7970 long term impression ****edit... I now have a GTX 680!

[lavaheadache]

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.




With all that being said. My final Answer is..........

Bring on the Sapphire Toxic 7970!!!!!!!

 

[SlowSpyder]

Probably not much of an upgrade (though certainly not a downgrade), but as a hobbiest/enthusiast, why not? I would probably do the same to have similar performance but a quieter card if it wasn't for the fact that I enjoy some part-time bitcoining.

 

[spinejam]

When you're ready to switch back to RED, lmk -- have some 7970's ready to trade!

 

[lavaheadache]

When you're ready to switch back to RED, lmk -- have some 7970's ready to trade!

pm me the details.

 

[MrK6]

pm me the details.

Your rig is going to have an identity crisis .

Thanks for posting your thoughts on the cards :thumbsup:.

 

[lavaheadache]

Your rig is going to have an identity crisis .

Thanks for posting your thoughts on the cards :thumbsup:.

lol, here is the kicker.. I don't even run driver sweeper. I don't get how some people have so many driver issues when I run dual monitors with mixed res and refresh rates and constantly pop different cards in and out with multi vendor cards running at the same time/ hybrid physx.... etc. Sure there are snags here and there but .... dunno, guess I'm just easy to please and don't scream and stomp my feet when something goes awry.

 

[Alaa]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[MrK6]

lol, here is the kicker.. I don't even run driver sweeper. I don't get how some people have so many driver issues when I run dual monitors with mixed res and refresh rates and constantly pop different cards in and out with multi vendor cards running at the same time/ hybrid physx.... etc. Sure there are snags here and there but .... dunno, guess I'm just easy to please and don't scream and stomp my feet when something goes awry.

Amen, and I've been working on computers for a decade now.

My most recent snafu was, get this: I changed the fan cooling the VRM's from a 92mm constant speed to a 120mm controlled by a motherboard header. After my maintenance, all my games would crash with a driver recovery, despite card and VRM temps being much lower. I reinstalled the 12.3's (at the time) and bam, fixed immediately. I have no idea what happened, but I've never had a driver problem I couldn't fix quickly.

 

[3DVagabond]

lol, here is the kicker.. I don't even run driver sweeper. I don't get how some people have so many driver issues when I run dual monitors with mixed res and refresh rates and constantly pop different cards in and out with multi vendor cards running at the same time/ hybrid physx.... etc. Sure there are snags here and there but .... dunno, guess I'm just easy to please and don't scream and stomp my feet when something goes awry.

You're not a Numpty. You are actually capable of changing hardware w/o friggin everything up.

Thanks for the insight. I love all of these people who say one brand or the other sux, when all you have to do is read a few reviews and you'll see there is really nothing to separate the two brands. They are two different beasts, but perform essentially exactly the same. You have experienced this first hand, but those who haven't tried the "other" brand in 100 years think they are capable of judging between two cards many have never even seen in the flesh.

Edit: BTW your idea of "long term impression" is sick.

 

[blackened23]

Dude, your opinion matches mine to a tee. I put 680 sli in a box expecting the other setup to be trounced. What I found was a few games about the same, some that red won, others that green won. And all other things being equal the 7970 scales better with oc's IMO - and it really smashes all games with a heavy OC. Anyway, not to slight the 680 at all because no doubt the 680 is an awesome card, but what you posted matches how I feel exactly.

Without exception I always go for the hype though. Bought ivy bridge day 1, 680 day 1, 7970 day 1.....ugh.

 

[Dark Shroud]

Yeah bring on the Sapphire Toxic and hopefully Atomic.

 

[lavaheadache]

You're not a Numpty. You are actually capable of changing hardware w/o friggin everything up.

Thanks for the insight. I love all of these people who say one brand or the other sux, when all you have to do is read a few reviews and you'll see there is really nothing to separate the two brands. They are two different beasts, but perform essentially exactly the same. You have experienced this first hand, but those who haven't tried the "other" brand in 100 years think they are capable of judging between two cards many have never even seen in the flesh.

Edit: BTW your idea of "long term impression" is sick.

In my world, Long term means I was content with it for a little while. =)

 

[tviceman]

Anyone trying to overclock a gtx680 should concentrate entirely on the vram first. Get that clocked as high as possible while still be stable, then move to overclocking the core. The gtx680 is one of the more bandwidth starved "high end" cards to come out in a long time.



***"high end" only because of price.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Nice thoughts but the noise levels seemed to be downplayed and wasn't even mentioned what it was like with the 30% overclock - I can't imagine it got any less noisy.

I do agree the overclocking of the 680 is pretty tragic, I like the 7970 because of this, the only real problem for me is of course it's price. The fact that you need to run it so far out of specification just to get comparable fps to a stock 680 doesn't bode well for me considering it's price.

I've personally view the 7970 as a 470, compared to a 580. Sure I can overclock my cards to very high levels, and come out ahead, however I'm doing this with cards that were $150 compared to the $500 580. If I killed a card running it so hard oh well, it was $150 and I was getting $350 of extra performance for free. However when you start needing big overclocks just to get the same level of performance while only spending $50 less at a $500 price point it really makes no sense. Considering you're still having to deal with higher rpm fans, higher power consumption, and more heat output which isn't at all justified by $50 less.

