Poll - GTX 670 vs HD 7970

[euphoria4949]

Hey guys, I need your help.

Ok I really can't make up my mind on which GPU to buy for my new rig, so I've narrowed it down to these 2 below and I would like to know which one you would go for.
They are both basically the same price and come with a free game. The benchmarks for the 7970 shows that it seems to perform better in 70/75% of games, except for PhysX games and a few other games that seem to favour Nvidia cards like BF3....... *Sigh* I just can't decide

http://www.dabs.com/products/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-670-980mhz-2gb-pci-express-3-0-hdmi-overclock-82X8.html?q=7970&src=16
----OR----
http://www.dabs.com/products/gigabyte-ati-radeon-7970-hd-1ghz-3gb-pci-express-3-0-hdmi-windforce-3x-7ZWZ.html?q=7970&src=16

Main use will be gaming on 1 1080p monitor but I will add a second monitor after Xmas. Games: Assassins Creed 3, Skyrim, DayZ standalone, NFSMW 2012, CoD BO2.....

i5 3570k
ASRock Extreme4/6 (not decided either)
8GB Vengeance
Antec 750w

Thanks for your help guys.

 

[euphoria4949]

Or........ to confuse me even more =) Can you suggest any other cards or brands of these cards I should go for???

 

[esrever]

That 7970 is faster than the 680.

 

[Sumukh_Bhagat]

Its simple, 7970 is the best single GPU on the planet till yet. So surely buy 7970.
7970 beats GTX 680 & new AMD Drivers are on their way, they will increase performance in All games (Mainly Far Cry 3, Hitman 5).

Only GTX 690 beats 7970, but GTX 690 is dual Gpu.

 

[BriboCN]

Its simple, 7970 is the best single GPU on the planet till yet. So surely buy 7970.
7970 beats GTX 680 & new AMD Drivers are on their way, they will increase performance in All games (Mainly Far Cry 3, Hitman 5).

Only GTX 690 beats 7970, but GTX 690 is dual Gpu.

Agreed 7970 at this point is simply a better card and a much better value than anything Nvidia has to offer. Nvidia does certain things very well, but as far as raw graphics power and value they cannot compare

 

[BriboCN]

PS- Dont get the Gigabyte 7970, the new revision of it is voltage locked.

 

[troutickuss]

depends on whether you like msaa/csaa or fxaa and physics

 

[stickmansam]

7970 all the way,
BriboCN is the voltage locked as can't change it or is it just limited?

 

[troutickuss]

btw don't gigabyte, msi or asus is best

 

[BriboCN]

7970 all the way,
BriboCN is the voltage locked as can't change it or is it just limited?

Revision 2.1 on the gigabyte card has the voltage completely locked. Flashing to ghz version or anything else does nothing. Before the revision this one was of the best overclocking cards and an amazing value. I have one of the locked cards and can still get it to 1125mhz on stock voltage but it is capable of so much more.

If I had to make the purchase again. I would do a Sapphire card for performance and Overclocking or a XFX card for longevity and value

 

[stickmansam]

Revision 2.1 on the gigabyte card has the voltage completely locked. Flashing to ghz version or anything else does nothing. Before the revision this one was of the best overclocking cards and an amazing value. I have one of the locked cards and can still get it to 1125mhz on stock voltage but it is capable of so much more.

If I had to make the purchase again. I would do a Sapphire card for performance and Overclocking or a XFX card for longevity and value

Tanks for the info =) , most places only have reviews on the original card but none on the revisions.

 

[bigcyco1]

*Sigh* i cannot believe this question is asked daily still . The 670 and 7970 perform basically the same at stock up to 1080p resolution, trading blows depending on the game. The 7970 will OC better and do better at high resolution (and has way more compute power), the 670 gives you CUDA , PhysX, TXAA, FXAA, ADap. Vsync etc and lower power draw. Both are solid buys around the $400
This is the fastest single video card http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=77488&vpn=MATRIX-HD7970-P-3GD5&manufacture=ASUS

 

[technoholic]

bigcyco1 AFAIK AMD cards can also do FXAA and TXAA, yea i know these are Nvidia's implementation (i'm telling just to clear up ) also as i remember there is a program which does adaptive v-sync at the software side for AMD cards and is very successful doing it (There was a Tom's review about that, i don't remember which now). Nvidia's specialities are CUDA and Physx though

 

[bigcyco1]

I am aware of the review.I just spaced it out.It's 2 a.m. where i live and i am pretty sleepy lol! As a fan of both AMD & NV thanks for the info. I was not aware of all that.

