Gtx 680 or hd7970 help me choose

What games do you want to play and are you planning to overclock?

That 7970 GHz edition is almost certainly the far better option - it is noticeably faster at 1600p and it's $100 cheaper too!

At that res none of this cards can max out demanding games like BF3,batman arkham city,c2,metro and give smooth framerate.You need to either sli or crossfire.And nvidia cards are definitely better in multigpu department.
ANd those cared you linked that gigabyte one is faster than 7970 there.That thing is super overclocked

Well i won't suggest buying a GIGABYTE branded card i have had nothing but bad luck with their gpu's but i will suggest a card for that res a SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100351VXSR Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition or two 670's

Both of these cards seem superclocked so lets assume they are both faster than the baseline comparison: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/555?vs=508

I dont like that specific 680 because it takes up 3 slots. And I like that 7970 because it is much cheaper and has more video RAM.

But, since you have a high resolution monitor I think you would be better off with 2x EVGA 670GTX 2GB FTW cards. They are also overclocked have a 680 form factor and cooling, which makes them quieter than usual, and the two cards would drive your 2560x1600 successfully in all games.

Once again I would look at what games you really like and have a look at the comparison link i sent you where you can see how the cards fare against each other.

If you overclock that 7970, it should max pretty much everything at 1600p...

For example (purple bar is 1200 MHz clock which is realistic for an average OC on any 7970 GHz edition card):


Of course 2x670s are better, but that's also $350 more expensive. A single 7970 is enough for 1600p gaming if you overclock it a bit. Absolute worst case scenario you have to turn down AA a bit.

I can't post benchmarks of how the other card your considering would compare because amd fanboys will rip me apart claiming those are not benchmarks with the newest drivers but it will not preform the same as any other 7970ghz so there is noway to prove anything sorry about that.

Funny that 7970 Ghz edition is missing in all the images.

Those are very strange/anomalous results... they're not what reviews typically show so I'm not sure what to make of them. I'd question if they have updated their driver results on the 7970, as for example that's the first time I've seen a 680 come out on top in Crysis 1/Warhead. The Skyrim results also seem to reflect pre-12.7 performance from the 7970.

I trust TPU's reviews more, which show more back and forth between the cards and which keep drivers up to date on all cards and not just the review subject. Also, what you posted is the only set of results I've seen that shows the 680 consistently on top of the 7970 at that resolution (although take a look at those minimum framerate numbers... sometimes the 7970 is better on min but way behind on average... weird).

Fishy at best.

You should probably look into the 4GB variants of the 680 at 1600p

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

I couldn't find any other benchmarks at that res for the card i checked TPU's database did i miss something ?

Yeah well fanboys will be fanboys i got no time for that stupid s***

I agree bigmack. even 690 is missing so is 590. If amd 6990 is there, so should rest of the cards as 690 and 590. And ppl should mention the driver versions used while mentioning such a long list of screen-shots as well as the ORIGINAL review site links ( This will not be hard ?). Here people r spending their hard earned money and $400 to $500 is not a joke.

I have no time to mention it clearly says on the benchmarks VORTEX not to hard to figure out where they came from here the source check it out if you like http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/gigabyte_gtx680_su... i am in a hurry i have a big day so you'll have to excuse not writing all that in

There is NO WAY to prove that card is worse or better. I already mentioned that there is NO TEST with the newest drivers of that 7970 GHz he is considering updated drivers tests on others cards DON'T PROVE NOTHING about when comparing the two cards he is considering.The only thing that can be proven is one cost way more than the other.Do you know of some benchmarks that are up to date of both cards if not case closed. I ain't the one homey so save it. I don't play that red team green team non sense if your so concerned and worried about it post something useful instead of sipping your red kool aid and criticizing me .

I'm not doubting their results, just wondering why they're so different from what other sites show, especially on some tests e.g. Crysis.

That last post of mine was not directed towards you. I know you prefer amd cards. I wouldn't go so far as to say your a fan boy who sip's red kool aid all day!I have seen you recommend 670 in threads. I know your not just a fan boy like some on this forum are   I just get sick of the red team green team non sense.

I don't prefer AMD cards I just loathe the GTX 6xx series.  

My experience over the past 10-15 years has been about even between AMD & Nvidia - I've had both awesome and terrible experiences with both.

@BigMack70 lol fair enough sorry i assumed you prefer AMD my bad.

I think most people assume I'm an AMD fan from the past few months, but I just went AMD this time out of spite because I so strongly dislike how Nvidia handled their 6xx series.

My favorite card ever was my 8800GTS from Nvidia (although to be fair, their FX-5200 was one of my worst tech purchases ever...). That 8800GTS lasted me 5 happy years  

Wow!I didn't get into gaming on computers until way later. I remember the 8800GTS think it was 2006 or 2007 that card was popular. If i remember correctly.

Yeah the 8800 series was late 2006 and was probably the most decisive win that Nvidia has had in my years of following GPUs. It just blew everything else out of the water for over a year, and the price of entry was just $250-270 for the 8800GTS 320 (which I purchased).

In my view, AMD is only just now catching up again at the very high end after Nvidia dropped the 8800 onto the scene. (obviously AMD fans would dispute this)

Seconding this, The 7970 results look like the 12.1 or 12.4 drivers

Hey baby, I'm hung like Windows ME       BTW i already mentioned that there isn't any up to date benchmarks comparing the cards in question at least not that i could find.