 560 does the job but I'm getting an updated GFX to handle the 3 independent displays and thought it would be a good idea to do an upgrade.
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a b Î Nvidia
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March 22, 2014 12:30:03 PM

Paul F said:


Hello, I added more info that answers your question.

There are 4GB 7970's as well but the 6GB is not much expensive and if I decide to get the AMD then I will probrably pick 6GB if I can.

I posted on another thread a suggestion for a GFX card that supports 3 independent monitors, being 1 VGA/DVI and the 2 others HDMI, that's a requirement for me.



If you want 6GB and it's not much more expensive, why not.
There are already some threads of people wanting to buy 6GB versions of the GTX 780 Ti card(it uses 3GB originally) for high VRAM games. They're just staying safe. Just don't get bad value for money, that's the main point.
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March 22, 2014 12:31:08 PM

Oh okay, for gaming then that's completely different.

I didn't really read the main post very well as I thought it was just a repost of your other topic :p 

The 6GB RAM will help a lot for multi monitor then.
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March 22, 2014 12:32:45 PM

cst1992 said:
If you want 6GB and it's not much more expensive, why not.
There are already some threads of people wanting to buy 6GB versions of the GTX 780 Ti card(it uses 3GB originally) for high VRAM games. They're just staying safe. Just don't get bad value for money, that's the main point.


I agree, I can go for 3-4GB no problem as long as they support 3 independent displays (not for gaming).
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March 22, 2014 12:37:32 PM

AshyCFC said:
Oh okay, for gaming then that's completely different.

I didn't really read the main post very well as I thought it was just a repost of your other topic :p 

The 6GB RAM will help a lot for multi monitor then.


My concern is that I don't see 2 HDMI ports on the back of these latest cards.

I checked and the 260X is much inferior than the 7970.
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March 22, 2014 12:37:57 PM

you can support 3 independent displays (non game) with 2GB VRAM, the 3/4GB VRAM cards won't have trouble.

yes the 260x is vastly inferior to the 7970 but can still run 3monitors non gaming.
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March 22, 2014 1:40:44 PM

AshyCFC said:
you can support 3 independent displays (non game) with 2GB VRAM, the 3/4GB VRAM cards won't have trouble.

yes the 260x is vastly inferior to the 7970 but can still run 3monitors non gaming.


My problem now is that I need to convert one of the HDMI to DisplayPort, right?

My current gfx has 2 HDMi as I needed but they work as "Dual HDMI" instead of independent.
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a b Î Nvidia
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March 22, 2014 1:44:20 PM

You can configure that in options, how you want the monitors to work(double display, independent, clone, etc)
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March 22, 2014 2:13:02 PM

AshyCFC said:
you can support 3 independent displays (non game) with 2GB VRAM, the 3/4GB VRAM cards won't have trouble.

yes the 260x is vastly inferior to the 7970 but can still run 3monitors non gaming.


cst1992 said:
You can configure that in options, how you want the monitors to work(double display, independent, clone, etc)


My current gfx doesn't have that option, with the new one I suppose I will be able to but I'm facing now a connector problem.

1 monitor VGA/DVI - 19" 4:3
1 monitor HDMI/DIV - 27" 16:9
1 monitor HDMI/VGA/DVI - 21.5" 16:9 (rotated 90º)
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a b Î Nvidia
a b À AMD
a b U Graphics card
March 22, 2014 2:32:50 PM
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a b Î Nvidia
a b U Graphics card
March 23, 2014 12:24:18 AM

It's the manufacturer's discretion. Some follow NVIDIA's reference design, some their own. The one you're looking at is a custom design. NVIDIA's specifications list the card to have 2 DVI ports and 1 mini-HDMI port.
Both DVI and HDMI have a digital signal. You could connect a converter to a DVI port and use it as HDMI:

If you can find a card with 1 standard HDMI connector and 2 DVI ports, you can connect 3 HDMI monitors to your card.
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March 23, 2014 1:32:52 AM

Paul F said:
AshyCFC said:
display port to HDMI cable:

http://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Gold-Plated-Display...


thanks but none of my monitors have display port! It's 2 HDMI and one vga/dvi.


I understand that, you plug the displayport end into the GPU and the HDMI end into the monitor!
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March 23, 2014 5:26:23 AM

AshyCFC said:
display port to HDMI cable:

http://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Gold-Plated-Display...


That's great, I didn't know that there were passive cables for that!

Is it safe now to say that I can plug my 19" to the DVI port, my 21.5" to the HDMI port and my 27" to the display port using this cable and they will be completely independent running on the 7970 or GTX 770?

I'm really inclined to get the SAPPHIRE's HD 7970 Vapor-X 6GB OC Edition and secondly the Gigabyte GTX 770 GDDR5-4GB.
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March 23, 2014 5:35:09 AM

Yes, cables can work passively. It's just a different arrangement of wires.
All monitors are independently configurable. You can find the options in the NVIDIA control panel or Catalyst control Center(assuming that is what it's called for AMD cards, I'm not a AMD user).
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March 23, 2014 7:10:05 AM

Yeah Catalyst is the place to go for AMD cards.
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March 23, 2014 11:32:32 AM

AshyCFC said:
Yeah Catalyst is the place to go for AMD cards.


I went ahead and just bought the "SAPPHIRE HD 7970 GHz Edition 6GB GDDR5 VAPOR-X".

This card has mini-displayports instead of the regular sizes ones, which adapter should I use to connect my HDMI monitor to it, active or passive?

EDIT: Found the answer here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1866451/radeon...

Active
Amazon

Passive
Amazon
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a b Î Nvidia
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March 23, 2014 11:48:38 AM

If the cable is short, you don't need active cables. Active cables are needed only for enhancing the signal(or if the signal is big).
Big in the sense, there is a new port coming up (Thunderbolt) which has double bandwidth of USB3.0 (10Gbps) and it is being considered for setups which allow graphics cards to be housed in separate enclosures. That interface has native active interface.
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March 23, 2014 12:01:31 PM

cst1992 said:
If the cable is short, you don't need active cables. Active cables are needed only for enhancing the signal(or if the signal is big).
Big in the sense, there is a new port coming up (Thunderbolt) which has double bandwidth of USB3.0 (10Gbps) and it is being considered for setups which allow graphics cards to be housed in separate enclosures. That interface has native active interface.


Thanks man, I just grabbed one of these: Amazon

My cable setup will be:


    1 VGA Monitor connected to the DVI port on the video card
    1 HDMI monitor connected to the HDMI port on the video card
    1 HDMI monitor connected to the mini-Display port on the video card using the adapter


I just hope that this card won't "join" any of the signals like my current GTX650 did when I plugged 2 HDMIs and the DVI, but keep them separate.
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a b Î Nvidia
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March 23, 2014 10:08:04 PM

I'm pretty sure you can configure that in the settings panel.
Anyway, looks good.
Good luck to you!
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