7970 or 670 (comparing non-reference only)

[theLiminator]

Assuming I can get all these cards at roughly the same pricing, which would be better going into the future. CFX 7970 or SLI gtx 670's.

I heard microstutter is worse in 7970's than in Nvidia solutions and I'm quite sensitive to microstutter.

But I heard 7970's perform better at higher resolutions, and I'm planning on playing at 1440p at 120hz.

I'm finding a hard time picking between Asus directcu II 7970, gigabyte windforce 7970, MSI lightning 7970, directcu II 670, gigabyte windforce 670.

What I want from my card is good acoustic performance, and decent cooling.

The only thing stopping me from outright choosing the 7970's is the possibility of microstutter.

Thanks for your help!

Edit: forgot to ask, is it worth paying for a GHZ edition, if you're going to be overclocking the cards anyways? (Besides the possibility of better binning)

 

[gamerkila57]

the HD 7970 is the way to go especially at that res .

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7970_GHz_Edition/9.html

 

[theLiminator]

Can you also answer my question of which 7970 is quietest, and whether is it worth getting the GHZ edition of non reference 7970's. Also, is microstutter a real issue?

Also, the benchmarks you're showing me are only of bf3.

 

[gamerkila57]

Can you also answer my question of which 7970 is quietest, and whether is it worth getting the GHZ edition of non reference 7970's. Also, is microstutter a real issue?

Also, the benchmarks you're showing me are only of bf3.

your suppose to flip through them all

yes the GHz edition it worth the money as it outperforms a GTX 680 and offers great performance for less and no micro-stuttering is not an issue if you look at the benches you can see how much more performance you get with the GHz edition

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

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

 

[hapkido]

Microstutter won't be noticeable with either setup if you keep your framerate up. I don't notice it at > 50 fps with my crossfire setup, but I try to keep minimum 60fps just for smoothness and to account for the occasional fps dip.

2x 7970s have more video ram for larger resolutions (and more GPU compute power, if you need that), but 2x 670s will use less power. 2GB is probably enough, but it may not be at 1440p with AA in some games -- I can't say for sure, only that 1GB is enough for every game I own at 1920x1200 except BF3. If it was me choosing, I'd probably just go on price.

An option you may want to consider is 2x 7870s. You'd have to check benchmarks, but I bet they're powerful enough to max out every game on the market, and you'd save a good $250-$300 total for a pair of cards.

 

[bigcyco1]

I'd personally get this if i was buying a card today http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202001 trust me once you own you'll be like this after using it for a good hour

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[theLiminator]

your suppose to flip through them all

yes the GHz edition it worth the money as it outperforms a GTX 680 and offers great performance for less and no micro-stuttering is not an issue if you look at the benches you can see how much more performance you get with the GHz edition

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

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

But i've heard that oc'd non-reference is basically the same as GHZ edition? So wouldn't that mean the GHZ edition is not worth it unless I want to OC?

 

[gamerkila57]

the GHz and oc are fairly different and not true its still worth while as it already has a clock of 1000MHz-1100MHz

 

[theLiminator]

How are they different? As far as I know, the PCB and VRM are the same. The only difference is in the BIOS. (In the non-reference versions) Maybe the binning?

 

[Kamen_BG]

The GHZ edition cards are binned better which means that they can be overclocked higher.
If you want a good card for high resolution gaming and you want it to be silent as well the Sapphire Vapor-X 7970 sure is the way to go.

 

[aramisathei]

Review this: http://techreport.com/review/21516/inside-the-second-a-new-look-at-game-benchmarking/4 to address your questions about multi-stutter.
It's a long read, but it covers just about everything.
Only draw back is it uses the HD 6000/ GTX 500 series as reference, but it should cover the basics.

 

[davemaster84]

The 7970 is better than the 670, however at 1080p the 680 usually beats the 7970, only at higher resolutions the 7970 will show a major advantage. If you want to stay with nvidia and you'll most likely play that resolution then a 680 is your choice, only at 3 monitors or 27 inch (2500 res) the 680 would lose terrain to the ati. I'd recommend the 680 lightning from MSI. Regards

 

[bigcyco1]

The only reason i am suggesting this card is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202001 because of your res and the fact it runs quiet and oc like a beast doesn't hurt otherwise a much cheaper and better price vs performance wise would be the 670

 

[bigcyco1]

save yourself some money get this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127685#top or...... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127667 now that i really think about it if it was my money in your shoes those are what i would get anyway good luck!

