7970 OR 670 for Skyrim/Starcraft 2/General Gaming -- Upgrade from 4870

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What's my best option:

  • XFX 7970 Black Edition Double D

    Votes: 4 17.4%

  • Powercolor PCS+ 7970

    Votes: 6 26.1%

  • EVGA Superclocked+ GTX 670 4GB

    Votes: 8 34.8%

  • Other (Please comment below)

    Votes: 5 21.7%
  • Total voters
    23
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Tooki

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APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Within the next 2-3 weeks. I'm an American living in Japan, where high end video cards tend to run more expensive. I'd like to order it soon so I can pick it up during the first 2 weeks of August when I visit my family and friends in the states.

BUDGET RANGE: Around $500

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT:
Gaming, primarily strategy games and RPGs. I play a lot of Starcraft 2 and Bethesda RPGs, though I also play Battlefield 3 and some other shooters from time to time.

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY:
GPU: HIS HD 4870 1GB
PSU: CorsairCMPSU-750TX (750W)

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS:
Case: Antec 900 II
MB: ASUS P6T Dx
CPU: Core i7-920
RAM: 20 GB Triple Channel DDR3 1600

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080

OVERCLOCKING: Some SLI/CROSSFIRE: No

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
It's been almost 4 years since I bought my 4870 and I couldn't be happier with how it's performed, but I feel like it's time to retire it and find something a little more beefy. I play a ton of Starcraft 2 and quite a bit of Skyrim as well as variety of other games.

I've narrowed my choices down to 3 cards, but I'm still open to other suggestions. Right now I'm leaning toward the XFX Black Edition simply because of the warranty, though the Powercolor PCS+ has a better clock speed. I feel like the the AMD cards will be more future-proof because of the number of stream processors, but a lot of the benchmarks I've seen show the 670 outperforming the 7970 in both Skyrim and Starcraft 2 (even though the 7970 outperforms in a lot of shooters), and the extra gig of VRAM might come in handy for texture heavy Skyrim mods in the future. A GTX 680 is also not out of the question, but I think I'd rather have 4GB 670 over a 2GB 680 at the same price point (for the aforementioned reason).

The first part of my question is this: Would it be worth it to wait a little while for prices to go down? I know AMD just dropped the prices of their GPUs, but I'm wondering if the prices will drop any more over the next week or two as a result of that price drop or other factors.

The second part is: How much has the 7970's performance been increased by driver updates? I've heard there is a significant difference and I've also seen some benchmarks that could support that claim, but I also sometimes have a hard time finding specific driver information when I'm looking at benchmarks so I don't always know if the information I'm looking at reflects the current situation.

Finally, I want to know which of these three cards is the best given my situation, or if there is a much better option, what it would be.

Sorry for the volume of text, and thanks for taking the time to read it.

XFX 7970 Black Edition Double D
Powercolor PCS+ 7970
EVGA Superclocked+ GTX 670 4GB
 
U

unksol

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I would definitely get a 7970. With 3 free games, better overclocking, beating the 670 with the new drivers/Ghz editions, and GPGPU compute i dont see how a 670 makes sense unless you really like nvidia.
The xfx you're looking at is essentially a GHz edition so I don't see price dropping. something about xfx has always bothered me, but they are good and I'd take it over the Powecolor. You can probably clock the xfx up to 1100 anyway.

I prefer sapphire but their 1200MHz toxic card isn't available yet it seems.
 
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akamrcrack

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My two EVGA GTX 670 2GB cards voted :)

honestly 2GB or 4GB doesn't matter so I went with 2GB and will be running on a 2560x1440 resolution monitor soon :D
 
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unksol

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Considering he linked/is asking about an xfx 7970 with lifetime warranty, custom cooler, and factory overclock that's only $430.... Um. Yes you will find them for $400. And the 670 he's asking about is much more expensive.

You can't use ancient benchmarks, never mind those benchmarks are with a stock card. A 7970 will beat a 670 at stock now, and has a ton of other advantages. Lower price for custom cards, more memory, better at high res, gpgpu compute, better overclocking, free games.

You really need to look at current Data, not the launch PR. your old benchmark shows they.were.neck and neck even then.
 
redeemer

redeemer

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If you have had good experiences with AMD than stick with the, the 7970 is a monster and a better all round performer. New drivers have been increasing performance significantly latey. Do not forget that once you start overclocking the 7970 is will surpass every other cards out there. Kepler already has autoboost but still doesnt the kind of overclocking performance you get with the 7000 series.
 
