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7970 now on sale...
- Thread starter chrnochime
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BurntToast
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Yeah because you never see people on this board demoting a deal from hot to warm because the price had been cheaper prior
New had been cheaper and alliteratively 580s can be had cheaper if you don't mind them used.
This discussion belongs in the Video Card forum if any. My first response to this thread was mild till tri-gpu fanboys started to crap on my opinion. I must have missed the notice that only AMD fan boys need to reply.
notarat
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Yeah because you never see people on this board demoting a deal from hot to warm because the price had been cheaper prior
New had been cheaper and alliteratively 580s can be had cheaper if you don't mind them used.
This discussion belongs in the Video Card forum if any. My first response to this thread was mild till tri-gpu fanboys started to crap on my opinion. I must have missed the notice that only AMD fan boys need to reply.
Actually, based on your 141 posts over the last 3 months you've never even considered the card, so why come into a 7970-specific thread in the first place when you haven't considered it and you don't even run at a resolution that would benefit from having one.....unless you're here to thread crap.
Yeah because you never see people on this board demoting a deal from hot to warm because the price had been cheaper prior
New had been cheaper and alliteratively 580s can be had cheaper if you don't mind them used.
This discussion belongs in the Video Card forum if any. My first response to this thread was mild till tri-gpu fanboys started to crap on my opinion. I must have missed the notice that only AMD fan boys need to reply.
Thats not the problem the problem is you are comparing a brand spanking new card that is 15-20% faster than the gtx 580 on average and is priced higher accordingly. I am sure if people want to buy them used they will, no one was buying gtx 580 used the first day it came out. So bringing in the used gtx 580 concept is pointless. You can always buy a used gtx 580,just like 3 months from now you would be able to buy hd 7970.
I am not even a fanboy, rocking a gtx 560 ti in my system right now.
bugs?
Wow, 7 hours after Newegg put these up for sale and they're still not all out of stock. AMD did say that they had quite the supply for launch so I guess supply definitely met demand. At least this will discourage retailers from out of stock mark-ups after the initial launch.
Pyroja
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Darn, because the only reason I'm excited for 7970 is to see the price of 6900 cards fall. And at $200, I would have been in for one RIGHT NOW. No, more like YESTERDAY.
What, was the 8800GTX before your time or something?
they are out of stock. it is just a glitch in the newegg system. Once you go add to cart it says auto notify.
/dev/null
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I'd like to move from a 6850 xfire (2 * 1GB) to a 6950/70 tri-fire with 2G/card for 1920x1080*3 gaming.
Anyone think I can do this for < $500 in the next 6 months? 7950 x-fire might be a good upgrade as well...
Anyone think I can do this for < $500 in the next 6 months? 7950 x-fire might be a good upgrade as well...
No, you won't be able to. Two GPUs you will, but three you won't be able to.
I paid $550x2 for my GTX580s at launch. This is a top of the line card. It competes at a level that neither the 5870 or 6970 did, and currently has zero competition if you want "the best", so I am not particularly surprised.
If it's too expensive, buy something else. There are literally dozens of options for good video cards at decent prices now.
InternationalHat
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6800 ultra was 500-550 too and that was even earlier.
The ultra had a $499 msrp.
/dev/null
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I see them as low as $220 now after MIR:
Link
If they can get down to say 165 ea, I'd be golden. The other idea is to see if I can sell my 6850's for $100 ea. and then my budget becomes $700....
I guess the better question would be: Will I see a huge performance different at 6950(2GB)*3 over 6850(1GB)*2 at eyefinity with a 1090T @ stock?
Pitcairne pro will be $199 and is basically a die shrunk 6950, so actually perhaps. But we need to see if it truly is released at that price point.
So your 5970 where crashing often, and to fix the problem you will buy another set of AMD cards??
I saw first hand tons of headaches with a 5970 and never again would I recommend a AMD CFX product.
GoldenTiger
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Thanks for the nationalistic insult, but tech always goes down in price. If you wait there will be something faster, cheaper, etc. always, you can't wait forever.
Parja
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Good luck with that. History says otherwise.
Glad that I realized that graphics are almoat not important at all when it comes to a good gaming experience a while ago. $500+ for a video card that only offers 40-50% better performance than the last gen of cards is what has been happening for at least 6-7 years now.
Each new card that comes out offers 40-50% better performance than the previous one, not a shocker. Too bad that there aren't any good games that take advantage of all of that power yet. Makes me wonder if the people that buy these cards play games just for the graphics.
Each new card that comes out offers 40-50% better performance than the previous one, not a shocker. Too bad that there aren't any good games that take advantage of all of that power yet. Makes me wonder if the people that buy these cards play games just for the graphics.
