670 vs 7970

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kim31227

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Hi guys,
I'm interested in buying a graphics card for a new build that I am building this year.

I am stuck between these two graphics card:

ASUS GTX670 DirectCu II TOP 2GB

vs

ASUS ATI 7970 DirectCu II TOP 3GB.

Currently, I am gaming on a 23'' 1080p monitor but I may be changing to a 2560x1440 27'' monitor soon. I have little to no plan for over clocking and no plan for SLI.

Which graphics card should I buy? Also, if you any suggestions on other brands that make these cards (Gigabyte, MSI etc...), could you please list them?

Thanks
 
I game at 2560X1600 and almost never come close to ever hitting 2 gigs on my gpu. If you look at all the testing [H] has done, the VRAM debate is useless. More VRAM doesn't = faster gpu. But in this case, yes the 7970 is a faster gpu overall. What I would weigh is how is performance not just in terms of fps, but driver stability, overclocking, and game support. Also if you decide to go multi gpu in the future, how is support for sli/crossfire with the games you want to play. And do they stutter?
 
Like I always say, unless you need the CUDA I would go 6970, specially on a 27.

I have a 670 and game on a 1200p screen with usually everything maxed out but if I move to my 30in I need to bump down a few things which the 7970 will probably let you keep.

And the ram is totally fine on the 670 for that resolution.
 
7970 owns the 670 no problem .... heck the 7970 GHZ edition with the latest drivers owns the 680 in more titles than not.
 
HD7950 will own GTX 670 as well for less money than a HD7970.
 
kim31227 said:
Hi guys,
I'm interested in buying a graphics card for a new build that I am building this year.

I am stuck between these two graphics card:

ASUS GTX670 DirectCu II TOP 2GB

vs

ASUS ATI 7970 DirectCu II TOP 3GB.

Currently, I am gaming on a 23'' 1080p monitor but I may be changing to a 2560x1440 27'' monitor soon. I have little to no plan for over clocking and no plan for SLI.

Which graphics card should I buy? Also, if you any suggestions on other brands that make these cards (Gigabyte, MSI etc...), could you please list them?

Thanks
Click to expand...


dont be swayed by that extra ram, both cards are decent so buy which one has the best price
additional ram beyond 2 gigs on graphics cards does not show any tangible improvement in any of the benchmarks I have seen so I wouldnt focus on that 3 gigs of ram and salivate over it, gigabyte cards are great, their aftermarket cooling solutions are very effective and quiet. they also use high quality components on the card itself, would def recommend a gigabyte card over other brands especially those with noixy axial fans.
 
SonDa5 said:
HD7950 will own GTX 670 as well for less money than a HD7970.
Click to expand...

yeah . well said. when you consider stock performance HD 7950 boost is on par with GTX 670. but with overclocking HD 7950(1150 mhz) is on avg faster than GTX 670(1250 mhz). get a sapphire HD 7950 boost and overclock it. good dual x cooler. best value for money. asus cards are voltage locked except for asus hd 7970 matrix platinum. so think and decide.
 
If you want the best bang for the buck, go with the 7950 Boost or 7970.

If you want extra features that you for certain will end up choosing to use like adaptive vsync and PhysX, get the 670.
 
You can get adaptive vsync on AMD cards by using RadeonPro. Which every AMD user should use/try.
 
The 7970 easily. The 7970 is even better then the 680. More VRAM and better bandwidth.
 
I wouldnt say OWN but its faster once its overclocked. Out of the box it does not own shit.
 
r3awak3n said:
I wouldnt say OWN but its faster once its overclocked. Out of the box it does not own shit.
Click to expand...

Yes that is true - The 7950 stock isn't much but once overclocked it comes close to a stock 680, heck some insanely overclocked 7950's trade blows with top end 680s.
 
I had both and they were both great cards. I'd disregard most benchmarks unless they involve games you have an interest in. For me I went from a HD 7970 to a GTX 670. Both were great cards and clocked well. The reason for the change was that quite a few games I wanted to play didn't work well, or at all on AMD cards. Those games were The Saboteur, Spec Ops: The Line, Assassin's Creed III, Planetside 2(might have changed since then), and a few Physx based games.

During my time with the HD 7970 I played games more along the lines of Skyrim, Crysis, Crysis 2(with Maldo HDs mod, Battlefield 3, The Witcher 2, and a few other VRAM or just 'raw performance' heavy games.
 
Ryleh said:
I had both and they were both great cards. I'd disregard most benchmarks unless they involve games you have an interest in. For me I went from a HD 7970 to a GTX 670. Both were great cards and clocked well. The reason for the change was that quite a few games I wanted to play didn't work well, or at all on AMD cards. Those games were The Saboteur, Spec Ops: The Line, Assassin's Creed III, Planetside 2(might have changed since then), and a few Physx based games.

During my time with the HD 7970 I played games more along the lines of Skyrim, Crysis, Crysis 2(with Maldo HDs mod, Battlefield 3, The Witcher 2, and a few other VRAM or just 'raw performance' heavy games.
Click to expand...

