Which card for current build? HD 7950 or GTX 670

[Silverforce11]

18% OC for 18% perf gain is a bit of a stretch isn't it? I know some other users tried to pass off 80% gains from 45% overclocks, but let's not get carried away.


At $350 it's a $50 difference, nothing has changed, a faster card is $50 more expensive and offers a richer feature set.

Did u bother to open that review link??

"Maximum stable clocks of our card are 1120 MHz core (18% overclock) and 1515 MHz Memory (26% overclock)."

"Actual 3D performance gained from overclocking is 18.6%." <- in bf3.

What's crazy is it even manage to match a 580 in BF3 of all games, with such a modest clock.

 

[The_Golden_Man]

The problem with the 7850 is that it is a 7850. It's a AMD/ATI card. Nvidia has the better card/drivers, hands down.

 

[Silverforce11]

The problem with the 7850 is that it is a 7850. It's a AMD/ATI card. Nvidia has the better card/drivers, hands down.

Played all the games in recent years without a hitch.. all on AMD hardware and drivers. Maybe its not for ppl who can't figure out how to install drivers??

 

[The_Golden_Man]

Played all the games in recent years without a hitch.. all on AMD hardware and drivers. Maybe its not for ppl who can't figure out how to install drivers??

Man, I was messing with ya :biggrin:

 

[Silverforce11]

Man, I was messing with ya :biggrin:

Sarcasm and the internet don't mix very well. Plus with all the funnies around here.. one is never too certain of anything.

 

[The_Golden_Man]

Sarcasm and the internet don't mix very well. Plus with all the funnies around here.. one is never too certain of anything.

Lol! I know! :biggrin:

But seriously, I'm sure the 7850 is a very nice card :thumbsup:

 

[cmdrdredd]

I vote dual 7850 and forget about it lol.

 

[twjr]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/06/22/the-bitcoin-richest-accumulating-large-balances/

At the current exchange rate of ~$6.50 per BTC, the top address on the list holds control to an astonishing $2.85 million in total value (as of 6/20/12). Probably doing something illegal with all that $ hhehe.



For $50 price difference, I'd take the GTX670. It's guaranteed faster performance. If you still can't make your decision, when prices are this close, you really should to look at the games you actually play. Take 15 min and go on a game-by-game basis.

For example, NV continues to do very well in BF3:

P.S. On a side-note, looks like the myth that HD7850 can be overclocked to reach top cards is not true for modern games. It trails a stock 7970 by 58% and a GTX680 by 79%. Both the 7970 and 680 have additional overclocking headroom too.

I have taken a lot of time looking at games. Problem is I have 400+ games on my Steam account and more on CD/DVD so there are wins on either side for me. Pretty much all of the games give acceptable framerates at 1080p with either of the cards though.

Of the games which are tested frequently in recent reviews BF3 is about the only one I don't own and that is mostly because of the "rave" reviews of dealing with Origin not the game itself.

Well said. There isn't enough to differentiate these cards to justify spending $100+. I see this thread has been spinning wheels for a few days and yet no one has offered a decent explanation as to why the OP shouldn't buy a custom 7950 for $350, give it a quick overclock, and save $70-150. As I said:

The only explanation that would really significantly effect my decision is whether or not a 7950 will experience the same BIOS display issues as I had with the 7850 I had. Not having those problems with an Nvidia card could help me justify the extra cost.

 

[Shmee]

I would again recommend an OCed 7950, or, if BF3/skyrim are the main games you play, then I would consider the 670 more.

Its really up to you and what you play.

 

[Dark Shroud]

AMD has done a lot of work fixing Skyrim in the latest driver & caps so that one isn't a problem anymore. The only one that's still of issue is BF3 has only seen incremental performance updates and even then it still isn't nearly as bad as many of you seem to make it out.

 

[Dark Shroud]

18% OC for 18% perf gain is a bit of a stretch isn't it? I know some other users tried to pass off 80% gains from 45% overclocks, but let's not get carried away.


At $350 it's a $50 difference, nothing has changed, a faster card is $50 more expensive and offers a richer feature set.

You can get custom OC 7950s for cheaper than $350, this MSI model is only $320 AR with the three free games.

Meanwhile at Newegg most 670s with the custom cooler start at $430. The two exceptions are the Asus DCII @ $420 and the Gigabyte Windforce @ $400.

 

[SolMiester]

AMD has done a lot of work fixing Skyrim in the latest driver & caps so that one isn't a problem anymore. The only one that's still of issue is BF3 has only seen incremental performance updates and even then it still isn't nearly as bad as many of you seem to make it out.

How long has Skyrim been out?..

 

[BallaTheFeared]

You can get custom OC 7950s for cheaper than $350, this MSI model is only $320 AR with the three free games.

Meanwhile at Newegg most 670s with the custom cooler start at $430. The two exceptions are the Asus DCII @ $420 and the Gigabyte Windforce @ $400.

You don't need a custom cooler on a 670, in fact I'd rather have a rear exhaust reference model if I was on air just so I wouldn't have to manage as much case heat.

 

[Elfear]

You can get custom OC 7950s for cheaper than $350, this MSI model is only $320 AR with the three free games.

Meanwhile at Newegg most 670s with the custom cooler start at $430. The two exceptions are the Asus DCII @ $420 and the Gigabyte Windforce @ $400.

