Is the 7950 or 670 truly faster

[Xarick]

I have heard that with current drivers at stock, 670 is faster. But then people say that isn't true. Then I read that the 7950 can OC super fast and totally smokes the 670. But then others say it just makes is about the same speed.
So truly.. at nearly $100 cheaper is the 7950 the faster more future proof (due to 3g of ram) card?

 

[aaksheytalwar]

When both are at stock, 670 is usually about 5-10% faster but not always. This is only true at 1080p though. At 1600p 7950 is a better bet.

Once both are oced the 7950 is faster in most situations.

At the same price point it may be a hard decision but $100 apart it is a no brainer.

Also 3gb vram may help in newer games in 2013.

 

[exar333]

They are pretty close. Stock the 670 is faster, OC'd, they are pretty much the same. Based solely on the price, the 7950 is a better buy right now.

 

[psolord]

The 670 is faster for sure, but the 7950 has more overclocking potential (it supports overvoltage), more ram, is cheaper and comes with two fresh games that easily cost 50 euros even if you buy them from online cdkey stores.

It's much better value.

Also both next gen consoles will be GCN based, which will make the architecture's life easier in general.

Personally I have 570 SLI on my current primary rig, but still went for 7950 CFX upgrade, due to the above reasons. The drivers are not that bad as some claim to be, although Nvidia is indeed a tad better.

 

[ICDP]

The GTX 670 and HD 79750 are roughly equal when overclocked, with any differences purely down to how well each individual card overclocks.

Where the HD 7950 wins is in price, it gives similar performance for less money and with the current bundle it is a better choice.

Be careful if you do go for a HD 7950 and ensure you get one the has voltage control. The MSI Twin Fozr III alows for voltage adjustments. I have one running at 1150/1700 with 1.195 volts, it can go higher with more voltage but I compromised between noise and performance.

 

[Shmee]

1.957 V? that seems awfully high. My understanding was stay below 1.3 V

 

[aaksheytalwar]

He probably means some other value, not v core.

 

[BrightCandle]

If it wasn't for stuttering bug I would agree with everyone else. But the severity and the amount of time this bug has existed means that the fps is kind of a lie. The actual performance of the cards is anywhere from perfectly fine as the stutter doesn't bother you to totally unplayable because it does affect you. If microstutter and seeing stutters in game is an irritation for you then you will hate the 7950 and all the elements that make it great won't matter.

Performance of the 7950 in terms of smooth frame rate is dramatically behind the 670 in a lot of modern games, but just bare in mind the 670 exhibits the problem BF3 due to a recently introduced problem. If that is a game your still playing then that will be an issue.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

I have never faced any ms issue with any single powerful enough amd gpu.

 

[Grooveriding]

I have never faced any ms issue with any single powerful enough amd gpu.

Yeah total bs. There is no stutter on a single 7950 I can see at all. Everything plays fine on my machine with a 7950 in it. The pronouncements of the newly self-anointed microstutter messiahs are getting plain silly at this point. :sneaky:

 

[poohbear]

Wonder if the microstutter is a way for nvidia fanboys to rain on the 7950s parade? I love my 670 but i was buying in aug 2012 & back then it was a completely different story! If l i was buying now u better believe i'd go the 7950 route!

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

I have heard that with current drivers at stock, 670 is faster. But then people say that isn't true. Then I read that the 7950 can OC super fast and totally smokes the 670. But then others say it just makes is about the same speed.
So truly.. at nearly $100 cheaper is the 7950 the faster more future proof (due to 3g of ram) card?

The 7950 cards with Boost are the same speed as a GTX 670 stock since they run at 950MHz. The cards without Boost run at 800MHz so they are slower.

That is looking at stock figures. Both overclocked to their max they'll still perform the same:

Most of the HD 7950s in the market right now have the Boost BIOS, so even if you're gonna be running at stock speeds, I'd recommend you save your money and go with that because even looking further ahead the HD 7950 should be a more "future-proof" card because it has more memory bandwidth and more VRAM.

 

[BrightCandle]

Wonder if the microstutter is a way for nvidia fanboys to rain on the 7950s parade? I love my 670 but i was buying in aug 2012 & back then it was a completely different story! If l i was buying now u better believe i'd go the 7950 route!

I actually also have 2x 7970s, I am far from 'nvidia fanboy'. The very fact you don't perceive microstutter is good, it means the 7950 is a great buy for you. But for those that do see it its a terrible buy. We have lots of sites confirming the problem, quantitatively and qualitatively, if you are still in the denial stage you are ignoring a change in the way the industry measures performance of graphics completely. I personally think its ridiculous thing to deny, its kind of obvious that an average over a second isn't sufficient. Carry on believing, I just follow the science.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

My 7950 is running at 1122mhz at 1.1v. I paid $280 & got two free games. I'm pretty sure I could squeeze out 1200mhz+ with no problem. So pretty much I'm at 680/7970 level performance for $280.

