660 Ti 3GB SLi or 7970 3GB Crossfire for 30" Gaming

[B-Riz]

Ok guys after much thought this morning, I've decided to go with 2 7970s Vapor-X Editions. Not only do they smoke the 670 at higher resolutions, but can OC incredibly well.

If driver issues are truly a problem, I can always return both cards in 30 days to Newegg and get a pair of 670s.

Huzzah for that choice.

My past two setups for vid cards have been 2xATI for CF goodness.

I never had driver / perfromance issues, just extra heat and noise.

It seems many ppl are shortsighted this vid card go around.

AMD made the 7950 and 7970 very future proof with 3GB VRAM and optional OC goodness.

And the aftermarket non-reference cards are amazing.

I plan on keeping my 7950 and adding CF in about 6 months, then keeping that for 2 years.

If anything, nVidia is overpriced with Kepler.

Dare I say, the 7950 is like the 2500k. Awesome value, can OC like a champ.

 

[DooKey]

Hopefully the xfire issues are fixed now. I had 2x XFX 7970s in xfire and sold them after all the problems I had. The funny thing is a upgraded from 6970 Lightnings in xfire and never had issues. I'm happy with my 680s now and no issues.

 

[B-Riz]

Hopefully the xfire issues are fixed now. I had 2x XFX 7970s in xfire and sold them after all the problems I had. The funny thing is a upgraded from 6970 Lightnings in xfire and never had issues. I'm happy with my 680s now and no issues.

Did your wallet cry a little with the 680x2 bill?

 

[cmdrdredd]

Huzzah for that choice.

My past two setups for vid cards have been 2xATI for CF goodness.

I never had driver / perfromance issues, just extra heat and noise.

It seems many ppl are shortsighted this vid card go around.

AMD made the 7950 and 7970 very future proof with 3GB VRAM and optional OC goodness.

And the aftermarket non-reference cards are amazing.

I plan on keeping my 7950 and adding CF in about 6 months, then keeping that for 2 years.

If anything, nVidia is overpriced with Kepler.

Dare I say, the 7950 is like the 2500k. Awesome value, can OC like a champ.

1) there is no such thing as future proof pc hardware. Never was and never will be.
2) the driver issues are in regards to crossfire profiles and scaling. AMD needs to be quicker sometimes on this. Also micro stutter is a bit more noticeable on xfire vs sli.

Nvidia is not overpriced based on the market. Remember the 7950 was more expensive a few months ago.

 

[Final8ty]

1) there is no such thing as future proof pc hardware. Never was and never will be.
2) the driver issues are in regards to crossfire profiles and scaling. AMD needs to be quicker sometimes on this. Also micro stutter is a bit more noticeable on xfire vs sli.

Nvidia is not overpriced based on the market. Remember the 7950 was more expensive a few months ago.

Future proofing does exist which is partly based on the needs of the user.

If i hadn't future proofed by getting the 2GB per GPU version cards in my sig then i would of had to dump them at least a yeah ago.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Your cards are still slow by today's standards anyway. That is the point.

 

[Final8ty]

Your cards are still slow by today's standards anyway. That is the point.

Which is not the point.
No one tries to claim to future proof from there hardware not being the fastest top bog in the future, its always about how long they can use what they have bought.

 

[96Firebird]

I'm curious, I see you mentioned you had a 750W PSU but never specified the brand. What brand is it, and what does the rest of your setup look like? How much do you plan on OCing the 7970s?

 

[thm1223]

I'm curious, I see you mentioned you had a 750W PSU but never specified the brand. What brand is it, and what does the rest of your setup look like? How much do you plan on OCing the 7970s?

Here are the specs:

Case: Corsair Obsidian Series 800D CC800DW Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

PSU: CORSAIR HX Series HX750 (CMPSU-750HX) 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular ...

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770K

CPU Heatsink: Scythe SCMG-3000 120mm Heat Pipe CPU Cooler

Video Card (x2): SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100351VXSR Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support ...

