Buying new GPU in a couple of hours. Help please?

[maybeshewill]

For a 27" 2560 x 1440 monitor:

Help? Please keep in mind these are Australian prices, hence why they are more expensive. Which is the better value of these to pair with an i5 357k, Z77 Extreme4 rig? Gaming and photo editing (CS6). Will the 4gb card give me enough of an upgrade over the 2gb cards to justify the price difference, considering I'm using a 2560 x 1440 monitor.

 

[3DVagabond]

The 7970 is faster. Also, Tahiti is stronger in hires usage has more memory bandwidth as well as more VRAM.

 

[chimaxi83]

At those prices, the 7970 is the obvious best choice.

 

[maybeshewill]

If price wasn't a factor, is the 4gb EVGA card the best bet? Can it be overclocked to that of the 7970 level?

 

[chimaxi83]

The 670 isn't fast enough to use all 4GB of VRAM by itself, that's a card for SLI. It can be overclocked though, yes. OC vs OC, 7970 is faster in the majority of games. What do you play?

 

[maybeshewill]

The 670 isn't fast enough to use all 4GB of VRAM by itself, that's a card for SLI. It can be overclocked though, yes. OC vs OC, 7970 is faster in the majority of games. What do you play?

Diablo 3, BF3.. though I was mainly worried about GTA V (when it's released probably early next year), considering how much of a beast of a computer it took to run GTA IV. Adobe CS6 also needs to be compatible as I'm a photographer.

 

[Grooveriding]

For your resolution the 7970 is the fastest card you listed. That 4GB 670 is a huge rip off.

 

[maybeshewill]

Alright so I guess the question now is:

Sapphire 7970 3gb OC Edition

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1309&products_id=21322

OR

Gigabyte 7970 Ghz Edition 3gb RAM

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1309&products_id=20995

 

[Rezist]

I think if you could save money on a 7950 wouldn't be a bad idea either.

 

[Phynaz]

Alright so I guess the question now is:

Sapphire 7970 3gb OC Edition

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1309&products_id=21322

OR

Gigabyte 7970 Ghz Edition 3gb RAM

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1309&products_id=20995

Depends, is the 15% performance bump worth $20 to you?

You could always attempt to overclock the slower card, but there's no grantees.

Also, do you have any friends in the US or Canada that can buy this card for you?

 

[AnandThenMan]

Out of those I would take the Sapphire. Even though it is clocked lower, you have a good chance of getting 1100+ out of it and at lower voltage vs. the Gigabyte. Too bad you can't get a hold of the Sapphire Vapor-X, it uses the same higher quality power section components as the toxic I believe, which is a $700 card.

 

[maybeshewill]

Depends, is the 15% performance bump worth $20 to you?

You could always attempt to overclock the slower card, but there's no grantees.

Also, do you have any friends in the US or Canada that can buy this card for you?

Yeah I've never really manually overclocked, so a factory overclocked card appeals to me. Especially only for $20 difference. No friends in the US really.. though I just got back from the US. If I'd have known my old GPU would die on me when I got back I'd have bought one over there.

Does anyone know if going with ATI rather than Nvidia will effect my performance on Adobe CS6 (photoshop and lightroom mainly)? I heard Nvidia could be better for these purposes.

 

[AnandThenMan]

Photoshop CS6 using OpenCL is fully supported by AMD (OpenCL in CS6 is really quite amazing), not sure about Nvidia I have not had a chance to test it yet. But if Nvidia does not have full support now, I would imagine they will soon so I don't think you should use that as a deciding factor.

But even a lowly APU easily beats a fast CPU.

 

[maybeshewill]

Thanks so much for the info. Leaning towards the Gigabyte 7970 OC Ghz edition currently.

So just for arguments sake, if I wanted to stick to Nvidia and EVGA (happy customer in the past) and get the EVGA GTX670 4gb, how much of a performance decrease is it over the Gigabyte 7970 OC?

