Should i return my radeon 7870?

[star293]

So i puchased a radeon 7870 for $360 and it is going to arrive soon but i noticed today that the price radeon 7950 cards have been droped to $399 ~ $410.

Is there a significant performance difference between 7870 and 7950?

 

[Guest]

If your playing on 3 monitors deffinelty get the 7950 if not?well get the 7950 anyways they are faster then the gtx 680 overclocked plus you get 1 gb more of vram.no brainer

 

[star293]

i only have 1 monitor and.. does 7950 really perform better than gtx 680??

 

[sk1939]

If your playing on 3 monitors deffinelty get the 7950 if not?well get the 7950 anyways they are faster then the gtx 680 overclocked plus you get 1 gb more of vram.no brainer

How? The 7950 is slower than a GTX 680 in every performance test, in fact the 7970 is generally slower than the GTX 680.

 

[Guest]

I said a 7950 overclcked will beat a gtx 680 my 7950 overclcoked to 1200 mhz beats a gtx 680 stock in every instance

 

[sk1939]

Yes, and if you overclock the GTX 680, it will dust the 7950 again. It works both ways.

 

[Guest]

Yes, and if you overclock the GTX 680, it will dust the 7950 again. It works both ways.

Problem is both overclocked at max the 7950 is still within 10% compared to the lead the gtx 680 has over it stock for stock a gtx 680 is a waste of money and from my understanding 680's overclock like crap anyways.noway is a 680 $100 more card then a 7950 not even close performance wize

 

[sk1939]

Problem is both overclocked at max the 7950 is still within 10% compared to the lead the gtx 680 has over it stock for stock a gtx 680 is a waste of money and from my understanding 680's overclock like crap anyways.noway is a 680 $100 more card then a 7950 not even close performance wize

Perhaps, although I haven't heard that. I (like quite a few people) don't overclock, it's just not worth the risk to me.

 

[Guest]

gtx 680

overclocked 7950 and this is not even max overclock on it this is gaming overclock

 

[zakattak80]

Yes, and if you overclock the GTX 680, it will dust the 7950 again. It works both ways.

not exactly, the 7970 has higher gains when overclocked then the 680. also no one seems to ask which card is faster per clock. like if both where clocked to 1006 which one would win.

 

[Guest]

Its not as risky as you think especially if you do not have to mess with voltages

 

[sk1939]

Interesting. I gave thought to overclocking my 6870 but deemed the risk too high (bricked an 8500GT trying it).

 

[Guest]

I never much overclocked gpu's either before i got the 7950 this thing is way to easy.You should get atleast 250 mhz without touching voltage.i get 375 mhz with mine with no voltage tweak.stock 800 mhz runs at 1175 mhz with no voltage tweak

 

[Pinhedd]

How? The 7950 is slower than a GTX 680 in every performance test, in fact the 7970 is generally slower than the GTX 680.

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph5699/45150.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph5699/45153.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph5699/45154.png

http://images.anandtech.com/graphs/graph5699/45133.png

BF3 is a horrible example because you'll notice that with FXAA turned off and MSAA turned on the performance cap closes tremendously. Very few manufacturers ship the 7970 with its extremely conservative reference clocks, most are 1Ghz or higher and standard overclocks are typically upwards of 1100 without any noticeable increase in power consumption. When the 7970 is clocked up it scales very well and easily matches or overtakes the 680

Most benchmarks were also done with the 12.2 drivers that were available on release. The 12.3 are much improved and the 12.4 drivers are showing even more gains. AMD dropped the ball by not having proper driver support out of the box

 

[spentshells]

Interesting. I gave thought to overclocking my 6870 but deemed the risk too high (bricked an 8500GT trying it).

No real gains on a 6870 even with voltage increases

 

[stevethejew]

some cards perform better in specific banchmarks, and overall gpu benchmarks are somewhat unrealistic. Most games wont run the same way benchmarks do. so, video game benchmarks IMO seem to be much more realistic for identifying the true winner between two gpus.

