Radeon 7990 vs GTX 780

[MaliceF1]

Hey guys,

I'm planning on upgrading my graphics card; I was considering going for Nvidia's GTX 780 (or at least, one of the cards based on the reference model, e.g. EVGA's or ASUS's cards).

However, the recent price drop for AMD's Radeon 7990 makes it a direct competitor to the 780, in my opinion. It should easily outperform the 780, for about the same price. The frame pacing issues the card had, were fixed. Plus it comes with a nice bundle of games as well.

The only thing holding me back is the fact it's a dual GPU card. I've never had one of those before, so I looked up some info on dual GPUs. I've found people telling me dual GPUs are just fine, being able to run most if not all games without issues; others are saying I should stick with single GPU cards to avoid incompatibility issues.

Could you guys give me some advice on this dual GPU problem please?

Might be worth mentioning I'm using this pc for gaming on a 27" 2560x1440 monitor, with a second monitor coming in soon (to display my desktop on).

Thanks!

 

[kirilmatthew]

To answer your question, the 7990 is undoubtedly the more powerful GPU by a lot. It is also a better value with the price drop and free games. But there are a couple issues. The first is that, while the frame pacing is mostly fixed for single monitor, it hasn't been fixed for multi-monitor. So if you plan on gaming on your two monitors you will have to wait for a fix, which AMD is promising, but we don't know when. The second is that it will run hotter and louder then the 780. It will also consume more power. This may not be as much of an issue, but something to consider. You need a good PSU to support it. Overall I would go for the 7990. Its simply way more powerful and a better value. If you plan on gaming on both your monitors and are not willing to wait for the fix, then go 780, or two 760s in SLI. I hope this helps!

 

[kirilmatthew]

At 1440p, the 7990 is just 14% faster than a custom 780 like the EVGA ACX SC 780, and you will not notice such a small diference in your real world experience. Given the nasty issues with coil whine, the possibility of CF not working properly in a given title, the lack of an upgrade path, and the complete lack of overclocking ability on the 7990, I'd say get a nice custom overclocked 780.

14% is quite significant! And the 7990 has some issues, but it depends on the review. Some say the 7990 is fine with regards to noise and heat. The lack of an upgrade path? You can get a 7970 to CF whenever you want, just like you can get another 780. CF works properly in all titles now with 1 monitor, so this is not really an issue. As for OCing, do you have a source? 14% cannot be made up in OCing. This is also not mentioning the 8 free games included.

 

[kirilmatthew]

1) 14% is the difference between 60 and 68fps. That is only rarely going to make any difference in playability. (to be fair, the 14% number is an average of some games where the 7990 is significantly faster than the 780, some where it's very similar, and some where it's much slower)

2) Tri/Quadfire is an absolute broken mess. You have no upgrade path from the 7990 except for 3dmark scores.

3) Every review of the 7990 shows very poor performance scaling for overclocking on the 7990 (example). Even when you can OC it, it does not scale nearly as well as a pair of 7970s.

4) 14% absolutely can be made up by OCing. The ACX (that I linked above) sits boosted around the 1100 MHz mark. The best 780s (like the Galaxy HOF) can be OC'd to ~1300 MHz, at which point they would be as fast as, if not faster than, the 7990.

5) Coil whine makes the card crap even if #1-4 were not relevant.

Considering that the review you linked that the 780 reached 1.3Ghz said it would probably beat a titan means it doesn't mean much. The 7990 easily beats the titan and virtually ties the 690. %14 is again significant, I don't know how else to explain this.. If a card is losing by, on average 14%, the radeon 7990 is much more powerful. Say for example that the worst games for the 7990 is even with the 780. That means the best game is probably almost 30% faster. Very significant. As for 3/4way CF I agree its not much, but it doesn't mean it can't be fixed. The 7990 is overkill for most 1 monitor setup anyways. Even for 2 or 3 its enough. 3 way CF is a possibility, I haven't seen any reviews though. With AMD aggressively fixing CF, I think stuff can only get better. When simply comparing 7990 to 780, the 7990 is hands down more powerful. Your coil whine argument is found by a few reviewers but not by others. For example techradar said very good things about it, and this was before the price drop ( http://m.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/graphics-cards/amd-radeon-hd-7990-1154993/review )

 

[determinologyz]

kirilmatthew, I still wouldnt go for the 7990 to me its not worth the issues nor fooling your self its a great card if it has problems. My thing is this if it didnt have CF issues and coil whine sure it would be the best bang but im just not seeing it and for 14% performance less i can get a full working 780? Ima go that route

 

[kirilmatthew]

kirilmatthew, I still wouldnt go for the 7990 to me its not worth the issues nor fooling your self its a great card if it has problems. My thing is this if it didnt have CF issues and coil whine sure it would be the best bang but im just not seeing it and for 14% performance less i can get a full working 780? Ima go that route

cf issues have been basically fixed for single monitor. Coil whine is an issue that is not conclusive. Some say it happens, a lot also don't. You say it does, doesn't mean it has it. And lastly its 14% performance and 8 games. That's a lot more then you stated. You can make your decisions, the 780 is a great GPU. But with the price drop to the 7990, I think it is even better.

