7970

[edifice]

Hey guys,

I currently have a 5870 and have been looking at replacing with a 7970? Seeing as its 2 generations newer and the fabrication process is now down to 28nm from the 40nm, will I see a large difference at 1920 x 1080? I have been looking for some reviews that reflect my rig and are only comparing single card setups?

My rig is:-

Core i7 930 @ 2.8
Gigabyte X58 UD3R Revision 1
12 gb Corsair Dominator Triple Channel DDR 3
800 Watt BFG PSU

Any information would be greatly appreciated! A good friend has suggested the difference would be worth the upgrade as my existing card is showing its age, compared to his overclocked 580?!

Does anyone else agree its a worthwhile upgrade in my case?

Thanks!

 

[FlintIronStagg]

The 7970 would be a very considerable difference worth an upgrade from the 5870.
It would trump your friends overclocked 580

 

[Derbixrace]

the 7970 is a great card but im afraid that your CPU would bottleneck it a bit so if you want the 7970 you should OC that CPU a bit.

 

[edifice]

I am hoping that it doesn't happen as I am not going to try and tweak my new card in any way? And tbh I can't afford both a new GPU and CPU as well LOL!

I hope there is not too much of a difference between the two?

Cheers!

 

[esrever]

your cpu is fine. The card is a good upgrade, about 70% faster than the 5870 so its a pretty hefty upgrade.

 

[FlintIronStagg]

With an overclock you.should be just fine.
The i7 is faster at 2.8 than people think. 3.2-3.4 would open it up enough
even so you.will.see a.huge increase in.performance

 

[edifice]

Thanks guys,

I am hoping esrever your right LOL! I am not very technical where overclocking is concerned, and don't want to run the risk of frying my CPU! Thanks to you both for your comments!

 

[FlintIronStagg]

as far as % increase in performance, yes, its is much, much faster.
Gluck on your upgrade glad to be of help

 

[FlintIronStagg]

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1373/pg4/xfx-r7970-black-edition-vs-gtx-580-overclocked-vs-radeon-6970-overclocked-3dmark-11.html
heres a review based on the 580 3gb and the 6970.
remember as well, the longer this card is out the faster it will get as drivers will get better for it

 

[ahnilated]

You could easily overclock the i7 930. I run my i7 920's (with an aftermarket heatsink) at 4.0G and under full number crunching they hit 72C max. I would not suggest overclocking it on the stock cooler though. If you run your i7 930 at 3.8G you could probably even leave it at stock voltages or 1.2v max (ymmv).

 

[larkspur]

Most 920/930 will do 3.5ghz without a voltage bump. A $30 CPU cooler will be adequate. While your CPU will continue to do great in games @2.8, with a 7970 you will really unlock its potential with a modest overclock.

Even if you don't want to OC, the 7970 will provide very noticeable difference over the 5870.

 

[Kkkk1]

the 7970 is a great card but im afraid that your CPU would bottleneck it a bit so if you want the 7970 you should OC that CPU a bit.

Oh my god, it fails me sometimes when people talk utter Bollo(k$. That CPU will not bottlnect your GPU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

 

[Derbixrace]

Oh my god, it fails me sometimes when people talk utter Bollo(k$. That CPU will not bottlnect your GPU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

ok

 

[edifice]

Hey Guys,


I am glad more of you think I will be fine with my CPU at stock speeds than not, as I have no clue what I would be doing otherwise LOL!! I have ordered my 7970 a Sapphire reference version, which I hope to have early next week.

I am really looking forward to seeing the difference between this and my existing 5870?!

 

[FlintIronStagg]

Congrats on the upgrade

 

[bystander]

It all depends on the resolution and game you are playing. Look at the review of that XFX 7970 posted above. In several cases where they compared the 1080p performance, it was clearly bottlenecked, and that was with a Intel Core i7-3960X @ 5.0GHz. Yours would clearly bottleneck earlier. You can tell this as there was little not no difference between a 6970 and the 7970, yet in other games, the 7970 crushed it. You'll also notice that once they shifted to eyefinity comparisons, the graphics power is needed a lot more, and you can see huge leaps in performance.

