7970 Price Drop vs 770 Price/Performance Value?

[Nietzsche-san]

Tom's Hardware's review of the 770 had it showing almost equal performance to the 7970 GHz edition, but because of its pricing and frame pacing, the writer lauded the 770 as his "new favorite high-end GPU."


For single-card performance, however, there is little difference in frame time variance between the 770 and 7970ghz. Moreover, some Radeon manufacturers have lowered the price of the 700 series as soon as it launched (matched, if you count the $20 rebate).

Also, we can't forget the game bundle that AMD offers.

I'm a 1080p, single monitor gamer who has enjoyed the performance of a gtx470 up until now with any game I've played; I don't need 100fps with no frame stuttering (and as I understand it, it only becomes an issue with Xfire vs SLI) But I do want something that will last as long as my 470 has and still kickass with next-gen games (which won't really matter since current GPUs will handle next-gen games just fine, I believe) for years to come.

So tl;dr version, unless I plan on adding a second card and play at higher resolutions, the price equality, lack of stuttering variance with a single card, and game bundle should put the 7970ghz ahead for someone in my demographic, yes?

My only unknown is future performance; perhaps the 770 will perform better as time goes on? I doubt this though, because it's just using year-old technology, just like the 7970, but with some better Vram?

Everything I'm discussing has probably been beaten to death in fanboy arguments and technical discussions far beyond my knowledge sphere, but I haven't seen anyone react to the price drop yet.

So yeah.


Edit: Accidentally linked a non-ghz 7970 originally. And I more accurately said that they "lowered the price" not necessarily matched (unless you count rebate price, then they're even). While all of the manufacturers have not lowered their prices, I wouldn't be surprised if it happened very soon.

 

[sushiwarrior]

7970 should see more optimization with future games as game companies will be coding for GCN XBone's and PS4's, and be able to transfer those optimizations to PC easily. The 7970 is slightly more "future proof" because it has 3GB of VRAM, but that hasn't been shown to be an issue as of yet with many games (besides stuff like Skyrim with texture mods).

I'd wait for the next gen if you can though. No new games coming out right now, if your 470 is working for you then wait until the end of the year to see what Hawaii/Maxwell will be like.

 

[96Firebird]

Your linked card isn't a 7970GHz.

First question, do you OC? Second question, do you plan on playing the bundled games?

 

[Nietzsche-san]

Your linked card isn't a 7970GHz.

First question, do you OC? Second question, do you plan on playing the bundled games?

I just downloaded MSI Afterburner (if that's a scrub way to OC, I'm not sure) and have enjoyed simply turning up my fan speed (yay for sc2 not freezing mid-game!). I suspect I'll want to dip my toe in further in a bit, so yes, I will OC. And I will play every single one. Obviously this gives a better value to the 7970 *for now*. But the future proofing issue is a real $ saver, because it means the difference between upgrading in 2 years or 3+years.

This is half me asking for recommendations and half me wanting to understand comparisons between the two cards outside of the ad hominem-ridden discussions in other threads. I understand that my demographic accounts for around 30% of gamer desires, but I wouldn't be opposed to higher-price/higher-technicality discussions.

 

[Nietzsche-san]

7970 should see more optimization with future games as game companies will be coding for GCN XBone's and PS4's, and be able to transfer those optimizations to PC easily. The 7970 is slightly more "future proof" because it has 3GB of VRAM, but that hasn't been shown to be an issue as of yet with many games (besides stuff like Skyrim with texture mods).

I'd wait for the next gen if you can though. No new games coming out right now, if your 470 is working for you then wait until the end of the year to see what Hawaii/Maxwell will be like.

I think waiting is a pretty viable option

 

[Eureka]

I just downloaded MSI Afterburner (if that's a scrub way to OC, I'm not sure) and have enjoyed simply turning up my fan speed (yay for sc2 not freezing mid-game!). I suspect I'll want to dip my toe in further in a bit, so yes, I will OC. And I will play every single one. Obviously this gives a better value to the 7970 *for now*. But the future proofing issue is a real $ saver, because it means the difference between upgrading in 2 years or 3+years.

This is half me asking for recommendations and half me wanting to understand comparisons between the two cards outside of the ad hominem-ridden discussions in other threads. I understand that my demographic accounts for around 30% of gamer desires, but I wouldn't be opposed to higher-price/higher-technicality discussions.

I really would not be worried about VRAM.

I think the 7970 would be a better choice for you, given you want the games. Afterburner is a fine way to overclock.

I would actually look for a reference 7970 as they have unlocked voltages. I've had a non-reference 7970Ghz, a non-reference 7950, and now an almost-reference 7950 and I've enjoyed the last one the most. Voltage-unlocked, the reference cooler is actually decent and it uses a 7970 PCB.

The 770 will give you slightly better resale value, since it's a GTX and it's newer, but the 7970 won't have bad resale value either and you can up the difference mining if you really wanted to.

But really, IMO, it's a draw between the cards, but the 7970 will tip towards your favor because of the games (just OC it for extra performance, target for around 1100 on the core).

 

[Attic]

Where's RS?, he'd be the guy i'd want an answer from on this.

 

[SickBeast]

Was there an official 7970 price drop, OP? Where did you hear this? Is it the GE or the vanilla version?

 

[The Alias]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125414

this is honestly the gtx 460 of this generation . It comes within 5% of the 7970 at the same clocks, runs on less power and costs almost $100 dollars less while still giving you the same game bundle .

 

[wilds]

Personally, I would hold off on purchasing a flagship card until the 20nm launch. Unless you really want that big performance boost, I would get a 7870 or a 660ti and then sell it and buy a 20nm NVIDIA/AMD flagship.

