670 vs AMD 7900's

[xtwiinky]

Ive been searching the internet for hours for over 3 weeks. I initially was going for a 7950 for being cheaper and <5% slower than the 7970 clock for clock. After finalizing alot of other parts of my build, I re-examined my GPU choice and I keep seeing that the 670 is recommended over the 7950 everywhere... and I know that the 670 is clocked higher but its preformance far outweighs the slight clock advantage. Ive heard the 7970 is better then the 670, but not all tests prove this. My friend says its a much stronger card, but it is more expensive and Ive also heard that the kepler and 7900 series are not that big of a jump, that they were disappointing.
My build is going to be
i5-3750k oc to 4.5 ish with aftermarket fan
GPU (670 or 7950 or 7970 oc as high as it can go w. help of a friend)
AsRock z77 Extreme4


So max overclocking for air...ive heard stock the 7950 easily gets 1200 mhz, but Ive seen gtx670's that get 1250 to 1300 and above max oc.

Also, how much higher would I be able to oc with watercooling?

 

[drums101]

you cant just compare clock rates and claim that the one with the higher clock is better, it doesn't work that way. There are a ton of other factors to take into account. That being the 670 is faster than the 7950 and is neck and neck with the 7970 depending on the game...some games prefer the 7970 and some (like bf3) prefer the 670....Now If I were you I would get a 670 over the other two cards any day. as far at watercooling goes you will be able to get a higher overclock with it but no one can really tell you how much higher you would be able to get bc there are alot of variables to take into account (each card oc's differently and also depends on the setup of your watercooling)

 

[renz496]

My friend says its a much stronger card, but it is more expensive and Ive also heard that the kepler and 7900 series are not that big of a jump, that they were disappointing.

if you have last gen high-end card such as GTX580 then the performance jump are not big enough to warrant an upgrade. that's only an issue for those that likes to upgrade every time new series comes out. but if you were the type that will only upgrade after 2 or 3 years then current gen should offer nice boost in performance

So max overclocking for air...ive heard stock the 7950 easily gets 1200 mhz, but Ive seen gtx670's that get 1250 to 1300 and above max oc.

don't look directly on the clock. what really matters are real game performance. plus you can compare nvidia and amd cards directly based on the clock since both were build on different architecture

 

[xtwiinky]

Well im not focusing too much on clock rates, but Ive heard that AMD really left their 7950's underclocked and it made it look bad, so they came out with the 7970 to nail the 670.
I mean the margin of preformance for these cards are usually as big as the clock rate differences, so a 670 running at 10% higher clock speed but beating the 7950 by 10% more frames would lead me to take into account clock speeds.
Correct me if im wrong.

Lets say a card is clocked 10% lower, but the preformance is 10% lower, and can be overclocked higher than its competitor, in that case, that card is clearly a better buy right?

Thanks, any help is appreciated alot.

 

[drums101]

I mean the margin of preformance for these cards are usually as big as the clock rate differences, so a 670 running at 10% higher clock speed but beating the 7950 by 10% more frames would lead me to take into account clock speeds.
Correct me if im wrong.

This is incorrect by boosting the core clock up ten percent you are not necessarily going to get a 10% performance increase it doesn't work that way...also the 7970 was released before the 670 so amd did not release it to fight the 670....as far as the card that is clocked 10% percent lower and can be oc'ed higher than its competitor does not mean its a better buy bc even though its oc'ed higher doesnt mean that it is a faster card in the end

 

[xtwiinky]

Best answer selected by xTwiinKy.