MSI GTX670 PE or Asus HD7970 DCII?

[dkm777]

Hi guys,

After being fed up with the amount of heat generated by my GTX570 I'm selling it and some other parts I have gathering dust to raise money for the move to 28nm. These two cards are not very far apart price wise in my country. Which one would you suggest for a 1920x1200 monitor and for doing GPU crunching when the PC is not in use? I'm also a silence freak and idle noise is very important. This is going into my Gulftown rig.

 

[3DVagabond]

What games? What "crunching" apps?

I'm tempted to say the 7970. If you mostly play TWIMTBP games and fold though, the 670 might be the better option. I'm not sure how much cooler running the 7970 will be? Power usage should be comparable to your 570.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

Flip a Coin

 

[dkm777]

The most intensive thing would be Skyrim with mods and because of that the 3GB on the Radeon look tempting. As for distributed computing - mostly folding with Prime Grid every now and then.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

If heat is the most imp criteria then 670

 

[lopri]

Gigabyte 7970 GHz Edition

 

[dkm777]

Gigabyte 7970 GHz Edition

Can't open Newegg links at work, but is that card similar to this:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/gigabyte-radeon-hd-7970-oc-windforce-review/1

?

If so, then it's a good proposition as well, because it is even cheaper than the Asus in my country.

 

[lopri]

yes. It's a different SKU, though. The one in Guru3D is the original 7970 with gigabyte's own overclock on the core. (1000/1350)

The new one linked is clocked higher by default. (1100/1500)

 

[Arzachel]

Hey there fellow person from the Baltics Depending on how well the code path for Tahiti works, the 7970 should absoulutely smash the 670 at folding and be faster/equal at gaming performance and due to how screwed up the pricing here is, you can probably get one cheaper than the 670 go for.

You could also try getting a 7950 with decent cooling and overclock it. Might feel the shader loss in folding, while still being much better than the 670, and gaming performance will stay around the same, and the 7950 is quite a bit cheaper than the 7970/670 (40Ls/80$ here).

 

[Gordon Freemen]

If heat is the most imp criteria then 670

hi

A GPU is not about conserving electricity/heat it is about playing games LOL.

 

[dkm777]

I've been looking at reviews of the Gigabyte and it seems that it uses a reference PCB. Is this a bad thing?

 

[Arzachel]

The stock PCB is pretty overengineered, so, unless you want to do some exotic cooling, it'll do just fine.

 

[dkm777]

The thing that worries me the most is a tiny piece of aluminium that is supposed to cool the VRMs. I'm afraid they will run at 100 degrees all the time and fry themselves.

 

[Phishy714]

When the VRMs are designed to run at 150c like they are, you don't have to worry about it!

 

[dkm777]

OK, the Gigabyte has jumped in price significantly and is now out of my reach. The only 7970 form a reputable manufacturer available for old price is Sapphire. Dual-X OC to be exact. Reviews seem to praise it for quiet operation and visually the cooler looks a lot like MSIs Twin Frozr III and I know how well that works. What do you guys say? Good idea?

 

[chimaxi83]

That is a great card and cooler, you'll be happy with it if you decide on it.

 

[Dark Shroud]

Yeah Sapphire is a good brand for AMD, that card will make you happy.

 

[RussianSensation]

OK, the Gigabyte has jumped in price significantly and is now out of my reach. The only 7970 form a reputable manufacturer available for old price is Sapphire. Dual-X OC to be exact. Reviews seem to praise it for quiet operation and visually the cooler looks a lot like MSIs Twin Frozr III and I know how well that works. What do you guys say? Good idea?

That's a good card. Extremely quiet. Has beefy VRM cooling. Full voltage unlock to 1.3V unlike Asus DCUII. It has upgraded VRM to 5+2 with 2 going for memory, which is why it has some of the highest memory overclocks of all 7970s.

It has been updated with a newer model called Sapphire Vapor-X 7970. Check the price of Vapor-X. This has upgraded parts to Dark Chokes and 1050mhz clocks with vapor chamber for the cooler.
http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&pid=1679&psn=000101

If you want to save some $, MSI TwinFrozr 3 7950 is a great option. The Sapphire Dual-X / Vapor-X cards will be quieter.

 

[lehtv]

That Vapor-X is only missing a black PCB...

 

[dkm777]

Hmm, the Vap-X is out of stock almost everywhere. I found only one in some e-shop and it is too expensive. I think I'll have to save a little for that one. Always wanted to have a Vapor-X since HD58*0 days :biggrin:.

That Vapor-X is only missing a black PCB...

In my case that is a benefit and not a problem - it will match my blue GA-X58A-UD5.