7970 a worthy purchase?

[skipsneeky2]

Given some thought to picking up this refurbished 7970 below.....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202182

I had a MSI reference model some years when the the card was new and the drivers had issues,i traded it for a notebook for my wife.Toying around with buying and selling all sorts of other cards over the years since and i currently sit with a 2gb 660.

Recently built my wife a rig,shes sitting with a GT 740 1gb. Outside of the driver issues i really did like that 7970.I figured for $134 maybe the 7970 would best the 960 surely and my wife gets a upgrade.Maybe the 660 might be a bit overkill for my wifes G1820 but it will soon enough be paired with a i3 4170.Then it would be a pretty balanced rig.

Thoughts?Drivers any better?Been stuck with 2gb of Vram a while and this appears to be a good mix of performance and Vram.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Wait for the GTX 950/960/970 price drops.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Wait for the GTX 950/960/970 price drops.

Would be amazed if a 970 ends up refurbished for $135 any time soon.Already planning on saving some cash up for Pascals mid range sometime next year.That is if a "gtx1070" ends up being anywhere in the $300-$350 ballpark.

I had plans of buying my wife a 750 TI,my 660 would be quite a bit better for her and i get myself a cheap upgrade.I think $135 does a good job of covering both fields.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I think $135 is a lot of money to spend on something this old and something that will be further devalued later this year. Not sure if 970 can get down this low, but it is nice having the funds available in case you need to snag something real nice at bargain prices. I am sure you have the patience unless of course the money is burning the pocket in which case why not put it into savings account?

950/960 are nice due to modern features and 1 power plug. Perfect for HTPC and the like. Just need the prices to come down.

 

[Stuka87]

The 7970 still holds up very well, and easily beats any new card in that price range. i think you are fine.

And the drivers for it are not very mature and work fine. Its a way faster card now than when it shipped.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Reference 7970 for $135? No thanks.

Look for a used model with aftermarket cooler for the same price or less.

 

[skipsneeky2]

The 7970 still holds up very well, and easily beats any new card in that price range. i think you are fine.

And the drivers for it are not very mature and work fine. Its a way faster card now than when it shipped.

My given resolution,i need pretty much a 7970.Settings in mostly GTA V i want to use run under 3gb but well over 2gb.I doubt a slower discounted higher priced 4gb 960 could push those settings or settings above 3gb anyways any better then the 7970.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gta_v_pc_graphics_performance_review,5.html

Most if not all 7970 cards from what i remember hit 1GHz,pretty big deal over a 2gb 660.

 

[thesmokingman]

Wait for the GTX 950/960/970 price drops.

By the time it's cheap enough, it won't matter anymore thanks to Nvidia's stubborn price controls.

i currently sit with a 2gb 660.

Yikes, I can see why you want to upgrade. I would jump on the 7970 except as someone mentioned it's a reference card. They do tend to run hot so unless you live in a cold climate or are ok with raising the fan speed and not oc'ing it, I would wait for an aftermarket coolered 7970.

Most if not all 7970 cards from what i remember hit 1GHz,pretty big deal over a 2gb 660.

Dude, at stock the 7970 will walk the 660, you don't even need to OC it.

 

[crisium]

Reference 7970 for $135? No thanks.

Look for a used model with aftermarket cooler for the same price or less.

The used market will offer much better aftermarket cards, true. If you can be assured that your used card wasn't an overworked mining card then I would prefer an aftermarket used 7970 to a reburbished reference.

 

[Rvenger]

I have a used ASUS DCII 7970 I paid $110 for. Worth every penny for the backup rig.

 

[Gikaseixas]

It's a beast of a card at that price IMO.

 

[Shmee]

Not a bad deal, but you may be able to find a used 280/X for that price with a better cooler. Keep in mind a 280X is basically a higher clocked 7970, the 280 is a higher clocked 7950.

Also, as mentioned, Tahiti in general tends to OC quite well.

 

[Silverforce11]

7970 is basically 280X, as they are capable of hitting great OCs.

Even the reference cooler, if you don't bump vcore, won't be noisy.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

Looks like it's out of stock.

But you can get used 7970's for less I suppose.

 

[WT]

I have a used ASUS DCII 7970 I paid $110 for. Worth every penny for the backup rig.

Same for me. I picked up a Powercolor 7970 last year for your same $110 price for my workbench rig. The card lived under water its whole life, and the seller sold it with its original dual fan setup. The fans were basically brand new, and the card is an overclocking monster. I rarely OC my video cards, but this thing just has too much to offer to not OC it.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Not a bad deal, but you may be able to find a used 280/X for that price with a better cooler. Keep in mind a 280X is basically a higher clocked 7970, the 280 is a higher clocked 7950.

Also, as mentioned, Tahiti in general tends to OC quite well.

Ebay buy it now prices for both 7970 and 280x cards appear considerably higher for anything.$134 on Newegg is the cheapest so far.Maybe the good deals people land are Black Friday sales or a good friend?Be a few more days before i purchase so who knows what may show up.

Yeah when i had my original 7970 back in 2012,it didn't take much effort to actually hit 1200 core.Haven't had a video card that overclocked that well since .Sucks i had so many issues with the drivers.

I could deal with reference blower noise,its a cheap hold me over till 2017 anyways.:thumbsup: Now hopefully they get back in stock.

