Probably a nerdy thread but I figured it would be a good addition right about now with all the monotony going around in here.
So anyhow, I got my card on launch day. Scored a reference model Gigabyte card for $575 (overnight included). I needed a card because I sold my 580 a month before and was desperate for a new card. I had to resort to my 4870 Tri Fire setup :wub: from wayyy back.
The 4870's worked fine but the 1gig vram limit was painful at times considering that I game part time on a 2560 screen and microstutter got the best of me here and there. :'(
The 7970 has been a treat ever since I popped it in my rig. The card was pleasantly less power hungry than my last 3 setups and definately the fastest single gpu at the time.
After a few days confirming that the card performed flawlessly at stock, I began overclocking. A short time later it was apparent my card was a great overclocker.
From then on I set 1125/1575 (ccc limit) and gamed regularly without issue for the next few months.
While the card can be made to be noisy, you can keep it cool under a reasonable rpm without much tweaking.
Drivers have been slow which has been annoying but I haven't had any problems and is mostly moot. :\
Now for the last 2 weeks i have undergone fine(r) tuned overclocks and have been running 1225/1650 with ease @1.25v. Card still can be kept at a reasonable noise level with good temps.
Performance is awesome but I'm always on pursuit for higher frame rates with better IQ settings. () 3gb of ram helped out bigtime in Skyrim
It's nice to see the price has come down some in the recent weeks making it an attractive buy again. :thumbsup:
I'm really looking forward to a "4890" type release in the future.
**edit**
----or better yet---
7970 ---wait for it--- *ULTRA* That would be the slickest PR move ever. With an attitude of screw power consumption in the name of performance, officially release a new sku dubbed Ultra that delivers everything associated with the title. 6gb, fancy cooling, and you can guess it...... xxx mhz.
**edit**
I now have a GTX 680. I made a local card for card trade for an evga GTX 680.
I was sad to see my card go because, honestly.. I fell like the 7970 is/was one of my favorite cards in the past 5 years, only second to my 8800 GTX.
The 7970 was a joy to own from the very second I popped it in my rig.
So, initial impressions of the 680 are as follows. I really like the feel of nVidia's control panel. Always have, Always will. I wish there was something like Overdrive built into the drivers but oh well.
Overclocking--
My 680 is definately a good overclocker and I'm still playing around with clockspeeds but something is different about this card. Scaling with clock speeds definately pales in comparison to the 7970. I hardly notice a difference when I crank the speeds up, where as with the 7970 there was a definte and significant increase with a 30% OC. I almost feel like running third party software to raise clock speeds is not even worth it. I suppose this is OK since the 680 is pretty fast at stock. My other beef with clock speed is that it seems to bounce all over the place due to the nature of GPU boost. Definately irritating for the OCD overclocker.
Power Consumption--
Don't care.
Thermals--
680 runs warmer than 7970 at stock profies but is quieter by a smidge.
Noise--
Like I said, at stock profiles the card is a little bit quieter than the 7970 but noise doesn't bother me when I'm gaming since I have headphones wrapped around my head.
Outright Performance--
Definately a wash. I'm glad to have the opportunity to play with the highend cards of each manufacturer every year and the Big 2 have managed to craft nearly equal cards to time around. The 7970 is a great card that will amaze you with it's ability to exceed out of the box performance with ease giving the sensation of accomplishment with a little user tweaking.
The 680 is great out of the box and that is it. I really feel like the card was optimized to the point of perfection at the factory and it is what it is. I feel like in the long run an overclocked 7970 will be the better buy with it's higher bandwidth, mem capacity and compute performance.
In hand impression--
From a novice electronics guy's perspective... You really can tell from an engineering perspective that the 7970 is built for abuse and that the 680 seems "watered down". You really have to have first hand perspective looking at the PCB's.
So anyhow, I got my card on launch day. Scored a reference model Gigabyte card for $575 (overnight included). I needed a card because I sold my 580 a month before and was desperate for a new card. I had to resort to my 4870 Tri Fire setup :wub: from wayyy back.
The 4870's worked fine but the 1gig vram limit was painful at times considering that I game part time on a 2560 screen and microstutter got the best of me here and there. :'(
The 7970 has been a treat ever since I popped it in my rig. The card was pleasantly less power hungry than my last 3 setups and definately the fastest single gpu at the time.
After a few days confirming that the card performed flawlessly at stock, I began overclocking.
A short time later it was apparent my card was a great overclocker. From then on I set 1125/1575 (ccc limit) and gamed regularly without issue for the next few months.
While the card can be made to be noisy, you can keep it cool under a reasonable rpm without much tweaking.
Drivers have been slow which has been annoying but I haven't had any problems and is mostly moot. :\
Now for the last 2 weeks i have undergone fine(r) tuned overclocks and have been running 1225/1650 with ease @1.25v. Card still can be kept at a reasonable noise level with good temps.
Performance is awesome but I'm always on pursuit for higher frame rates with better IQ settings. ()
3gb of ram helped out bigtime in SkyrimIt's nice to see the price has come down some in the recent weeks making it an attractive buy again. :thumbsup:
I'm really looking forward to a "4890" type release in the future.
**edit**
----or better yet---
7970 ---wait for it--- *ULTRA* That would be the slickest PR move ever. With an attitude of screw power consumption in the name of performance, officially release a new sku dubbed Ultra that delivers everything associated with the title. 6gb, fancy cooling, and you can guess it...... xxx mhz.
**edit**
I now have a GTX 680. I made a local card for card trade for an evga GTX 680.
I was sad to see my card go because, honestly.. I fell like the 7970 is/was one of my favorite cards in the past 5 years, only second to my 8800 GTX.
The 7970 was a joy to own from the very second I popped it in my rig.
So, initial impressions of the 680 are as follows. I really like the feel of nVidia's control panel. Always have, Always will. I wish there was something like Overdrive built into the drivers but oh well.
Overclocking--
My 680 is definately a good overclocker and I'm still playing around with clockspeeds but something is different about this card. Scaling with clock speeds definately pales in comparison to the 7970. I hardly notice a difference when I crank the speeds up, where as with the 7970 there was a definte and significant increase with a 30% OC. I almost feel like running third party software to raise clock speeds is not even worth it. I suppose this is OK since the 680 is pretty fast at stock. My other beef with clock speed is that it seems to bounce all over the place due to the nature of GPU boost. Definately irritating for the OCD overclocker.
Power Consumption--
Don't care.
Thermals--
680 runs warmer than 7970 at stock profies but is quieter by a smidge.
Noise--
Like I said, at stock profiles the card is a little bit quieter than the 7970 but noise doesn't bother me when I'm gaming since I have headphones wrapped around my head.
Outright Performance--
Definately a wash. I'm glad to have the opportunity to play with the highend cards of each manufacturer every year and the Big 2 have managed to craft nearly equal cards to time around. The 7970 is a great card that will amaze you with it's ability to exceed out of the box performance with ease giving the sensation of accomplishment with a little user tweaking.
The 680 is great out of the box and that is it. I really feel like the card was optimized to the point of perfection at the factory and it is what it is. I feel like in the long run an overclocked 7970 will be the better buy with it's higher bandwidth, mem capacity and compute performance.
In hand impression--
From a novice electronics guy's perspective... You really can tell from an engineering perspective that the 7970 is built for abuse and that the 680 seems "watered down". You really have to have first hand perspective looking at the PCB's.
Last edited:
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