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7970Crossfire or 670SLI?

S

scaramoosh

Member
Both cards are the same price here in the UK and the benchmarks put them pretty level but Nvidia looks to have the best all round game experience. However the AMD has more Ram and more raw performance in the synthetic benchmarks , which leads me to believe it would have the best legs. My problem with AMD is their drivers are horrible or Nvidia work with the developers to make the games run badly on AMD cards lol.
 
7970 is the same price as GTX670? Well, 7970 wins then. But if you have a problem with AMD drivers, you won't be disappointed with GTX 670.

What resolution is this for?
 
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scaramoosh said:
Both cards are the same price here in the UK and the benchmarks put them pretty level but Nvidia looks to have the best all round game experience. However the AMD has more Ram and more raw performance in the synthetic benchmarks , which leads me to believe it would have the best legs. My problem with AMD is their drivers are horrible or Nvidia work with the developers to make the games run badly on AMD cards lol.
Click to expand...
U can buy either one,both of the setups will play like untamed beasts.670Sli will use less power once overclocked though while 7970 will come ahead in performance.
 
See the end of last year I had massive problems with my AMD cards with crossfire performance, had to keep waiting months for fixes and still the games run poorly. So I got rid of the 6970s and bought two 460s for the meanwhile because they were sub £100 while waiting for the new Nvidias. However the 460SLI had better performance than the 6970crossfire in most other than Crysis and Metro and they had Physx and 3D which I could never get to work on AMD.

So no doubt the 670s will be much better but the 7970 just has the raw performance but bad drivers.

http://www.guru3d.com/imageview.php?image=39357


I play BF3 a lot and why does the 7970 suck so much?

Yet in the synthetics it's normally on top...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5818/nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-review-feat-evga/16
 
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lehtv said:
7970 is the same price as GTX670? Well, 7970 wins then. But if you have a problem with AMD drivers, you won't be disappointed with GTX 670.

What resolution is this for?
Click to expand...

I'm with lehtv. If they are the same price, I'd go with the 7970, I also despise the drivers they use, but you would definitely get a beefier card for the money.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 
scaramoosh said:
I play BF3 a lot and why does the 7970 suck so much?
Click to expand...

Because AMD cards handle MSAA poorly in BF3. BF3 is a deferred rendering game, it's not really meant to use MSAA though NVIDIA handles it pretty well. With only edge AA, AMD and NV are equals in BF3

Again... your gaming resolution?
 
scaramoosh said:
See the end of last year I had massive problems with my AMD cards with crossfire performance, had to keep waiting months for fixes and still the games run poorly. So I got rid of the 6970s and bought two 460s for the meanwhile because they were sub £100 while waiting for the new Nvidias. However the 460SLI had better performance than the 6970crossfire in most other than Crysis and Metro and they had Physx and 3D which I could never get to work on AMD.

So no doubt the 670s will be much better but the 7970 just has the raw performance but bad drivers.

http://www.guru3d.com/imageview.php?image=39357


I play BF3 a lot and why does the 7970 suck so much?

Yet in the synthetics it's normally on top...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5818/nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-review-feat-evga/16
Click to expand...
As u already have a not so pleasant experience with AMD,Go with 670Sli.Gpu Physx is only supported on NV hardware so I don't understand what do u mean by "I could never get to work on AMD".
 
Jaydip said:
As u already have a not so pleasant experience with AMD,Go with 670Sli.Gpu Physx is only supported on NV hardware so I don't understand what do u mean by "I could never get to work on AMD".
Click to expand...

I mean I could never get 3D to work on AMD


lehtv said:
Because AMD cards handle MSAA poorly in BF3. BF3 is a deferred rendering game, it's not really meant to use MSAA though NVIDIA handles it pretty well. With only edge AA, AMD and NV are equals in BF3

Again... your gaming resolution?
Click to expand...


Yeah well BF3 is unplayable without MSAA because you just see jaggies everywhere.


I'm gonna go 670SLI, just has the better drivers.