 

[DaveSimmons]

One advantage of the 770 is PhysX without driver hacks, with your 470 handling the PhysX.

Not that I've ever bothered to turn up PhysX on my 680, but some people do care. I'd give "ooo, PhysX!" at least as high of a value as "maybe the PS4 will make non-APU non-unified memory AMD cards run faster someday"

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Personally, I would hold off on purchasing a flagship card until the 20nm launch. Unless you really want that big performance boost, I would get a 7870 or a 660ti and then sell it and buy a 20nm NVIDIA/AMD flagship.

When are they projected to come out?

Been on a 5870 forever and havent had the need to upgrade but getting an itch lol.

 

[sushiwarrior]

One advantage of the 770 is PhysX without driver hacks, with your 470 handling the PhysX.

Not that I've ever bothered to turn up PhysX on my 680, but some people do care. I'd give "ooo, PhysX!" at least as high of a value as "maybe the PS4 will make non-APU non-unified memory AMD cards run faster someday"

It's GCN optimization, it doesn't have anything to do with HMA or an APU.

 

[wand3r3r]

When are they projected to come out?

Been on a 5870 forever and havent had the need to upgrade but getting an itch lol.

AMD has been rumored to have something in a couple months in the "Titan killer" thread if you take a look. Originally it was rumored end of year so probably Q1 2014. I'd guess NV is a couple months after that but then again they haven't had a refresh either so it could be Q1 or Q2 2014.

There's nothing concrete but I'd be willing to bet 6 months at the latest even if a paper launch.

The one thing unsaid so far is with the insane premiums $1k and $650, if the amd card beats them reasonably, they might cost as much.

Personally I'd toss a coin. It's justifiable to wait or purchase.

 

[Rezist]

Well I kinda feel the performance between the 7950 and 770 isn't great enough to justify the costs. The only real stand out card is the 780 but that is 650. Really for the extra 250$ it does seem worth it. I don't feel the 7970GE/770 are worth the extra 100-130$ however.

 

[wand3r3r]

Does or doesn't?

 

[MrK6]

So tl;dr version, unless I plan on adding a second card and play at higher resolutions, the price equality, lack of stuttering variance with a single card, and game bundle should put the 7970ghz ahead for someone in my demographic, yes?

If you don't care about PhysX or the fact that the 7970 GHz uses a little more power, then yes, that's about it. However I'd strongly recommend looking at the 7950 as others mentioned, since if you get one with unlocked voltage and a decent cooler you can overclock it to similar performance (and then some) and save $100. You still get many of the same games for fun/profit as well.

 

[Nietzsche-san]

Was there an official 7970 price drop, OP? Where did you hear this? Is it the GE or the vanilla version?

The Vapor-x is the only one I saw go down (it was at exactly $399 only a few days ago). It wasn't an "official" price-drop that was covered by tech websites, but I knew that with the 700 series launching, it would only make sense. When I popped over to Newegg, there was the one ghz card I was planning to get at the same price as the 770.

 

[3DVagabond]

I think the 7970's will have to be lower priced than the 770 or sales will suffer. There will still be premium models, but I think the general starting price will be ~$350 before long. AMD tends to react slowly though with price adjustments.

 

[Vaux]

I was debating this exact thing. Building a haswell, my choice was pay $420 for a 770 that wasn't currently in stock or pick up a 7970ghz for $460 and getting 4 free games (1 I have 2 I wanted).

I went with the Gigabyte GV-R797TO-3G. I haven't installed it yet.

 

[Shmee]

I would avoid the new gigabyte cards, I hear they are voltage locked. 7950 or 7970 are still great, find a deal, or wait

 

[RaistlinZ]

Tom's Hardware's review of the 770 had it showing almost equal performance to the 7970 GHz edition, but because of its pricing and frame pacing, the writer lauded the 770 as his "new favorite high-end GPU."


For single-card performance, however, there is little difference in frame time variance between the 770 and 7970ghz. Moreover, some Radeon manufacturers have lowered the price of the 700 series as soon as it launched (matched, if you count the $20 rebate).

Also, we can't forget the game bundle that AMD offers.

I'm a 1080p, single monitor gamer who has enjoyed the performance of a gtx470 up until now with any game I've played; I don't need 100fps with no frame stuttering (and as I understand it, it only becomes an issue with Xfire vs SLI) But I do want something that will last as long as my 470 has and still kickass with next-gen games (which won't really matter since current GPUs will handle next-gen games just fine, I believe) for years to come.

So tl;dr version, unless I plan on adding a second card and play at higher resolutions, the price equality, lack of stuttering variance with a single card, and game bundle should put the 7970ghz ahead for someone in my demographic, yes?

My only unknown is future performance; perhaps the 770 will perform better as time goes on? I doubt this though, because it's just using year-old technology, just like the 7970, but with some better Vram?

Everything I'm discussing has probably been beaten to death in fanboy arguments and technical discussions far beyond my knowledge sphere, but I haven't seen anyone react to the price drop yet.

So yeah.


Edit: Accidentally linked a non-ghz 7970 originally. And I more accurately said that they "lowered the price" not necessarily matched (unless you count rebate price, then they're even). While all of the manufacturers have not lowered their prices, I wouldn't be surprised if it happened very soon.

May depend on the games you play. I play Guild Wars 2 and recently replaced a 7970 with a GTX 770. The performance difference is very substantial at 2560x1600

 

[tential]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202008
$360 after rebate. Not a bad price drop.

 

[Shmee]

ooh not bad. Voltage unlocked right?

 

[BallaTheFeared]

ooh not bad. Voltage unlocked right?

Probably not, it's a Sapphire.

Still the Vapor-X for $285 after rebate is a better deal than that 7970.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202003