My experience with 670 SLI vs 7970 CFX in BF3 MP

S

Simkin

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 3, 2011
Messages
144
So, i have been a 7970 Crossfire user since January, i bought them on release, and have been playing mainly BF3 since then.. I have been troubled by freezes/black screens/gray screens and BSOD now and then from the AMD drivers, like many others, i'm still on the 12.7b driver and i still can have these freezes.

So, i decided to give nVidia a try, i tought of it more like a sidegrade with more stable drivers, the cards i ordered was two EVGA GTX 670 FTW, and i oc'd them to 1250/1701 which was stable 4 runs of Heaven and 3dmark Vantage.

Then BF3 was up next, and i immediately noticed less performance then with my two 7970's, (which are oc'd to 1150/1600 btw). I saw the fps drop below 119 (my framelimit for my 120hz) much more frequently than with my 7970's, and i tested the fps with the same settings on top of the TV Tower in Sharqi, and the 670's where showing 95-100fps, and at that same spot my 7970's are holding 119fps! thats 20-25fps more. I know nothing was wrong with the setup, because i got the same 3DMark result as with my 7970, and Heaven Benchmark results was the same as others with 670 SLI.. And, a guy on another Forum was also getting the same framerate on that spot in Sharqi with his 680 SLI.

So, every test out there saying 670/680 is the better choise for BF3, but my experience was quite the opposite, i dont found the 670 SLI to be any smoother either, AMD have improved alot since the 12.6 driver..

So, it seems to me, that BF3 Multiplayer is running much greater on the 7970 CFX, and i was very supprised to be honest, the cards are on its way back to the place i bought them, and i just want so say, if you planning on swapping out your 797X CFX setup, wait until next gen come's out, especially if you play BF3 alot.

Im not a Fanboy of anything, and i hope i can go nVidia next gen, because it seems like their drivers are much more stable, but for now, im holding on to my 7970 CFX.

if nothing else, they do look sexy :)

EVGAGTX670FTW.jpg
 
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Very good news there. The guys at [H] have been reporting smoothness issues with BF3 in MP in every multi-GPU report they've done, but we've been hearing time and again that AMD has improved this situation greatly with the latest drivers.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Very good news there. The guys at [H] have been reporting smoothness issues with BF3 in MP in every multi-GPU report they've done, but we've been hearing time and again that AMD has improved this situation greatly with the latest drivers.
Click to expand...

Yea prior to 12.6 it just felt "off" now its exceptionally smooth. Granted I play with a 58 fps limit with vsync on with the PC in my sig.
 
I have been nothing but happy with my CFX 7970's since I got them at launch. Even before 12.6 I was getting great performance in BF3.... not sure why they seem to get flak here at [H]. Just fantastic cards they are and I'm more than content to sit on these until next gen.
 
The reason i think is the all the trouble people have had with freezes and other stuff, i have had a load of trouble with mine, but now after 12.6 things have gotten better, and its much smoother in game's.

The performance have always been good, and they kick butt in BF3, and as you can see, 670 SLI just cant keep up in BF3 MP according to my own tests..

I must say im very curious about the upcoming HD 8970, i might go for two of those, but im also very excited what nVidia brings to the table..

Butom line, They perform very good,. but the drivers still needs some work when it comes to stability.
 
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The problem is that alot of previous AMD owners are refering to pre-12.6 drivers for their experience, or what people call the better ''smooooooooothness' of Nvidia cards vs AMD cards.

Even HardOCP reviews are not up-to-date with latest 12.6 and 12.7 drivers.

You were a victim of that internet myth about the better smooooothness of Nvidia cards. It was true (maybe... and subjective) before 12.6. It's not true anymore, sadly. :(

People often get stuck in the past and will report their ''experiences'' with AMD cards from 6 months ago, or 2 years ago, without realizing that AMD drivers did improve ALOT in the last months, and that GCN was a totally new architecture for AMD, so it took them some time to work it out.

But they will say that Nvidia cards are better, because 6 months ago they did compare them, and blah blah blah. Internet myths are often difficult to stop... Copy and paste, internet parrots...
 
Im running myself a SLi of 480´s, after paying years of extra energy costs im going to CFX 7970 !

I hope i dont regret that.
 
DouglasteR said:
Im running myself a SLi of 480´s, after paying years of extra energy costs im going to CFX 7970 !