RAM: SAMSUNG 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model MV-3V4G3D/US

SSD SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256B/WW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Optical Drive: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM

Thermal Compound: Innovation Cooling Diamond "7 Carat" Thermal Compound - 1.5 Grams

While I don't intend to seriously OC the cards right now, in the future I intend to OC them to their max potential as I need games inevitably require more and more performance out of them.

If I need to go up another 100w, tell me now so I can make the changes before it ships! Although I was told in my previous build thread that a 750w Corsair should do the trick, and be fairly future proof since the trend in PC tech right now is towards lower energy use/greater efficiency.

 

[lopri]

The OP is building his own system for the first time. I think a sensible advice is to go with a single graphics card. S/he will be able to add the 2nd one later or may even be satisfied with performance provided by a single card.

Once he's happy with his first build, there will be time enough to consider multi-GPU configuration in the future. Does everyone remember their first/second builds, and whatever frustration they might have endured? Why make things more complicated for an aspiring enthusiast?

 

[thm1223]

The OP is building his own system for the first time. I think a sensible advice is to go with a single graphics card. S/he will be able to add the 2nd one later or may even be satisfied with performance provided by a single card.

Once he's happy with his first build, there will be time enough to consider multi-GPU configuration in the future. Does everyone remember their first/second builds, and whatever frustration they might have endured? Why make things more complicated for an aspiring enthusiast?

Awww hell naw I gots to run everything @ 200+ fps or terrible things will happen in my mind. :sneaky:

 

[96Firebird]

Looks like a great build, quality parts in there. Your PSU should be fine, although you might want to look up power consumption numbers for 2 OC'ed 7970s just to be sure.

Most new PC parts are geared towards efficiency, but video cards tend to push the envelope of energy use to get the most performance possible. Nvidia's latest GPU is small and uses relatively low power, but I think that will change when the big Kepler comes out. Who knows what AMD will do next round, but you can't always worry about what is going to happen in the future.

You'll be happy with your build, enjoy it.

 

[Attic]

Congrats, that build is gonna be a speed demon. I'd encourage you to settle in on 2-3 games to evaluate prior to getting to invovled in benching/oc'ing to give you a quick baseline of what you have going forward with tweaking for best performance and system characteristics (noise/stability).

Folks here love to help with that stuff. The 7970xfire was what I thought you'd be best served by, but initially thought that out of your budget.

 

[Crap Daddy]

750W is not enough for 7970 overclocked crossfire. Here's total system power consumption with one overclocked card:

It's around 100W plus per card. This is what one 7970 uses in Furmark (GHz edition not overclocked)

 

[thm1223]

750W is not enough for 7970 overclocked crossfire. Here's total system power consumption with one overclocked card:

It's around 100W plus per card. This is what one 7970 uses in Furmark (GHz edition not overclocked)

Yep good thing I found this thread earlier: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1038379908

It states that an Xfired and OC'd 7970 system draws ~770w under load.

As such, I was not only able to call Newegg and upgrade to the HX850 before my order ships out, but still take advantage of their 15% off any Corsair PSU promo. Even better, I was able to get a $30 discount on the 800D/HX850 combo. So I basically saved money by making the upgrade. Schweeet! :thumbsup:

I would like to thank everyone here who provided their input. As lopri stated earlier, I am an aspiring enthusiast. And while I may be a noob compared to you all, the fact that I received so much input does mean a great deal to me.

Now, $3,300 later, I will be able to enjoy my 30" screen and SLi setup! D:

 

[Grooveriding]

Enjoy the 800D! I use one and love it, such a nice case.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Which is not the point.
No one tries to claim to future proof from there hardware not being the fastest top bog in the future, its always about how long they can use what they have bought.

Running at 30fps is not future proofing yourself. It's outright ignoring the truth, that you cannot ignore new hardware and continue to play the latest games at high settings.

I'm of the mindset that a PC is not meant to be played on medium. If you want that buy a console.