Edit: just 1080P I play off a massive 3DTV with a controller for all the games I can but FPS and RTS which I still prefer Mouse and Keyboard. I got that Razer Hydra thing and it's still no good for games, just makes it even harder lol.

However I want the extra memory because games are using more and more and it's impossible to max certain games out at 1GB so I wonder how long until 2GB is dated.
 
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Multi-GPU -> Nvidia hands down. I'd rather have good profile support, good customization options and (allegedly) less microstutter than 10% more performance.
 
SenorRed said:
I'm with lehtv. If they are the same price, I'd go with the 7970, I also despise the drivers they use, but you would definitely get a beefier card for the money.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
SenorRed: Think about what you just posted. They have a beefier card for the money but I despise their drivers.

I have both AMD and Nvidia cards (GTX 680 Radeon 6970, 5850s CF, Gtx 460-768). If they are close in price and performance the Nvidia gives me less hassle so I buy it. A "beefier" card does me absolutely no good if I'm constantly having driver problems. Almost like the guy with the biggest engine but "it isn't running right" Sure he has the Horsepower - on paper but the car in the garage all the time.. While the other guy has his car on the road - with slightly less horsepower.
 
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scaramoosh said:
See the end of last year I had massive problems with my AMD cards with crossfire performance, had to keep waiting months for fixes and still the games run poorly. So I got rid of the 6970s and bought two 460s for the meanwhile because they were sub £100 while waiting for the new Nvidias. However the 460SLI had better performance than the 6970crossfire in most other than Crysis and Metro and they had Physx and 3D which I could never get to work on AMD.

So no doubt the 670s will be much better but the 7970 just has the raw performance but bad drivers.

http://www.guru3d.com/imageview.php?image=39357


I play BF3 a lot and why does the 7970 suck so much?

Yet in the synthetics it's normally on top...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5818/nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-review-feat-evga/16
Click to expand...
EVGA-GTX-670-39.jpg
 
Per the graph above the 7970 has a better min rate but lower average rate. It's clear to me that BF3 favors Nvidia cards and drivers. I'm sure there are some games that favor AMD.
 
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guskline said:
Per the graph above the &970 has a better min rate but lower average rate. It's clear to me that BF3 favors Nvidia cards and drivers. I'm sure there are some games that favor AMD.
Click to expand...


There are.


So my answer in general to a topic like this.. is if you only play certain games look up the benchmarks. If the games you play favor one card over the other, you have your answer.


If the games you play perform about the same on both brands... then it just comes down to personal preference.
 
scaramoosh said:
Edit: just 1080P I play off a massive 3DTV with a controller for all the games I can but FPS and RTS which I still prefer Mouse and Keyboard. I got that Razer Hydra thing and it's still no good for games, just makes it even harder lol.
Click to expand...

If you actually play the games in 3D or with 120hz refresh rate, then 670 SLI is a good idea... But for 1080p capped at 60hz I can't see how it could ever be worth it. One 670 already gets 60fps constant in most games at max settings
 
If you want 3d, get 670s. 3d is much less of a hassle on Nvidia than on AMD. If you're looking for the most power, get the 7970s and overclock them.

Sli/crossfire issues aren't that clear-cut, because some games lately got CAPs faster than their Sli equivalent and there have been issues with Sli scaling too. That said, Kepler Sli drivers are probably more mature do to the fact that it's not a totally new arch unlike GCN.
 
I've played around a bit with with SLI ( 2 GTX 460-768s) and have 2 5850s in Crossfire.Neither of these is the highest end card such as a 7970 or 670. I think a very important factor is your PSU. The 7970s give more brute power but at what power and heat cost? scaramooch, what's the status of your PSU? Don't overlook that! I own a licensed version of PSU calculator. They don't have the GTX670 listed yet but I compared my rig 2 below with 2 7970s vs 2 GTX680s and the 7970s recommend at least 619Watt PSU while the GTX 680s recommended 580 watts. The GTX 670s would widen the gap.
 