I hope i dont regret that.
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I doubt you will regret it especially since AMD seems to be working kinks out of Crossfire. I was running Crossfire 6850's for awhile and they were an absolutely fantastic pair but I grew tired of worrying about Crossfire profiles and having to mess with my own profiles in case something wasn't working correctly.

Its great to see AMD improving on the driver front. Kind of wish I could have tested out 12.7 before I sold my cards just to see if things were smoother than before.
 
DouglasteR said:
Im running myself a SLi of 480´s, after paying years of extra energy costs im going to CFX 7970 !

I hope i dont regret that.
Click to expand...

I am not sure whether you will regret it. If energy bill is something you care about, GTX680/GTX670 SLI is more energy efficient than 7970 CF.
 
Simkin said:
How much are we talking about here? 20-50w more? is that gonna make a big impact of his energy bill you think?

Thats two light bulbs at worst, dont make a fool of yourself.

Edit:
Actually its 22W more.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-680-review/9
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GTX680/670 SLI is more efficient than 7970 CF. That is the fact. The way that you are denying the fact makes yourself sound like a moron.

Read the following review.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/04/25/geforce_gtx_680_3way_sli_radeon_7970_trifire_review/8

I don't want to hurt your AMD heart too badly. Otherwise, I don't mind quoting the review comments.
 
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rofl @ yanmeng

22w? OP admitted 670's consumed less power. 22w isn't even noticeable on a power bill though!
sounds like you're the moron to me, nitpicking over 22w just so you can say "I'm right"

the [h] review is tri-fire & tri-sli. So the 120w is actually only like 80w for a crossfire/ sli setup.
But, even considering it's still more power it doesn't matter.
OP stated his experience saying his game wasn't as smooth. 100w for 2-3 hours per day is still peanuts in a power bill.

Plus, OP has determined that the power cost was worth the smoothness & better experience on the crossfire setup. At least he's open minded enough to give it a shot.
Post your story of your personal comparison so we know you're not an nvidia fanboy.
 
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J Macker said:
rofl @ yanmeng

22w? OP admitted 670's consumed less power. 22w isn't even noticeable on a power bill though!

sounds like you're the moron to me, nitpicking over 22w just so you can say "I'm right"
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"This speaks rather loudly for itself. GeForce GTX 680 3-Way SLI is much more power efficient than Radeon HD 7970 Tri-Fire CrossFireX. Starting at idle power, GTX 680 3-Way SLI idled at the desktop with less total system wattage at 112W versus 131W with HD 7970 Tri-Fire. We noted that ZeroCore power was working on HD 7970 Tri-Fire, with two of the video cards fans not spinning while at idle. Yet, as you can clearly see, even with that, GTX 680 3-Way SLI idles with less power together.

In terms of full-load power utilization, there is simply no competition here, GTX 680 3-Way SLI is more efficient. There is a 136W difference in BF3 Singleplayer, a 145W difference in Batman and a 123W difference in BF3 Multiplayer. The Skyrim results are odd, as the AMD Radeon HD 7970 Tri-Fire CrossFireX configuration didn't seem to fully be utilizing all three GPUs well, thus the total system power was lower than any game. It's clear GTX 680 3-Way SLI was performing better scaling in Skyrim across all three GPUs. AMD Radeon HD 7970 Tri-Fire also seemed to lag behind in Deus Ex, while GTX 680 3-Way SLI smoked it in performance, and it shows here that it was using more power than Tri-Fire. The power numbers fully backup our performance we experienced; the numbers make sense. "

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/...ifire_review/8

I guess you are illiterate and can't read.
 
switching from 7970 to 670 or vice versa was insane in the first place. you knew there was a faster option and you purposely chose one that was not.
 
you are the biggest nVidia troll yanmeng. I looked at your post history.

Note to you: OP doesn't have 3-way sli/crossfire. SO IT's NOT 120w difference!
yeah, do the math; 2/3* 120w = 80w

1kwhr of power is less than $0.10 in most parts of the USA.
That's 12.5 hours of gaming for $0.10

Gee.... I'm sure the OP is REAL concerned about the power difference.

OP has an open mind and isn't a fanboy. He already bought both AMD & nVidia cards and compared them.
What can you say? oh, what's that? NOTHING.