 

[bigcyco1]

Here my logic behind it MSI's GTX 670 Power Edition is another formidable custom-design GTX 670 implementation. Thanks to its overclock out of the box, it matches performance of NVIDIA's much more expensive GTX 680 spot on. Compared to the stock GTX 670, the performance increase is 7% averaged over all our benchmarks. Source: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_670_Power_Edition/

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[bigcyco1]

If you are looking for the best bang for the buck 670/7950. MSI's new card is based on a customized design of the AMD Radeon HD 7950. MSI has slapped their TwinFrozr III cooler on the card - a thermal design that we have seen before on other cards based on both NVIDIA and ATI.

In addition to a new cooling solution, MSI also changed some minor aspects of the PCB and increased the clock speed of the HD 7950 TwinFrozr III to 880 MHz GPU. Memory remains unchanged at the AMD default of 1250 MHz.

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[theLiminator]

The thing is, I'm gaming at 2560 x 1440 @ 120hz, that's why i want a dual card config, so that I can hit 100+ fps. I'm also concerned about micro stutter, that article linked up there only looks into the last gen cards, but i heard microstutter was reduced in this generation. The only reason I'm slightly hesitant about getting cfx 7970's is because I'm not sure they're as quiet as gtx 670's and microstutter.

 

[bigcyco1]

The thing is, I'm gaming at 2560 x 1440 @ 120hz, that's why i want a dual card config, so that I can hit 100+ fps. I'm also concerned about micro stutter, that article linked up there only looks into the last gen cards, but i heard microstutter was reduced in this generation. The only reason I'm slightly hesitant about getting cfx 7970's is because I'm not sure they're as quiet as gtx 670's and microstutter.

awe o.k. my bad so it's not the main important thing getting best bang for buck sorry i should of payed better attention

 

[bigcyco1]

From nvidia side what I understand, with this series, they've addressed this in the form of adaptive V-sync. Not sure of real world results, but it's supposed to be fixed. I'm sure some owners with first hand experience will advise further.AMD i am not sure i only recently became a fan of them since they are providing good driver support these days i like them now back in the day i considered their cards garbage but the past two years i really grown to love amd.

 

[theLiminator]

Doesn't vsync give you input lag though? I really hate input lag lol.

 

[vitornob]

- Regular Vsync does input lag, Nvidia adaptive vsync don't as far as I know.

- If you want to play 1440p@120hz, neither 7970 or GTX 670 will make it possible. You will need to Crossfire/SLI them. If you need to use dual GPU go with Nvidia, usually microstuttering is less pronounced.

 

[bigcyco1]

Doesn't vsync give you input lag though? I really hate input lag lol.

input lag good one

 

[gamerkila57]

The thing is, I'm gaming at 2560 x 1440 @ 120hz, that's why i want a dual card config, so that I can hit 100+ fps. I'm also concerned about micro stutter, that article linked up there only looks into the last gen cards, but i heard microstutter was reduced in this generation. The only reason I'm slightly hesitant about getting cfx 7970's is because I'm not sure they're as quiet as gtx 670's and microstutter.

micro-stutter is only visible in mid-range cards especially since the drivers

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/HD_7970_CrossFire/

 

[17seconds]

Assuming I can get all these cards at roughly the same pricing, which would be better going into the future. CFX 7970 or SLI gtx 670's.

I heard microstutter is worse in 7970's than in Nvidia solutions and I'm quite sensitive to microstutter.
The only thing stopping me from outright choosing the 7970's is the possibility of microstutter.

HardOCP addressed the issue of Crossfire "smoothness" when gaming (1/2 way down the page):
http://hardocp.com/article/2012/03/28/nvidia_kepler_geforce_gtx_680_sli_video_card_review/9

They have also written about the well-documented issues with Crossfire drivers:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/01/17/amd_crossfirex_drivers_opportunity_lost/

They also reviewed Adaptive VSync:
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/04/16/nvidia_adaptive_vsync_technology_review/

Cue damage control:

 

[hapkido]

You guys are missing the point. It's not a Nvidia vs AMD thing. It's not a mid-range vs high-end thing. It's a framerate thing.

Microstutter is only going to be apparent at low framerates. So the solution is to keep your fps up. High fps = no noticeable microstutter. It's really that simple.

And don't use vsync. It's ok for a single card setup, but not for dual cards, because it will make microstutter worse by lowering your framerate. If your framerate is too high and you're getting screen tearing (which I don't think will be an issue on a 120Hz monitor), you have three good options --

1) Run the game in a full screen window to disable crossfire / sli.
2) Use the game engine to put a cap on fps.
3) Use a program like MSI afterburner to put a cap on fps.

I use option 3 since it's the easiest. My refresh rate is 60Hz, so I have afterburner set to cap fps at 90. You want it higher than your refresh rate to account for dips, but lower than where you start to notice screen tearing.