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Just 2 moderately OCed 7970s alone take 600+ watts even without the motherboard/RAM/CPU/HDDs etc. The entire system will need at least a 850-1000 watts Seasonic grade PSU.


My 7970 OC alone takes around 250-300 watts in games, just the card. Not the rest of the system.
 
aaksheytalwar said:
Just 2 moderately OCed 7970s alone take 600+ watts even without the motherboard/RAM/CPU/HDDs etc. The entire system will need at least a 850-1000 watts Seasonic grade PSU.


My 7970 OC alone takes around 250-300 watts in games, just the card. Not the rest of the system.
Click to expand...
Seriously, I could see a 850 watt quality PSU but I didn't realize that much power draw.
 
guskline said:
Seriously, I could see a 850 watt quality PSU but I didn't realize that much power draw.
Click to expand...

A 7970 stock under real world moderate load (not stress testing) without any other components take 214-34W = 180 Watts.

The TDP is 250 watts for a stock card for stress testing etc purposes.

A 7970 CF stock without any other components with moderate-high (not stress testing, not max usage) takes 411-34W = 377W

But if you consider TDP point of view then they take 200-250 watts each max, or 400-500 watts both.

But once you go in the high OC range, that is past CCC, you should be ready for 250+ watts per card. So realistically with some scope, 300X2 = ~ 600 watts just for the system.

Without the GPU, a high end system will take:
2600k at 4.6 1.4V
Asus mobo
4 DDR3 RAM at stock
1 Blu ray
1 SSD
1 HDD
H100
4 USB
1 sound card
2 x 120 mm fans
misc

these take about 359W at full load.

So that means 1000W is what you need from a brand like Seasonic and at least 1200+ watts is recommended for some room, capacitor aging etc.

However, this is at full load, stress testing load.

Under real world situations you will probably stay within 600-800 watts or so.

However, no point in being so finicky about not spending an additional $100 for a PSU which can use everything at 100% load oced comfortably, especially when you are spending a few grands anyway 🙂
 
aaksheytalwar said:
A 7970 stock under real world moderate load (not stress testing) without any other components take 214-34W = 180 Watts.

The TDP is 250 watts for a stock card for stress testing etc purposes.

A 7970 CF stock without any other components with moderate-high (not stress testing, not max usage) takes 411-34W = 377W

But if you consider TDP point of view then they take 200-250 watts each max, or 400-500 watts both.

But once you go in the high OC range, that is past CCC, you should be ready for 250+ watts per card. So realistically with some scope, 300X2 = ~ 600 watts just for the system.

Without the GPU, a high end system will take:
2600k at 4.6 1.4V
Asus mobo
4 DDR3 RAM at stock
1 Blu ray
1 SSD
1 HDD
H100
4 USB
1 sound card
2 x 120 mm fans
misc

these take about 359W at full load.

So that means 1000W is what you need from a brand like Seasonic and at least 1200+ watts is recommended for some room, capacitor aging etc.

However, this is at full load, stress testing load.

Under real world situations you will probably stay within 600-800 watts or so.

However, no point in being so finicky about not spending an additional $100 for a PSU which can use everything at 100% load oced comfortably, especially when you are spending a few grands anyway 🙂
Click to expand...
I agree. My point to the poster was to not forget the cost of a bigger PSU when you "dive" into Crossfire or SLI. Some tend to buy that 2nd video card without considering their PSU.
 
Jaydip said:
As u already have a not so pleasant experience with AMD,Go with 670Sli.Gpu Physx is only supported on NV hardware so I don't understand what do u mean by "I could never get to work on AMD".
Click to expand...

He probably meant the 3D and GPU PhysX in only supported in a handful of games. And if you're not running SLI it's going to kill frame rates.
 
Got my two 670s today and very happy with them but the fans are loud and they run so hot which is an Nvidia trait it seems. I have two H70s from my old PCs that I've sold and will tie wrap them to these 670s, so glad I bought a Mountain Mods case or I'd never fit them in lol.
 
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