Some reading material during your spending spree http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Rodman
A fool and his money are soon parted. Price/performance always matters.
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AMD - drop the price on the 7970 neeeow
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Some reading material during your spending spree http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Rodman
A fool and his money are soon parted. Price/performance always matters.
Ozymandias
[H]ard|Gawd
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You can actually do that with Eyefinity as well. Just install Hydravision and you can set how programs maximize.
LOL! I just picked up a Cinema Display as well, and I am sick of using a stupid mini display port to DVI adapter on my GTX 580 1.5gb (with no native display/minidisplay port). Not needed yet, but the post/bios screens don't show up and I don't wanna have to plug in another display later when needing to tweak CPU OC.
I am thinking about picking up that same GPU which is the funny thing. The ASUS Direct CU II is sooo out of stock everywhere. I am so sick of waiting for the 680 to be in stock and I want native mini display port if possible.
How do you like the performance of the 7970 with your Cinema display?
I dont see how up to 90% increase is bad scaling?
The video card isn't here yet, but I'll post some pics and bechmarks in this thread once I get it up and running at max OC. BTW I have a 580 as well. What adapter are you using? The only DVI->mini display adapter I could find was a device that was USB powered and cost 80$.
oldmanbal
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the gigabyte 7970 oc has a mini dp, it's what i use w/ an adapter to plug into the dp of my zr30w. i have 2 of them in cf and it's boss for 1600p gaming with SSAA turned on.
I'm trying to go from dvi to mini dp. It wont matter once I get the 7970 in but I'd pick up a cable during lunch if it was <20$ just to see if the performance if the 580 was acceptable at that higher res.
edge929
[H]ard|Gawd
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So you'd rather wait 3+ months for the price to come down $50 dollars than spend that extra $50 and use it for those 3+ months? It's $50 bucks, not $500.
A fool and his time are soon parted.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/H3938LL/A that cable. Pricey, but a buddy of mine works for Apple and I got a discount. But I'd rather use the 70$ towards a GPU upgrade. 680 or 7970, both have some with dp / mdp options.
stealthy123
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I run crossfire on two different machines, and never have had an issue that wasn't easy to work around.
I also haven't had any issues with my 2 laptops that run Nvidia cards.
Moral of the story is, both companies are fine. When I have an issue with my computers I deduce what it is and address it accordingly, I don't go on a forum and say "OMG company X's drivers suck and I am never going to use their products again" That's just asinine, and unfortunately all too common.
I also haven't had any issues with my 2 laptops that run Nvidia cards.
Moral of the story is, both companies are fine. When I have an issue with my computers I deduce what it is and address it accordingly, I don't go on a forum and say "OMG company X's drivers suck and I am never going to use their products again" That's just asinine, and unfortunately all too common.
purple_haze
2[H]4U
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imo wait for the 4gb 680's and enjoy a better driver experience!
Nvidia has the fair shares of driver problems....what a fan boi.
Currently, Nvidia has FAR LESS problems then AMD. I just jumped from my 4850, that still fuctioned for my means, to a GTX480 because I got sick and tired of drivers breaking my OC every friggan update. And how many years do I have to wait until my mouse cursor doesn't get garbled when on dual monitors? Or how about drivers making people with dual monitors have colored bars because the card underclocks itself too much? Or how about day one crossfire support? Yes, lets drop 1500 dollars on the best cards just so they won't work right because AMD is lazy.
Check your facts son. AMD Drivers are bad compaired to NVidia. FACT.
Arcygenical
Fully [H]
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I still get flickering textures in Skyrim. Still. Every damn revision.
burningrave101
[H]F Junkie
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If you want the extra GB of RAM for higher resolution gaming then obviously it's not slower than the GTX 680 for the games you intend to play or why would you care about the additional RAM lol.
RanceJustice
Supreme [H]ardness
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AMD has made their biggest jumps into the enthusiast community by keeping prices significantly lower than Nvidia, for cards that ranged from "10% less powerful overall" to actually "More powerful in certain, significant circumstances". Great value in the 4000 series for instance, put them back on the map at a time when NV was dominating. The 5000 series was more expensive at the high end if I remember, but the 6000 series was cheap and high powered - non-reference high end 6850s could be had for under $200, and if I recall that many of the 6970s were in the 300s-400s including non-reference designs (ie. Asus DirectCU II etc..). Having the 7970s pushing 600 for that tier is not a good thing.
