Buying new PC, 7870XT vs. 7970?

[BullHorn]

I've seen the May 2013 list of GPUs and noticed that the price difference between the two cards is almost double ($250 vs. $400) but the performance was nearly the same.

This kind of situation makes it very difficult for me to decide. Can you guys shed more light on this? I just bought a 120Hz Samsung that supports 3D with Radeon cards that's why I'm not looking at GeForce at the moment.

 

[X79]

If you're going for pure gaming, then Nvidia tend to perform better, in that

they don't build their GPUs for heavy compute tasks. What's your budget?

I'm sure an XT would still make you quite happy; depending on what you're doing/playing.

 

[BullHorn]

I'd say my budget is $1000 but I prefer to go as budget as possible. There's a point where the performance benefit is greatly diminished. And as mentioned before, I don't think I'll be able to use my new screen's 3D feature with a GeForce card.

I mostly play video games and sometimes encode video (Sometimes simultaneously), I'm pretty sure the Intel i5 i3570K is the best CPU for my activities.

 

[X79]

An Intel CPU without a K, sure. K is meant for OC'ing and it's also more expensive, which doesn't

fall in line with your plans to go as cheap as possible. Check this proposed build out:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-3350P 3.1GHz Quad-Core Processor ($178.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock B75M-DGS Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($60.55 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($100.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($93.99 @ Adorama)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($248.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 431 Plus (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case ($32.50 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($62.98 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $942.93
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-01 06:50 EDT-0400)

Lots of RAM for multi-tasking and editing.

A good i5 CPU, which is quad-core afterall.

A Radeon GPU like you wanted.

A good case.

And Windows 8.

Also an SSD in case you want that speed.

Or:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($69.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair XMS3 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($100.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($58.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850 1GB Video Card ($173.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master Elite 335 Upgraded ATX Mid Tower Case ($36.66 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($14.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) ($89.98 @ Outlet PC)
Total: $665.55
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-01 06:54 EDT-0400)

 

[coozie7]

@ bullhorn: If you can find on a 7870XT is still pretty much top of the line for performance/cost but they're getting scarce so you might be pushed up to a 7950 or down to a standard 7870.
If your video encoding software uses Hyperthreading or takes full use of multiple cores you'll see better performance with an i7 in the Intel build or an 8 core CPU in the AMD build.