 

[RussianSensation]

750W is not enough for 7970 overclocked crossfire. Here's total system power consumption with one overclocked card:

Who cares about Furmark! it's not a real world test. Sapphire Vapor-X has 8 Black Diamond Chokes from the TOXIC which run significantly cooler and consume less power than a regular R22 VRM setup. The Vapor-X is not a regular 7970.

Power consumption in games for 7970 GE with updated components ranges from low 200 to 240-250W for overclocked. Let's not try painting the 7970 as some 300W card now.

While I don't disagree the 680 is more efficient, putting down Furmark # with 273W use is as far from real world as it gets.

 

[Final8ty]

Running at 30fps is not future proofing yourself. It's outright ignoring the truth, that you cannot ignore new hardware and continue to play the latest games at high settings.

I'm of the mindset that a PC is not meant to be played on medium. If you want that buy a console.

What are you on about, you cant be further from the truth if you think im playing at 30fps and you don't need to keep buying the latest to keep in the 60fps range.

You talk as if when a new card comes out it magically degrades the performance of the older.
It seems that you underestimate some peoples setups.

 

[cmdrdredd]

What are you on about, you cant be further from the truth if you think im playing at 30fps and you don't need to keep buying the latest to keep in the 60fps range.

You talk as if when a new card comes out it magically degrades the performance of the older.
It seems that you underestimate some peoples setups.

oh? Run Sleeping Dogs maxed out at 2560x1600 or Metro 2033.

 

[Final8ty]

oh? Run Sleeping Dogs maxed out at 2560x1600 or Metro 2033.

Sorry haven't played either of them.
As i said, its based on the needs of the individual user.

Its not about if there is game in existence that a gamer cant max out, its about if the user cares if they cant max the games that they mostly play and not everyone likes to max out everything because such settings are not always desirable.

Everything i play i can play at the settings i want and that's all that counts and that goes for any other gamer.
If i bought the 1GB per GPU versions of my cards i could not, so yes i have future proofed myself as much as i could with the GPUs available at the time.

 

[Crap Daddy]

Who cares about Furmark! it's not a real world test. Sapphire Vapor-X has 8 Black Diamond Chokes from the TOXIC which run significantly cooler and consume less power than a regular R22 VRM setup. The Vapor-X is not a regular 7970.

Power consumption in games for 7970 GE with updated components ranges from low 200 to 240-250W for overclocked. Let's not try painting the 7970 as some 300W card now.

While I don't disagree the 680 is more efficient, putting down Furmark # with 273W use is as far from real world as it gets.

I was just trying to tell the OP that a 750W PSU will not be enough for 2 overclocked 7970 using an extreme example which shows the maximum power consumption of one card. Considering that the OP may try and overclock his 7970 further than the GE it is good to see what he might expect. You are doing a fine job defending every aspect of the 7000 series cards all over these forums so this overreaction is not surprising. The comparison with the 680 was never intended because it has nothing to do with this thread.

 

[Arzachel]

Running at 30fps is not future proofing yourself. It's outright ignoring the truth, that you cannot ignore new hardware and continue to play the latest games at high settings.

I'm of the mindset that a PC is not meant to be played on medium. If you want that buy a console.

And I'm of the mindset that people like you are delusional. There hasn't been a game since Crysis where that additional power provides actually meaningful difference in visuals. Is Metro that much better looking with DOF that It's worth cutting your frame rate in half? The difference between console graphics and medium/high settings is huge, but comparing that medium/high to ultra, you need a reference and a lot of squinting to see the difference in most new games while taking a huge fps hit.

I don't mind people striving to get the best visuals and upgrading their hardware or else I wouldn't be here, but to ignore the massively diminishing returns, you'd have to be willfully ignorant.

 

[toyota]

and if you leave off just those few crazy settings in those handful of games then even modest card like my gtx560 se can play every game fine at 1920x1080.

 

[Final8ty]

DOF, Motion blur, Bloom, get turned off as i don't like those effects, HBAO, SSAO get turned off most of the time as i think they make the shadows too dark or that they look rubbish depending on the game.

I settle for SSAO in BF3, HBAO is just too dark for my tastes, but SSAO in Dirt 3 i actually like.