Asus DirectCU II 7970 or Gigabyte GTX 670 Windforce

[J-Money]

Choices choices.

Upgrading from a 5870. Play on a 120hz monitor and 1920x1080 resolution.

Games I play, mainly will be GW2 coming up, otherwise could be anything.

What's the better card:

Asus DirectCU II 7970 @ $395.52 + shipping (if I want it expressed, otherwise free ground shipping) - http://www.directcanada.com/products/?sku=10530BD6702&vpn=HD7970-DC2-3GD5&manufacture=ASUS

or

Gigabyte GTX 670 @ $389.99 + Free express shipping + Mafia 2 and Borderlands 2 (not overly excited on the games, but I could sell if I decide to not play them. Borderlands was a maybe play) - http://ncix.com/products/?sku=71107&vpn=GV%2DN670OC%2D2GD&manufacture=Gigabyte&promoid=1043

Both also have $20 mail in rebates.

Have zero brand loyalty and a tough time deciding.

I'd like quiet, since my 5870 so loud. But unless one is drastically quiter than the other I'm looking for best deal/performance.

I am probably going to overclock at some point.

I don't want a 660 or 7950, I'd rather spend a bit more and get higher frames due to the 120hz monitor.

 

[RussianSensation]

Right now 670/680 run GW2 better, but this is with beta AMD driver and the game hasn't been finalized yet.

At stock speeds that Gigabyte card will > 7970 Asus. So right off the bat you are getting faster performance and BL2 you can resell. From what I read on the boards, 120hz also works flawlessly on 670/680 cards.

You can either wait until GW2 is released to see if AMD fixed the performance in the final game or if you must buy now, I'd get that Gigabyte card.

If you play a lot of other games and that Asus DCUII 7970 overclocks to 1.15-1.2ghz, then it can end up faster in many games vs. an overclocked 670. Also, if you don't care for Borderlands 2, you can sell that game making the 670 card even cheaper. Giga Windforce 670 ~ 680 out of the box. It's a great card and it seems like the safer choice for GW2 right now.

 

[JAG87]

For me, it would come down to the fact that the 7970 is triple slot and the 670 is not, and I would prefer to easily be able to do multi GPU in the future.

Edit: and what RS said above about GW2. Specific game performance is important.

 

[3DVagabond]

If you aren't going to O/C (I know you said you might) then the DCII is a waste. You're paying for the better PCB with more power stages, etc. and not taking advantage of it.

The Gigabyte is one of the better 670's and typically the best value of all of them. If I were buying today for a GW2 card, I'd go nVidia. Just in case AMD drops the ball. OTOH, if I was buying for that game, I'd wait until it was released and buy the best card at the time.

For general use, I'd take a 7970 over a 670, for the same money (close enough in this instance) every time. More VRAM and better memory bandwidth can prove important moving ahead. If you typically only update every other generation this could, and I think it will, matter.

The extra slot for crossfire/sli isn't an issue with most of the newer boards as many of them have 3 slots between the pci-e slots. It might matter in your instance though. Assuming multiple cards is a consideration.

 

[sze5003]

I am also looking at the gigabyte 670 WF OC edition. Seems like it gets great cooling and nice Overclocking potential. But I would probably go for a 7970 if it was similar in price and fit my case..now I wish I had gotten a better case but I'm too lazy to get one now.

 

[hokies83]

GigaByte has done well with Kepler.

The Windforce is a great quiet well cooled card.

 

[shurato]

Very satisfied with my Windforce. Bought it last week for $399.99 from the egg. Oh well.
Definitely very quiet.

 

[J-Money]

My biggest fear with the 7970 directcu is there are quite a few reports of vrms getting very hot and causing system issues. Googling "directcu 7970 vrm" brings up a few threads.

 

[MrK6]

GTX 670. Better cooler, better GW2 performance (for now anyway). This thread delivered :thumbsup:.

 

[sze5003]

The ncix usa site doesn't seem to have the same promotion for the 670 or is that not the OC three fan edition?

 

[3DVagabond]

My biggest fear with the 7970 directcu is there are quite a few reports of vrms getting very hot and causing system issues. Googling "directcu 7970 vrm" brings up a few threads.

There was a manufacturing issue with the original release. There was a washer that was necessary under one of the heat sink screws that was missing. That should have well and truly been fixed by now. Hardware.fr reported that back in May. The VRM do run a bit hotter than the best out there, mid 80C, under load. While others are ~10c cooler (MSI TF and Sapphire dual X). Mid 80's for VRM's isn't bad at all though.

 

[J-Money]

The ncix usa site doesn't seem to have the same promotion for the 670 or is that not the OC three fan edition?

Looks like the US site just doesn't have the deal. It is the 3 fan OC'd version.

Ended up going with the GTX 670, even though the 7970 is probably a little faster with the new 12.7 drivers. Mainly because I was worried about the VRMs (possible fixed as mentioned above) and now reading they locked the voltage on these cards, making it tougher to overclock.

Thanks all for the help!