GTX 670 4gb vs. 7970

[musty989]

I just made an order for an EVGA GTX 670 SC 4GB on newegg, but with the recent research I’ve done and the newly release AMD beta drivers which has improved performance for the 7970, I need some help on whether I made the correct decision. I have until Sunday to cancel my order with it being the weekend, so I really need some help here. I mainly chose the GTX 670 due to a few reasons.


I just purchased a catleap 2560 x 1440 monitor, and I will be running a 3 monitor setup. I will NOT being gaming on all 3, as the other two monitors are a 22” 1680x1050, and a 24” 1920x1200, so the 3 monitor setup is mainly for business/desktop use and I will only be gaming on the 2560x1440 catleap. I do game every now and then and would consider gaming fps as my biggest concern but, it’s not too far ahead of my other uses which are AutoCAD and Photoshop. Do you guys think that I could benefit more from a 7970 due to the cards compute abilities, and also the new AMD drivers which now let the 7970 outshine the 670 and compete with the 680.


Also, I was under the impression that with an AMD card I would have to purchase an active display adapter to run this type of setup, which I found cost $50+, which steered me toward the 670. Now with my understanding of the 7970’s OpenCL and compute abilities, would I be better off switching to the 7970? AutoCAD from what I read would operate better with the 670 due to the CUDA cores but I only work on smaller projects, nothing huge. And with Photoshop, I’m a light/moderate user as well.


I’m a new computer engineering student and I’m not sure if the software/games I’ll be using in the next 4-5 years would make me better off going with the 7970’s compute abilities. I’ll be keeping whatever card I get for 4-5 years and adding a 2nd card in probably 2 years to crossfire or sli, which is why I went with the 4gb 670 instead of the 2gb, again this decision will be lasting me 4-5 years so how important is the 7970’s OpenCL compute performance going to matter regarding my needs and timeline.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Keep that existing order, you've already made a good choice. AutoCad > Photoshop.

EDIT: Likely, in 3-5 years, you will still find this card well supported, in drivers department. With 7970 it's going to be more of a gamble. Besides, if you decide to drive 3+ monitors, you're not forced to use DP connections as with the AMD card.

 

[moriz]

Every 7970 comes with a DP to dvi adapter, so you don't need to purchase one.

As for which card to get, I'd suggest looking at the games you play, and pick the card with the best performance in those games.

 

[musty989]

Magic Carpet, I've just read that AutoCAD, along with all Adobe Suite programs, are beginning to optimize for OpenCL support. I'm also curious about future applications using OpenCL support, as I've stated I'll be keeping whichever card I purchase for 4-5 years with the addition of sli or crossfire a couple years down the road.

With all this talk about OpenCL development and compute performance, I'm starting to feel like I'll be left out of the boat with poor performance if I stick with the 670. It doesn't seem to be as big of a deal today, but this decision has to last me for a while and it seems even if Nvidia does optimize their drivers for OpenCL, the 600 series just doesn't have the compute power that the 7970 does. Coupled with this, the 7970 seems to be outperforming or competing with the 680 now that amd released the new beta drivers, and since I purchased a 4gb 670 for $470, I'm not really laying down anymore cash if I decide to go with the 7970...unless I have to buy an active adapter =/ . So these are the questions that are keeping me on the fence, I just don't want to make the wrong decision and regret it down the road when compute power becomes more of an issue with future applications. I completely agree with you on Nvidia's driver support too, I haven't had an AMD card since my old Sapphire 9500 pro partly due to this reason alone.


moriz, all three of my monitors are dvi only, so you're saying I wouldn't need to purchase an active adapter in my situation? I'm a little confused on that question as I've seen and read different opinions, but more so I see people suggesting that I would have to purchase an active adapter if I wanted to run 3 legacy (DVI) monitors, all with different resolutions, on one 7970 card.

 

[Riek]

Magic Carpet, I've just read that AutoCAD, along with all Adobe Suite programs, are beginning to optimize for OpenCL support. I'm also curious about future applications using OpenCL support, as I've stated I'll be keeping whichever card I purchase for 4-5 years with the addition of sli or crossfire a couple years down the road.

With all this talk about OpenCL development and compute performance, I'm starting to feel like I'll be left out of the boat with poor performance if I stick with the 670. It doesn't seem to be as big of a deal today, but this decision has to last me for a while and it seems even if Nvidia does optimize their drivers for OpenCL, the 600 series just doesn't have the compute power that the 7970 does. Coupled with this, the 7970 seems to be outperforming or competing with the 680 now that amd released the new beta drivers, and since I purchased a 4gb 670 for $470, I'm not really laying down anymore cash if I decide to go with the 7970...unless I have to buy an active adapter =/ . So these are the questions that are keeping me on the fence, I just don't want to make the wrong decision and regret it down the road when compute power becomes more of an issue with future applications. I completely agree with you on Nvidia's driver support too, I haven't had an AMD card since my old Sapphire 9500 pro partly due to this reason alone.


moriz, all three of my monitors are dvi only, so you're saying I wouldn't need to purchase an active adapter in my situation? I'm a little confused on that question as I've seen and read different opinions, but more so I see people suggesting that I would have to purchase an active adapter if I wanted to run 3 legacy (DVI) monitors, all with different resolutions, on one 7970 card.

