7970 GHZ: Difference between VAPOR-X or Gigabyte

[NicRoss]

Hi,

I'm upgrading parts of my computer and I am now facing the biggest decision: the graphic card

I'm playing on a 2560x1440 screen and I have read that in this case an AMD 7970 is a better solution than a GTX680 (I assume that more memory = better when playing high resolution)

After reading this article http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-6.html I decided to look for a 7970 GHZ edition.

The tricky part is that I'm living in switzerland and things are a bit different here (I mean PRICES are a bit different here). A 7970 GHZ Vapor-X 100351VXSR is about 500$ and a Gigabyte GV-R797TO-3GD about 470$ (without any free game of course). As you can see it is not possible to rely on the price advices from the article (if you find a 380$ 7970 in switzerland you should really play lottery because you are a very lucky guy).

The question is: Is there a real difference between those two cards? (I mostly play Skyrim, BF3, Shogun 2, Rome 2 when it comes out)

BONUS QUESTION: GTX680 are about 530$ here. Do we agree that at this price and given the fact that i am playing at 2560x1440 the gtx680 is out ouf question?

Thanks

 

[Spaniard United]

Gigabyte is factory clocked at 1100
Sapphire is factory clocked at 1000 (1050 Powertune boost)

Gigabyte has 1 DVI, 1 HDMI, 2 Mini Displayport
Sapphire has 2 DVI, 1 HDMI, 1 Displayport

Gigabyte's warranty is 3 years.
Sapphire's warranty is 2 years.

They appear to be roughly the same dimensions and have the same memory clock.
They appear to have the same power cable requirements (1 x 6 pin and 1 x 8 pin).

I have the Sapphire Vapor-X 7950 in my system now and I love it. The only reason I chose it over the 7950 Gigabyte was the connections (I already had an active displayport to DVI adapter for my Eyefinity setup) and the overclock/BIOS Boost feature, but since the 7970 is already a GHz edition GPU, that part is less of a factor for you.

That sucks about Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite though ... is there no where you can buy from that will ship it and get you the games too?

 

[Norlag]

I would choose the sapphire vapor-x. It is cooler in all of the benchmarks I have seen, and it looks more solid to me (has a backplate). It also comes in a 6 gb version if you ever want to play on 6 monitors at 2560x1600 (somewhat joking).

 

[Ed Palmer]

the performance of gigabyte 7970 is slightly higher than Sapphire. also, its power consumption and temp is better...
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-overclock-review,3186-11.html

 

[excella1221]

^Those are regular 7970s, not the GHz Editions.

You also can't compare temps since the Sapphire card used there only uses the Dual-X cooler, not the Vapor-X.

 

[NicRoss]

Thank you all for your answers, I think I'll go for the VaporX then. Actually I've got a 5870 vaporx right now. I've been using it for 3 or 4 years now and it still performs really good! I've never had to complain about this brand but I was not sure the price premium was worth it.