Sapphire 7990 or Galaxy GTX 780 HOF Edition?

[luci5r]

The above screenshot explains my entire conundrum.

I've spent the last couple weeks trying to make this decision; whether to get the Galaxy GTX 780 HOF or the Sapphire HD 7990. I've waded through Google endlessly, and heard arguments from both sides (nVidia & AMD) in places like XtremeSystems and Tom's Hardware.

A lot of people who have taken the time to explain the differences & give me strong personal advice are telling me to get the Galaxy GTX 780 HOF. After hearing all the pro-nVidia arguments, I'm leaning strongly towards the 780 HOF.

I'd like to see if anyone can give me a strong Counter-argument to help me decide one way or another.

Let me just lay down the critical points:

• This card will go into a Dual Xeon Intel based Workstation. Some people have hinted that AMD cards work better with AMD processors & nVidia cards work better with Intel processors.
• Dual Monitors @ 1200p; Not a single-monitor use.
• I do not care about the FREE games at all!! I won't be playing a single one of those 8 Free Games; and I absolutely will not be playing the Batman game - so the free game thing is inadmissible.
• I will NOT be playing your typical FPS Games (Like Crysis, BF, etc.) --- Only RTS Games like StarCraft II, CoH, Diablo, C&C, etc, but I do want to play these games on Max Settings which I'm unable to on a 2 * HD 5870 Crossfire setup. I have seen threads where gamers state that StarCraft II works better with nVidia then AMD - I don't know how true this is.
• The coil whine issue is absolutely m00t for me; I always have music playing and there's always a lot of noise around - always loud - so whine or no whine; it really doesn't matter to me at all. I'm not looking for the Quietest card!
• I'm not waiting for the NEXT 99xx card releasing in October; I have to buy something within the next couple days and there's always something better releasing in the next 35 days - I'm just not into that.
• Aside from Gaming, the one other main purpose of the card is Maya / zBrush / RealFlow / CGI Development. Although the GPU is not used for rendering at all -- it is used for Viewport display purposes. Again, nVidia does seem to be the choice card for most CGI Developers - but I just talked to someone with this card in a Maya machine and he doesn't know what they are talking about!

I know at the end of the day - both cards are a winner and I'll achieve what I'm looking for with either; but that's what makes this decision harder. This will be a long-term investment; I don't plan to replace this card anytime soon -- so it does need to last. I do plan to put in a 2nd Card of whatever I decide to buy later down the road sometime; when they are much cheaper - but that's not a decisive point right now. I wish there was a $100 difference between the cards to settle the issue; but unfortunately they are almost identical in price.

Should I just go with the 780 HOF or should I really consider the 7990?

Thanks Guys!

 

[toyota]

whatever decision you make, I call dibs on those games you dont want.

 

[luci5r]

whatever decision you make, I call dibs on those games you dont want.

LOL!! Someone else I know got dibs already -- sorry!!

 

[chadashcroft22]

Blizzard games tend to favor nvidia. But if it where me I would wait a few weeks to see what amd brings to the table. But if you need it now I would go with the HOF just due to microstutter and frame pacing problems that amd has and it's taking them forever to fix.

 

[luci5r]

Blizzard games tend to favor nvidia. But if it where me I would wait a few weeks to see what amd brings to the table. But if you need it now I would go with the HOF just due to microstutter and frame pacing problems that amd has and it's taking them forever to fix.

Yeah, I'm definitely not waiting another month to find out what he 99xx brings to the table. I think the overall picture still stands that there's still driver issues that need improvement; AMD still seems to be playing catch-up to things that I understand nVidia resolve a long time ago.

I've heard the fact that Blizzard games tend to favor nVidia from quite a few people now. You've joined a long list. I know they are already working on the next sequel to StarCraft II so that is something I have to keep in mind.

Once, GTX 780 HOF is leading. I'm buying by the end of this week - so let me see if anyone else has anything critical to say; but so far pretty much most of the people seem to be favoring the HOF over the 7990 in the above choice.

Thanks.

 

[blackened23]

whatever decision you make, I call dibs on those games you dont want.

If you get the 7990 i'm willing to go half and half with toyota. He gets 3 and I get 5. That's how it works right?!

 

[luci5r]

If you get the 7990 i'm willing to go half and half with toyota. He gets 3 and I get 5. That's how it works right?!

So far it looks like I'm getting Batman - no halfsies - sorry!

 

[T_Yamamoto]

7990 for that price.

I want one too.

 

[Elfear]

That is a tough choice. Are you planning on overclocking whichever card you get?

 

[Face2Face]

I vote GTX 780 HOF

 

[Smartazz]

That is a tough choice. Are you planning on overclocking whichever card you get?

This. If you're going to over clock then the 780 HOF.

 

[luci5r]

7990 for that price.

I want one too.

It's people like you that put me in doubt! I know people who've paid close to
a thousand dollars for the 7990 & are quite happy with it. Although for my needs, most people still suggest the HOF is better.