Will your i7 bottleneck your system? The short answer is sometimes. The longer answer depends greatly on the rest of your system and what games you play. (resolution has not been mentioned and makes a huge difference on the answer).

 

[Derbixrace]

It all depends on the resolution and game you are playing. Look at the review of that XFX 7970 posted above. In several cases where they compared the 1080p performance, it was clearly bottlenecked, and that was with a Intel Core i7-3960X @ 5.0GHz. Yours would clearly bottleneck earlier. You can tell this as there was little not no difference between a 6970 and the 7970, yet in other games, the 7970 crushed it. You'll also notice that once they shifted to eyefinity comparisons, the graphics power is needed a lot more, and you can see huge leaps in performance.

Will your i7 bottleneck your system? The short answer is sometimes. The longer answer depends greatly on the rest of your system and what games you play. (resolution has not been mentioned and makes a huge difference on the answer).

he actually did mention his resolution in the OP, its 1080p. anyways im glad you came by and corrected these others who say it wont bottleneck at all and im talking utter crap lol.

 

[bystander]

he actually did mention his resolution in the OP, its 1080p. anyways im glad you came by and corrected these others who say it wont bottleneck at all and im talking utter crap lol.

Woups, I missed the resolution, or forgot it by the time I posted But ya, at 1080p it will sometimes bottleneck, more so on older games than newer ones. Although many of those times it doesn't matter much, as you are still getting the max FPS your monitor would display anyways.

 

[esrever]

to you people who call bottleneck:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7970-cpu-scaling-performance-review/3

his cpu is closest to the i7 870, the difference between it and i7 2600k at 5 ghz is minimal...

 

[edifice]

Well thanks again for your input regarding bottlenecking, I will be playing allsorts from BF3 to Crysis 2, Arkham City even the original Far Cry and Deus Ex?! But mainly FPS games.

I sincerely hope were not talking major amounts at regular intervals or tbh won't be much point in spending so much?! All this talk of bottlenecking is somewhat off putting LOL!? But the review in the link above was to be fair for the OC XFX Black Edition, which will be considerably quicker I assume than the Sapphire reference model I forked out 450 quid for?!

I realise your all trying to help and I really appreciate it, but to a nOOb who openly admits has no clue about over flocking any aspect of his pc, the comments are very conflicting with some saying OC and others saying its all good including a friend of mine who system builds for a living? I guess the bottom line is, is if you were me, would any of you buy this card?

Thanks!

 

[esrever]

I'd get the card if I were you but I would also OC. You'd get best performance if you OC. Even though the bottleneck isn't really a problem, if Im buying such a powerful card I would like it to run as fast as possible with my cpu.

OC should be easy with your cpu as long as your motherboard supports it. Bumping it a couple hundred mhz isn't hard and won't be bad at all.

 

[Derbixrace]

when using a 7970 nehalem (i7 920) is overall 13% slower than a sandy bridge.

depends on the games hes gonna play how much the bottleneck is.

in BF3 SP you wont be bottlenecked but in 64 player MP you will be bottlenecked big time. its VERY CPU intensive.

 

[FlintIronStagg]

Here now, the naysayers have their place too, at the end of the " i dont know what Im talking about" line.
The bottleneck wouldnt pertain to every game, just a few and you can easily get the 930 to 3.5ish to help lessen the effect.

 

[bystander]

The truth is every piece of software is different, as you can see by some of the benchmarks provided. Sometimes programs are more GPU sensitive, other times they are CPU sensitive. With the system you are building, the biggest bottleneck would be the refresh rate of your monitor (hz). If it's 60, you likely will be in great position to always be higher than your monitor can display.

 

[FlintIronStagg]

^^ agreed