7970 vs 680 overclocking

[hawtdawg]

Is there a consensus about which of these cards is the better overclocker? I'm about to build a new rig, and I want whichever card is going to be the absolute fastest when pushed to its limits. Is it probably best to wait and see what the's GE cards can do?

 

[lavaheadache]

oh boy, round eleventeen thousand fanboy vs. fanboy. lol....


Anyhow, coming from an guy that has had 2 7970's and a 1 680.

A good overclocking 7970 will be a little faster than a good overclocking 680 most of the time.

 

[blackened23]

Is there a consensus

Nope. You may be able to decipher something in the ensuing flamewar though.

 

[lavaheadache]

Nope. You may be able to decipher something in the ensuing flamewar though.

lol.

 

[Silverforce11]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/asus-geforce-gtx-680-msi-radeon-hd7970.html

Pretty good review with a wide selection of games.

AMD's 28nm seem to top around 1.25ghz with vcore, NV's is actually very similar with turbo speeds around the same. Clock for clock, 7970 is faster.

I used to recommend going with NV because efficiency really matters to me.. but with results like this in a next gen game engine taking advantage of compute to offer benefits of deferred rendering in terms of lighting/shadows without the huge performance penalty for MSAA (Hint, Frostbite 2 powering a lot of games atm is deferred rendering dx11 engine, would not be much for them to include directcompute):

Depending on whether future games would ultilize the benefits of compute or not, you have to make a call for yourself tbh. It's power use vs compute & extra vram (Which does make a difference already, Max Payne 3 can't be run with MSAA on gtx680 (or even sli) at 3x 1080p resolution. Vram limit is what it is, a real limitation thats is begining to be exposed at high res). A single 1080p?? Its a toss up, whichever you prefer.

Edit: My how times have changed... dx11 directcompute on Fermi was a huge benefit, now its reversed. So weird.

 

[lopri]

NV went with a dynamic voltage/clocking with Kepler and I think it was definitely a right direction to go. A downside is over locking seems to have become meaningless, but considering that Gpus makers normally don't leave much room due to competition it is a right decision in my opinion. If anything they should have dine it earlier but the different clock domains (e.g. x2 for shaders) prob made it difficult .

P.s. typing on iPad is tough

 

[Don Karnage]

Let the war begin

 

[hawtdawg]

vram was another thing I was slightly concerned about.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Let the war begin

/me goes to the bunker for safety.

 

[lopri]

It's too funny to read those who usually start the flaming play victim cards.

 

[SlowSpyder]

My 7970 can go above 1200MHz, I think most can get there about, many even to around 1300MHz. The general concensus appears to be that the GTX680 is also a fairly capable overclocker, going by posts I've read anyway. Just a guess on my part, but I would imagine a your average max overclocked 7970 might have a very slight lead compared to the average overclocked GTX680, but it would likely be the type of lead you only see in benches. Game play experience would likely be very, very close with either.

So with that, I would focus more on the other things since performance is likely to be very much a wash. Do you want the compute performance that the 7970 offers? The extra 1GB or ram? Or does a 4GB GTX680 sound even better? The GTX680 is more power efficient, maybe that's a consideration? Physx/CUDA? Reference 7970's are too loud when overclocked and overvolted, in my opinion (speaking from experience). Look at non-reference cards, see what has the warranty you like, any extras, etc.

I don't think you'll go wrong with either card when looking at just the performance aspect. Because they're likely to be so similar with performance I would look at those other things and put more stock into those when making a decision on one. Just my $.02.

 

[The_Golden_Man]

NV went with a dynamic voltage/clocking with Kepler and I think it was definitely a right direction to go

I fully agree. Just as clever as Intel was with the Sandybridge.

Unloading the system pretty hefty, when not needing the power is a good thing :thumbsup:

 

[3DVagabond]

My 7970 can go above 1200MHz, I think most can get there about, many even to around 1300MHz. The general concensus appears to be that the GTX680 is also a fairly capable overclocker, going by posts I've read anyway. Just a guess on my part, but I would imagine a your average max overclocked 7970 might have a very slight lead compared to the average overclocked GTX680, but it would likely be the type of lead you only see in benches. Game play experience would likely be very, very close with either.

So with that, I would focus more on the other things since performance is likely to be very much a wash. Do you want the compute performance that the 7970 offers? The extra 1GB or ram? Or does a 4GB GTX680 sound even better? The GTX680 is more power efficient, maybe that's a consideration? Physx/CUDA? Reference 7970's are too loud when overclocked and overvolted, in my opinion (speaking from experience). Look at non-reference cards, see what has the warranty you like, any extras, etc.

I don't think you'll go wrong with either card when looking at just the performance aspect. Because they're likely to be so similar with performance I would look at those other things and put more stock into those when making a decision on one. Just my $.02.

Anyone who looked at all of that and concluded the 680 was the better card would likely be just as happy with the 670. They'd also put ~$100 back in their pocket and have more cards to choose from. I really don't see the point of the 680 since the 670 has been released.

 

[cmdrdredd]

The reality is this. No one card is faster in every game at every resolution. The only way to determine what card to get besides loyalty to one brand or vender (i.e XFX only makes AMD cards etc), is to look at the games you are interested in and the resolution you are using and go from there.

For example If you mainly play Battlefield 3 at 1920x1200 the GTX 680 is a bit faster. If you're playing the same game at a higher resolution, the 7970 is a bit faster but neither will be playable in a single card configuration at 2560x1600 for example.

In most games they are really pretty close at 1920x1080 or 1200. At anything higher it's either unplayable on both or the 7970 is a bit faster but not totally unplayable on the 680.