 

[Wall Street]

I bought a used 7970 on EBay last year for about $140 shipped. It definitely has been a good buy for 1080p because that amount of money only gets you a GTX 950 in the new market.

Personally, I would get one that doesn't have the OEM blower cooler. I bought the Sapphire Dual-X.

The buy it now prices may be higher than that deal, but if you bid they usually finish around $130-140.

 

[railven]

7970 is basically 280X, as they are capable of hitting great OCs.

Even the reference cooler, if you don't bump vcore, won't be noisy.

I had my ref 7970 @ max Overdrive settings (1125/1350??? been a while) and it ran okay, temps weren't too bad, with custom fan curve could keep it under 70C without being irritated.

Man, $135 for a used 7970 seems weird. Just goes to show how long that node has been around.

 

[Magic Carpet]

By the time it's cheap enough, it won't matter anymore thanks to Nvidia's stubborn price controls.

Yeah, but I also meant the used market. Even today, if you keep your eyes peeled, you could score a nice deal on 9x0 cards. Also my point was, no matter how good something was and maybe still is, investing money in old tech, isn't wise. This isn't Haswell versus Skylake scale of differences we are talking about. It's more like you are suggesting Bulldozer over Haswell/Skylake, just because it's cheap and can perform in some titles really well. If I had to go AMD today, I wouldn't choose anything less than 290/290X for the right price of course. I was offered a used 7970 Lightning the other week for $100 but after playing a few days with it, I decided against the purchase (it was still a bit too loud and consumed tons of power for performance of slightly ahead of what OC'ed 960 can give ya). Only in CF 7970 does more or less shine today, when it works.

 

[railven]

Yeah, but I also meant the used market. Even today, if you keep your eyes peeled, you could score a nice deal on 9x0 cards. Also my point was, no matter how good something was and maybe still is, investing money in old tech, isn't wise. This isn't Haswell versus Skylake scale of differences we are talking about. It's more like you are suggesting Bulldozer over Haswell/Skylake, just because it's cheap and can perform in some titles really well. If I had to go AMD today, I wouldn't choose anything less than 290/290X for the right price of course. I was offered a used 7970 Lightning the other week for $100 but after playing a few days with it, I decided against the purchase (it was still a bit too loud and consumed tons of power for performance of slightly ahead of what OC'ed 960 can give ya). Only in CF 7970 does more or less shine today, when it works.

My local Microcenter cleared out all their refurbed ref 290 @ $160 and still a free copy of Dirty Rally. Why this price just seems a bit odd for me. They had the 290x listed for $200. Of course I got there a week too late

 

[SPBHM]

I can't see it as a bad purchase for that amount of money, it's a competent card for the price and most games.

personally I would be more inclined towards something like a 960 (due to power and newer tech support) but a used 7970 is better perf/$

 

[Magic Carpet]

My local Microcenter cleared out all their refurbed ref 290 @ $160 and still a free copy of Dirty Rally. Why this price just seems a bit odd for me. They had the 290x listed for $200. Of course I got there a week too late

That 290 at $160 is a very hot deal and still a very capable card. I'd get it if I were in the perf per $ market.

I can't see it as a bad purchase for that amount of money, it's a competent card for the price and most games.

personally I would be more inclined towards something like a 960 (due to power and newer tech support) but a used 7970 is better perf/$

Let's take one random, latest gaming benchmark. Tomb Raider.

Stock for stock, 960 performs nearly the same with 7970 while consuming half the power and being much quieter. Look I wouldn't mind extra power consumption if it had been still the top dog. It's like comparing P4/PD to C2D, yeah the late P4/PD were still competitive as we know it too. But what you would rather had today, P4/PD or C2D?

Still, 950/960 prices just need to come down some. Or buy used. But buying so late in life 7970 seems like a waste of money to me, unless you are desperate or something or maybe planning to use it for some CF action.

 

[master_shake_]

i have a pair of 280x's i got from the used market for 250.

at 1440p they are just awesome.

gta 5 is just great with them.

as for the gtx 960...

2gb of vram in 2015-6 is dumb.

it'll be outdated faster than the 7970... which for a 5 year old card is still very relevant.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I have a reference 7970 I bought at launch. I like the card a lot, but the blower is very noticeable under load.

 

[RussianSensation]

Let's take one random, latest gaming benchmark. Tomb Raider.

Using a benchmark where we know for a fact AMD has not released ROTTR optimized driver to claim that 7970 is ~ 960, while also ignoring 7970's overclocking headroom?

Let's not carried away now with using slated benchmarks to favour 960 due to AMD's unoptimized ROTTR drivers and then ignore the opposite end of the spectrum.

960 is nowhere close to 7970 in performance and it will lose even more when comparing OC vs. OC (280X).

Plus 960 only has 2GB of VRAM, without spending extra on the 4GB model which makes it awful compared to used after-market 290 cards/new 380X.

Power consumption in this budget class is a marketing bullet-point. When someone is shopping for a budget gaming GPU, priority should be on price/performance and VRAM, not saving power since it'll take years to recoup the difference in electricity costs.

At this point I would look for an after-market cooled 7970 though as once overclocked to 1150-1175mhz, it will at least run cool and quiet.

I'd also consider saving up a little more and trying to find an R9 290 for $180.

950/960 level cards will continue to be overpriced until the end of this generation. Even when their prices drop, prices of used 380X/290 will also drop.