GTX 670 or HD 7979 for this build?

For your cpu, high end card will be bottleneck. You should try for cpu upgrade to i5-3570k. Or faster cant perform well.

7970 is faster. But if you like physx then gtx670 is good, also its a price/performance card.

I would not buy either your cpu is not good enough.If you insist on not listening. I like both cards but if i was choosing between the two i would go with a 670 just because favors the games i play i don't know which games you play so it's hard to say which might be better for you.

Ok any AMD CPU's to avoid a switch in MoBo?

Intel i5-3570k with z77 mobo.

AMD is bringing out new cpus shortly. Wait and see the benches before you purchase a new cpu. Both cards are very fast, but I have seen benches of updated drivers for the 7970 and would choose that one at this point in time. Of course things like screen resolution and settings come into play, so it may be a good idea to look over some reviews that closely match the way you like to play.

Yes, as you have 5870, wait for new cpu arrive and after crysis 3 arrive. Crysis 3 will require a lot cpu power i think. Then you can choose a good cpu with a fast gpu.

Ok thanks for the advice, so should i go ahead and get one of those GPU's around christmas, play far cry 3 (with my current CPU as bottleneck) then upgrade to Intel (or new Amd's) sometime next year?

Would i see a significant performance upgrade from 670 or 7970 even with my CPU acting as a bottleneck while i wait to upgrade it?

Avoid the AMD Bulldozer series if you can help it, wait to see what the verdict is on Piledriver.

To be honest, as far as a CPU goes, mubin's suggestion of getting a z77 motherboard and an Intel i5-3570k is an excellent way to go. You won't regret it.

If you want to upgrade now http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?Ite... if not just wait

You would see a performance increase and for the most part you will still be only GPU limited for gaming. BUT, as I mentioned in another post a few minutes ago about CPU and GPU bottle-necking, you are going to likely run into some snares when you play at higher resolutions and when you run games that are more CPU demanding.

The arrival of new hardware and the approach of the holiday season will indeed lower prices, so you would most likely benefit by waiting.

Depends on game. Those game which is not cpu intensive, will run great on your system with faster gpu.


This is a excellent combo.

Although, Intel will probably still be faster, wait and see what piledriver is like. You could go ahead and upgrade your gpu now and benefit from that right away and upgrade your cpu/mb later. If you are interested in saving money though, you could go for piledriver and a 7870 which plays very well at 1080p.

Either Bigcyco1's suggestion is the way to go or you need to just WAIT. Honestly If you upgrade 1 thing the rest of your system is going to be bottlenecked. So until you can afford to get a new mobo, GPU, and CPU all at the same time or near around same purchase date....your going to have a bottleneck

+1 i agree  

HD 7970 for performance and GTX 670 for power efficiency. HD 7970 is better in performance but I'd choose GTX 670 between the two. hehehe.. Only because it's Nvidia..

7970 performance it's not really better they trade blows different games favor different hardware  

Right you are!  

While I support your decision for NVIDIA. You cant pair a high end with a low end... Just like you can't put a GTX 690 with a Athlon. While the Phenom II is much better in performance than a Athlon. a GTX 690 is also much further than a 670. So what I am trying to say i guess is there will be a bottleneck with a GTX 670 or the 7970. The only decision i can see him doing to better his system is to get a GTX 660 TI or 660. AND I don't want him leaving this forum with the determination to continue to throw on a computer that within a year has no standing in the currect game line up and he's stuck with a mid range or low range graphics card and has to spend that extra 300-400$ on a new Mobo and CPU combo and its held back because of a mid or low end GPU

Based on this system I would recommend a 7870
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681...

With tweaking the 7970 will blow past the 670 1200mhz is all the 7970 needs, at that point it wont matter what clocks speedd the 680 or 670 are packing! Kepler is an efficient architecture but drops the ball when it comes to scaling.

I don't have any issues with my 670's but you may be right i really don't know i think both are great cards  

THIS

The 670 is a pure gaming card and as you know and it does an extraordinary job! Really you don't have to fiddle around too much with Nvidia this generation, the performance is great right out of the box.

Thanks for the all the answers. Think i'll wait til June, upgrade CPU MoBo and GPU. Thanks

^ Hey no problem your very welcome!  

What? when? June? heheh.. all the suggestion made here is irrelevant in June. Their will be a lot of better cards then or if you still like the 670 or 7970 they will be at a lower price.. win win..hehehe I can see a lot of price drop on the 7000 series like you I am playing the waiting game and the budget I had for a hd 7750 is now enough for a 7770. Maybe next month I can get a 7850 for the price of an 7750..who knows..

Yeah i know June's a while away but it's when i finish school. I don't mean that i'll buy the exact recommended stuff here then just that i'll do a more wholescale upgrade next summer rather than a quick fix to get me through the christmas holidays.

I always need to fight off the urge for a quick fix... costs so much money down the line   Good things come to those who wait

...or are exceptionaaly wealthy  

Right, always best to wait till you can afford a whole new build instead of throwing 100-200$ every few months when you can wait and save all those 100-200's add up