When to get the 7970?

[Luzer]

I’m about to sell my 5870’s and want to upgrade to the Gigabyte 7970 OC. I got them about two years ago and ended up getting three 1900x1200 monitors. I’ve heard that the 7970 works great for Eyefinity and would really like to get more than 30 FPS in BF3 when using all three monitors.

Here are my questions:

1. Should I get the OC edition or the non OC edition? I barely overclock my 5870’s, I think I was unlucky when they sorted my cards, and would like to get a card that I can overclock more than 10Mhz. Does the OC card overclock better than the retail card? I know that the OC card is already overclocked.
2. Do you think that the price of the Gigabyte 7970 OC is going to go down after the 6xx series comes out, hopefully, next month?

 

[Phishy714]

I hear that the Nvidia cards won't be coming out till April, so you are looking at over a month and a half.

Its no doubt that the 7970 cards WILL drop in price once Nvidia decides to release their cards, how much is up in the air, but it IS going to happen. How much? Well that I can't say. Either way, its up to you if you want to wait a 1-2 months to save about $50-$60.

As far as overclocking, the Gigabyte card is great. It will stay cool and can overclock ALOT. Most cards can easily hit 1100 mhz, some go as high as 1200mhz, so you will see amazing performance from it.

 

[bAMtan2]

nobody knows when the nvidia stuff comes out. but they are showing something off at pdxlan this month. and amd is releasing graphics cards left and right, so you should expect nvidia to sooner rather than later.

obviously the amd cards are the best right now, obviously they have no competition, and obviously that lets them charge premium prices right now. if someone needs to save some money, all they have to do is wait for the competition to show up.

 

[onthemour]

Nvidia has made no statement when the cards will release there are just rumors saying April May June July......

You could be waiting along time

If you buy a 7970 get one with good cooling and OC it yiourself. These cards are monster overclockers.

MOST IMPORTANTLY is to ignore all benchs forums and statistics about performance in BF3 from Feb14 and past. BF3 was updated and the performance for a 7970 eyefinity is HUGE!!!!! For comparison...before the update it felt like a beta now it is the real thing wow

 

[grambo]

If you can get by on your current setup, wait. Could save $50-75 per card, maybe more, who knows (assume you are going CF 7970). By the end of March we will at least have reliable benchmarks I would expect (on kepler).

 

[onthemour]

By the end of March we will at least have reliable benchmarks I would expect (on kepler).

speculation and rumors.

He wants concrete facts. If you want a better card and performance you can buy a 7970 today. I hate waiting months and months just to save $50

 

[edge929]

speculation and rumors.

He wants concrete facts. If you want a better card and performance you can buy a 7970 today. I hate waiting months and months just to save $50

Amen. Some people never consider the opportunity cost when it comes to upgrading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost

 

[mrnotwo]

If nvidias cards turn out to be bad or nvidia charges even more for their cards, the 7970 might actually go up in price as everyone who was waiting for nvidia's offering will go with amd.

 

[jhatfie]

I think that regardless of what Nvidia does, supply will get better and prices will settle and some rebates will start to pop up dropping prices a little, but personally doubt it will be by any large amount any time soon. You may save $30-50 potentially with rebates/price drops if you wait 3 months, but unless Nvidia really does something magical with pricing, which I highly doubt, I think we can count on inflated prices this gen. I mean, just look at the overpriced 7770.

 

[Petergarcia30]

even though you may save some money by waiting keep in mind the wait may be long and time = money the longer you wait the more your present cards depreciate so think about those savings what you could get for your cards now compared to what you'll get for them after kepler drops...... it may just be the same amount of money you might have saved by waiting but instead of having your car in feb you'll have it in may or even later.....

i personally believe in getting your cards early and enjoying them for as long as you can

::buying my 7970 when i get paid next week valentines day killed me :::

 

[robble]

would really like to get more than 30 FPS in BF3 when using all three monitors.

the real questions is WHEN do you want that to happen. Once you answer that, you'll know when to buy.

hint:

want it now? buy now

Want it 3 or 6 months from now? buy 3 or 6 months from now

 

[onthemour]

7970 works great for Eyefinity and would really like to get more than 30 FPS in BF3 when using all three monitors.

With the recent update you can get a solid 60 fps all maps 64 player on ultra mixed with high and medium 5760*1080

with a good oc of course

 

[shaks]

from the top to bottom 1) OC edition - it's just pre-overclocked for you, so you don't have to do it; by that manufacturer guarantees a stable work of the card for the warranty period of time, but pre-oc cards are more expensive
sometimes pre-oc cards would overclock better, but it's basically the same chip and you could switch bios to pre-oc but on your own risk.
2) as it was mentioned - price might go down if nVidia performs better or offers lower prices

getting a card today or in a month - completely your choise, depends on how much you want it and if you can offord it right away or need to save some money.

p.s. let me know when you decide to sell 5870's )

 

[Luzer]

My hope is that the 7970 will go down in price when the 6xx comes out. If they don't then I hope the rebates will be more than $25 and the game it comes with is Mass Effect 3.

I plan on selling my cards when I find time. For now I'll wait a month or so to see what nvidia is going to do.

Thanks for the help.