Radeon 7870 or GTX 670 w/Borderlands 2

[LintMan]

OK, this sounds like apples and oranges, but bear with me for a second...

I'm upgrading an old computer to make a good gaming rig for my kids.

I was thinking about getting a Radeon 7870 (~ $250), when it occurred to me that instead I could upgrade my own rig, by getting a GTX 670 (~ $400) and giving the kids my current GTX 580 (EVGA 1.5GB factory OC). Narrowing the gap, the 670 comes with Borderlands 2, which I am about to drop $50 on anyway. (The 7870 comes with Sleeping Dogs, but I'm not interested in that game).

So is it worth $100 to upgrade from a GTX 580 to 670, plus an upgrade from a 7870 to GTX 580? I don't have a good feel for how much of a performance gap there is between all those cards. (Note: I'm happy to use a factory OC board, but really don't want to deal with doing my own video card OC'ing, so I'm inclined towards the 7870 instead of OC'ing a 7850.)

Am I overlooking any other good possibilities?

As a side question, does anyone know if the copy of Borderlands 2 that you get with the 670 includes access to the "Premiere Club" pre-order DLC stuff?

Thanks!

 

[AnandThenMan]

You can get the 7870 for $219, but it sounds like you've made the choice because you want Borderlands 2. Or you could get the 7870, buy Borderlands 2, and still have money left over.

 

[Smoblikat]

Your 580 is fine, if it gets slow download afterburner and move the slide to OC. It really cant get much simpler.

 

[BD231]

You won't notice a difference going from a 580 to a 670 but a 670 will hold its value better down the road than a 7870.

 

[RussianSensation]

What kind of a GPU do your kids currently have and have they been asking you for an upgrade? Since your 580 is already factory pre-overclocked, and you don't OC at best you are looking at a 25-30% performance increase on average from a 580 OC to a 670 OC = 680. Do you feel like spending $400 for a 25-30% performance increase?

670 is about 23-25% faster than a stock 580 and 680 is about 33-35% faster at 1080P.
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2012/test-amd-radeon-hd-7950-mit-925-mhz/3/

It seems your timing is off too. 670 has launched for $400 in May and you waited this long to upgrade. You might as well wait for a nice sale on a 670 OR wait another 6 months to get HD8000/GTX700 series for yourself. Unless your kids have been dying for an upgrade, you are probably better off skipping this generation. $400 is a lot of $ for just a 25-30% speed increase, while HD7870 is not a performance improvement over your 580 OC card at all. So don't waste your $.

 

[LintMan]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Well, I'm getting Borderlands 2 either way, so the board isn't justifying the game purchase. Rather the other way around, where the game money can essentially also be applied toowards a hardware upgrade.

As far as the purchase timing, I never have luck with that - it needs to be more or less in the next week or so for several reasons (among which being it is partly a birthday gift).

The PC being replaced/upgraded is a nearly dead system I cobbled together 4 years ago, with a 6-7 year old GeForce 6800. It's mainly used now for web gaming (ie: Poptropica) and web browsing.

The GTX 580 is in my main high-end gaming rig (running 1920x1200), which I built last November, but I'd swap it into the kid's new system if I got the 670.

I've been very happy with the 580, no complaints there, so I don't need to upgrade it. But upgrade opportunities only come along rarely for my computers, so I tend to aim high when I get the chance, because it'll usually be 3-4 years before the next big upgrade. So really I'm mainly thinking about how these cards will be holding up 3+ years from now.

So, anyway my thinking is:
- $250 gets me a high-midrange card, plus the still fairly high-end GTX 580.
- $350 (discounting the $50 for Borderlands 2) gets me a high-end GTX670, plus the still fairly high-end GTX 580.
- But might one of the higher-end Radeons be worth considering: It's $350 (or maybe less) for a 7950
- The computerbase.de benchmark link left me a bit confused, because on those the radeon 78xx cards seem to be equal or even much better than the GTX 580, while the ones I'd seen showed the GTX 580 better. (But admittedly I haven't spent a ton of time looking at benchmarks recently, which is partly why I'm here right now).