Go for the 7970. The 670 isn't worth it if it costs more than the 7970. (not even for gaming alone, and that was before 12.7 beta drivers.)

 

[moriz]

moriz, all three of my monitors are dvi only, so you're saying I wouldn't need to purchase an active adapter in my situation? I'm a little confused on that question as I've seen and read different opinions, but more so I see people suggesting that I would have to purchase an active adapter if I wanted to run 3 legacy (DVI) monitors, all with different resolutions, on one 7970 card.

As I've said, all 7970 will ship with a mini dp to dvi adapter. This adapter is active, so you'll have no problems with triple display.

With that said, make sure the adapter is present.

 

[paulcheung]

Does the single new Nvidia card support triple display now? I did know the older cards doesn't. make sure you check that if you decide to keep your order.
Cheers

Just find out the gtx 670 and 680 do support triple display with single card.

 

[Smartazz]

Does the single new Nvidia card support triple display now? I did know the older cards doesn't. make sure you check that if you decide to keep your order.
Cheers

Yeah, Nvidia started supporting it with the GTX 670 and 680.

 

[guskline]

musty989, I run a 3 monitor setup on a GTX 680 very well at 5760 x 1080. Was worried about the Vram limit of 2 Gb but so far no problem. I'm not going to criticize the 7970 because I have Nvidia instead. In fact I was leaning toward the 7970 because of higher Vram but the GTX 680 attracted me due to efficiency and lower power draw. Nvidia Surround has been as easy if not easier than AMD Eyefinity. Since you are paying more for the Nvidia card and if you want the best deal perhaps the Radeon. Myself? I've been so impressed with this GTX 680 I would keep the Nvidia.

 

[lavaheadache]

Keep that existing order, you've already made a good choice. AutoCad > Photoshop.

EDIT: Likely, in 3-5 years, you will still find this card well supported, in drivers department. With 7970 it's going to be more of a gamble. Besides, if you decide to drive 3+ monitors, you're not forced to use DP connections as with the AMD card.

since you mention what the card will be like in 3-5 years, I bet at 2560 the card will be mostly useless.

 

[lopri]

I can't imagine the OP will lose out on anything by sticking to what he purchased. At most things will be equal. Don't second-guess your judgment! It's a downward spiral many in this hobby have experienced at one time or another.

Said that, I do understand the OP's concern and my own thought on increasing utility of GPUs on desktops other than games. Maybe I will make a thread about it.

 

[Magic Carpet]

since you mention what the card will be like in 3-5 years, I bet at 2560 the card will be mostly useless.

My point is, in 3-5 years.. the nVIDIA card, is likely to outshine its AMD counterpart in software [incl. drivers] department. These days, without adequate software support, hardware quickly becomes a piece of junk. Historically, AMD has been "quick" to cut support for its older products. If you intend to use a product for longer than 3 years, I would think twice before making such a hefty "investment".

Even as of right now, the Radeon multi-monitor setup [as well as Blu-Ray playback] will consume much more power, by default. Sure, you can "tweak" that with a 3rd party utility and bring it down to a "competitive level" but, the nVIDIA card offers better out-of-the-box experience, so why go the hard way?

OpenCL support in Adobe products is a new thing, a bit over-hyped [only a handful of functions supported], if you ask me. If the trend continues, nVIDIA will have to add appropriate support. At the moment, even the AMD users are struggling to use it, check this thread. Stick with your original decision.

 

[maddie]

Only Powercolor, Asus and MSI have 2 DVI ports. The others have 1. You need 1 duallink DVI for the Catleap, but I don't know what your other monitors have as input connectors. Check to see, but for the 7970, most probably you will need to buy a Displayport > DVI.

Seeing that you're studying Engineering, I can see the need for double precision compute at some time. Some sort of numerical simulation. AMD beats Nvidia hands down with these two cards.

Open CL is the future. Anyone here who thinks that CUDA is the past, present and future is feeding you a fanboy outlook.

Anyone claiming that AMD will abandon these cards for driver development before your timeframe expires is doing you a disservice. Both companies support older cards.

If you purely or even mainly a gamer, then the 670 probably would be best, but in my opinion, for your situation, the 7970 is better.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Driver development before your timeframe expires is doing you a disservice. Both companies support older cards.

Take two cards of the same era [2006], for instance: Geforce 6200 and Radeon X600. Check driver options. The ATI card [Catalyst 10.2] isn't even officially supported on Windows 7 while the Geforce uses the latest [301.42 - WHQL] drivers and enjoys far better suppot in 2D.

I know it, because I own both. Like I said earlier, software isn't AMD's strong point... and it's a pity, to see well-designed hardware suffer from that. History isn't on AMD's side and even from a financial stand-point, nVIDIA is a more stable business and likely will continue to maintain solid support for its products. AMD might just not be able to afford that.

 

[malikq86]

i like GTX 670 better...nvidia drivers are just better.