GTX 680 or Radeon HD 7970?

[xAceOfSpades]

They are both the best single-gpu cards

680 is best single GPU card in Nvidia

7970 is best card for ATI/AMD

I was just wondering for my new PC should i get 7970 or the GTX 680?

Thanks.

 

[ilysaml]

GTX 680 is 7% faster than HD 7970, but GTX 680 is hard to find @ stock these days, even if it's there it will be over priced.

So best option to get right now is AMD HD 7970.

 

[Gman450]

The GTX 680s aren't currently restocked, and if you're going to get one, you'll have to pay over $600 for it.

The HD 7970 is currently around $460-500 and is available.
I'm not sure when the 680s will be restocked again, but it should be done around in a few months.

Among both, the GTX 680 is a little faster than the 7970 in some games, and it being the other way around in other games.

 

[mayankleoboy1]

the 680 is worse than Nvidia's 5xx series in compute performance.
so if you do a lot of OpenCL, go with the 7970. They are beast in compute.

for pure gaming, get the Nvidia gtx680. its faster than the 7970 in most games. Also, it has a working hardware video encoder, which might be useful to you.

the only problem being that the 680 is not available in stocks.
wait.......

 

[photonboy]

*go to NVidia's site and read up on the GTX680. It's quite interesting.

Aside from COMPUTE the GTX680 is a significantly better card. The drop in COMPUTE capabilities isn't an oversight, they focused on making the KEPLER design more efficient, and they did. The GTX680 is overall faster and consumes less power.

I'm personally going to wait for a non-reference GTX680. I don't care as much about overclocking but I want quieter, and it can be a huge difference.

 

[photonboy]

Here:
http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/introducing-the-geforce-gtx-680-gpu/

*important points:
- adaptive VSYNC
- GPU BOOST
- TXAA (note UNREAL 4 engine is being optimized for TXAA)
- PhysX v3
(new PhysX hardware can process more PhysX physics calculations in upcoming games. Not the MOST important point but another feature AMD simply does not have.)
- 3 + 1 monitor support
- NVENC
(an H.264/AVC dedicated encoder for video conversions. Perfect for shrinking video for mobile device)

 

[intoblack136]

Well after a few months of racking my head over it here is how I have finally decided on the two. Im going with the 7970 and here is why:

1. Its available
2. Its cheaper, and the performance especially with oc is close enough, to warrant its price.
3. I currently have a 6950, should anything bad with the 7970 happen and I have to RMA it, I can pop my 6950 back in and continue gaming while using the same drivers.

win

 

[photonboy]

Hopefully AMD can get ADAPTIVE VSYNC into their drivers then (it's not hardware dependent AFAIK because NVidia said they might add it to the GTX500 series via drivers).

It's actually a big deal.

Games should, in general, run at 60FPS VSYNC. This means the game is capped at 60FPS to match the monitor's refresh rate to avoid screen tearing.

However, every time the game dips below 60FPS with VSYNC enabled you get a sudden stutter. It's common, and very annoying.

Adaptive VSYNC disables the VSYNC function if it detects the game drops below 60FPS. So you get the screen tearing for that period, but no the sudden STUTTER as the game is synched to 30FPS instead.

 

[davemaster84]

Well if you are in a rush for the card yeah, due to the availability. But I made a threat like this myself and I convinced myself for the 680, now , why? Well it is not just 6 or 10% faster than the 7970, it is the way it renders dx 11 and all the cuda cores (3 times the 580); it lacks computing power but, are you going to use it for anything? If you use applications for you work, career, hobby whatever then yeah the 7970 rocks, if not is just wasted hardware. By the way please take a look to this benchmark:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=360748

 

[Swolern]

The GTX 680 is definitely a better card all around. If u can't wait the 7970 is a great card also and has one benefite over the 680. The 7970 has 3gb VRAM. So the 680 can be limited at higher resolutions 5760x1080 or higher with demanding games. But at 1920x1080 the 680 blows the 7970 away.

If u can't wait and must have a card now I would get the Sapphire 7970 OC. It overclocks like a beast and is much quieter than the reference coolers. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102982

If u can wait at least a few days I would. AMD is suppose to add "3 FOR FREE" bada$$ games to their cards for extra incentive soon. http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/news/video/amd-confirms-price-drop-on-hd-7970-hd-7950-hd-7770-adds-3-for-free-game-promo/

 

[photonboy]

GTX680 availability:
You can still order the card you want and it will arrive when ready. I'd imagine two weeks or so.

Nor am I seeing HD7970's that are actually cheaper.

Aside from waiting a few weeks for a significantly better card I don't see the advantage of the HD7970.

 

[Guest]

god the nvidia fanboyism is ridiculous in here significantly better my arse.stop with these ludicrous statements.have any of you ever seen them both playing games side by side?well i have and clock for clock there is NO difference.The 7950 is the card to get if you overclock there is NOOO reason to get a gtx 680 or a 7970 period.

 

[Guest]

Oh and before anyone claims im an ati fanboy 80% of the cards i buy are nvidia.To call a gtx 680 a significantley better card is stupid and an uneducated thing to say.I call it how i see it and do NOT favor one over the other.If you refuse to overclock then the gtx 680 is for you with the higher stock speed.To be honest there is really no reason to get the 7970 either way as its stock clock is lower then the 680 and the 7950 overclocks just as well as the 7970 and will run within 2-3 fps of it.Now that is an educated answer the rest of you need to do some research and not this fanboy crap

 

[Guest]

GTX680 availability:
You can still order the card you want and it will arrive when ready. I'd imagine two weeks or so.

