Guys better gameplay on 680s over 7970s?

Marcdaddy

2[H]4U
Joined
Feb 21, 2003
Messages
3,635
Heres my deal I'm thinking of selling 3 of my 7970s and going to 2 680s and playing games at 1920x1200? Reason being I'm going back to one moniter ( going 1 30 in ) and it seems like everything that I've been reading the 680s give better/smoother gameplay, is it true? I do hate how in some games it says I'm getting 90 Fps + but it feels jerky or stuttery, this never happened with my 6970 tri- Fire setup.
 
All multi-gpu sucks, but If you must have multiple gpus, Id get a 690 for the standardized driver and frame time distribution tricks that mask microstutter, plus it has insane raw power equal to 680 sli

If you were to go single, I'd go for a single 7970 or single 680. Why not take all 3 of your 7970;s and see which one clocks the highest when alone in the computer.
 
Ya I'm running all 3 at 1100/1700 and the performance is awesome in some games but others still suffer from poor drivers.
 
Yeah im saying test all 3, each one at a time in the case and see which one clocks the best...

Which one will do say...

1280/1850 at 1300mv/1700mv at 95% fan without causing driver freezes or artifacts

Test all 3, and consider keeping the best clocking one, or go with a 680.
 
but If you must have multiple gpus, Id get a 690 for the standardized driver and frame time distribution tricks that mask microstutter

Hmm interesting, so based on that, GTX680's ain't have that feature?
 
All multi-gpu sucks, but If you must have multiple gpus, Id get a 690 for the standardized driver and frame time distribution tricks that mask microstutter, plus it has insane raw power equal to 680 sli

If you were to go single, I'd go for a single 7970 or single 680. Why not take all 3 of your 7970;s and see which one clocks the highest when alone in the computer.

Those are not valid reasons to get a 690 over a pair of 680s. The only reason to get a 690 is you want 680 SLI performance but only have the one double slot available, you want quad SLI using only 2 double slots, or you want it because it's exclusive and rare or something.
 
I'd also consider the 690, but only because it's the best looking video card I've ever seen! :)
 
not valid reasons

Not that I recommend more than one gpu, because I don't... I recommend a 7970 or 680 but consider the 690. The 680 sli could give you higher clocks and better cooling, but check out frame time distribution. Please avoid having multiple gpus at all costs if you enjoy smooth gaming. But the OP is coming from multi-gpu and wants multi-gpu again so the 690 is the best choice if he wants a smoother experience. Have to quote this to debunk it and show valid reasons.:rolleyes:

+135% power target (not available on the 680) Also 5 phases per gpu (not on the 680)
official690.png


and better frame time
crysis2-nv.gif



But in all seriousness I think you would be most happy with your games using a single 1300mhz 680/7970. Multi gpu is a sloppy mess for me. The stuttering is horrible and even though framerate reads 50 with 2 gpus and 28 with one, both of them play like 28 fps, and one feels smoother.
 
Have to quote this to debunk it and show valid reasons.:rolleyes:

I'm genuinely interested in how this was tested. How were the frame times measured? What system was this done on?

I could see a difference if this was done on an 1155 system since the 690 will have more pcie bandwidth and possibly better latency between GPUs since they would only communicate through the PLX switch. I've never really seen a test for this though, so assuming your method of reporting frame times is accurate it would be neat to see this done on a couple different systems (boards with a similar PLX switch, X79).

Unless nvidia has confirmed something about this, I'd be kind of surprised if the drivers enable something extra for "smoothing" on a 690 that isn't applied to other SLI configurations.
 
If it makes you feel any better....

I sold my 7970 that did 1250 core for and got a 680 that did 1230 core.

I felt like the 7970 was the better card and just picked up a Lightning 7970 that does 1250 core again.

Back where I started and happy.
 
If it makes you feel any better....

I sold my 7970 that did 1250 core for and got a 680 that did 1230 core.

I felt like the 7970 was the better card and just picked up a Lightning 7970 that does 1250 core again.

Back where I started and happy.

Curious what specifically made you go back to the 7970...?
 
If it makes you feel any better....

I sold my 7970 that did 1250 core for and got a 680 that did 1230 core.

I felt like the 7970 was the better card and just picked up a Lightning 7970 that does 1250 core again.

Back where I started and happy.

i think everyone will believe your story.
 
Curious what specifically made you go back to the 7970...?

it sure wasnt performance, power, heat, drivers.

it has to be the 3gb argument that all amd fans use to justify their purchase.
 
Hmm interesting, so based on that, GTX680's ain't have that feature?

No. All keplers have it :). Did wonders while I had 680 sli. I downgraded for cost reasons to a high oc set of 670s, but returned one thinking it was wrong when it turns out it would have possibly been fine. Now I decides a 1354 core speed on single card is enough for me at 2560... Mostly. Sli works great though.
 
Based off of ?

I think he went a bit far by saying they "suck," but I understand where he may be coming from. I've gone back and forth between single and multi-GPU setups and I can say from personal experience that single GPU setups will always have less problems than multi-GPU setups (no matter if its AMD or Nvidia). There almost always is a game or two that suffers from crashes, micro-stuttering, poor scaling, or even worse negative scaling. If the games you play don't suffer from any problems then a multi-GPU setup will tear apart a single GPU setup in performance generally. The GTX 590 I have now has given me no issues whatsoever in the games I play; however, my Crossfire HD 5870 2GBs and SLI GTX 260 Core 216s before it had issues here and there.
 