Sell the three games for ~$30 and the card would only cost you around $290. That's a great deal on a factory-oced 7950.

 

[ocre]

a lot is at stake here.......

choose carefully.

 

[twjr]

You can get custom OC 7950s for cheaper than $350, this MSI model is only $320 AR with the three free games.

Meanwhile at Newegg most 670s with the custom cooler start at $430. The two exceptions are the Asus DCII @ $420 and the Gigabyte Windforce @ $400.

Newegg don't ship internationally and Amazon won't ship either of those 670's internationally.

The best deal I can get on a 7950 is:

http://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-Mini-...ywords=gtx+670

You don't need a custom cooler on a 670, in fact I'd rather have a rear exhaust reference model if I was on air just so I wouldn't have to manage as much case heat.

The cheapest 670 I can get is this:

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-N670GTX-PM...ywords=gtx+670

Which happens to be reference cooled.


The other option I could look at is getting something like the following shipped through a freight forward company. I think the cost of that will be upwards of $40 though.

http://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-GV-N6...ywords=gtx+670

 

[RussianSensation]

The only explanation that would really significantly effect my decision is whether or not a 7950 will experience the same BIOS display issues as I had with the 7850 I had. Not having those problems with an Nvidia card could help me justify the extra cost.

I don't have the same problem as you have with your 42 inch TV (screen being split into 3 parts), but I also have a problem when using dual-link DVI to HDMI cable to connect to a 1080P 37 inch LCD. Upon boot up, the overscan/underscan resolution setting in CCC apparently doesn't properly activate to fill the full screen when using the 7970 card. It takes about 2 minutes or so before it does it automatically after each boot. I don't have this problem on my 6950 where it boots up and perfectly fills up the entire 1080P screen. I tried Cats 12.6 and 12.7 betas and it's there on the 7970 but not on the 6950. Since I don't usually reboot my computer, it's not a big deal to me. I haven't tried an HDMI-to-HDMI cable to see if this scaling issue still persists.

 

[twjr]

Do you have an HDMI-HDMI cable handy to try with your TV? That would help me feel a little more confident that is was just a bad card. Of course it could just be unique to my set up and happen with whatever card I use.

 

[RussianSensation]

Do you have an HDMI-HDMI cable handy to try with your TV? That would help me feel a little more confident that is was just a bad card. Of course it could just be unique to my set up and happen with whatever card I use.

Ya, I have one. Let me look for it tomorrow morning and I'll provide a quick update.

 

[twjr]

Ya, I have one. Let me look for it tomorrow morning and I'll provide a quick update.

That would be excellent.

It looks likes Asrock has just released a new BIOS for my motherboard which states "Improve discrete VGA card vBIOS compatibility". Maybe this is the answer to the problem I was having initially. Annoyingly it appears it was released on the day after I returned my 7850...

 

[RussianSensation]

That would be excellent.

It looks likes Asrock has just released a new BIOS for my motherboard which states "Improve discrete VGA card vBIOS compatibility". Maybe this is the answer to the problem I was having initially. Annoyingly it appears it was released on the day after I returned my 7850...

Quick question. Is the 3-screen split issue only once you enter the BIOS but once the computer boots into the desktop, everything works fine?

 

[twjr]

Quick question. Is the 3-screen split issue only once you enter the BIOS but once the computer boots into the desktop, everything works fine?

Once I have drivers installed that is correct. Once I get to the login screen it returns to normal but everything before that is split.

 

[poohbear]

I'm seeing alot of custom GTX670s drop to $390ish (Gigabyte Windforce OC, which surprisingly is one of the best GTX 670s on the market!). i'd be all over that if i was in the market for a GTX 670!

 

[RussianSensation]

Once I have drivers installed that is correct. Once I get to the login screen it returns to normal but everything before that is split.

OK tried HDMI-to-HDMI cable V1.3 Cat 2, no underscan/overscan issues and no split screen problems of any kind. Works perfectly. Just had to set the initial Underscan/Overscan to 0% and Enable GPU Scaling. Rebooted a couple times and it detects the full 1080P screen picture on both the 6950 and 7970. The DVI-to-HDMI still has the 2-5 minute underscan delay where it fills only 90% of the screen on boot. But if this issue affects certain Asus or Asrock motherboards, it can even be board # specific or BIOS specific. I even booted up an old system with Asus P5N-E SLI and tried both GPUs and HDMI-to-HDMI works perfectly on that 6 year old motherboard.

 

[twjr]

OK tried HDMI-to-HDMI cable V1.3 Cat 2, no underscan/overscan issues and no split screen problems of any kind. Works perfectly. Just had to set the initial Underscan/Overscan to 0% and Enable GPU Scaling. Rebooted a couple times and it detects the full 1080P screen picture on both the 6950 and 7970. The DVI-to-HDMI still has the 2-5 minute underscan delay where it fills only 90% of the screen on boot. But if this issue affects certain Asus or Asrock motherboards, it can even be board # specific or BIOS specific. I even booted up an old system with Asus P5N-E SLI and tried both GPUs and HDMI-to-HDMI works perfectly on that 6 year old motherboard.

Thanks. That plus the recent BIOS release makes me somewhat more comfortable that I won't see the graphical weirdness with the AMD card.