AT members choice: GTX 680 or 7970 (ghz) ?

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At members choice: GTX 680 or 7970(ghz)

  • GTX 680

  • HD 7970 (ghz)

  • GTX 680, but only if it is a 4gb card. 2gb is sooooo last year.


Results are only viewable after voting.

lavaheadache

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2005
6,893
14
81
I would. Significantly less power usage for negligable performance loss. :) Unless you bitcoin, those extra shaders do squat once the clocks are comparable.

1080p, no AA:
HTAGC.png


1080p, 4xMSAA+A2C (alpha to coverage=transparency AA - label in the graph is incorrect):
9yoNG.png


You call that negligable?

How do you bring up power consumption as being important then mention comparable clocks? If you are going to overclock a 7950 to waht a 7970 can do power consumption is going to go way up.

I just don't know how you could pick a 7950 over a 7970 if I were to walk up to you and hold one in each hand for you to take. I just sounds plain silly to say.

Power consumption lol... Does your power bill get paid in drops of blood? Even then it I can't imagine you'd be able to tell the difference.
 

cmdrdredd

Lifer
Dec 12, 2001
27,052
357
126
I think just about everyone who is recommending/voting for the 7970 is qualifying it with "now". Most people would have bought the 680 when it was released. The only people that wouldn't, would have been the ones who wanted more vram and/or take advantage of it's compute capabilities (small niche, particularly on these boards, obviously) or people who just hate nVidia.

What those people are disagreeing with is the retort of release prices, which are irrelevant now, release drivers, which are irrelevant now, micro stutter, when the thread clearly states a single card, so again, irrelevant, etc... It's pretty blatant when people are grasping at straws to support their favorite brand.

Again, nobody needs to justify why they bought a 680 8 months ago. We are in the here and now with this poll.

The problem I see is people needing to post walls of text and tons of benches to somehow prove that amd is faster now. We already know that. It is unnecessary and kind of seems like they just wanna come out and say "anyone with a 680 is dumb" or something.

Plus a lot of people might plan on using one card now and dropping a second one in later. Microstutter is not necessarily irrelevant to the topic.
 

Gryz

Golden Member
Aug 28, 2010
1,551
204
106
No...as long you are happy with what you bought.
That's not the point.

It's not about me buying the card in April.
It's about what I would pick now.
It's not about feelings or emotions (which I agree are part of buying decisions).
It's about making a rational choice based on your personal preferences and requirements.

Based on my own requirements (noise&heat), I'd probably pick the gtx680 again. Not because of emotions or because of the past. The performance benefit of the 7970GHz today, at 1920x1080 with lots of AA, is not enough to make me pick a (slightly) noisier card.
 
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raghu78

Diamond Member
Aug 23, 2012
4,093
1,475
136
That's not the point.
Based on my own requirements (noise&heat), I'd probably pick the gtx680 again. Not because of emotions or because of the past. The performance benefit of the 7970GHz today, at 1920x1080 with lots of AA, is not enough to make me pick a (slightly) noisier card.

There are alsmost no HD 7970 Ghz with reference coolers. the custom coolers do a damn good job of cooling the HD 7970 chip and remaining quiet. the Gigabyte windforce3x, Sapphire Vapor-X / Dual X , HIS ICEQ, MSI Twin Frozr, Powercolor PCS+ , ASUS Direct Cu II are very good solutions.

unless you do an objective comparison between 2 specific cards you cannot come to a conclusion.
 

Ferzerp

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
6,438
107
106
From what I've read at benchmarks, it runs quieter than the 7970

I had to replace the stock cooler with a sealed liquid cooling product due to the racket my reference 680 made in more demanding games. I use the ARCTIC Accelero Hybrid VGA Cooler. It's WAY overpriced, but price wasn't really a factor in my purchase. Now I can hear my Direct CU TOP card over the reference card (but only in furmark, now I can't hear either card in games).

I have about a 20% OC on both cards though.
 

Grooveriding

Diamond Member
Dec 25, 2008
9,147
1,329
126
I had to replace the stock cooler with a sealed liquid cooling product due to the racket my reference 680 made in more demanding games. I use the ARCTIC Accelero Hybrid VGA Cooler. It's WAY overpriced, but price wasn't really a factor in my purchase. Now I can hear my Direct CU TOP card over the reference card (but only in furmark, now I can't hear either card in games).

I have about a 20% OC on both cards though.

What sort of temperatures do you get on the cards under idle/load ?
 

Ferzerp

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 1999
6,438
107
106
What sort of temperatures do you get on the cards under idle/load ?

Idle 20's/30's.

Game load: never above 55 or so on the aftermarket cooler, never above low 60's on the Direct CU card.

I can't remember the Direct CU's furmark temps, but the aftermarket cooled one is in the low-mid 60's in furmark.

I haven't been using the system much lately, so I'm going from memory.
 

Sharchaster

Junior Member
Oct 1, 2012
17
0
0
I vote a GTX 680, because the price between 7970 Ghz and 680 are relatively same...so when I grab a 680, I can get more feature like PhysX, better driver support in the Future, consume less power, less heat...(although I prefer 670).

yeah people in europe, and usa, maybe can FEEL the Price Cut (maybe Huge)...on their country, but on my country...it's not.

So my Final Choice is a 680.
 

Lepton87

Platinum Member
Jul 28, 2009
2,544
9
81
Many people say that GTX680 was both cheaper and faster then 7970 when it launched and forget to mention that was only true for the USA, I'm pretty sure the whole of UE is an even bigger market then the US where GTX680 was always more expensive.
 

paladinm

Junior Member
Dec 2, 2012
12
0
0
1080p, no AA:
HTAGC.png


1080p, 4xMSAA+A2C (alpha to coverage=transparency AA - label in the graph is incorrect):
9yoNG.png


You call that negligable?

How do you bring up power consumption as being important then mention comparable clocks? If you are going to overclock a 7950 to waht a 7970 can do power consumption is going to go way up.

I just don't know how you could pick a 7950 over a 7970 if I were to walk up to you and hold one in each hand for you to take. I just sounds plain silly to say.

Power consumption lol... Does your power bill get paid in drops of blood? Even then it I can't imagine you'd be able to tell the difference.

I think Nvidia just released a 310.64 beta. It slightly improve the performance for FC3
 

AdamK47

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,653
3,518
136
You know... I'd rather both companies release new silicon rather than release new drivers that should have given us the performance of existing cards from the very start.