Which card to get?

[gamerlana]

Ok first off let me start off by saying I love this forum and all its inhabitants as a source of information. I posted about this a bit back, but I feel I wasn't as thorough in my initial post, and first impressions count. I have been a long time budget gamer who has bought prebuilt systems to play on, but no more! I am putting together my first ever
gaming computer myself and I have put absurd amounts of thought into what to buy for my build to the point of borderline insanity.

What games do I like to play? Well I like to play a variety of games, and I like them to look as good as possible. Lately I have played games like Skyrim, Xcom, Guild Wars 2, Diablo 3, and planetside 2. Really looking to get heavily involved in Planetside 2 and other such games. These games destroy my extremely outdated Core 2 Duo system with 2gb of DDR2 ram and an old 8800 gts 512.

So I am building a new one and its specs are as so:

i5 3570k
CM Hyper 212 Evo
ASRock Z77 Extreme 4
G.Skill Sniper 8GB DDR3 1600
128gb Crucial M4 or Samsung 830 (havent decided yet)
1TB WD Black Data/program drive
(Unsure of what Case)

So as you can see I still need to decide on a few things. One of those is a video card to make this first time build great. I wont be upgrading graphics in a years time I don't think. I DO want to OC a graphics card to get as much as I can out of it when needed. I LOVE features. Nvidia has some great features lately like adaptive vsync and some games I play do feature physx. I have been a longtime Nvidia person and they always seem to run smooth as butter. I am not afraid to spend a bit more for nice features, but I am at the same time a major cheapass.

As such I have been eyeballing the Gigabyte 670 Windforce which I could pick up for $374 off US NCIX (Canadian site has it for $350 bleh!), but also have looked at the Sapphire 7950's which are cheaper, but I am VERY unsure about Radeon cards and would have to be ensured they are going to run smooth as well if I did get one.

So, is $374 a good price on the Gigabyte 670 windforce or should I really be considering the 7950's? I have NEVER been good at deciding anything unless it is an easy choice (The i5 was a damn easy choice). You can throw all the benchmarks you want at me, but I have looked at many of them by now, and they haven't helped me decide any more easily. Someone please help me out here.

 

[renz496]

you mention about physx. if you want to keep the physx option open to you then grab 670. btw have you read this review:

http://techreport.com/review/24022/does-the-radeon-hd-7950-stumble-in-windows-8

the conclusion are interesting nonetheless

The question you have to ask is what matters to you. Do you want the graphics card that scores best in the FPS beauty pageant, or do you want that one that gives you the smoothest gaming experience when you fire up a freshly downloaded game this Christmas? If you just want bragging rights, by all means, choose the Radeon HD 7950. If you're looking for the friction-free fluidity that only comes from consistently quick frame delivery, though, our recommendation remains the GeForce GTX 660 Ti.

 

[Tom Burnqest]

you mention about physx. if you want to keep the physx option open to you then grab 670. btw have you read this review:

http://techreport.com/review/24022/does-the-radeon-hd-7950-stumble-in-windows-8

the conclusion are interesting nonetheless

The question you have to ask is what matters to you. Do you want the graphics card that scores best in the FPS beauty pageant, or do you want that one that gives you the smoothest gaming experience when you fire up a freshly downloaded game this Christmas? If you just want bragging rights, by all means, choose the Radeon HD 7950. If you're looking for the friction-free fluidity that only comes from consistently quick frame delivery, though, our recommendation remains the GeForce GTX 660 Ti.

LOL I like how the text bold face lies and try to conjure up that an nvidia card is more "smooth" than a faster AMD card.

 

[renz496]

this issue is nothing new in multi gpu setup. just now such a problem are start showing in single gpu. in this case it was AMD gpu. i know everyone have their own view to the article but you're not forced to believed it nor you have the right to force people to accept it as right or wrong. people can say that TR is bias or paid by nvidia but IMO if they really do they will not inform their findings to AMD

When we first published our rematch between the 7950 and the GTX 660 Ti, we pinged AMD to ask if they could explain the Radeon's struggles in recent games. AMD spokesman Antal Tungler told us that our article had "raised some alarms" internally at the company, and he said they hoped to have some answers for us "before the holiday." He also noted that AMD is continually working to improve its drivers and that the 7950 does perform well in FPS-based benchmarks.