 

[chimaxi83]

Save yourself the money and get a 2GB version if you want to stick with Nvidia. The 4GB card is only for SLI, as in more than one card installed. The card isn't fast enough to use 4GB on its own.

 

[maybeshewill]

Save yourself the money and get a 2GB version if you want to stick with Nvidia. The 4GB card is only for SLI, as in more than one card installed. The card isn't fast enough to use 4GB on its own.

Yeah I'd love to save myself the cash and go that route, I only wish the GTX670s came in a 3gb version.. I'm worried I'll more than likely need more than 2gb within the next couple of years. Especially on a 2560 x 1440 monitor.

 

[maybeshewill]

OK I think I'll make order for a Gigabyte 7970 Ghz edition. I figure it's $80 cheaper than the 4gb GTX670 and 3gb is PLENTY. I definitely wanted more than 2gb with a 2560 x 1440 monitor so I guess I should stop being stubborn and make the switch the ATI. I've noticed the Gigabyte 7970 ghz edition also benchmarks a bit above the 2gb GTX670, and is only $20 more expensive, while having a 1gb advantage in VRAM to help future proof my purchase.

 

[RussianSensation]

Thanks so much for the info. Leaning towards the Gigabyte 7970 OC Ghz edition currently.

So just for arguments sake, if I wanted to stick to Nvidia and EVGA (happy customer in the past) and get the EVGA GTX670 4gb, how much of a performance decrease is it over the Gigabyte 7970 OC?

7970 1050mhz Ghz Edition is 19% faster than a 670 and 9% faster than a 680 on average at higher resolution, but both will be too slow for BF3 technically speaking and too fast for Diablo 3

The cooler on the Sapphire Dual-X is slightly better than the Gigabyte 7970 Windforce 3x in terms of noise levels and cooling capability. The Sapphire DX has a dual-BIOS switch where you'll get 1000mhz if you flip it. The Ghz Edition Gigabyte gives you 100mhz extra out of the gate which is a good deal if you don't want to OC. Both cards should run fairly cool.

Both cards are better options for your monitor than 670, but should you want to go dual-cards later, GTX670 SLI is a solid option down the line.

 

[lopri]

Don't install the unnecessary crap that comes with Catalyst installation package. Choose "Custom" installation instead of "Express," and uncheck whatever innovation AMD has achieved but you aren't sure if necessary. (Drag and drop, APP foundation, codecs, Fusion, etc.)

I don't remember exactly what I unchecked, but you will know when you see it. If unsure, ask here again. Someone will answer you.

 

[raghu78]

Thanks so much for the info. Leaning towards the Gigabyte 7970 OC Ghz edition currently.

So just for arguments sake, if I wanted to stick to Nvidia and EVGA (happy customer in the past) and get the EVGA GTX670 4gb, how much of a performance decrease is it over the Gigabyte 7970 OC?

The exact performance decrease is difficult to say. some games will have a huge difference like Metro 2033, Alan Wake, Witcher 2, Anno 2070, Skyrim while some will have a smaller difference.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_7970_Toxic_6_GB/28.html

2560 x 1600 perf summary

GTX 670 - 81
HD 7970 (925) - 88
GTX 680 -89
HD 7970 Ghz (1050) - 97
HD 7970 Ghz (1100) - 100
HD 7970 Ghz (1200) - 106

GTX 670 OC at 1150 Mhz boost will match a stock GTX 680. So even a very high factory overclocked GTX 670 OC will be 10 - 12% lower than HD 7970 (1100) on average. With manual overclocking with extra voltage the gap will widen as the HD 7970 scales better at higher resolutions because of higher bandwidth.

 

[Arkadrel]

2560 x 1440

Go with a 7950 or 7970, the extra Vram will be helpfull at those resolutions,
as will the higher memory bandwidth (from a wide memory bus).

Gonna post the pic that was relavant from the link by Raghu78:

A 7970 ghz edition is gonna have ~10% performance lead on a 680.
When you overclock (both) the lead will just grow in favor of the 7970.

At 2560x resolution the 7970 is the king of the hill.