GPU for Skyrim 670 vs 7970

[AresReborn]

Hey guys I have a quick question about which card is better for Skyrim. I plan on playing at 1080 resolution HEAVILY modded. I realize that blow for blow the 7970 is likely to have the edge, but it is also more expensive. Also, Skyrim tends to favor Nvidia drivers and from what I hear Nvidia cards exclusively have features such as Ambient Occlusion.. so would the 670 make more sense?


Right now I'm looking at this 670 for 330: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125423&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

And this 7970: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202008&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Thanks in advance!

 

[ilysaml]

 

[Rockdpm]

Yea get the 670.... I love the Ambient Occlusion with Skyrim... really makes dungeons and texture packs really brighten up. But I would consider this model: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130782

Exact card i have and it does the job

 

[thently]

Ya I ran it with a 670 at 1920x1200 with High res pack and about 20 mods and had it maxxed out it ran smooth as glass.
Thent

 

[bystander]

I believe another advantage of Nvidia cards with Skyrim, is SLI works well, while crossfire has had issues in the past at least, unless that has been fixed.

 

[Rockdpm]

I believe another advantage of Nvidia cards with Skyrim, is SLI works well, while crossfire has had issues in the past at least, unless that has been fixed.

Yea SLI does scale much better than CF at Skyrim. To be honest they scale better all around on skyrim..

 

[NV88]

Don't forget that Skyrim is a CPU hog. You need a fast CPU, a Phenom II won't cut it. Along with whatever CPU you choose.

 

[Rockdpm]

Don't forget that Skyrim is a CPU hog. You need a fast CPU, a Phenom II won't cut it. Along with whatever CPU you choose.

Actually for a while I was running a Phenom II X4 980 and a GTX 670 and ran flawlessly... and the 980 was OC'd to 4GHZ on 990FX Sabertooth

 

[NV88]

Actually for a while I was running a Phenom II X4 980 and a GTX 670 and ran flawlessly... and the 980 was OC'd to 4GHZ on 990FX Sabertooth

For you, sure. For me, going Intel boosted minimum FPS's by 20% minimum. Certainly worth the expense.

 

[Rockdpm]

For you, sure. For me, going Intel boosted minimum FPS's by 20% minimum. Certainly worth the expense.

As you can see I have Intel 3570K now as well.. so i was boosted in all my games.

 

[Star72]

Lol I love how the chart clearly shows the 7970 with the advantage but yet only the 670 gets recommended. I'd take the 7970 & the 4 free games & the better performance. Granted the 670 he linked comes with 2 free games but in the end it looks like it evens out.

 

[JJ1217]

Heavily Modded, 2 GB might not cut it. I have my Skyrim pretty medium graphically modded (Its heavily modded, but most of the mods are like things like the GUI and enemy scaling). With the Skyrim HD which is then overwrited by SRO (SRO is better than Skyrim HD, except it doesn't cover all textures, I use both so I get the awesomeness of SRO and Skyrim HD for textures not covered), and some grass mods, I get like 1.7 GB of video ram usage. Really depends on your mods, but I'm using like 3 and I'm hitting that.

 

[Rockdpm]

Heavily Modded, 2 GB might not cut it. I have my Skyrim pretty medium graphically modded (Its heavily modded, but most of the mods are like things like the GUI and enemy scaling). With the Skyrim HD which is then overwrited by SRO (SRO is better than Skyrim HD, except it doesn't cover all textures, I use both so I get the awesomeness of SRO and Skyrim HD for textures not covered), and some grass mods, I get like 1.7 GB of video ram usage. Really depends on your mods, but I'm using like 3 and I'm hitting that.

It all depends on what the actual chip can push. If you got a handicapped chip such as a 7750 and its got 2GB of vram... well the card won't ever use it because the chip won't push it far enough to ever use 2GB of vram. Just like your 7850 it obviously has 2GB of vram but if the GPU can handle whats being done graphicly then the all the vram in the world won't be a thing

 

[JJ1217]

Well the 7750 is different, its just such a weak card that it'll never utilise 1 GB, let alone 2GB. Even then the memory is clocked down terribly, its not even GDDR5.

My card does *sometimes* push around at 1.9 gigs, but thats only in really tough scenarios. What I'm saying is, 2GB very mildy graphically modded, leaves no real room for anything else. If you ever move to 3 screens or 1440p, you'll have trouble.

I honestly would go for the 7970 if you want just raw frames and raw power, and don't really care for other gimmicks. If you really like PhysX (Imo the only worthwhile thing that Nvidia offer), then go ahead for that. The only thing I can recommend is *possibly* getting a card more with more than 2gb of vram.