670 4GB vs 7970 Ghz edition

[Dupontrocks11]

Hello, as you can read from the title I am about to buy a new graphics card for a brand new gaming machine. I had originally settled on the 7850, and as it always does, escalated very quickly to the top of the line.

Just a little info, right now I have a rosewill lightning 800W psu lined up for the build which comes in at around 114.99 with a coupon on newegg. Not the best company but everywhere I've read, I've heard nothing bad about this psu

I will be running either of those cards with three 1920x1080 monitors, which is why I chose the 4gb edition on the 670. I am looking for acceptable frame rates from all games on ultra settings but am prepared to play on a single monitor for more gpu intensive games.

Power efficiency is not really an issue since I live in a dorm, but they are both about the same as far as I know in terms of Wattage per hour. I am a bit of an ATI fan since I dislike Nvidias bribing of game developers to use physx, but I don't really care.

With that all in mind, and seeing how both cards are about the same price (until prices drop a day after I buy it), I am looking at raw performance. I want the best I can get, and I wish to playing most games at Max settings using all three screens. There are probably some things I'm forgetting but I'll mention those when I think of them.

Thanks for reading!

 

[kevin83]

In terms of pure performance, a 7970 like this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125439

 

[Dupontrocks11]

So the extra gig of VRAM would make no difference? Also would I need to buy another psu if I wanted to CFX two of these later?

 

[refillable]

I think for you, Who want the best performance and an ATi fan, I would recommend the 7970 GHz Straight Away.

 

[killerhurtalot]

So the extra gig of VRAM would make no difference? Also would I need to buy another psu if I wanted to CFX two of these later?

The extra gig of VRAM makes no difference.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/evga-geforce-gtx-670-4gb.html

The highest amount of vram a game uses (metro 2033) is slightly over 2 GB when ran on 3760x1080 triple monitor set-up.

Go with the single 7970 ghz edition.

And your PSU can handle 2 7970 in CFX.

I think for you, Who want the best performance and an ATi fan, I would recommend the 7970 GHz Straight Away.

First time someone can recommend a high end ATI card with a straight face since X1900XTX days lol. About time they made a high end card that's worth buying... (just realized that this was 6+ years ago lol)

 

[Dupontrocks11]

The extra gig of VRAM makes no difference.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/evga-geforce-gtx-670-4gb.html

The highest amount of vram a game uses (metro 2033) is slightly over 2 GB when ran on 3760x1080 triple monitor set-up.

Go with the single 7970 ghz edition.

And your PSU can handle 2 7970 in CFX.



First time someone can recommend a high end ATI card with a straight face since X1900XTX days lol. About time they made a high end card that's worth buying... (just realized that this was 6+ years ago lol)

But according to the benchmarks in the link you gave me, the 670 4gb edition consistently beat the 7970 by 1-15 fps.

 

[killerhurtalot]

But according to the benchmarks in the link you gave me, the 670 4gb edition consistently beat the 7970 by 1-15 fps.

7970 is not the same thing as the 7970 GHZ edition.

7970 GHZ edition is factory overclocked by 125 mhz core clock. (from 925-1050) and also has the "GPU boost" feature that basically ocs the core as much as the TDP/power availability allows.

 

[Dupontrocks11]

Oh silly me I misread I am aware about the difference between the two. Do you mind posting a benchmark that features the 7970 ghz vs the 670 4gb? I'm away from a computer and for the life of me cant find one.

 

[killerhurtalot]

Can't really find any place that has both GTX 670 SC+ 4GB (not that common of a card...) and a 7970 ghz on one chart...

But since a 7970 GHZ edition can outperform a GTX 680, you can pretty much see the difference if you compare a GTX 670 to a GTX 680.

 

[refillable]

Yes AMD now has balls to compete at the high end level now, but I am uncertain about this because of that people say the 680 is not the best from Nvidia lol.

This picture should help you decide the difference between the 7970 and the 7970 GHz (125 MHz Factory overclock with 50 MHz Boost)

 

[killerhurtalot]

Yes AMD now has balls to compete at the high end level now, but I am uncertain about this because of that people say the 680 is not the best from Nvidia lol.

This picture should help you decide the difference between the 7970 and the 7970 GHz (125 MHz Factory overclock with 50 MHz Boost)

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970_GHz_Edition/images/perfrel_1920.gif
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970_GHz_Edition/images/perfrel_2560.gif

I hate these charts because they don't show oced versions of the cards....

 

[refillable]

I hate these charts because they don't show oced versions of the cards....

So... What?

 

[kevin83]

The gtx 680 and the 7970 ghz edition cards shipped by MSI, Gigabyte, etc. are very similar in performance because the factory o/c on the radeon cards averages about half what is given to the 680. A gtx 670 factory o/c will usually near the reference ghz edition spec, but not the factory o/c radeon cards.

 

[refillable]

7970 GHz with a good cooling should be able to reach a 1150 MHz to 1200 MHz overclock. Which should beat the 670 in a pretty substantial margin .

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202001

 

[kevin83]

Yes, but you forget that I was only mentioning factory o/c. The gtx 670 can overclock to near 1100 mhz under the same heat constraints as overclocking the 7970 to 1150, which would keep the performance difference between 10-5% higher for the 7970.

I do however think that MSI's 7970 is the right option, or another 7970 if you want.

 

[gamerkila57]

all overclocked

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/08/23/galaxy_gtx_660_ti_gc_oc_vs_670_hd_7950

 

[Dupontrocks11]

Wow thanks so much guys I got a lot more feedback than I expected, but I have a few more questions. I have an i5-3570k in my build, and was wondering (even though I probably know the answer), will the lack of physx processing in some games be too much for my CPU? Also, with such a powerful card, will I be able to use it doing video editing and encoding rather than using just my cpu? Finally, what in your opinion is the best 7970 ghz edition right now in terms of performance and cooling? I have a switch 810 with plenty of fans so cooling isn't an issue but it never hurts to get the best.

 

[gamerkila57]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127670

and

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202001

 

[Dupontrocks11]

There's no way in hell I'm paying 519.99 so I guess the sapphire is the way to go. I'd still like to have my other questions answered though

 

[gamerkila57]

no and yes

 

[refillable]

Wow thanks so much guys I got a lot more feedback than I expected, but I have a few more questions. I have an i5-3570k in my build, and was wondering (even though I probably know the answer), will the lack of physx processing in some games be too much for my CPU? Also, with such a powerful card, will I be able to use it doing video editing and encoding rather than using just my cpu? Finally, what in your opinion is the best 7970 ghz edition right now in terms of performance and cooling? I have a switch 810 with plenty of fans so cooling isn't an issue but it never hurts to get the best.

If you want PhsyX then you can go with the 680. 680 with a good aftermarket cooler will cost ~$520 like that MSI Lightning. I think you can disable PhysX. PhysX is not that important really, unless you want it .