I don't have sli 670's to compare or the 7970's, but I'm no fucking fanboy like you either.

video card trolls stink, and you smell pretty bad.
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1038528541&postcount=88

yanmeng said:
Pathetic AMD fans, "AMD lost? Nooooooo! this doesn't count as desktop GPU is not significant!"
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J Macker said:
you are the biggest nVidia troll yanmeng. I looked at your post history.

Note to you: OP doesn't have 3-way sli/crossfire. SO IT's NOT 120w difference!
yeah, do the math; 2/3* 120w = 80w

1kwhr of power is less than $0.10 in most parts of the USA.
That's 12.5 hours of gaming for $0.10

Gee.... I'm sure the OP is REAL concerned about the power difference.

OP has an open mind and isn't a fanboy. He already bought both AMD & nVidia cards and compared them.
What can you say? oh, what's that? NOTHING.

I don't have sli 670's to compare or the 7970's, but I'm no fucking fanboy like you either.

video card trolls stink, and you smell pretty bad.
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1038528541&postcount=88
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Clearly, you have no clues at all.

Firstly, if you read carefully (if you can), I was commenting on DouglasteR's comment instead of Simkin that bought both 670 SLI and 7970 CF.

Secondly, if you bother digging up my first couple posts on this forum 4 years ago, you will be surprised that my comments favored AMD/ATI. I posted with truth and I don't think that makes me a troll. In fact, I can call you an illiterate AMD troll and you definitely haven't taken any showers since you were born.
 
IdiotInCharge said:
Very good news there. The guys at [H] have been reporting smoothness issues with BF3 in MP in every multi-GPU report they've done, but we've been hearing time and again that AMD has improved this situation greatly with the latest drivers.
Click to expand...

12.4 was horribly rough with CrossfireX. 12.6 and 12.7 are much smoother.
 
The last thing i look at when i buy a high end video card setup, is the power consumption, as long as they dont differ a whole lot, im going for the cards thats offer most performance.

In January only AMD had their cards out, thats why i bought them, lets see next gen, maybe i'll go nVidia? who knows, time will tell..

and @ yanmeng: dont sit there and call me an AMD fanboy, when you sound like an desperate nVidia fanboy yourself.. Im not a fanboy of anything, trust me.

switching from 7970 to 670 or vice versa was insane in the first place. you knew there was a faster option and you purposely chose one that was not.
Click to expand...

I looked for an side grade with more stable driver, i did not look for any upgrade in performance.. and if you thinking of GTX 680, they perform only 1-2fps more in BF3, at most. You think GTX 680 SLI would have been a whole lot different? No.
 
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Simkin said:
The last thing i look at when i buy a high end video card setup, is the power consumption, as long as they dont differ a whole lot, im going for the cards thats offer most performance.

In January only AMD had their cards out, thats why i bought them, lets see next gen, maybe i'll go nVidia? who knows, time will tell..

and @ yanmeng: dont sit there and call me an AMD fanboy, when you sound like an desperate nVidia fanboy yourself.. Im not a fanboy of anything, trust me.



I looked for an side grade with more stable driver, i did not look for any upgrade in performance.. and if you thinking of GTX 680, they perform only 1-2fps more in BF3, at most. You think GTX 680 SLI would have been a whole lot different? No.
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There is nothing wrong about being a fan of a product. There are many of them, fans of BMW, fans of Rolex, etc. However, there is something you are incorrect about. I am not a desperate Nvidia fanboy. This statement is ridiculous. First of all, I favor the better product. Secondly, a Nvidia fanboy wouldn't be desperate right now as Nvidia is outselling AMD 3.5 to 1 on current generation card according to steam statistics.

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/videocard/

Name------------------------------May---June---July----Change from the previous month
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680--0.56%0.73%0.90%+0.17%
ATI Radeon HD 7970---------0.50%0.49%0.54%+0.05%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670---NA----0.58%0.99%+0.41%

The 7950's market share is not large enough to be shown on the chart.
 
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yanmeng said:
There is nothing wrong about being a fan of a product. There are many of them, fans of BMW, fans of Rolex, etc. However, there is something you are incorrect about. I am not a desperate Nvidia fanboy. This statement is ridiculous. First of all, I favor the better product. Secondly, a Nvidia fanboy wouldn't be desperate right now as Nvidia is outselling AMD 3.5 to 1 on current generation card according to steam statistics.

