Building a workstation that still games...

suiken_2mieu

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So I'm helping my brother build a computer for photoshop, 3d modeling, and video editing as well as gaming. He uses the adobe suite and vegas. I thinks he going to use 3d max or some other modeling program. Most likely going to be running a 2560x1600 monitor and the cpu will most likely be a k series ivy bridge i7.

Now should he go with a 7970 or 670(680)?

He'd like it to last a while.
 
But I've also heard that the 600 series isn't as good as the 500 series for compute power. Tis true?
 
Would using opencl be better than cuda? I've been seeing a lot of opencl support talk lately.
 
I was coming from a 5870 and just did showdown at my house with both a 7970 (default OC to 1000mhz) and GTX 670 (boosting to 1175).

The GTX 670 won in the temperature bracket which was big as the 7970 was pushing 83c full load, even with an aggressive fan profile.

GTX 670 however is 7-10 degrees cooler in the same environment, providing me with 7c to work with in high load warm room.

Performance wise. 7970 is very very nice. I had no issues. GTX 670 while I have only had tonight is also great. My Heaven and Furmark scores were very close.

I seem to already really prefer the cooler running GTX 670 its performing as well if not better at faster clocks and at a lower temperature. Ive already set my clock +75 MHZ (1250) and it was running heaven without issue. I didn't want to even try to bump up the GPU on the 7970 as the heat was crazy.

I'm going to give it another day of D3 and benchmarking but I am fairly certain I will go with the EVGA GTX 670 4GB SC over the XFX 7970 BEDD OC.
 
For 3d modelling, especially Autodesk software (softimage, Maya, etc) nvidia is no longer the best option unless you go for the professional quadro series. Ati on the other hand, is much better (literally what nvidia used to be before they started neutering the cards comp performance). If you value dcc more than gaming, go ati. If it's an even split, choose either. Purely gaming and dabbling in dcc, go nvidia.
 
For 3d modelling, especially Autodesk software (softimage, Maya, etc) nvidia is no longer the best option unless you go for the professional quadro series. Ati on the other hand, is much better (literally what nvidia used to be before they started neutering the cards comp performance). If you value dcc more than gaming, go ati. If it's an even split, choose either. Purely gaming and dabbling in dcc, go nvidia.

Thanks, this is what I was looking for. It's main job graphics and animation work, gaming was just the plus. I'll let him know.
 
I'm going to give it another day of D3 and benchmarking but I am fairly certain I will go with the EVGA GTX 670 4GB SC over the XFX 7970 BEDD OC.

FWIW you may want to exchange that card for a FTW edition - believe EVGA is recalling the SC cards. The FTW has a full-sized (680) PCB and cooler.
 
I believe the recall on the EVGA 670 cards is over, it was a small batch of cards upon release. An EVGA 670 4GB will likely be a new card without any issues.
 
FWIW - I always viewport issues in 3dsMAX when using non-quadro cards of either flavor. I have not tried it on 2012 or 2013, but every release before that it was a problem
 
I was coming from a 5870 and just did showdown at my house with both a 7970 (default OC to 1000mhz) and GTX 670 (boosting to 1175).

The GTX 670 won in the temperature bracket which was big as the 7970 was pushing 83c full load, even with an aggressive fan profile.

GTX 670 however is 7-10 degrees cooler in the same environment, providing me with 7c to work with in high load warm room.

Performance wise. 7970 is very very nice. I had no issues. GTX 670 while I have only had tonight is also great. My Heaven and Furmark scores were very close.

I seem to already really prefer the cooler running GTX 670 its performing as well if not better at faster clocks and at a lower temperature. Ive already set my clock +75 MHZ (1250) and it was running heaven without issue. I didn't want to even try to bump up the GPU on the 7970 as the heat was crazy.

I'm going to give it another day of D3 and benchmarking but I am fairly certain I will go with the EVGA GTX 670 4GB SC over the XFX 7970 BEDD OC.

How many watt difference were you pulling from the wall?

Temperature difference means nothing if you want to estimate which one will make the room hotter.
 
FWIW you may want to exchange that card for a FTW edition - believe EVGA is recalling the SC cards. The FTW has a full-sized (680) PCB and cooler.

Pretty certain the recall was only on the 2GB SC cards. I wanted a 4GB card and wasnt able to locate a 4GB FTW model...
 
How many watt difference were you pulling from the wall?

Temperature difference means nothing if you want to estimate which one will make the room hotter.

My temps were based on GPU core readings i just referenced the room being a warm ambient temp because it is a bit warm in there due several PC running.
 
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