Especially considering that the GTX 680 is coming out at typically high Nvidia high-end price points, why even end up in the same ballpark? After all, typical users who would buy a 7970 (or 7990/dual chip, or 7970 crossfire etc..) for this generation aren't going to turn around and buy a GTX 680 for a minor improvement that may be circumstantial. Thus, if the price is low enough to "lock in" 7970 buyers, AMD won't even have to worry about a portion of the userbase deciding between themselves and Nvidia, which they will have to do if the cards are available at similar pricepoints. On top of this, AMD created a lot of goodwill in the industry by putting forth some great cards, improving their drivers over ATI's screwups, having their cards offer greater featuresets (eyefinity from a single card etc...) and generally making themselves a great value. To decide they're so confident in their lead that they can start gouging prices is an insult when it happens in any market. AMD's GPUs have been at their most profitable when they were actually charging much least; buyers were there because of the excellent value and the proverbial "Why should I pay $100-300 more for 10% circumstantial benefits" comparison that applied to many users.
Especially considering how their Bulldozer CPU has flopped at the high end in terms of both performance and value its sad to say, I don't think this is the time to start garnering ill will from the remainder of the high-end enthusiast community, which will lead to the kind of writeoffs that will have effects at least for the current and next generation of CPUs and GPUs!
Especially considering that the GTX 680 is coming out at typically high Nvidia high-end price points, why even end up in the same ballpark? After all, typical users who would buy a 7970 (or 7990/dual chip, or 7970 crossfire etc..) for this generation aren't going to turn around and buy a GTX 680 for a minor improvement that may be circumstantial. Thus, if the price is low enough to "lock in" 7970 buyers, AMD won't even have to worry about a portion of the userbase deciding between themselves and Nvidia, which they will have to do if the cards are available at similar pricepoints. On top of this, AMD created a lot of goodwill in the industry by putting forth some great cards, improving their drivers over ATI's screwups, having their cards offer greater featuresets (eyefinity from a single card etc...) and generally making themselves a great value. To decide they're so confident in their lead that they can start gouging prices is an insult when it happens in any market. AMD's GPUs have been at their most profitable when they were actually charging much least; buyers were there because of the excellent value and the proverbial "Why should I pay $100-300 more for 10% circumstantial benefits" comparison that applied to many users.
Especially considering how their Bulldozer CPU has flopped at the high end in terms of both performance and value its sad to say, I don't think this is the time to start garnering ill will from the remainder of the high-end enthusiast community, which will lead to the kind of writeoffs that will have effects at least for the current and next generation of CPUs and GPUs!
Uh, I don't think you realize, Xaeos, but some people use their GPUs for more than gaming.
Where CUDA is not needed, the 7970 is plenty great for GPGPU computations.
Moreover, it's not as hot or loud as a 6990, comes with a full warranty, and also maxes out the newest games (unlike folding all-stars which give you more bang for buck but which are no longer super for gaming).
It's the best of many worlds if you're not in it to just "game" and don't require CUDA...
Where CUDA is not needed, the 7970 is plenty great for GPGPU computations.
Moreover, it's not as hot or loud as a 6990, comes with a full warranty, and also maxes out the newest games (unlike folding all-stars which give you more bang for buck but which are no longer super for gaming).
It's the best of many worlds if you're not in it to just "game" and don't require CUDA...
MavericK
Zero Cool
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Never understood buying non-reference cards... it just leads to issues fitting waterblocks later.
Cause whats the point in watercooling if the vrm design is subpar and you can't actually overclock it efficiently?
KayossZero
Limp Gawd
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Well to be fair, nvidia has released drivers that caused card's fans to not spin and actually cause physical hardware failure, not to mention the nvidia mobile GPUs that failed left and right.
Both companies have issues, the only thing I would agree with after using many cards from either side is that xfire profiles do indeed need to be released quicker and in a more functioning state from the start.
MavericK
Zero Cool
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Your first example was valid, but this second one was not a driver issue.
heatlesssun
Extremely [H]
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Whatever people will say, the reviews of the 680 pretty much have it doing the 7970 in. AMD and it's partners will have no choice but to lower 7970 prices if AMD plans to make more of then. Prices on the 580 remained high I think because nVidia and it's partners had already stopped making them before the 7970 was even released.
Cantonious
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No, they are not FINE. They work, sometimes without issue, then you upgrade and everything is broken. They are not making progress, they are continually re-breaking the same problems.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1559534
night_2004
2[H]4U
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The OverDrive bug is still unresolved on the 5000 series cards, and AMD isn't even going to fix it? Wow. Glad I got rid of my 5870 when I did as the workaround never really did work for me (as of ~10.8 when I sold my card).
Glad to see the cursor lag bug fixed though. I had that issue when I got my card and the 10.4 drivers were out. It only took them what (11.7 - 10.4) a year and three months to fix that bug? Take note nVidia, major bugs should take longer than one revision to fix if you want to keep up with AMD!
edge929
[H]ard|Gawd
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A full-cover block should cool the core and VRMs equally. If standard VRMs are rated for 120C I would think a full cover block would keep them well below this.
When I had a 5850, the issues with Overdrive went away when I flashed my HIS card with a bios from an ASUS 5850. Most Overdrive issues were caused with bad bios keys.