So, anyway for the 670, it's $100 extra for the incremental performance improvements, plus some level of future-proofing.

 

[RussianSensation]

Since you want Borderlands 2 and you intend to give your kids the 580, then sure get the 670. 660Ti is not really an upgrade from your 580 and HD7950 cards don't come with Borderlands 2.

Maybe go for the MSI GTX670 Power Edition to gain voltage control should you want to overclock in 2 years. That seems to be the cheapest high quality 670 card outside of the $400 Gigabyte Windforce 670.

 

[LintMan]

Thanks, I'll check out the MSI and Gigabyte boards.

 

[biostud]

also remember if you want physX effects in BL2 then you need a nvidia card.

 

[Borealis7]

BL2 is still an UE3 game. it can run on 4 year old hardware. 580 is overkill already.

 

[Crap Daddy]

Check the other system where you want to use the 580 if it has a proper PSU and if the CPU will not hold back the 580. If everything's fine over there, a GTX670 is a good upgrade over anything AMD has under 400$, especially if you're not into overclocking.

 

[LintMan]

@biostud - I had forgotten that. Thanks, it's good to know.

@Borealis7 - I think I phrased my question a bit confusingly. I'm sure any of the cards mentioned would do fine for Borderlands 2 (aside from the PhysX thing). The 580 is in my personal gaming rig, while I'm building another gaming system for my kids. I'm trying to decide whether to just buy a cheaper card for the kid's new system, or to upgrade my PC to a 670 and give the kids the hand-me-down 580. The latter will cost $150 more, but the 670 comes with Borderlands 2 which would save me $50 since I plan on buying it either way, essentially making the 670 a $100 upgrade.

@Crap Daddy - There's very little I can salvage from the old PC - I'm planning on getting an i5-3570K CPU, and Seasonic X-750 PSU so I should be fine.

 

[Elfear]

Check the other system where you want to use the 580 if it has a proper PSU and if the CPU will not hold back the 580. If everything's fine over there, a GTX670 is a good upgrade over anything AMD has under 400$, especially if you're not into overclocking.

You sure about that hoss? $395 aftermarket 7970

 

[Termie]

Buy your kids a new <$150 GPU. They don't need a 580, I'm fairly certain, and BL2 doesn't need a 670, certainly not over a 580.

You yourself said upgrades only come every so often, and you upgraded less than a year ago. Enjoy that last upgrade a bit longer, and build your kids a system more appropriate for their needs, with lower heat/power consumption. Something like a 7750/70 might do the trick.

Also, I'm almost certain free bundled games wouldn't include the pre-order bonus. In fact, I pre-ordered BL2, and I'm not even sure I'm getting the bonuses - it might only be through certain retailers.

 

[Elfear]

Buy your kids a new <$150 GPU. They don't need a 580, I'm fairly certain, and BL2 doesn't need a 670, certainly not over a 580.

You yourself said upgrades only come every so often, and you upgraded less than a year ago. Enjoy that last upgrade a bit longer, and build your kids a system more appropriate for their needs, with lower heat/power consumption. Something like a 7750/70 might do the trick.

Also, I'm almost certain free bundled games wouldn't include the pre-order bonus. In fact, I pre-ordered BL2, and I'm not even sure I'm getting the bonuses - it might only be through certain retailers.

+1

If you're not hurting for graphics power, I'd hold off until the next round of GPUs emerge. Of course upgrading can be fun in itself since you get to mess with new hardware but it sounds like you're more pragmatic than that so I'd wait.

The 7750/7770 is a good suggestion, but even a 6850/6870 or GTX 460/560 would be a huge upgrade for your kids.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

580 and 7870 tie at stock. Once oced 7870 is faster, when both are oced. Overall 7870 to 580 is a small downgrade.