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Radeon HD 7970 or GTX 680?

T

ThatMinja

Member
I just need to decide which one to get. I'm trying to build a great gaming computer and the 680 is actually a bit cheaper, but I don't know if it will perform as well as the 7970. Help?
 
ThatMinja said:
I just need to decide which one to get. I'm trying to build a great gaming computer and the 680 is actually a bit cheaper, but I don't know if it will perform as well as the 7970. Help?
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The 7970 needs to be overclocked to match the 680, but then requires some exotic cooling to keep it quiet.
HOWEVER, unless you have special games or are benchmarking, you wont noticed a difference between them.

I personally prefer NV because I feel their software development is better but on the hardware side of things, for game performance they are about the same..
 
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Yeah sorry about that. I'm going to play games like Skyrim an BF3 at 1080p. And as toyota posted up above, that's basically going to be my system. I have made a few tweaks but I think that's close to what I'm putting into it. I was trying to decide between the 7970 and the GTX 670, and I'm only using 1 screen. As far as I know, the 670 should be able to max out recent and coming games for a little while. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.
 
680 is better at Skyrim and BF 3 so that should make the decision to get the 680 a lot easier. most of the 7970 cards have coil whine too which would drive me nuts.

btw I would increase your system ram from 8g to 16gb since you are doing complete build from scratch. ram is cheap right now and that extra ram will not go to waste as Windows can cache what is not being used. and I would get lower profile ram too so as not to get in the way of any cpu cooler.
 
I'd save some money and get a 670. There's almost no difference between the 680 and 670. The "turbo lottery" will matter more than the difference between the two cards.
 
toyota said:
680 is better at Skyrim and BF 3 so that should make the decision to get the 680 a lot easier.
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This right here, both cards are going to be solid performers but Nvidia has the clear lead at BF3, and if it's cheaper then really a no-brainer: get the 680.

Or take a good look at benchmark numbers and consider 3DVagabond's suggestion on getting a 670 instead, which is a great value too.
 
I'm in a similar situation as OP. I want to upgrade my GTX280, and am keen to play BF3 and Dirt 3. However my locality (NZ) means that pricing is vastly different (and overpriced). The prices are:

7970 - NZ$779
GTX680 - NZ$969
GTX670 - NZ$750

My question: Is it worth getting the 680 over the 7970 at for alomost $200 (US$160) extra? What about the 670...? Rig specs in sig. I'm playing at 1440p (probably can't max out on single GPU but thats as far as my budget would allow me to spend).

Any help would be appreciated.
 
palladium said:
I'm in a similar situation as OP. I want to upgrade my GTX280, and am keen to play BF3 and Dirt 3. However my locality (NZ) means that pricing is vastly different (and overpriced). The prices are:

7970 - NZ$779
GTX680 - NZ$969
GTX670 - NZ$779

My question: Is it worth getting the 680 over the 7970 at for alomost $200 (US$160) extra? What about the 670...? Rig specs in sig. I'm playing at 1440p (probably can't max out on single GPU but thats as far as my budget would allow me to spend).

Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
670 for sure. clock for clock a 670 is within 5% of a 680 so no reason at all to pay that huge price difference.
 
palladium said:
I'm in a similar situation as OP. I want to upgrade my GTX280, and am keen to play BF3 and Dirt 3. However my locality (NZ) means that pricing is vastly different (and overpriced). The prices are:

7970 - NZ$779
GTX680 - NZ$969
GTX670 - NZ$750

My question: Is it worth getting the 680 over the 7970 at for alomost $200 (US$160) extra? What about the 670...? Rig specs in sig. I'm playing at 1440p (probably can't max out on single GPU but thats as far as my budget would allow me to spend).

Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't get the 670 for the same price as the 7970. (Well, damned close anyway.) Plus over 1080 the 7970 is better suited.

I just checked www.pricespy.co.nz and the 670 and 7970 both are in stock for ~$700 w/GST.
 
670. Slightly cheaper (about NZ$29 cheaper) and outguns the 7970 in both Skyrim and BF3. The OP is playing at 1080p.
 
ThatMinja: I looked at the specs toyota posted for you. My suggestion? Get a quality GTX 670 and with the $$ saved over the 7970/680 buy an ssd to use for your OS.
 
3DVagabond said:
I'd save some money and get a 670. There's almost no difference between the 680 and 670. The "turbo lottery" will matter more than the difference between the two cards.
Click to expand...

Agreed, MSI 670 Power Edition runs cooler than reference 680's and performs on par with them. AND, it only cost $430.
 
Keysplayr said:
670. Slightly cheaper (about NZ$29 cheaper) and outguns the 7970 in both Skyrim and BF3. The OP is playing at 1080p.
Click to expand...

The advice about the 7970 was for:
I'm in a similar situation as OP. I want to upgrade my GTX280, and am keen to play BF3 and Dirt 3. However my locality (NZ) means that pricing is vastly different (and overpriced). The prices are..
Click to expand...


Either way the difference will not be seen in either of those games at 1080p. Heck you won't even notice the difference between those cards and a 7950 AIB model @ 900MHz. (same is probably true for the 7870)
 
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Well I'm building my own computer now. I'm already going to get a 128GB Crucial SSD. The graphics card was basically the only thing I was still trying to decide on. I'm ordering everything from Newegg, and I heard that Evga makes good cards. Is that true or should I try to get the MSI one DrBoss mentioned?
 
toyota said:
680 is better at Skyrim and BF 3 so that should make the decision to get the 680 a lot easier. most of the 7970 cards have coil whine too which would drive me nuts.

btw I would increase your system ram from 8g to 16gb since you are doing complete build from scratch. ram is cheap right now and that extra ram will not go to waste as Windows can cache what is not being used. and I would get lower profile ram too so as not to get in the way of any cpu cooler.
Click to expand...

And what do you mean by lower profile? Smaller? Should I get something like 2x8GB?
 
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