Nor am I seeing HD7970's that are actually cheaper.

Aside from waiting a few weeks for a significantly better card I don't see the advantage of the HD7970.

You blind or something? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102982

show me a gtx 680 for $459? the lowest price gtx 680 on the egg is 500 smackers.The average price of the 7970 on the egg is $470.

 

[spizone]

I also have been in the choice hunt of the two diff cards, mine 1) MSI GeForce GTX 680 TwinFrozr III OC or 2) Club3D CGAX-7970 Radeon HD7970 3GB.
Where im from, ive been convinced to get the 680, as for mainly gaming and a fair bit of photoshop.

 

[Swolern]

god the nvidia fanboyism is ridiculous in here significantly better my arse.stop with these ludicrous statements.have any of you ever seen them both playing games side by side?well i have and clock for clock there is NO difference.The 7950 is the card to get if you overclock there is NOOO reason to get a gtx 680 or a 7970 period.

It's not all about the card, which the 680 does have higher performance in 1920x1080 benchmarks in 90% of games. There is no way around that. Don't hate because those are the facts. We all know u look mean in ur photo but u don't have to rage here.

The other thing that drives the 680 to a higher standard is Nvidia driver support. It's also true that Nvidia has less driver related issues than AMD. Nvidia isn't perfect either and have a few driver issues also, but are very few and taken care of promptly.

3rd Adaptive Vsync one othe the best driver related inventions in a while. I can't stand when playing with a extra smooth 60fps Vsync and then the frames become variable and then u get a stutter effect as the framerate is jumpin around everywhere and gameplay 40-60fps looks like total crap. Therefore Adaptive Vsync fixes that issue by turning the Vsync off when not needed. That it turn also gives u a higher minimum FPS.

But the 7970 is a close second therefore the price drop.

And ur "no reason to get a 7970 or 680". What kind of statement is that? True if u game at 800x600 resolution or if all u play is Minecraft. But if u play the new AAA games at 1920x1080 and up and you want maxed ot eye-gouging graphics on every single game made with the smoothest gameplay possible. YES THAT IS THE REASON.

 

[vrumor]

Jeez some people are fanbois. Right now cost for performance its 7970. 7% faster is easily taken care of with a max OC on stock voltages. Also, ive got a 60 refresh rate, get over 100 fps in some games and have never experienced screen tearing on any platform. The stuttering maybe but only in MMOs in highly populated areas. The 680 is a beast card for sure, but nvidia shoulda waited instead of pushing it out cause the supply issues have been terrible. Cant go wrong with either card.

 

[photonboy]

FYI:
These are my last cards, in order from oldest, and I spent hours of research on every one:

- NVidia 6600GT
- AMD 3870
- AMD 5870
- NVidia GTX680 (or will be soon)

I was all set to get the HD7970 if the GTX680 couldn't beat it, but there where just too many reasons. Price was one, but that seems to be sorting itself out now.
- Adaptive VSYNC
- GPU Boost / better performance overall
- TXAA (unreal 4 engine is optimizing for this anti-aliasing method)
- NVENC (encoding H.264/AVC)
- PhysX v3 (new PhysX hardware for more physics calculations. backwards compatible)
- driver support (IMO a bit better with NVidia)

On the surface these cards seem similar and most gamers will be happy with the HD7970 but to the truly informed they are actually quite different.

 

[Guest]

It's not all about the card, which the 680 does have higher performance in 1920x1080 benchmarks in 90% of games. There is no way around that. Don't hate because those are the facts. We all know u look mean in ur photo but u don't have to rage here.

The other thing that drives the 680 to a higher standard is Nvidia driver support. It's also true that Nvidia has less driver related issues than AMD. Nvidia isn't perfect either and have a few driver issues also, but are very few and taken care of promptly.

3rd Adaptive Vsync one othe the best driver related inventions in a while. I can't stand when playing with a extra smooth 60fps Vsync and then the frames become variable and then u get a stutter effect as the framerate is jumpin around everywhere and gameplay 40-60fps looks like total crap. Therefore Adaptive Vsync fixes that issue by turning the Vsync off when not needed. That it turn also gives u a higher minimum FPS.

But the 7970 is a close second therefore the price drop.

And ur "no reason to get a 7970 or 680". What kind of statement is that? True if u game at 800x600 resolution or if all u play is Minecraft. But if u play the new AAA games at 1920x1080 and up and you want maxed ot eye-gouging graphics on every single game made with the smoothest gameplay possible. YES THAT IS THE REASON.

Like i said there is NO reason to spend $100 more over a 7950 in getting the gtx 680.Im talking for a performance standpoint here.If your a tech geek and overclock the 7950 can keep with both gtx 680 and 7970.GTX 680 5% faster clock for clock then a 7950.If 5% is worth $100 to you then thats your choice.The offical poster chose a 7970 and you got peeps that havent a clue telling him the gtx 680 is significantley better?No its not there virtually even clock for clock.Another thing the 7970 was clocked to low at stock it should have been clocked at 1000-1050 mhz and anyone who has one will tell you the same.When you bring it up to those levels there are no differences in performance.As for drivers i strongley dissagree one driver isnt any better then the other.Ive never had any issues with amd drivers nor nvidia.slew of others on here will say the same.If there drivers were really as bad as most make them out to be they would have been out of buisness long ago.The only reason the 7970 priced has gone south of the gtx 680 is because of the stock clocks.If there cards cameout at 1000 mhz like they should have been in the first place they would still be $500 but thats easy enough to fix on your own.I