Deeks

Deeks

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Out dated benchmarks ?? 2 months old is far from Acient there my friend. Quoting for another 7970 vs 670 post
" JackNaylorPE

Gotta do an apples and apples comparison. Comparing a specially binned OC'd 7970 model against a reference 670 card isn't even apples and oranges, it's apples and grapes.

Guru3D uses the following games in their test suite: Hard Reset, COD-MW2, Far Cry 2, ANNO 1404, Metro 2033, ANNO 2070, BFBC2, BF3, Crysis 2, AvP, Lost Planet 2. Total fps (summing fps in each game @ 1920 x 1200) for the various options in parenthesis (single card / SL or CF) are tabulated below along with their cost in dollars per frame single card - CF or SLI:

Card - Cost ( Single / 2-way SLI /CF ) $ / Frame - $ / Frame SLI/CF
GTX 680 - $ 500 ( 989 / 1578 ) $ 0.51 - $ 0.63
680 DCII Cu TOP - $ 520 ( 1077 / NA ) $ 0.48 - ERR
GTX 670 - $ 400 ( 917 / 1539 ) $ 0.44 - $ 0.52
670 DCII Cu TOP - $ 430 ( 999 / 1679 ) $ 0.43 - $ 0.51
7970 - $ 480 ( 872 / NA ) $ 0.55 - ERR
7970 DCII Cu - $ 580 ( 924 / NA ) $ 0.63 - ERR
7970 Ghz - $ 500 ( 952 / NA ) $ 0.53 - ERR

Putting the specially binned 7970 Ghz against the specially binned Asus 670 TOP.....its 999 fps at $0.42 per frame for the 670 TOP and 952 for the 7970 Ghz at $0.53 per frame.....that's 26% more $ per frame for the 7970 Ghz.....not to mention more noise and more power draw on the 7970.

TechPoweUp gives the 7970 Ghz Edition an 8.5 rating
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews [...] on/33.html

TechPoweUp gives the 670 TOP an 10.0 rating, the only 10.0 rating ever
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews [...] II/33.html "

If you read above he is not only asking about those cards but i quote
" I've narrowed my choices down to 3 cards, but I'm still open to other suggestions ". I am not trying to fill anyone here with false information all i am doing is answering his question to the best of my abilities.
 
redeemer

redeemer

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Yes the GTX 670 offers exceptional Value but with the 7970 @ $429.99 right now I dont see it being better.

http://vr-zone.com/articles/asus-gtx-680-2gb-overclocking-review-win-some-lose-some/15322-4.html


QUOTE

In the second section, when we overclocked the Radeon HD 7970 the high overclock we achieved with that video card put it in the spot to take the performance lead. Even the GTX 670 overclocked was no matched for the overclocked HD 7970. The overclocked GTX 680 is clearly the competition for it, when you put high levels of overclocking into the mix.
 
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unksol

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You would say that but it doesn't make it true. Almost all 7970 overclocks are done at stock voltage, which has no impact on card life. And modest voltage bumps cause no problems either. over clocking 101. And the 7970 has no "hard overclock".

And yes deeks. Benchmarks from the launch are outdated and don't consider driver updates. And they were a match then from your own Data. I don't see how adding a REALLY outdated cost analysis helps your point either. Again, looking at your numbers the 670 and 7970 cards are identical if you run with todays prices.

Power data is irrelevant. They are both good. Amds is higher because the card does more. No on said you were trying to provide false Data, but looking at badly outdated Data is the same thing
 
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Tooki

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Thanks for all the feedback. I should have also mentioned that the 3 free games mean nothing to me since I already I own Deus Ex and I'm not particularly interested in the other 2.

Sapphire's Toxic card looks awesome, but it's probably not going to be worth the price they'll ask (at the resolutions I'll be playing at, anyway). I read that the MSRP would be $680, which is pretty steep--especially considering that it's still just a 7970.



This is very useful information, but as Redeemer mentioned, the prices of 7970s are now quite a bit lower so that should even the cost/frame up quite a bit

The prices of the 3 of the cards I'm strongly considering are only about $30 apart, so let's assume, for the sake of argument, that they cost the same. In that situation what would you choose? At the moment I'm really hoping that ATI's price cuts will cause the prices to go down a little more in the next week, but I have no idea if that will actually pan out.
 
