Gtx 770 4gb or 7970

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wesselvandewal1

Sep 14, 2018
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Hi toms hardware.
Im planning to buy one of these gpu's. The gtx 770 4gb palit jetstream or the amd HD 7970 3gb.
The difference in price is gtx 770 is 10 euro's more. Which card should I get?
 
Solution
geofelt
Intel and nvidia drivers use vram differently.

VRAM has become a marketing issue.
My understanding is that vram is more of a performance issue than a functional issue.
A game needs to have most of the data in vram that it uses most of the time.
Somewhat like real ram.
If a game needs something not in vram, it needs to get it across the pcie boundary
hopefully from real ram and hopefully not from a hard drive.
It is not informative to know to what level the available vram is filled.
Possibly much of what is there is not needed.
What is not known is the rate of vram exchange.
Vram is managed by the Graphics card driver, and by the game. There may be differences in effectiveness between amd and nvidia cards.
And differences between...
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RobCrezz

RobCrezz

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Mar 14, 2013
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Performance is very similar between the two and most gtx 680/770 were 2gb.
Back when they came out, there was no difference between the 2gb and 4gb versions as games didnt use as much vram. These days I would expect the 4gb to be useful considering we now get 4gb on the lower end cards like the 1050 ti.
 
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wesselvandewal1

Sep 14, 2018
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Sorry. I meant that the 7970 uses it 3gb vram better than the 770 4gb uses its vram
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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Intel and nvidia drivers use vram differently.

VRAM has become a marketing issue.
My understanding is that vram is more of a performance issue than a functional issue.
A game needs to have most of the data in vram that it uses most of the time.
Somewhat like real ram.
If a game needs something not in vram, it needs to get it across the pcie boundary
hopefully from real ram and hopefully not from a hard drive.
It is not informative to know to what level the available vram is filled.
Possibly much of what is there is not needed.
What is not known is the rate of vram exchange.
Vram is managed by the Graphics card driver, and by the game. There may be differences in effectiveness between amd and nvidia cards.
And differences between games.
Here is an older performance test comparing 2gb with 4gb vram.
http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Video-Card-Performance-2GB-vs-4GB-Memory-154/
Spoiler... not a significant difference.
A more current set of tests shows the same results:
http://www.techspot.com/review/1114-vram-comparison-test/page5.html

And... no game maker wants to limit their market by
requiring huge amounts of vram. The vram you see will be appropriate to the particular card.

Performance of the cards will be similar.
Pick based on your preference for nvidia or amd drivers
 
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Solution
madmatt30

madmatt30

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MERGED QUESTION
Question from wesselvandewal1 : "Hd 7970 or Gtx 770 4gb"



7970 is actually the stronger card.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Tom's gpu hierarchy chart shows GTX770 and 7970 to be in the same performance tier.
For a specific game, there might be more difference.
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-hierarchy,4388.html
 
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madmatt30

madmatt30

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^ anyvgame released,in the last 2 years shows better peformance on the 7970 .

Amd continue to,optimise drivers for older cards ,nvidia dont.

Its as cut & dried as that.

At the same price I wouldnt totally ignore the 770 ,its still a decent card.

At $40 difference & the fact the 7970 is available to buy locally & to test whereas the 770 isnt , the 7970 is the only sensible choice.
 
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