 

[Tom Burnqest]

this issue is nothing new in multi gpu setup. just now such a problem are start showing in single gpu. in this case it was AMD gpu. i know everyone have their own view to the article but you're not forced to believed it nor you have the right to force people to accept it as right or wrong. people can say that TR is bias or paid by nvidia but IMO if they really do they will not inform their findings to AMD

When we first published our rematch between the 7950 and the GTX 660 Ti, we pinged AMD to ask if they could explain the Radeon's struggles in recent games. AMD spokesman Antal Tungler told us that our article had "raised some alarms" internally at the company, and he said they hoped to have some answers for us "before the holiday." He also noted that AMD is continually working to improve its drivers and that the 7950 does perform well in FPS-based benchmarks.

Dual GPUs render frames differently than a single card. I have never heard so much trash talk from a fan boy LOL. Single cards do not exhibit stuttering.

 

[gamerlana]

Ok, so..... now is a gigabyte gtx 670 2gb ram windforce at $273 or should I consider something else? Or can I count on comparable smoothness/performance from AMD? I do have my 8800 gts 512 I can always use as a dedicated physx card, which I was thinking about anways. Although FXAA and adaptive vsync look yummy with Nvidia.

 

[goldsauce]

Ok, so..... now is a gigabyte gtx 670 2gb ram windforce at $273 or should I consider something else? Or can I count on comparable smoothness/performance from AMD? I do have my 8800 gts 512 I can always use as a dedicated physx card, which I was thinking about anways. Although FXAA and adaptive vsync look yummy with Nvidia.

Consider the 7850 and 7870 by AMD they are amazing cards I currently own the 7850 and it runs games very very well or if you want more performance go with a 7950.

 

[renz496]

Dual GPUs render frames differently than a single card. I have never heard so much trash talk from a fan boy LOL. Single cards do not exhibit stuttering.

heh feel free to call me fanboi. if i was one i will never recommend people to use amd cards ever. up until now i think i have recommend more amd cards than nvidia cards.

Ok, so..... now is a gigabyte gtx 670 2gb ram windforce at $273 or should I consider something else? Or can I count on comparable smoothness/performance from AMD? I do have my 8800 gts 512 I can always use as a dedicated physx card, which I was thinking about anways. Although FXAA and adaptive vsync look yummy with Nvidia.

that's a nice price. how much you can get for 7950?

 

[gamerlana]

7950's:

Sapphire non-reference version 850mhz core clock is $279.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Gigabyte windforce 7950 OC (900mhz core clock) is $319.99
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=67546&vpn=GV-R795WF3-3GD&manufacture=Gigabyte

 

[sam_p_lay]

+1 to renz496. I've seen a bunch of his posts (he's pretty active on the forum) and he is not a 'fanboy'. Tom on the other hand is exhibiting much more fanboy behaviour. A fanboy would be unable to produce proof (such as the Tech Report articles) and would simply flat out deny the facts.

Gamerlana: your GTX670 is a really excellent choice. I'd never recommend a GTX680 because there's so little difference (~6% on average) you couldn't possibly tell the difference. As for brand, EVGA have a really excellent reputation for after-sales and no-questions-asked returns.

 

[renz496]

7950's:

Sapphire non-reference version 850mhz core clock is $279.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=

Gigabyte windforce 7950 OC (900mhz core clock) is $319.99
http://us.ncix.com/products/?sku=67546&vpn=GV-R795WF3-3GD&manufacture=Gigabyte

based on the priced alone that GTX670 you mention above is a good choice. the radeon is a bit expansive but it comes with game bundles. also the radeon can be OCed a lot though i don't really like recommend a card based on it's OC capability because OC is not a guarantee thing.

 

[gamerlana]

Best answer selected by gamerlana.