7970 OC 3GB worth the price?

[xvsanx]

I want to run games at 1080p or whatever my hdtv can handke and I dont want to have to upgrade my card for a few years with it smmaxing out games for a while. would it be better to get the 7970 OC for $420 or get a cheaper card like the 570 and then upgrade in a year when more games require more power?

 

[xvsanx]

I want to play everything at 1080p for a long time, will upgrade to a higher resolution monitor in the future, but I doubt I'll ever be interested in 3 monitor support

 

[geofelt]

Extra Vram past the stock amount is mostly marketing. Particularly with a single 1080P monitor.
I would not pay extra for it.

I would go with a newer 28nm card like the GTX670 or 7970, whichever your amd/nvidia preference is.
They run cooler and need less power.
Instead of a GTX570, I would look at a GTX660ti.

Whatever you do, make it a good jump over whatever your current card is. Otherwise, you may be disappointed if you don't see a big improvement.

 

[exeedorbit]

The thing is, at 1080p, that card is overkill. The GTX 660ti or the 7950 will do just fine at that resolution. If you plan on getting a new monitor that supports higher resolutions, then the 7970/GTX 670 are worth it.

 

[Kamen_BG]

Nothing is overkill.I still regret buying a HD 5770 over a HD 5850.Becasue at the time it was overkill but when i upgraded to a 1080P monitor... things were a lot different.

So in my opinion you should get the best card you can afford.
Im going to make you a list of cards to get.The lower the card is on the list the better it performs.Im going to skip cards that just arent worth your money.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150548
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125418
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125440
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102991
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125423
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131471
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162097

The last two are pretty much on par.

 

[A Bad Day]

Unless if you plan on using a lot of Anti-aliasing and Anisotropic filtering (both features also require big memory bandwidth) at 1080p and/or upgrading monitor to higher resolution in the future, the 3GB is not necessary.

 

[xvsanx]

I will definitely be upgrading the monitor to a better res hdtv with hdcp

with the next gen graphic games right around the corner do you think the 7970oc is a wise purchase to ensure smooth 1080p gameplay on them (ac3, cry3, metro last light, fc3)? or would the card already start to stutter? I am building soon, just second thoughts on the vga

 

[mohit9206]

why dont you get the toxic 6gb version if nothing is overkill..

 

[dudewitbow]

the 7970 will be a good purchase for aa heavy games like crysis 3(possibly metro too hopefully, they fixed their game coding)

 

[geofelt]

I will definitely be upgrading the monitor to a better res hdtv with hdcp

with the next gen graphic games right around the corner do you think the 7970oc is a wise purchase to ensure smooth 1080p gameplay on them (ac3, cry3, metro last light, fc3)? or would the card already start to stutter? I am building soon, just second thoughts on the vga

No TV has a resolution today higher than 1080P(1920 x 1080)
The physical size does not matter to the graphics card.

You can be guided by the heirarchy chart at the end of this report on best graphics cards for the money, August 2012.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

There is little difference in performance between cards on adjacent tiers.
If you will be playing one game exclusively, check out benchmarks for that game.
Otherwise, you will find that the market is very competitive and you will get fair value for your money at any level.
If you have a preference for AMD or Nvidia, go that way. Otherwise, don't get hung up on minor differences.

In principle, I would buy a more modern 28nm based card because they run cooler and need less power.
That is the Nvidia GTX6... series, and the AMD 7.... cards.