The problem that people have with this is that it often gets confused the difference between tech depreciation and limited availability price gouging. If celwin is referring to people paying $150 over MSRP at places like amazon right now for a 7970, I tend to agree with his sentiment that paying the premium simply based on a need to have it a couple days earlier is usually "silly" - its not that I don't support supply/demand free market, but some minor amount of general prudence for the vast majority of people isn't a crazy idea.
However, as he states that the card will be cheaper a few months down the road, I think he's more balking at the theory of buying new technology in general, simply because new tech is at, let's say, 100% of price with no depreciation. There's a few considerations here. First, tech often does NOT drop in price without a driving force (i.e. new generation) - just look at how the 580's held their price throughout the entirety of the generation.
However, and this is the bigger point as Golden pointed out - tech will ALWAYS be depreciating, and there will ALWAYS be something new. You can choose to perpetually be behind the newest edge of technology to have a more attractive price, and there's nothing wrong with that. You will likely have very good price/performance, and if you're happy with your purchase, no one's going to stop you. However, there HAS to be someone to buy the newer tech, otherwise there's nothing to trickle down. Further, many of the people picking up the newest actually have a "need" for them - that is, they actually can put all of that additional power to use, immediately. And before we get into the "need" debate, claiming that you spend less on high-end video cards than the next guy doesn't really differentiate things.
/rant
Well, for many with higher than 1080p res, there actually is a way to take advantage of that power - 1600p, eyefinity, etc. And I have to imagine for a lot of people the graphics is at least a part of why they play the game on the pc with expensive hardware, otherwise they would just buy a console. And please don't say you can't tell the difference between console and pc
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Omegas
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can anyone tell who doesn't have triple monitors?
120hz or >1080p and its very easy to tell.
notarat
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In my case, I see the multimonitor issue a little differently. It's not necessarily multimonitor/Eyefinity so much as it is ultra-high resolution & eye candy.
I play Rift pretty often, though not everyday.
I found that when I get into Zone events in Rift with 50-60 people wailing away on a boss, my framerates start to dip too low, even when using 6970s in Crossfire. I play at 2560x1600 with all of the eyecandy on as high as it will go.
I believe the Crossfire performance in this particular game is only about 30-40% better than single card, so I have a few choices to choose, not "shoose" from.
1 -- I can go to nVidia (which performs better but uses more power)
2 -- I can go to a single 7970.
If a single 6970 is rated at 100%, and two 6970s in crossfire in Rift are only rated at 130%-140% the performance of a single 6970 card, and a single overclocked 7970 is rated at 150%-160% of a single 6970 card, then replacing two 6970s with one 7970 nets me a gain of up to 15% more performance, using half the power, and costing me only $150 out-of-pocket to upgrade (since I can sell my 6970s for $200 each fast)
To me, it's an easy choice.
Now...I doubt that upgrade allows me to realize a performance gain in all games over Crossfired 6970s. In fact, I know it won't.
However, I'm only out $150 out of pocket expenses to get about %15 better performance in the game I play most and I get that gain at very high resolution with all the eye candy up.
If it turns out I need more performance than that, I can always pick up another card or see what Kepler offers.
The trick is to sell your cards while they have value and then add to it out of pocket. This way you do not lose much money. Look on cragslist on parts you can resell. I've upgraded many things for very cheap by selling my parts while they have value.
The problem with this sort of thinking is that two 6970's will still out perform the 7970 by a decent margin. Rift, along with all the other mmo's out there, is a bad way to measure performance because there are SOOO many other factors that attribute to the performance in game when there are like 50+ other people on the screen. I can almost guarantee you won't notice a difference at all between the two set ups.
And secondly, no, it wouldn't be a $150 out of pockect expense. Its the equivalent of buying something and putting it on a credit card and making payments over time. Your total invesment will be the price of the two 6970's (probably around $350 each when you got them) plus the $150. $850 is alot, wether you buy it outright or over time.
Also, you have to take the depreciation into effect. $150 out of pocket.. plus $130x2 worth of depreciation on your current setup.. you are talking about over $400 for a downgrade.
tl;dr - Keep your 6970's or sell them to me for $200 a piece.
![Zarathustra[H]](https://cdn.hardforum.com/data/avatars/m/9/9298.jpg?1715876891){kind=avatar}
Zarathustra[H]
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You can't play games today on a card you buy tomorrow.
1.) Wait for new video card model to be released (it will drop prices on existing ones, and be much faster)
2.) Want top model, wait for prices to go down.
3.) Waited long enough, next generation is right around corner, might as well wait for it (it will drop prices on existing ones, and be much faster)
4.) Want top model, wait for prices to go down.
