After the price drops... 680 vs 7970

[captainvera]

I'm going to build a new rig and i was pretty decided to get a gtx 680, but now that the 7970 prices dropped to 479$ i can't decide, does the performance difference still justify the cost?

also, what features does one have that the other doesn't ( like physx, driver's FXAA, ...)?

PS: I'll be overclocking...

 

[jaguarskx]

The GTX 680 is more powerful than the HD 7970. Click below for benchmarks.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_680/7.html

Physx is nVidia only so games like Batman will perform better on a nVidia card. However, there are not many Physx titles being released. Last time I've check there were only going to be 3 to 5 released this year that supports Physx; 2 of those games did not have a solid 2012 release date.

 

[captainvera]

i know that the 680 gtx is more powerful but it seems that it is only by a small margin, which is even less noticeable when overclocked (probably water cooled), my question is: would i be worth the extra 50/70$?

And btw, i know what Physx does, and its not that, it actually adds alot of particles like pieces of wall, broken glass, papers flying, stuff like that to make the game more realistic... My question was actually: what other functionalities does each one have that the other doesn't have...

 

[Rockdpm]

Well hmm lets talk about Drivers.. So far i have heard some 7970/7950 users have driver issues (Not all)

However NVIDIA has only rolled 2 drivers so far fro the 680 but they are pretty stable for fresh scratch drivers.

 

[Soda88]

7970 has a lot more computing power outside games, so if you plan on doing some GPGPU workload, I'd suggest getting Radeon. And, as you've already said, both cards perform pretty much equally when overclocked. Don't forget, 7970 will come bundled with 3 games too.

Also forgot to mention the extra 1GB of VRAM on Radeon makes it a better choice for surround gaming in the long run.

 

[jaguarskx]

i know that the 680 gtx is more powerful but it seems that it is only by a small margin, which is even less noticeable when overclocked (probably water cooled), my question is: would i be worth the extra 50/70$?

After the price drop the difference between the lowest priced Radeon HD 7970 and GTX 680 will only be $20. I'm not really into OCing graphic cards so I can't tell you which one will OC better. But as stated, nVidia traditionally has drivers that are more stable than AMD/ATI. I have used cards from both companies and I don't recall having driver issues at all with AMD/ATI cards. The only problem I had with any card was a nVidia GeForce 4200 Ti or 4400 Ti that died within 5 months of purchase back in 2002.

 

[jessterman21]

For my $500 (as if my wife would ever let me spend it...), I'd go GTX 680. Incredible power draw and that Adaptive Vsync is genius. It really depends on your preferences and para-gaming needs, though.

 

[captainvera]

Don't forget, 7970 will come bundled with 3 games too.
Also forgot to mention the extra 1GB of VRAM on Radeon makes it a better choice for surround gaming in the long run.

I'm gaming at 1080p so definitely no need to get more than 2gb ( or am i mistaken)?

as for the free games, "YOHOHO and a pirate's life for me"

that Adaptive Vsync is genius.

Could you clarify what does it do? i have no clue = /

If you're unwilling to overclock, get the 680, as it will give you >$20 more performance stock vs stock compared to a 7970.

If you're willing to overclock, get the 7970, as it has substantially more overclocking headroom than the 680 and the two cards pretty much trade blows when overclocked.

As i said before, im almost certainly overclocking, most probably with a water cooling system but if they trade blows when fully OC'ed why should i get the 7970 instead of the 680? 680 has better drivers ( it seems so), and a range of cool features nvidia provides, I'm not aware of any specific AMD technologies, but i might be wrong! The only reason i would be willing to get a 7970 is for better performance or a substantial price difference with similar performance (50-60$ and a +/- similar performance would buy me a 7970).

 

[captainvera]

Also, i will probably be Sli'ng/xfiring in the future if that should impact my decision please tell me

Also, i know this is out of topic, but should i wait for a pcie 3.0 MOBO or for a single and in the future dual config pcie 2.0 is enough?


PS: probably a REALLY dumb question, a i5 2500k won't bottleneck any of this will it?

 

[jessterman21]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-680-review-benchmark,3161-5.html

 

[stingstang]

Short answer, no. 2.0 won't bottleneck. 2500k won't bottleneck.

 

[mastrom101]

7970, the drivers have been straightened out and it ocs better

7970<680<680 OC<7970 OC

the 7970 also has better GPGPU

PHYSC isnt even that good, and unless you play physx games its not worth it

1GB of VRAM will make a diff, especially if youre using EYefinity