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/videocard/

Name------------------------------May---June---July----Change from the previous month
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680--0.56%0.73%0.90%+0.17%
ATI Radeon HD 7970---------0.50%0.49%0.54%+0.05%
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670---NA----0.58%0.99%+0.41%

The 7950's market share is not large enough to be shown on the chart.
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Thats good for nVidia, im happy for them. But i also hope AMD sells well, because we need competition. Just look at Intel vs AMD how that went, not good at all.

Now, i play BF3 alot, the game i play the most right now, and for me, 7970 CFX was the clear choise when it come to performance.
 
Simkin said:
Thats good for nVidia, im happy for them. But i also hope AMD sells well, because we need competition. Just look at Intel vs AMD how that went, not good at all.

Now, i play BF3 alot, the game i play the most right now, and for me, 7970 CFX was the clear choise when it come to performance.
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With the new drivers and new price-points, I'm starting to believe you guys- AMD might actually be back in the price/performance running. But they're still unproven, and will remain so until we get 12.7 WHQL reviews from the [H]. I want to know if they've improved on the issues mentioned in every multi-GCN review here so far, according to the guys who originally reported on them.
 
Simkin said:
Thats good for nVidia, im happy for them. But i also hope AMD sells well, because we need competition. Just look at Intel vs AMD how that went, not good at all.

Now, i play BF3 alot, the game i play the most right now, and for me, 7970 CFX was the clear choise when it come to performance.
Click to expand...

I agree that competition is good for consumers. However, AMD needs to learn his lessons so that *970 shouldn't be priced at > $450 any more. By the way, GCN is a good architecture for its purpose, but AMD needs to understand it is not the ideal choice for gamers.
 
yanmeng said:
I agree that competition is good for consumers. However, AMD needs to learn his lessons so that *970 shouldn't be priced at > $450 any more. By the way, GCN is a good architecture for its purpose, but AMD needs to understand it is not the ideal choice for gamers.
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Remember that pricing is really just a product of the 28nm fiasco, on more than one level.
 
agree that competition is good for consumers. However, AMD needs to learn his lessons so that *970 shouldn't be priced at > $450 any more. By the way, GCN is a good architecture for its purpose, but AMD needs to understand it is not the ideal choice for gamers.
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How much better is nVidia after the 12.6/12.7 drivers came out? and with the new GHZ edition? Besides, AMD have unlocked voltage.. I'm just curious. And from my own testing with the 670 SLI, even overclocked 100mhz more than my 7970's both on Core and Memory, i was not impresed over the performance compared to the 7970, atleast when almost every review out there saying nVidia is better.. I also tried Deus EX, and cant really say i was impressed there either..

The 12.6 and 12.7 was a big step forward for AMD, atleast for CFX..

I wish i could have kept the 670 SLI, because im pretty sure nVidia drivers are more stable, AMD have a job to do there. the 670's where more quiet also.
 
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I have a hard time believing that GTX670 SLi is somehow not impressive- I'm impressed by one at 2560x1600, significantly more so than I was with 2xHD6950 2GB cards.
 
Well, they did significally worse in BF3 than my 7970 CFX, and that did suprise me alot, i did a clean windows install also, because of that.. Im talking compared to my 7970's now, and maybe that came out the wrong way, of course 670/680 SLI are a very powerful setup.

but, i ended up sending them back.
 
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I currently have 670 sli and previously had 7950 cfx @ 1150/1500 and am experiencing the same thing. Its not that they're slower. It's some kind of driver issue. My gpu usage is between 60-90% and its not CPU bottleneck because it does it whether I'm in a 24 man tdm match or a 64 man conquest. usage is the same in both situation. As with my 7950s I was pegged 100% in anything 32 player or under and got a bit of CPU bottleneck in 64 player 80-100%. Kind of retarded this games been out this long and its like this. May have to go back to the 7950s. Borderlands 2 so sexy tho :). Maybe just say screw it and get some 2560x1440 action going.
 
yanmeng said:
GTX680/670 SLI is more efficient than 7970 CF. That is the fact. The way that you are denying the fact makes yourself sound like a moron.

Read the following review.
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/04/25/geforce_gtx_680_3way_sli_radeon_7970_trifire_review/8

I don't want to hurt your AMD heart too badly. Otherwise, I don't mind quoting the review comments.
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When I ran two GTX 480's in SLI for years it wasn't so much the power bill that concerned me it was more like the fact that my room would jump up 10 degree's during heavy gaming because those cards threw out heat like space heaters.

So glad to have moved on up to GTX 670's for that reason alone.
 
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