GTX670 ftw or 7950 Twin Frozr?

xxViper

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Mar 26, 2013
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I want to upgrade my GPU from an HD5870 to either an EVGA GTX670 ftw or an MSI HD7950 twin frozr. I can't decide which one to choose. The 7950 is 60 dollars cheaper after rebates. It also comes with 2 free games. (Although they're not games that I'm particularly interested in)

I am mainly buying this card for Arma 3 and Battlefield 4. I will be playing Arma 3 80+% of the time I'm gaming. Arma 3 will feature Nvidia PhysX but from what I've heard it can be run on either AMD or Nvidia because their code is CPU based.

I have been doing some research and some places say the 670 FTW is better than the 7950 twin frozr and some say the opposite. One of the main issues seems to be that many of those benchmarks are from old 7950 drivers, before that card got better drivers. Also, the twin frozr comes factory overclocked at about 960MHz. As long as OC'ing does not void my warranty, I am willing to do a small amount of overclocking with either card - but I shouldn't have to - they're both new top of the line cards. Spending $370 on a GPU is a lot for me but if the extra 60 dollars for the 670 FTW is worth it, then It's money well spent. I'm not loyal to either brand. I've had this 5870 for 3+ years and it has been great to me. But I'm totally willing to go Nvidia if it's worth it.

Will I be bottlenecked by my "old" mobo or CPU? Which card is better overall and which card is better in my specific circumstances?

My current PC specs:
Gigabye ex58-ud3r mobo
Win 7 home premium
8GB DDR3 1866 RAM
XFX Hd5870 Overclocked to 900MHz GPU clock & 1250MHz mem clock
i7920 Overclocked to 3.5Ghz

The cards I'm looking at:

7950: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-127-667&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=2#scrollFullInfo

GTX670 FTW: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787

Thanks for the help
 

lt_dan_zsu

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May 3, 2012
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In November, when the first really good amd drivers came out, the 7950 was about 2% weaker than the 670. That gap is probably smaller at this point. It's hard to find because there aren't very many benchmarks comparing these cards later than November. Despite that, I would guess that the 670 is somewhere between 1-3% stronger. Assuming even 5% stronger, it still isn't worth the price jump from $300 to $360. Which is a 20% increase in price.
I don't think that you will be bottlenecked, especially if you overclock. There is a slight chance that it will though.
 
Here's a performance chart from today using the latest drivers. It's a certainty that Battlefield 4 and ARMA 3 will run better on the GTX 670.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_650_Ti_Boost/25.html
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