 

[Sakkura]

They are both basically the same price and come with a free game. The benchmarks for the 7970 shows that it seems to perform better in 70/75% of games, except for PhysX games and a few other games that seem to favour Nvidia cards like BF3....... *Sigh* I just can't decide

The latest AMD driver improved performance in BF3 significantly, so keep that in mind if you're looking at older benchmarks.

Nvidia still has PhysX and a few other tricks up its sleeves, but in general the 7970 is faster than the 670.

 

[technoholic]

I am aware of the review.I just spaced it out.It's 2 a.m. where i live and i am pretty sleepy lol! As a fan of both AMD & NV thanks for the info. I was not aware of all that.

2 thumbs up for you and a cookie!

 

[euphoria4949]

Wow, ok that's pretty one sided. Well that definitely helps me make up my mind, I had set on the 7970 but a few comments left on other posts made me *Hmmm*

Also a few people there said to avoid Gigabyte which surprised me as I read some really good reviews about the 7970 Windforce, but I guess they didn't review this new version which is voltage locked apparently.
Well there is a couple of votes for Sapphire, but can anyone else recommend anything else, preferably on these 2 sites??? Also I couldn't go any higher than £325 inc VAT for the card and I would like to OC.
Thanks again everyone

http://www.dabs.com/category/components-and-storage,graphics--tv-tuners-and-i-o,graphics-cards/11137-55570000-4294943480-481600000
---Or---
http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/all/gpu-amd/radeon-hd7970-pci-e

My apologies to bigcyco1 for annoying you, I'm sure this question has been debated to death by now, but I posted a question about the 7970 a month or 2 ago and I was surprised that around 80% of replies were to go for the 670 instead of the 7970, so it made me doubt my choice.

*Edit* If anyone knows of a different UK site with a good range of GPU's please feel free to share =)

 

[bigcyco1]

No need to apologize.I understand i guess i am just bored with it just gets old for me that's not your fault.

 

[Guest]

www.aria.co.uk
www.ebuyer.co.uk
www.dabs.com
www.yoyotech.co.uk
www.overclockers.co.uk

To name but a few, both cards are great, decide what features are more important, eyefinity or physix and go with the correct one.

I voted 7970 though due to larger amount of GDDR.

 

[Sumukh_Bhagat]

Maybe Nvidia have many technologies but still 7970 defeats GTX 670 with a reasonable difference.

Its clear to buy a 7970 over any other Single GPU Card, even GTX 680. New AMD Drivers are coming soon, so they'll increase performance in the latest games.

Go with 7970 Ghz Edition. But you can prefer better brand like Asus, Gigabyte is good but just in case.

 

[euphoria4949]

Well as I said I'm surprised it's so one sided but I'm glad at the same time, I had set myself on the 7970 but the comments I received on a question I posted a few weeks back saying "get a 670 instead" made me doubt my choice, but this poll has reconfirmed my original choice. Although I am going to choose a different brand as a few of you said Gigabyte wasn't the best and since you said that I read a few other posts on here and they said the same, so I think I'm going for the Sapphire 7970 OC, the clock isn't quite as high but I've seen a lot of people recommend Sapphire cards before and it also has very good reviews and customer feedback, plus it's only an extra £12.

Finally I just want to say thank you for all your help and wish you all a Merry Christmas, I hope you all find a pair of GTX 690's under the tree =)

 

[Sakkura]

Don't worry too much about the clock the card ships with, you can always just overclock it yourself. Then it comes down to the actual quality of the card rather than just what number they picked.

 

[euphoria4949]

Actually the Sapphire 7970 Vapor-X Ghz Edition looks nice =) Anyone heard any good or bad things, or has someone actually got one that could comment on it???

 

[bigcyco1]

Well i do not own one.I have a few friends that do.It seems to be a great card.I would buy it.One thing i will say though none of my friends will overclock as high as some of the reviews online show which makes me think they were cherry picked lol. I could just be tripping who knows.... even if i am right i would still buy it.It's a nice card.

 

[notea]

this thread seems a bit old but im gonna post my opinion anyways, I own an Asus GTX 670 DCU II (stock version), it is a great card, and i easily overclocked it to a stable 1200mhz (more than the top version), but the thing about the nvidia 6xx cards is they are voltage locked to a max of 1175 mv (not 100% sure but around that - cant check it coz im in the office)..when i bought this card, there wasn't a ready stock of 7970/7970Ghz edition, now if i were in your shoes, the GTX 670 and the HD7970 are in the same price point give or take a few bucks, i would definitely go for the 7970 - more price/performance and more VRAM if you ask me, even if it consumes more power.. so my vote would be a 7970 with a non reference PCB and custom cooler so you can OC it way past the Ghz edition and get more bang for your buck..

PS: id still choose a 7970 over a 680 or even a 7970 Ghz edition