 

[determinologyz]

kirilmatthew, I still wouldnt go for the 7990 to me its not worth the issues nor fooling your self its a great card if it has problems. My thing is this if it didnt have CF issues and coil whine sure it would be the best bang but im just not seeing it and for 14% performance less i can get a full working 780? Ima go that route

cf issues have been basically fixed for single monitor. Coil whine is an issue that is not conclusive. Some say it happens, a lot also don't. You say it does, doesn't mean it has it. And lastly its 14% performance and 8 games. That's a lot more then you stated. You can make your decisions, the 780 is a great GPU. But with the price drop to the 7990, I think it is even better.

The 14% and the 8 games isnt worth its issues man sorry. 600$+ i wanna be for sure ima get something that i wont have issues with honestly i just see the 780 being the better card even tho yes the 7990 is faster and you get 8 free games thats good but not for its issues no

 

[kirilmatthew]

kirilmatthew, I still wouldnt go for the 7990 to me its not worth the issues nor fooling your self its a great card if it has problems. My thing is this if it didnt have CF issues and coil whine sure it would be the best bang but im just not seeing it and for 14% performance less i can get a full working 780? Ima go that route

cf issues have been basically fixed for single monitor. Coil whine is an issue that is not conclusive. Some say it happens, a lot also don't. You say it does, doesn't mean it has it. And lastly its 14% performance and 8 games. That's a lot more then you stated. You can make your decisions, the 780 is a great GPU. But with the price drop to the 7990, I think it is even better.

The 14% and the 8 games isnt worth its issues man sorry. 600$+ i wanna be for sure ima get something that i wont have issues with honestly i just see the 780 being the better card even tho yes the 7990 is faster and you get 8 free games thats good but not for its issues no

Issues that not everyone agrees are completely existent.

 

[determinologyz]

kirilmatthew, I still wouldnt go for the 7990 to me its not worth the issues nor fooling your self its a great card if it has problems. My thing is this if it didnt have CF issues and coil whine sure it would be the best bang but im just not seeing it and for 14% performance less i can get a full working 780? Ima go that route

cf issues have been basically fixed for single monitor. Coil whine is an issue that is not conclusive. Some say it happens, a lot also don't. You say it does, doesn't mean it has it. And lastly its 14% performance and 8 games. That's a lot more then you stated. You can make your decisions, the 780 is a great GPU. But with the price drop to the 7990, I think it is even better.

The 14% and the 8 games isnt worth its issues man sorry. 600$+ i wanna be for sure ima get something that i wont have issues with honestly i just see the 780 being the better card even tho yes the 7990 is faster and you get 8 free games thats good but not for its issues no

Issues that not everyone agrees are completely existent.

I can see the op coming back to us saying he wish he would of bought the 780 after buying the 7990. Were trying to cut out the guess work for him and buying the 7990 honestly to me is guess work and hassle and for 600+ i want to be fully sure i know what im buying and whats the issues even if everyone doesnt have them before buying. The crossfire/coil whine ive seen alot of people talk about and not just on here eh yea im not to fond of that bro

 

[cookybiscuit]

kirilmatthew, I still wouldnt go for the 7990 to me its not worth the issues nor fooling your self its a great card if it has problems. My thing is this if it didnt have CF issues and coil whine sure it would be the best bang but im just not seeing it and for 14% performance less i can get a full working 780? Ima go that route

cf issues have been basically fixed for single monitor. Coil whine is an issue that is not conclusive. Some say it happens, a lot also don't. You say it does, doesn't mean it has it. And lastly its 14% performance and 8 games. That's a lot more then you stated. You can make your decisions, the 780 is a great GPU. But with the price drop to the 7990, I think it is even better.

The 14% and the 8 games isnt worth its issues man sorry. 600$+ i wanna be for sure ima get something that i wont have issues with honestly i just see the 780 being the better card even tho yes the 7990 is faster and you get 8 free games thats good but not for its issues no

Issues that not everyone agrees are completely existent.

Issues that are only fixed in DX11, and not fully.

 

[MaliceF1]

Thanks guys, all the info is very useful to me! I wasn't aware of the coil whine on the 7990. Most cards are probably just fine, but that's not a risk I'm willing to take. The game bundle which comes along with the 7990 hardly affects my decision; having 8 extra games to play on a gfx card which possibly can't run them decently is not a dealmaker. Also, I'm very impressed by the performance of Galaxy's HOF edition of the 780. With that in mind and the release of the MSI Lightning (which could bring in even better OC performance) in the near future, I think I'll stick with the 780 for now.