5.) Waited long enough, next generation is right around corner, might as well wait for it (it will drop prices on existing ones, and be much faster)
etc. etc.
At some point you just have to go all in and buy the damned card, or you will be waiting forever and be stuck on an older slower card and be unhappy...
You know what? I worked my butt off in college and because of that I now have a pretty OK income. Not astronomical, but pretty OK. I get by.
If I choose to use that income to fuel my hobby that is my choice, and really none of your business. You should be happy that launch day buyers exist, as we help pay for the R&D of the product. If everyone waited and waited for the best deal, AMD/Nvidia would have less incentive to develop new products, product life cycles would be longer, and our hobby would be less interesting.
You can quite frankly take your - presumably - European arrogance, snobbery and jealousy and shove it.
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notarat
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The problem with this sort of thinking is that two 6970's will still out perform the 7970 by a decent margin. Rift, along with all the other mmo's out there, is a bad way to measure performance because there are SOOO many other factors that attribute to the performance in game when there are like 50+ other people on the screen. I can almost guarantee you won't notice a difference at all between the two set ups.
And secondly, no, it wouldn't be a $150 out of pockect expense. Its the equivalent of buying something and putting it on a credit card and making payments over time. Your total invesment will be the price of the two 6970's (probably around $350 each when you got them) plus the $150. $850 is alot, wether you buy it outright or over time.
Also, you have to take the depreciation into effect. $150 out of pocket.. plus $130x2 worth of depreciation on your current setup.. you are talking about over $400 for a downgrade.
tl;dr - Keep your 6970's or sell them to me for $200 a piece.
If I see no difference, I save 50% of the video card power it currently takes to play. That's good enough for me.
ordovician
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OOS. Looks like my car is getting new sways after all. Lol.
But.. you don't save it. You pay the difference and the depreciation of your 6970's.
At current rates.. $400 is the equivalent of having those 6970's running on full load for a year straight without stop.
By the time you make that money back in normal everyday play time/use, the 8000 HD series will be out and uh.. yeah..
But hey, its your freaking money so have at it! I am debating changing out my Xfired 6950's for one of these. And btw.. just a tip.. don't sell those 6970's for $200 each. You can EASILY get $275-300 for each card on these forums.
Surprise, this turned into a fucking flamefest, lol! I just clicked to read all the stupid bullshit insults and asinine rhetoric, this place never disappoints.
Anyways, the egg is sold out looks like...well with the exception of the xfx. I'm so glad people vote with their wallets, maybe the next round of cards, we can pay $650!! Won't that be awesome!?!?
Anyways, the egg is sold out looks like...well with the exception of the xfx. I'm so glad people vote with their wallets, maybe the next round of cards, we can pay $650!! Won't that be awesome!?!?
Zarathustra[H]
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Yes, math like this is a poor way to estimate performance, but in most cases, unless there is a benchmark on exactly the two configurations we are considering, it is all we have.
I don't know man. At the same average frame rate, with a single GPU setup the experience is almost always a smoother more playable experience than with a dual or more GPU setup.
Two words:
Sunk costs.
When deciding on what decision to make, only look forward. You can't change what happened in the past.
For him to go from two 6970's to one 7970 is a $150 investment to go from the before to the after state.
Since you can't change the original decision to purchase two 6970s at $350, it is folly to include their prices in any assessment of a transaction.
This is the number one mistake that gets make in business transactions. Allowing sunk costs you can't do anything about influence your decision.
Jimmmy
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There's no game out that 2 6970's can't play perfectly, we can all buy new cards but the law of diminishing returns has to be applied.. People who run 30inch screens and multi monitor set ups need the new cards but otherwise there is no point especially at 1080p.. If you have 6970's there's no point in a 7970 in my opinion.. Perfect time if you own 1 6970 to pick up another for $200 in a week..
Sometimes you gotta ask do I want my vehicle in real life to run better or do I want my vehicle in BF3 to run better.
Zarathustra[H]
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I agree with you, as long as we are talking about 1920x1200 or below.
At much above that resolution there is definitely need for more GPU power, even with only one monitor.
I still can't run Metro 2033 at high graphics settings at 2560x1600 without framerates dropping unacceptably low.
The Crysis Warhead minimum frame rate is still only 23.5 at 2560x1600 on a 7970.
And it only goes up to 34.3 when dropping down to 1920x1200... Playable, but not ideal.
Omegas
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^^^ LOL
notarat
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Once I make a purchase, the depreciation of the item(s) does not enter into any future decisions. I buy my gear for performance, not an investment or retirement fund. Figure it however you want. It's your choice.
As for selling the cards is concerned, I prefer to pass along my gear to the military people on my base so I sell exclusively through my base's want ads. And I give them a price break. Call it a military discount if you will.