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Are 7970 and GTX 680 fairly euqal cards for gaming?

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toyota said:
why does this question even have to be asked? if you even know what gtx680 or 7970 are then how hard would it be to google reviews? heck if you can be a member of the anandtech forums for two years then why not just look at reviews right from the very site you are on? 😕
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Perhaps he signed up, but is still a noob 🙂
 
toyota said:
why does this question even have to be asked? if you even know what gtx680 or 7970 are then how hard would it be to google reviews? heck if you can be a member of the anandtech forums for two years then why not just look at reviews right from the very site you are on? 😕
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True, but the user experience is not always reflected in the reviews. Plus it gives the others something to talk about, isn't that what forums are for?:hmm:
 
nine9s said:
I want to build a new IvyBridge pc but now waiting on GTX 680 to be available again. Is the 7970 a fairly equal card for gaming?
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nine9s: Tell us more about not only your Ivy bridge build but what monitors you have. As you can see from my sig below, I was lucky enough to snag a PNY 680 GTX ( most of the 680s are reference and it looks like the wait will be long so snag the first one you can get). I was really close to buying a 7970 until the 680 was released and decided on the 680 instead. I had to make some tough decisions. It was going to be used to "upgrade" rig 2 from the 6970 I was using to power 3 24" 1920x1080 monitors I assembled for Eyefinity. At the same time I used some newegg gift cards to snag a 27.5 inch Hanns G HZ281 for an incredibly low price to use as a single monitor game. The Eyefinity/Surround bug bit me late last year when I was using my flight sim Rise of Flight. I also love COD MW3 (though I'm lousy playing it haha). The 6970 was not bad running 3 monitors. My 5850s in CF gave me more fps but due to the Vram limit of 1G for the 5850 vs the 2G for the 6970 I was able to crank up the detail more for 3 monitors with the 6970 vs more fps but lower detail and more fps on the 5850s. When the AMD/Nvidia "titans" were announced 7970/680 I knew the 3 monitor rig was going to get one. Someone wanted to know why I didn't CF the 6970s. Simple answer too much heat and I most likely would need a larger PSU (Have an Antec Green 750 and it would be close). Long story short, I was lucky enough to have found a 680 GTX. Have had it for 3 days and honestly it is a smooth beast. Flight sims are wonderful on 3 monitors and COD MW3 is incredible. BF3 on High is outstanding and even Ultra is pretty good. I don't own the 7970 but all reviews seem to say it is also outstanding.

Bottom line ? Think about all of your other components. The 680 is more energy efficient but the 7970 seems to have more headroom. The 7970 can be purchased today for a very good price whereas the 680 is tough to find (but you can do so if diligent expect to pay a little more than $499.99 unless you are incredibly lucky.
 
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toyota said:
why does this question even have to be asked? if you even know what gtx680 or 7970 are then how hard would it be to google reviews? heck if you can be a member of the anandtech forums for two years then why not just look at reviews right from the very site you are on? 😕
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Because he wanted toyota's knowledge on the subject.😀
 
nine9s said:
Thanks. I have not been following the 7970s as much. Any common or major problems with them?
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nine9s: In addition to my comments above, take your time and read the various reviews on both the 7970 and the 680. Though I don't own a 7970, I can honestly say that had I purchased it instead of the 680 my decision would have been just as good.
 
toyota said:
why does this question even have to be asked? if you even know what gtx680 or 7970 are then how hard would it be to google reviews? heck if you can be a member of the anandtech forums for two years then why not just look at reviews right from the very site you are on? 😕
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Because things change as drivers get more optimized. Newer games come out too. Do you think Anandtech reviews every nvidia/AMD driver ever released to date?

I purchased a 7970 and sold my GTX 680. I don't notice a difference between the two. I feel I got a bargain since I paid less and got more for my money.
 
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Rvenger said:
Because things change as drivers get more optimized. Newer games come out too. Do you think Anandtech reviews every nvidia/AMD driver ever released to date?

I purchased a 7970 and sold my GTX 680. I don't notice a difference between the two. I feel I got a bargain since I paid less and got more for my money.
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Rvenger, nice response. You lucky guy! Both a 680 AND a 7970? You must be laughing all the way to the bank after selling the 680! Bet you bought the top of the line 7970 and still had some serious moulah left over.

What monitor setup are you using the 7970 on ? Your thought on the 3770.
 
guskline said:
Rvenger, nice response. You lucky guy! Both a 680 AND a 7970? You must be laughing all the way to the bank after selling the 680! Bet you bought the top of the line 7970 and still had some serious moulah left over.