Just an update to the thread. My 7970 showed up today and everything is hooked up. The Apple cinema display is really nice. I had hell trying to get the hack to adjust brightness to work because of AHCI, but it finally did work. The card overclocks to 1200/1600. I haven't really pushed the memory at all. My heaven score went from 984 on the 580(950MHZ) to 1450 on the 7970. BF3 looks/plays great at 2560x1440. The card is at least as loud as the reference PNY 680 when overclocked.
silence. You can't hear my computer when its on. Can't do that with air alone and run high end parts.
ppl ask me why my clocks are low despite water cooling. Well 800 rpm fans will do that.
FaRKle0079
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silence. You can't hear my computer when its on. Can't do that with air alone and run high end parts.
ppl ask me why my clocks are low despite water cooling. Well 800 rpm fans will do that.
That's an awful lot of money for silence... adding on an additional 30-50% per component.
"Slow viewports In Maya with new nvidia card !" - http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=92072
Read post #21 and #27 from the above link.
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036748052&postcount=16
Who said only AMD drivers were bad? I know someone who invested in a GTX 480 SLI when they had come out and he was amazed by the (crippled) Viewport speed. :/ Ended up replacing it with a HD 6970 later.
I've had experience with both - currently using HD 6950. On Windows, both AMD and nVidia have been fine for me. Some bugs are always there - have faced them with both companies.
If Catalyst is bad, then it is only for Linux where nVidia binary blob simply works better. On Windows, it's fine. Stop trolling.
Read post #21 and #27 from the above link.
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036748052&postcount=16
Who said only AMD drivers were bad? I know someone who invested in a GTX 480 SLI when they had come out and he was amazed by the (crippled) Viewport speed. :/ Ended up replacing it with a HD 6970 later.
I've had experience with both - currently using HD 6950. On Windows, both AMD and nVidia have been fine for me. Some bugs are always there - have faced them with both companies.
If Catalyst is bad, then it is only for Linux where nVidia binary blob simply works better. On Windows, it's fine. Stop trolling.
heatlesssun
Extremely [H]
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All video drivers have bugs, that's not really the point. The issue is two fold, driver support for games and and overall stability and function. While we can go back and forth over stability it's much more difficult case to make that AMD driver support for games is better than nVidia's. For example, if you compare launch day drivers for the 680 and the 7970 it's a pretty big difference.
7970 is stil better imo than GTX 680.
7970 gains more from OC than 680 and probably higher % of good bins vs bad bins.
7970 has better electrical design IMO.
7970 has excellent performance across all games, 680 chokes hard on a few.
7970 capable of higher quality GFX than 680 due to Alpha sharpen/better -lod/Temporal AA.
7970 has better video playback....don't argue...look it up.
7970 in general performs better in crossfire (better scaling)
7970 performs better in openGL
7970 is better for compute
7970 stable frequency/power draw prevents too big/too little a power supply(saving $/problems)
AMD/ATI has a better tweak program for obscure settings. (ATT)
no way in hell I'd switch to NV.
7970 gains more from OC than 680 and probably higher % of good bins vs bad bins.
7970 has better electrical design IMO.
7970 has excellent performance across all games, 680 chokes hard on a few.
7970 capable of higher quality GFX than 680 due to Alpha sharpen/better -lod/Temporal AA.
7970 has better video playback....don't argue...look it up.
7970 in general performs better in crossfire (better scaling)
7970 performs better in openGL
7970 is better for compute
7970 stable frequency/power draw prevents too big/too little a power supply(saving $/problems)
AMD/ATI has a better tweak program for obscure settings. (ATT)
no way in hell I'd switch to NV.
It's a fine card but don't fool yourself just because that's what you own.
1. We don't know about Ocing. Kepler has not been Oced easy yet. MOBO modding 7970 can't touch 680
2. Better electrical design proof is in the performance/watt 680 wins hands down.
3. 680 has better performance on majority
4. My laptop can paly 1080p, your point?
5. No scaling is just as good 0n 680 see [H]'s dual card review
6. like 6 games are programmed in ogl
7. That's nice, ppl with pocket protectors will buy 7970, everyone else it's nV
8?
LstBrunnenG
Supreme [H]ardness
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Drivers will be fine when I stop getting random hard locks, random and impossible to reproduce artifacting in ancient games, display issues, and, lastly, when my 7970 outperforms my old 480 in easy-to-render games like MW3 every single time I start it up, rather than every other time like it does now. That's right, half the time I start up the glorified Quake III mod that is MW3, performance is a slideshow. And it's all the drivers - something with the clocks getting stuck. Disabling and re-enabling Overdrive fixes it - sometimes. Other times I have to kill my Chrome windows. Other times I simply have to power cycle the whole machine.
If you are someone who has no issues with AMD's drivers, count your blessings rather than flaming the people that do when they complain.