 

[Grooveriding]

My 7950 is running at 1122mhz at 1.1v. I paid $280 & got two free games. I'm pretty sure I could squeeze out 1200mhz+ with no problem. So pretty much I'm at 680/7970 level performance for $280.

I bought an MSI 7950 TF3 for $300 even. I originally got one of the older models on a 7970 PCB, one day my wife booted her PC and it just wouldn't boot. After changing hardware etc, I found the card had died. RMAed to newegg and I got one of the newer MSI models with the 2x6pin power connectors on their custom PCB.

The only negative I could see with the card is that stock voltage is 1.25V, seems excessive to me as the first one was 1.08 or something like that. Regardless it does 1.2Ghz on the core with that stock voltage and temperatures are good. It's probably as fast as a 680 and close to a 7970GE at that speed. All for $300.

If you could get a 670 for $300 I'd say it would be a toss-up based on brand or feature preferences. But with a custom cooled 7950 at $300 and a reference 670 at $370, seems obvious which is the better buy.

 

[biostud]

I wanted physx but was not willing to pay the extra $,so luckily I got a used gtx 670 for the price of a 7950. I wouldn't have gotten one for full price.

 

[Dravonic]

If it wasn't for stuttering bug I would agree with everyone else. But the severity and the amount of time this bug has existed means that the fps is kind of a lie. The actual performance of the cards is anywhere from perfectly fine as the stutter doesn't bother you to totally unplayable because it does affect you. If microstutter and seeing stutters in game is an irritation for you then you will hate the 7950 and all the elements that make it great won't matter.

Performance of the 7950 in terms of smooth frame rate is dramatically behind the 670 in a lot of modern games, but just bare in mind the 670 exhibits the problem BF3 due to a recently introduced problem. If that is a game your still playing then that will be an issue.

Microstutter only happens with CrossFireX. It might be a problem if OP intends to crossfire in the future, but if he does, he should let us know.

 

[notty22]

Stumbled across this review, reading Titan reviews the other day.
AMD Radeon HD 7950 Boost vs. Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti: frametimes

These games were tested.

Assassin's Creeed III

Max Payne 3

Battlefield 3
Far Cry 3
Hitman: Absolution

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Stumbled across this review, reading Titan reviews the other day.
AMD Radeon HD 7950 Boost vs. Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti: frametimes

These games were tested.

Assassin's Creeed III

Max Payne 3

Battlefield 3
Far Cry 3
Hitman: Absolution

Both cards perform pretty much the same. Why would anyone get mad?

 

[notty22]

Both cards perform pretty much the same. Why would anyone get mad?

I edited that. The card comparison. AMD cards don't line up exactly with Nvidia cards. There seems to be belief that the 660ti is not worthy VS the 6950. There is often, but the 7950 can o/c to this xxxghz, the 660ti's usually turbo without any input to near 1100mhz also.

edit: I linked the review for the general performance, also. Like it or not, more sites are picking up on including frame time numbers. The whining over it, is getting old fast.

 

[KCfromNC]

Wonder if the microstutter is a way for nvidia fanboys to rain on the 7950s parade?

Pretty much, considering they ignore it when it shows up in 6xx cards but it's a showstopper in 7950s.

 

[Termie]

Stumbled across this review, reading Titan reviews the other day.
AMD Radeon HD 7950 Boost vs. Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti: frametimes

These games were tested.

Assassin's Creeed III

Max Payne 3

Battlefield 3
Far Cry 3
Hitman: Absolution

Very interesting. Here's what I would conclude from this article:

Assassin's Creed: tie for speed, tie for smoothness
BF3: tie for speed, HD7950 smoother
Far Cry 3: GTX660Ti faster, GTX660Ti smoother
Hitman: HD7950 faster, GTX660Ti smoother
Max Payne 3: HD7950 faster, HD7950 smoother

Overall:
Speed: HD7950 two wins, GTX660Ti one win, two ties
Smoothness: HD7950 two wins, GTX660Ti two wins, one tie

The author of the article picks the 660Ti as the winner, just as TechReport did, however, and I assume that's because when the HD7950 gets in trouble with smoothness, it does so to a greater degree and in the more demanding games. Far Cry 3 is the biggest culprit, apparently.

 

[Eureka]

To say 7 series never had stutter is a lie. When I had my 7970 GE back in the 12.8 days, it did stutter, albeit not enough to make a real difference. Forward 4 months, we're at 13.2 and on my 7950, I can't see the stutter anymore. I also had a 670, which I couldn't see any stutter on, but had a little shadow flicker.

I paid the same for my 7950 as I did for my 670 (both were $300). Right now with the latest driver releases, I can say the 7950 finally outshined the 670. But to be honest, it did take a while for it to get there.

 

[Face2Face]

hmm.. I play FC3 everything maxed at 1080p with 8xaa and the fps stay at 60 with vsync on. Seems really really smooth to me. Of couse that is with a small overclock.


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[badb0y]

Yea, I haven't felt any microstutter with my card either. I was under the impressions that "stuttering" only occurs with multi-GPU configs.