What monitor setup are you using the 7970 on ? Your thought on the 3770.
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Off topic guskline but if u don't mind can u replace the ";" with "|" in your Sig?It is more pleasant for the eye 😉
 
The way I see it, the GTX680 is faster out of the box, but not so much that you'd notice very much difference. Both overclock to similar performance levels, but the GTX680 seems to do it more efficiently regarding power use. But, if you plan in keeping the card a while, and depending on the resolution you game at, I see the 3GB of vram on the 7970 being of more use in the future than the 10-15% better out of the box performance you get from the GTX680.
 
SlowSpyder said:
The way I see it, the GTX680 is faster out of the box, but not so much that you'd notice very much difference. Both overclock to similar performance levels, but the GTX680 seems to do it more efficiently regarding power use. But, if you plan in keeping the card a while, and depending on the resolution you game at, I see the 3GB of vram on the 7970 being of more use in the future than the 10-15% better out of the box performance you get from the GTX680.
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Well watching the incoming games on the horizon the "3GB of vram" has almost no future()🙂
 
Jaydip said:
Well watching the incoming games on the horizon the "3GB of vram" has almost no future()🙂
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It may make very little difference, but I still think the extra vram is more important than 10-15% better performance out of the box. With new consoles on the horizon, we may start to get some better console ports, at least.

The only game I'm really excited about is Diablo III. And to tell you the truth, I wouldn't be shocked if a Radeon 5850 or GTX460 could pretty well max out that game at 1080P.
 
SlowSpyder said:
It may make very little difference, but I still think the extra vram is more important than 10-15% better performance out of the box. With new consoles on the horizon, we may start to get some better console ports, at least.

The only game I'm really excited about is Diablo III. And to tell you the truth, I wouldn't be shocked if a Radeon 5850 or GTX460 could pretty well max out that game at 1080P.
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Well the new consoles aren't coming before late 2013 and by then both camps will probably stick more vram on their chip.The performance is better because u can get it from day one and u don't have to wait for some xyz game to make use of the extra vram.

Regarding diablo 3 i won't be surprised if a 4870 or a 260 maxes it.
 
I think the 2 vs 3 G Vram really becomes an issue with multiple monitors. From my experience, with 2 machines with 2500ks OC identically the rig that had a single 6970 with 2G of Vram ran games smoother on 3 monitors though the rig with 2 5850s CF had higher framerates. To get the horsepower for both smoothness and fps I was lucky enough to snag a 680 GTX. I'm sure the 7970 would have been just as good but with a little more headroom in the Vram department. I felt the Nvidia overall stock had better fps and plenty of Vram for what I run (Rse of Flight at 5760 x 1080).

For a single monitor? 2 G Vram should be fine for quite awhile. What's the highest resolution?
 
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Simple Answer is yes.

I think all the people who sold there 7970's for 680s are nuts. (I dont care about about saving a few watts a couple hours a day under load)
 
adam, love your post! Is that nuts with a capital "N" - just joking! I agree that if you own a 7970 or a 680 or both, selling one for the other probably isn't for any performance difference. I think we see these posts because we all (myself included) want to make sure we are getting are best bang for a buck. It gets a little crazy though when the 7970 vs 680 battle becomes a "my card is better than your card spat" .

Kind of like "my Ferrari is better than your Lamborgheni"

Holy smokes, I don't have the money to be in that league! Both are so fast it becomes the driver not the car.

I feel the same way about high end video cards. Our obsession with FPS misses a larger point. Both cards have plenty of HP for anything I'll do for quite awhile.
 
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Tempered81 said:
They're both a rip-off.
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I'm of the same opinion. It's like AMD and NV have a silent agreement to jack up the prices like they did years ago. Add to that, some of the reviews I've read are so transparent, meaning they read more like advertisement than evaluations. I understand the mutual need of each other (kind of like Mac magazines "review" apple products), but I couldn't stomach many of their conclusions.
 
lopri said:
I'm of the same opinion. It's like AMD and NV have a silent agreement to jack up the prices like they did years ago. Add to that, some of the reviews I've read are so transparent, meaning they read more like advertisement than evaluations. I understand the mutual need of each other (kind of like Mac magazines "review" apple products), but I couldn't stomach many of their conclusions.
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I've said for a long time that tech sites are little more than extensions of the marketing dept.
for the equipment they review. I usually catch a bunch of crap from other forum members when I say it too.
 
3DVagabond said:
I've said for a long time that tech sites are little more than extensions of the marketing dept.
for the equipment they review. I usually catch a bunch of crap from other forum members when I say it too.
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There are a few exceptions. Anandtech, [H] are the obvious speak-their-minds websites. There are a few others that are independent or seem that way, like Hardwarecanucks and bit-tech.
 
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