AMD 7970 or GTX 680, processor etc

[Domke]

Gday people, in the past 2 months I've been looking for a new and decent graphic card. To be more specific a gaming one, and I came to a conclusion that I should be aiming at AMD Radeon 7970 or Geforce GTX 680. Would like a suggestions on these ones, I myself would like to go with AMD Radeon 7970. But the problem is, there are loads of different ones. Would like to know which of these ones below would be the best. Also could anyone write pros and cons about GTX 680 and AMD 7970?
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Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 3GB GDDR5
Sapphire Radeon HD 7970 GHz 6GB GDDR5 (more expensive than the first one, but I guess even better?)
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HIS Radeon HD 7970 GHz X 3GB GDDR5
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XFX Radeon HD 7970 GHz 3GB GDDR5
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PowerColor Radeon HD 7970 3GB GDDR5
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ASUS Radeon HD 7970 3GB GDDR5
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MSI Radeon HD 7970 3GB GDDR5
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Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 3GB GDDR5
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I also heard that gigabyte and sapphire are the best ones, if you can't find one that you think is better at what I listed. Please feel free to do that, thank you!

My Current one: ATI Radeon HD 4800 series(being upset as it doesn't run newer games on higher settings, couldn't even play the Witcher 2 without a lag. Processor: Intel Core i7 CPU 920 @ 267GHz (8CPUs), ~2.7GHz. Also my monitor resolution is 1680x1050 if that matters. Gonna get also a new monitor for 3D, so would like to run up to 2 monitors. By the way if you guys need specifications of the graphic cards, I could put links to them. Also if there is something else that you need just say so. By the way not sure about my power supply, will need to check it and then I'll post it aswell.

"I'm going to upgrade my Dell PC which was bought before like 3 years, so would like to know if my processor is also good. Because I'm no an expert on this, maybe some day . Also would like to reinstall my windows, preferably windows 7. Because windows 8 didn't looked so good for my preferences. Maybe someone could link me an url of tomshardware guide how to reinstall them, by sending me a message on here? Well if that doesn't go then I'll find it myself no problem. With that I also would like to defragment my hard drive, because as strange as it could be. My hard drive space keeps changing, sometimes its 10gb free, another time its only 2gb. May be that its a virus, but my antivirus programs didn't detect anything. So would like to erase everything and fix this issue. If its my hard drive that causes this problem, will probably need to buy a new one. Would like a suggestions on that one aswell, incase unexpected happens."

 

[Bejusek]

Sapphire Toxic 6GB is the fastest single processor graphic card ever.

As you can read in the following review on TPU, it doesn't make sense to buy a card with 6GB of memory.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_7970_Toxic_6_GB/33.html

GTX 680 and 7970 are similary performing cards. Especially 7970 GHz edition is worth considering. As you wrote Gigabyte is know for solid products and its outstanding windforce cooler; MSI Lightning is a good card too.

One of the drawbacks of highly overclocked 7970s is high power consumption and heat it generates - usage of high RPM, loud fans is necessary.
GTX 680 uses less power and runs cooler. I think it's more reasonable to buy it instead of a 7970. Check the MSI Lighting 4GB version.

With such a high budget you can think about SLIing two slower cards such as MSI 660 Ti, if only your motherboard supports it. Don't forget to make sure that your PSU is enough for configurations mentioned.

 

[Domke]

Sapphire Toxic 6GB is the fastest single processor graphic card ever.

As you can read in the following review on TPU, it doesn't make sense to buy a card with 6GB of memory.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_7970_Toxic_6_GB/33.html

GTX 680 and 7970 are similary performing cards. Especially 7970 GHz edition is worth considering. As you wrote Gigabyte is know for solid products and its outstanding windforce cooler; MSI Lightning is a good card too.

One of the drawbacks of highly overclocked 7970s is high power consumption and heat it generates - usage of high RPM, loud fans is necessary.
GTX 680 uses less power and runs cooler. I think it's more reasonable to buy it instead of a 7970. Check the MSI Lighting 4GB version.

With such a high budget you can think about SLIing two slower cards such as MSI 660 Ti, if only your motherboard supports it. Don't forget to make sure that your PSU is enough for configurations mentioned.

Aye I heard that 7970 consumes alot and makes noises, will consider 680 over it then. Also gonna check my system as you mentioned for MSI 660 Ti. By the way by using 2x graphic cards, is it really so good as people say? Like one would render textures and another one effects like shadows?

Found MSI GeForce GTX 660Ti Power Edition 2GB DDR5 2xDVI HDMI DisplayPort PCIe + Borderlands 2. Could buy two immediately, but want to check the GTX 680 lightning 4gb one. Problem is, can't find in at any retailer, only 2gb version. The price is almost the same for 2gb and 4bg, so I would prefer 4gb. Any trusted retailers that include shipping as I'm in Norway?

In fact I found MSI GeForce GTX 680 4GB PhysX CUDA, decent enaught?

 

[Bejusek]

There is no MSI lightning 4gb, I got something wrong, sorry.

MSI GeForce GTX 660Ti Power Edition 2GB DDR5 2xDVI HDMI DisplayPort PCIe + Borderlands 2 - that's the best 660ti available.

Card working in SLI both render full picture frames, one frame is rendered by card 1, second frame by card 2. Also video card memory doesn't sum up. Both cards store same things in their memories.

EDIT:
You can try searching the net if microstuttering problem still exists with GTX 6XX in SLI.

MSI GeForce GTX 680 4GB PhysX CUDA - is this this one http://www.msi.com/product/vga/N680GTX-Twin-Frozr-4GD5-OC.html, it's important for it to have twinfrozr cooler.

In fact for 1680x1050 you don't need 4GB version, 2GB will be more than enough. Make sure your PSU is good enough for both 660 Ti SLI and GTX 680.

This article suggest that 700W PSU is minimum for 660ti sli:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-660-ti-windforce-oc-review/7

You can find power consumption of GTX680 in any review.

 

[Domke]

There is no MSI lightning 4gb, I got something wrong, sorry.

MSI GeForce GTX 660Ti Power Edition 2GB DDR5 2xDVI HDMI DisplayPort PCIe + Borderlands 2 - that's the best 660ti available.

Card working in SLI both render full picture frames, one frame is rendered by card 1, second frame by card 2. Also video card memory doesn't sum up. Both cards store same things in their memories.

EDIT:
You can try searching the net if microstuttering problem still exists with GTX 6XX in SLI.

MSI GeForce GTX 680 4GB PhysX CUDA - is this this one http://www.msi.com/product/vga/N680GTX-Twin-Frozr-4GD5-OC.html, it's important for it to have twinfrozr cooler.

In fact for 1680x1050 you don't need 4GB version, 2GB will be more than enough. Make sure your PSU is good enough for both 660 Ti SLI and GTX 680.

This article suggest that 700W PSU is minimum for 660ti sli:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-660-ti-windforce-oc-review/7

You can find power consumption of GTX680 in any review.

But you see, soon I'm going to buy a new monitor which supports 3D. A bigger one than my current one, and this one will be my 2nd one. Also yup thats the one MSI I've been looking at http://www.komplett.no/k/ki.aspx?sku=759380. As I'm from Norway. Not sure whats my power supply, gotta check it.

360W atm

Also googled for microstuttering and found that it no longer persist on GTX SLI. Don't know if its true but could be so just to decide what card to buy. 2x MSI GeForce GTX 660Ti Power Edition 2GB DDR5 2xDVI HDMI DisplayPort PCIe or 1x MSI GeForce GTX 680 4GB PhysX CUDA. Will also buy new PSU because of these cards.