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bunkgoats

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I just upgraded from your video card's little brother the ATI 4850 to a 7850. There is a huge difference and the difference for you will be even larger. No matter what card you get be it a 670 or a 7970, this will be such a leap for you that you're going to be thrilled once the new card is installed. Enjoy!
 
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Tooki

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prices are going to come down from both parties nVidia and HD Radeon.
Click to expand...

Yes, the question is when.

Also, if you look at this, getting the 7970 seems like the better choice for the majority of games, although unfortunately not for the 2 games I play the most (Starcraft 2 and Skyrim).

If the choice were simply between the 7970 cards, do you think the XFX's lifetime warranty puts it above the Powercolor with its higher clock speed.
 
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Tooki

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but yet you fail to realize that nVidia has better drivers and better releases.
but as for the GPU's themselves soon nVidia will release a modded version of the GTX 670/680 that's faster than the HD competitor
and they still have the GTX 685 to come.
so this sudden rush to buy the HD 7970 will be over soon.

the same thing applies to nVidia when they release the NEXT FASTEST card.

it's a cycle, get in where you fit in...
Click to expand...

Actually, I understand that completely. I just have reason to think that the prices will continue to fall within the very near future because of AMD's recent price drop announcement.
 
dudewitbow

dudewitbow

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lets use the relevant skyrim one after 12.7 drivers

skyrim%201920.png

Source
so as of now the skyrim is more 7970 favored, as for starcraft shrugs
 
redeemer

redeemer

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but yet you fail to realize that nVidia has better drivers and better releases.
but as for the GPU's themselves soon nVidia will release a modded version of the GTX 670/680 that's faster than the HD competitor
and they still have the GTX 685 to come.
so this sudden rush to buy the HD 7970 will be over soon.

the same thing applies to nVidia when they release the NEXT FASTEST card.

it's a cycle, get in where you fit in...
Click to expand...


That is ridiculous, this generations Nvidia has had by far the worst drivers up until now. The vsync bug along with the 120hz refresh rate bug was shameful. Kepler is just a more efficient Fermi evolved architecture, really doubt that there will be significant future performance increases. The GTX 685 is pure speculation at this point and is invalid in this topic. What is fact is that Sea Island will be coming out in some months. The bottom line is AMD is better right now at this time, sure Nvidia will do something they have to in order to competethats the way this market goes.
 
dudewitbow

dudewitbow

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that's your opinion, just like I have mine... :/

cheers.
Click to expand...


to be honest, nvidia is sorta on a driver slump, as recently, some people have reported problems with their 670's and occasionally a 680 on this forum. Albeit AMD has problems with their drivers too, their recent driver allows the series to jump a significant jump in fps(like the skyrim comparison above) which pretty much renders old tests partially obsolete unless tested again.


Just a partially recent example
 
redeemer

redeemer

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I've only done a few builds with the new GTX 6 series, 2 680's and 2 SLi 670 set-ups.
I personally run the GTX 5 series still and not upgrading yet.

so the limited experience I have with the Kepler is driver installs and windows configurations, stress test.
no gaming.
I do not like the 301.42 drivers, I will admit that.

edit:
redeemer - you sound like marketing for AMD or fanboism .
it's cool redeemer, let the past go m8...
:lol:
Click to expand...


So I am marketing for AMD because you are Nvidia biased and take offense to my comments. Why do you actually go out and buy a 7000 series or 600 series and then comeback and comment. Funny how I own both setups and still biased, its clear who than fanboy is.
 
redeemer

redeemer

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anyways, moving along...
Click to expand...


ah thats a shame I will keep both my 680's and 7970's thanks

Next time post real factual information so I can take you more serioulsy the nextime. I understand you have no need for such setups however other people do, see we need to post relevant information. Calling someone a fanboy only shows how uptight and insecure you are.
 
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akamrcrack

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Who cares, my octo-690s said nn QQ
 
dudewitbow

dudewitbow

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I think its more or less a joke because no PSU would ever have enough cords to supply that easily, and im trying to picture a motherboard with 8 pci slots(unless octo meant 8 gpu cores/4 cards instead of 8 690's) spread wide enough to be able to hold such immense cards.
 
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