I have £350. HD7970 or GTX670?

[Kyndylan]

Is there any reason NOT to get a HD7970?

The alternative, as far as I can see, is either a 670, or buy a 7950 and see if it overclocks well. I'm not an experienced overclocker (i.e. I have never done it before) so I'm probably not going to go too far down that route.

What do you think?

 

[thilanliyan]

What games do you intend on playing with it?

 

[UNhooked]

7970 More powerful but more heat
670 Less powerful but also less heat.

 

[blastingcap]

How many inches of clearance do you have?

What is your PSU model? Cheap models may not actually live up to their rated wattage, and amps on the 12V rail matter, not total wattage, anyway.

 

[FonZ38]

There's not a single way the GTX 670 can hold up against the AMD 7970 in this case. The AMD 7970 is a higher class graphics card and is more a competition to a 680 where the 7990 is actually even beating the 690's these days. Take a look to this:

http://www.hwcompare.com/12508/geforce-gtx-670-vs-radeon-hd-7970/

Hopes this will help you decide.
You would say the Nvidia would only perform better if you edit alot of video or 3D design thanks to there Cuda cores but these days almost all applications are Open CL wich Amd is faster with.

I'd say the AMD 7970 is a steal for that price (price to performance ratio)
And would perform better in any game compared to the 670 esspecially for the money you pay for.

 

[Kyndylan]

Thank you all for your replies.

Regarding games, it has been a very long time since I last upgraded my computer (due to studenthood, marriage, then unemployment - only one of those is still a factor). So currently I'm restricted to games that will run on my 8800 GTS 320!

However, I am expecting to be playing most AAA games this year and onwards. Crysis 3, Bioshock Infinite, Rome Total War 2, BF4 (when it's released).

As for clearance - I have the Fractal Design Define R4 (purchased yesterday!) which will give me nearly 17" of clearance when I remove the upper hard drive bay as I intend to.

Thanks!

 

[Subyman]

7970 unless you have a unique need.

 

[Zanovar]

7950/price/cooler/warranty/enjoy.

 

[FonZ38]

Thank you all for your replies.

Regarding games, it has been a very long time since I last upgraded my computer (due to studenthood, marriage, then unemployment). So currently I'm restricted to games that will run on my 8800 GTS 320!

However, I am expecting to be playing most AAA games this year and onwards. Crysis 3, Bioshock Infinite, Rome Total War 2, BF4 (when it's released).

As for clearance - I have the Fractal Design Define R4 (purchased yesterday!) which will give me nearly 17" of clearance when I remove the upper hard drive bay as I intend to.

Thanks!

As you can probably tell by everyone here the 7970 would also be more Futureproof and the 7970 will even be powerfull enough to run crysis 3 on high setting on 3 screens. The 7970 will overclock like crazy and the heat isnt that high as we all know from AMD cards well brands like Asus, XFX have different cooling systems on them wich help them keep the card cooler then the stock versions.

 

[Kyndylan]

Well due to the overwhelming majority, my question has morphed into "which 7970 should I get?".

How's this card? I think I've heard good things about Gigabyte?

 

[Fx1]

why would you even consider a 670 over a 7970.

Im running at 1125/1700 24/7. Show me a 670 that can compete with that

 

[Kyndylan]

why would you even consider a 670 over a 7970.

Im running at 1125/1700 24/7. Show me a 670 that can compete with that

I think my consumer brain has been conditioned to view equal prices as equal products...obviously not the case!

 

[BallaTheFeared]

There's not a single way the GTX 670 can hold up against the AMD 7970 in this case.

You mean outside of frame times, features, and software?

 

[Zanovar]

You mean outside of frame times, features, and software?

oo you bitch

 

[Fx1]

You mean outside of frame times, features, and software?

Except my frame times are perfect i have zero driver problems even with Beta's and all my games kick the 680's ASS.

All for £300.

Oh PS how is your nvidia GPU playing Tomb raider right now?

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Nobody has perfect frame times.

 

[Fx1]

Nobody has perfect frame times.

Except i notice no problems with my frame times and thats all that matters. if you want to analyse frame times then good luck. I spend my time playing games

 

[Kyndylan]

Nobody has perfect frame times.

What are frame times? Not the same as frames per second I take it?

 

[Revolution 11]

What are frame times? Not the same as frames per second I take it?

Frames per second can tell you the raw performance but frame times are referring to the latency associated with delivering frames. A card could have more FPS but seem jerky or stutter because of high frame times.

Unless you see a problem with your gameplay/graphics, frame times is not that important to worry about. I do have a problem with jerky gameplay but I am also playing on ancient hardware so not sure if this is because of frame latency.

 

[Eureka]

Except my frame times are perfect i have zero driver problems even with Beta's and all my games kick the 680's ASS.

All for £300.

Oh PS how is your nvidia GPU playing Tomb raider right now?

Apparently just as good.

Back to OP, pricing does not mean equal. You have to compare tiers. 680 vs 7970, 670 vs 7950. Within the tier, they are generally within 10% performance, depending on the game. The 7970, however, does have the potential to go very far. Between the 7970 and the 670, the 7970 is a far faster card.

Generally, in the same tier, nvidia and amd will perform very similarly, but the nvidia card will cost a bit more. The amd cards will, if all things go well, overclock better than their nvidia counterparts. Nvidia cards will generally run with less power and heat generated, and the 670 and lesser cards will have smaller PCBs, if you have tight spaces. However, the 7970 and 670 are across two tiers, which means for the same price, the 7970 will be a bit better.

 

[ICDP]

If you are not going to overclock the purchase an OC edition GTX670 or 7970. The 7970 will be faster when max OC potential is taken into account but to be honest either card will serve you well.

The biggest benefit of 7970 is the 3GB frame buffer, though that will only matter if you plan to keep the card for 2+ years.

 

[FonZ38]

Well Asus had there Direct CU II cards wich has the most features and options to overclock and able to check all info of the chips but it will cost a tiny bit more. I found out that if your an overclocker and want to really push your 7970 Asus would be the one due to there many feature they give you and a software pakage but if you dont want to overclock that much i dont think it really is that important. Just take a good looking with a good cooler. They are all performing quite equal, you only pay more for the extra features as far as i know and overclocking abillity.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Neither card is a bad choice, figure out the pros and cons of each and decide based on your own personal preference imo.

 

[Eureka]

Well Asus had there Direct CU II cards wich has the most features and options to overclock and able to check all info of the chips but it will cost a tiny bit more. I found out that if your an overclocker and want to really push your 7970 Asus would be the one due to there many feature they give you and a software pakage but if you dont want to overclock that much i dont think it really is that important. Just take a good looking with a good cooler. They are all performing quite equal, you only pay more for the extra features as far as i know and overclocking abillity.

The problem with that statement now is that, IIRC, AMD partners no longer get binned chips. They are all just as likely to overclock. The difference is that Asus boards will have better power components and a nicer cooler, but a lot of other companies are catching up on that regard too.

 

[UNhooked]

If you plan to use Water to cool try and get a reference card since it'll be easier to find a compatible waterblock. However if you don't plan on watercooling that Gigabyte will work nicely.