That is a tough choice. Are you planning on overclocking whichever card you get?

Yes! Not to death - not like some people do for benchmarks & stuff; but yeah - i'd like to OC a bit that stays stable during gaming or CGI development.

I vote GTX 780 HOF

Cool! It's good to see people see both the cards side by side; at the price they are at - and still vote for the HOF.

This. If you're going to over clock then the 780 HOF.

Votes for the HOF are starting to pile. Like I said - yes - some OC'ing surely.

 

[Face2Face]

It shouldn't be hard to hit 1250-1300Mhz on the HOF card since they are binned chips. If you wanted to go all out then I would recommend the Evga GTX 780 Classified, some people are hitting some insane overclocks on those cards. I think the highest I have seen is 1546Mhz on water and in the 1400Mhz+ range on air - Yikes..

As they say, the more GPU's we come across the more problems we see.... says the guy about to go crossfire..

 

[CRCSUX]

I would take the 7990, easy choice for me @ that price
More mem bandwidth more rops.

Upsides for the 780 not dual gpu less power, but not enough for me to get it over the 7990.

 

[Smartazz]

I didn't see that you owned 5870 Crossfire. If you didn't notice any micro stutter, then the 7990 might be the better card.

 

[tviceman]

I'd take the 780 without question. That particular 780 is a beast, with overclocking potential to be more than 50% faster than a single 7970GE. The power consumption will be WAY, WAY lower than the 7990 even with a large overclock on the 780 and you won't have any of the inherent issues associated with dual-GPU setups (especially crossfire).

 

[jacktesterson]

7990

 

[BallaTheFeared]

I vote GTX 780 HOF

Seconded.

Or 7950 CF over the 7990 (assume you aren't lane limited).

But even then knowing my 7950s are a bit faster than a highly clocked HOF I'd rather have a single card with that performance than two.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Sli gtx760 4gb cards should run the same msrp if not be cheaper then a gtx780 and outrun it and the titan as well,but out of those gpus in the op i would get the gtx780 all day long just based on lousy crossfire issues i have had in the pass.

 

[djnsmith7]

My vote goes towards the 7990 (7970 owner - they're great cards - ran CF & TriFire for a year - plan on going back to CF this year)...

 

[raghu78]

the sad fact is now is a bad time to buy a GPU. You say its a long term purchase and needs to last. And you are not willing to wait till mid-oct. For something which you want to keep for a long time waiting 40 days is worth it.

Given the impending launch of Hawaii and competition at the high end bringing better prices you should rethink. oh btw if you buy now i vote HOF 780. good luck with your purchase. :thumbsup:

 

[3DVagabond]

Well, as far as gaming goes they're both going to rock your resolution. It's the computer graphics stuff that can make a big difference.

1, If you are going to run the cards as they are out of box then the 780 should be better. I really doubt Radeon drivers are going to support crossfire on pro apps.

2, If it were me I'd check to see if the 7990 can be flashed with the S10000 bios. It has the dual bios switch. If it can you can use Firepro drivers which will give you massively better performance with your pro apps. You should be able to install both drivers and by switching the bios switch run on either the Radeon or the Firepro drivers simply by rebooting.

The second option would be worthwhile investigating further. If you aren't going to get that benefit though, the 780 would be the card I'd go with.

 

[Gikaseixas]

Go with the beast

 

[RussianSensation]

I'd take the 780 without question. That particular 780 is a beast, with overclocking potential to be more than 50% faster than a single 7970GE.

That's 780 OC vs. 7970GE stock. An overclocked 780 on air has no chance of beating a 7970GE oc by 50% on average. The difference is more like 30-35%.

As far as 780 vs. 7990 goes, 780 is much slower when 7990 scales.

Out of the gate 7990 is 43% faster at 1440P.

This is a tough case because COH2 will destroy every GPU out there on 2x 1200P monitors unless you have GTX780 Tri-SLI. For the other games, they are not very demanding at all. A single GTX670/760 overclocked should play them on 2x1200P monitors without issues.

 

[tolis626]

I think you'd be better off with the 7990 at the same price.Now that AMD has finally started getting their minds together and are fixing their frame pacing issues,it seems like you'll be okay.Plus,it's got what I think is the highest memory bandwidth of every card around.That 768bit bus should be enough to keep you from being memory-starved for quite a while.Plus,it's 6gb,on par with the Titan.Most of this stuff doesn't matter now,but will later,especially in a multi-monitor setup.Plus,I didn't see anyone mention what happens when a 7990 is overclocked :twisted: .If your case has adequate cooling to keep the card fed with cold air,and if your PSU can handle it,an overclocked 7990 should be crazy.
If you hadn't said that you weren't going to upgrade soon,I'd join those who suggest the 780 or SLI 760s or 770s,or even suggest a 7970 which would be enough,for now.It's the future-proofing part that is in the 7990's favor in my opinion.The choice is yours.