I tested AC3 on my returned MSI 670 Powere Edition against my HIS 7970 (had both at the same time) and while AC3 isn't the most optimized game, the difference between the two was about 33% in favor of the 7970, especially in Boston and wilderness areas. This was with all maxed and FXAA, default clocks.

EDIT: Also Crysis 2 and Metro 2033 ran miles better on the 7970. Crysis 2 I could play with the MALDO mod at max everything on the 7970 with overclock, the 670 with overclock was in slideshow territory for the most part. @ 1080[ and 1440p resolutions ( I now only game @ 1080p). I only the tested these two cards because I got them for roughly the same price at the same time. Obviously a more ideal test is the 680 vs 7970 of course. The 670 is still a beast of a card, but not a great buy when you can get a 7970 $10 cheaper.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161412

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127685
 
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can you link the newer ones i play most games and love skyrim. I currently have the gtx 670 and get good frames(120 fps on skyrim etc). I do plan on selling my gtx670 purely because its the reference design and gets a little noisy when i play bf3 etc and i want to get sell htpc with it. Obviously i want the most bang for my buck and am considering whether to get a non reference asus 670 or a 7970. Im usually do love amd but benchmarks ive seen favour the 670.
ps i know amd give more oc headroom but i dont oc
 
Should have gotten into how AMD normally levels the playing field but it normally takes a week or two get their stuff entirely together on some titles. AC3 probably being one of them. Nice to hear that they picked things up. I'd imagine it doing even better when both cards are overclocked.

Forgot to mention Metro 2033 as another title that shows that AMD cards are generally better by design so thanks for that.

Overall I'd probably recommend AMD cards unless things like MadVR, Physx, Cuda, and immediate driver performance('usually', but quickly declining in frequency), and support for a few older games are really worth it to you. Higher framerate optimization on Nvidia's side is another thing to consider. AMD cards are generally better at higher resolutions though.
 
Erudito87 said:
can you link the newer ones i play most games and love skyrim. I currently have the gtx 670 and get good frames(120 fps on skyrim etc). I do plan on selling my gtx670 purely because its the reference design and gets a little noisy when i play bf3 etc and i want to get sell htpc with it. Obviously i want the most bang for my buck and am considering whether to get a non reference asus 670 or a 7970. Im usually do love amd but benchmarks ive seen favour the 670.
ps i know amd give more oc headroom but i dont oc
Click to expand...

Something to remember is that a lot of benchmarks don't stay frequent with game fixes and driver optimization so in the matter of a week things can change quite drastically.

Why not get an aftermarket cooler for the GTX 670 like an Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo II? Threw one on my former EVGA GTX 670 FTW and not only did it overclock significantly better but the temperatures were fantastic. Brought the idle down maybe 15c and reduced load temperatures by 30-40c depending on the benchmark/game. Made it completely silent the entire time too.
 
Erudito87 said:
can you link the newer ones i play most games and love skyrim. I currently have the gtx 670 and get good frames(120 fps on skyrim etc). I do plan on selling my gtx670 purely because its the reference design and gets a little noisy when i play bf3 etc and i want to get sell htpc with it. Obviously i want the most bang for my buck and am considering whether to get a non reference asus 670 or a 7970. Im usually do love amd but benchmarks ive seen favour the 670.
ps i know amd give more oc headroom but i dont oc
Click to expand...

Here's the newer review. As for selling your reference 670:

Ryleh said:
Why not get an aftermarket cooler for the GTX 670 like an Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo II? Threw one on my former EVGA GTX 670 FTW and not only did it overclock significantly better but the temperatures were fantastic. Brought the idle down maybe 15c and reduced load temperatures by 30-40c depending on the benchmark/game. Made it completely silent the entire time too.
Click to expand...

I agree with Ryleh 100%. Replacing your reference cooler with the Accelero would likely yield better idle/load temps than most (if not all) of the non-reference equipped models anyway and would save you the juggling around to sell your current GPU then buying another... if you're fairly savy at tinkering around.

Back when I had an 8800GT and bought an Accelero S1 rev2, the entire conversion took me about 45 minutes start to finish (removing it from my computer, replacing the heatsink, putting it back in my computer, and booting Windows), and that was the first time I had ever modded a GPU. It was a fairly painless process, indeed. Thing got my load temps in games under 50-55C with no fan. You read that right: running passive!
 
Yes that is true - The 7950 stock isn't much but once overclocked it comes close to a stock 680, heck some insanely overclocked 7950's trade blows with top end 680s.
Click to expand...

A 670 when overclocked will also trade blows with a 680, heck, at standard clocks there's only about 4% between a 670 and a 680.
 
Good pick on the Asus cards, they have the quietest coolers available without paying a premium. I owned the gigabyte 560 Ti with the windforce cooler. It was definitely quiet, but still audible. I upgraded to the Asus 670 Direct CU II, it is dead silent, even at load.
 
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