Relating to the question asked,

The 7870 is a solid card, is it really worth the time and effort to trade in a card for a small performance gain and a little more money out of your pocket? Like another person said, its only really worth it if youre gonna be running 3 monitors. The choice is yours.

 

[MANOFKRYPTONAK]

MY 680 clocks to 1200 MHZ easy and I get a score of over 10,000 on 3dmark11. The person above was kind enough to post heaven results.

If you want to say a 7950 beats a 680 post your benchmark results from heaven and mark11. If you don't I won't take you for a grain of salt.

mikem your pic looks like vanilla ice.

ICE ICE BABY!

EDIT: By the way I like that song, think its hilarious!

 

[MANOFKRYPTONAK]

some cards perform better in specific banchmarks, and overall gpu benchmarks are somewhat unrealistic. Most games wont run the same way benchmarks do. so, video game benchmarks IMO seem to be much more realistic for identifying the true winner between two gpus.

Relating to the question asked,

The 7870 is a solid card, is it really worth the time and effort to trade in a card for a small performance gain and a little more money out of your pocket? Like another person said, its only really worth it if youre gonna be running 3 monitors. The choice is yours.

Run multiple benchmarks that test different things, cinebench, 3dmark11, heaven, heck even use fraps to do benchmark tests in multiple games. These tests will give you a definitive answer.

 

[sk1939]

No real gains on a 6870 even with voltage increases

Figures. I'm not updating any time soon either, so it will hopefully be good for another couple years.'

6870 by comparison for those who care (about 10% slower than a 7870).

 

[Guest]

MY 680 clocks to 1200 MHZ easy and I get a score of over 10,000 on 3dmark11. The person above was kind enough to post heaven results.

If you want to say a 7950 beats a 680 post your benchmark results from heaven and mark11. If you don't I won't take you for a grain of salt.

mikem your pic looks like vanilla ice.

ICE ICE BABY!

EDIT: By the way I like that song, think its hilarious!

HAHA good one.We really are splitting hairs here but where hairs are not being split is price/performance and imo 7950 wins in this aspect.

 

[MANOFKRYPTONAK]

@mikem711 I have a link showing no single 7950 getting that high of score. And these are people that push there cards to the limit. SO WHY ISN'T A 7960 ON THE TOP 10 list?

EPIC FAIL!!

Link:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18386056

 

[MANOFKRYPTONAK]

YOU MUST HAVE THE BEST 7950 ever!

 

[Guest]

I just posted my link to my 7950 beating a gtx 680 easily in a heaven benchmark what more do you want?If you want to know my 7950 overclocks to 1280/6700 stable on air and easily beat my 7970 at 1225/6700.I have both cards im not just shooting my mouth off ive done my comparisons.I used them in crossfire for a few weeks also.Nothin epic fail about it the numbers i posted dont lie.If you really think a gtx 680 and a 7970 are worth $100 more then you havent a clue what your talking about.Yes the 7970 and gtx 680 is faster but clock for clock by 3-5% which is not worth $60-$100.You can throw your money away thats your choice before you call me an epic fail you should look closer at the bench i posted.thanks

 

[Guest]

Oh and so you know i sold the 7970 since i overpaid for it and am getting another his IceQ 7950 to go with it $399

 

[Guest]

come back i was just starting to have fun Now before you call someone a fail do your research and the fact that i had both cards and can do comparisons i do not need a site to tell me otherwize.I never said a 7950 was the fastest i said a 7950 can easily be oerclocked to beat a stock gtx 680.at 1100 mhz it would be neck and neck with a stock 680.The 1100 mhz every last one of the 7950's should beable to reach easily so its not even a luck of the draw.these things overclock better then any card ive ever owned by far.looking at the site you linked with top 10 my 2189 with a 7950 would have placed 8th on that list.who is the epic fail now?