If you play with vsync on, stay away from the 680's right now until Nvidia fixes their annoying stuttering bug. These will assuredly not give you a smoother gameplay experience right now until Nvidia fixes this shit. Supposedly, if you turn off vsync, gameplay is smoother, but I still see choppy gameplay, despite high fps.

Coming from AMD to Nvidia, like some have said, the grass is not always greener on the other side. This has been a known issue for quite some time and still exists.
 
No problems with Adaptive Vsync on my rig. Please stop spreading such misinformation.
 
Personally, if I spent ~$1500 on video cards I would not be willing to deal with any multi gpu scaling/driver issues on major game titles for more than a week or two. NV has a better track record there. SLI 670/680 is easily enough for 2560x1600 since OP mentioned 30".
 
i think everyone will believe your story.

It wouldn't take too much detective work to know that I'm telling the truth.


Why did I go back to a 7970?

I really feel like the 680 build quality is shitty and since I game part time on a 2560 screen. I feel like the 7970 will have more longetivity and this go round I think I will be on this card for a long while since I'm getting married a week from today, have a baby and just bought a house a little while back.
 
I have no choppiness with my overclocked SLI 680's with or without VSync. Run's all my games including BF3 like butter. Then again I am also feeding them with two 16x PCI-E 3.0 slots which might help.
 
No issues here with adaptive vsync, and it's a minor issue from what I've heard. It's already fixed in the 302.71 beta drivers anyway (go google for em).

There will be some with and without the problem, but i would not jump to conclusions of a fix and i would not buy on the strength of that until official conformation, as it may fix for some but not for others.
 
Last edited:
If you are going to game at 1080p or 1200p a single HD 7970 is more than enough. Even for 1600p you don't need more than 2 HD 7970s . I suggest you keep the HD 7970 which overclocks best from your 3 cards. :)
 
It wouldn't take too much detective work to know that I'm telling the truth.


Why did I go back to a 7970?

I really feel like the 680 build quality is shitty and since I game part time on a 2560 screen. I feel like the 7970 will have more longetivity and this go round I think I will be on this card for a long while since I'm getting married a week from today, have a baby and just bought a house a little while back.

Don't worry about troy. He's a longtime troll who goes to heroic efforts to troll any mention of AMD.

Edit: I personally use a GTX 690 and I used 7970s before....I was pretty pleased with them, nothing bad to say really.
 
Last edited:
Don't worry about troy. He's a longtime troll who goes to heroic efforts to troll any mention of AMD. Guess he can't afford an upgrade past the 560ti, shrug.

There are people who can't stand the idea that a HD 7970 can do 1200+ even though hardocp sapphire HD 7970 and gigabyte HD 7970 review showed the card clocked at 1250+ Mhz. :)
 
Right now the absolute best choice is SLI GTX 670, you get the performance of 680's (or higher with overclocks) but cheaper and you get to enjoy the frame metering that Nvidia has which makes SLI feel so much smoother than Crossfire.

Just came from 6990/6970 Tri-fire to SLI 680 and the difference is immediate. With CFX I had to maintain really high fps (around 100fps) to keep it smooth feeling but on SLI it can go much lower and not get choppy. I'm talking worst case scenario 64 man map BF3 1080p Ultra 4XMSAA smooth all the time any maps. Nvidia's BF3 drivers are really good too.

My personal choice would be Gigabyte GTX 670 OC Windforce coolings in SLI. You'll be in love with them.
 
I went from 3x 7970s to 2x 680s and it was all worth it. For me gameplay feels smoother since there is no micro-suttering, and drivers are far far more stable than AMD's ever were 3+ months after release.

Adaptive Sync is also pretty cool, though it doesn't really do a great job at prevent tearing if you are hovering in the low 60s to high 50s. All in all, I would never go back to AMD. Awesome hardware, but terrible terrible drivers.
 
If you are going to game at 1080p or 1200p a single HD 7970 is more than enough. Even for 1600p you don't need more than 2 HD 7970s . I suggest you keep the HD 7970 which overclocks best from your 3 cards. :)

You will want two GPU's if running 1080p at 120Hz and want ~120fps...
 
Not that I recommend more than one gpu, because I don't... I recommend a 7970 or 680 but consider the 690. The 680 sli could give you higher clocks and better cooling, but check out frame time distribution. Please avoid having multiple gpus at all costs if you enjoy smooth gaming. But the OP is coming from multi-gpu and wants multi-gpu again so the 690 is the best choice if he wants a smoother experience. Have to quote this to debunk it and show valid reasons.:rolleyes:

+135% power target (not available on the 680) Also 5 phases per gpu (not on the 680)
official690.png


and better frame time
crysis2-nv.gif



But in all seriousness I think you would be most happy with your games using a single 1300mhz 680/7970. Multi gpu is a sloppy mess for me. The stuttering is horrible and even though framerate reads 50 with 2 gpus and 28 with one, both of them play like 28 fps, and one feels smoother.
It sure is available on my GTX 680 SC sig's. :rolleyes: Mine has all 5 phases also.
2a3ae3d3_Capture.PNG
 
Back
Top