 

[Don Karnage]

Someone traded a 680 for a 7970?

 

[lavaheadache]

I could do 30% on the stock fan profile which honestly isn't all that loud. Surely it's audible but nothing that concerned me.

We have 1k watt psu's now a days, who cares about 50 or even 100 extra watts. I'll just shut the bathroom lights off more frequently since my wife seems to like to leave them on, lol.

A 7970 with a 30% overclock is not equal to a 680, but faster. Remember that.

 

[lavaheadache]

Someone traded a 680 for a 7970?

yep, It was in the FS/FT section. He just so happend to live 30 mins away. Anyhow, I won't be long with this card. I want a toxic!

 

[BallaTheFeared]

A 7970 with a 30% overclock is not equal to a 680, but faster. Remember that.

Yep, just like a 470 can exceed 580 performance. However the point remains, you get there by running the card very far out of specs. You do it at the cost of a louder cooler (or buying better cooling ala water), and additional power consumption.

Not that the 7970 is a bad card, not by a long shot, it's just poorly priced. :thumbsup:

 

[nine9s]

Not that the 7970 is a bad card, not by a long shot, it's just poorly priced. :thumbsup:

Even at the $480 mark as it is now?

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Yes, all it's doing is what 470s and other lower priced fermi cards were doing vs the 580, overclock to or above $500 flagship levels.

Overclocking potential shouldn't justify cost, if it did I'd never have bought 470s because they'd never have been so cheap.

 

[blackened23]

I have a reference Diamond brand card, and have had it since launch.

Pluses:

-Performance is outstanding for 19x12, I can crank as much AA and details as high as possible in any game I play.

-It has a ton of OC room.

-3GB of memory means that at my resolution I am likely set for a few years.


Cons:

-NOISE.

-NOISE.

-LOUD. (when overclocked)

I will admit, I'm a bit spoiled with noise, my last two cards were Sapphire Vapor-X 5870's that you simply didn't hear, even in Crossfire. Before that I had a Sapphire Toxic Radeon 4870 that was also whisper quiet. This go around I decided to go reference for the overclocking (voltage control) potential... I'll gladly sacrifice the voltage control for a quieter card in the future. Depending on the ambient temp, somewhere between 1100-1200MHz the card simply becomes too noisey. Just my $.02

*edit - Also, the drivers seem a bit fussy at times. Games are fine, but odd things like my cursor disappearing, or half the screen not refreshing while coming out of sleep occur for me. Up to this card AMD drivers have been dead on perfect for me. Nvidia drivers in past cards have been very good, but not great. This is my first AMD based card that has any driver quirks. :/ But, I'm still on 12.3, we'll see what 12.4 does for me.

I'd highly recommend the accelero ax7970 which will make your cards inaudible completely. But it is very pricey.

 

[Elfear]

I've personally view the 7970 as a 470, compared to a 580. Sure I can overclock my cards to very high levels, and come out ahead, however I'm doing this with cards that were $150 compared to the $500 580.

Except that the 470 is slower compared to the 580 than the 7970 is to the 680. I'd say saving $50 is worth the 3% difference in performance at the OP's resolution.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Except that the 470 is slower compared to the 580 than the 7970 is to the 680. I'd say saving $50 is worth the 3% difference in performance at the OP's resolution.

I think you mean at stock, and it is... OC vs OC the performance gap is much smaller.

The major difference there is both are from Nv and designed/clocked so there is a difference between a top end refresh card and a mid-high end card.

3% overall while consuming more power, running louder, and putting out more heat isn't selling me for $50 cheaper. (Opinion)

Even a stock 6970 was fairly close to a stock 580, $370 vs $500 - AMD still wasn't able to keep market share.

But then we're seeing cards like the 680 at $500, the 7970 at $550 and now a halo card at $1000. I guess the days of reasonable prices are gone, and the move is backed up by the end users it seems.

I just don't see the point of buying a inferior card for $50 less when you're already spending $450, the savings is pretty much pointless by that time isn't it?

 

[lavaheadache]

Yes, all it's doing is what 470s and other lower priced fermi cards were doing vs the 580, overclock to or above $500 flagship levels.

Overclocking potential shouldn't justify cost, if it did I'd never have bought 470s because they'd never have been so cheap.

A stock 7970 is not far off from a stock 680 across the board.

 

[lavaheadache]

I think you mean at stock, and it is... OC vs OC the performance gap is much smaller.

The major difference there is both are from Nv and designed/clocked so there is a difference between a top end refresh card and a mid-high end card.

3% overall while consuming more power, running louder, and putting out more heat isn't selling me for $50 cheaper. (Opinion)

Even a stock 6970 was fairly close to a stock 580, $370 vs $500 - AMD still wasn't able to keep market share.

But then we're seeing cards like the 680 at $500, the 7970 at $550 and now a halo card at $1000. I guess the days of reasonable prices are gone, and the move is backed up by the end users it seems.

I just don't see the point of buying a inferior card for $50 less when you're already spending $450, the savings is pretty much pointless by that time isn't it?

Inferior? lol. Take a first hand look at both cards and tell me which one is inferior. I think in a year 7970 vs. 680 will be a different discussion. People are putting too much weight in BF3 performance.