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EVGA 670 FTW vs MSI Lightning 7970

post #1 of 18
5/25/12 at 3:48pm
Thread Starter 
Hi all,

Both can be had for the same price, both will be going under water. I am running 3x Samsung S27A950D (5760x1080) and these monitors use tridef so I was wondering which card do you think will be best?

I've come up with my list of pros and cons: (colour coded per brand)

Pros:
better drivers IMO
Much better warranty
Officially allowed to take the cooler off
Blocks already out
Great price
Amazing overclocker
Enough DP
Full tridef support
3gb VRAM (If i go 3 way x fire)

Cons:
No real tridef support
only 2 DP
not officially allowed to remove the cooler
Drivers not as good IMO


What do we think? smile.gif
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post #2 of 18
5/25/12 at 6:41pm
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Well, It really depends on what you want to do.

If you play games, either will work relatively the same.

However if you do gpu critical applications such as BOINC, or F@H

F@H will require Nvidia cards,

Boinc does well with ATI cards.



On my ATI card the Cooler doesn't have any warranty void stickers over the screws so, I can remove the cooler at my freedom, who will know? As long as you don't tell them tongue.gif
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post #3 of 18
5/25/12 at 6:46pm
I've owned both now and I actually found my 7970 to be faster overall. My 670 will only do 1200mhz and my 7970 would do 1300 though so I'm sure that has something to do with it. That said the 670 is still a plenty capable card. As far as driver issues I have had none with either one of them. Never done multi-moniter so can't really help you there.
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post #4 of 18
5/25/12 at 6:49pm
I never have had any driver issues with my 7970s from XFX, and I know for a fact they don't care if you replace the cooler, even though they do have Void If Removed stickers on the screws. I don't know where you are from, but I am in the US, and you should check first if you are not. It seems as if you are getting a good deal only on the lightnings? If its any card, go with a reference model if its going under water, as blocks are readily available for them.
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post #5 of 18
5/25/12 at 6:54pm
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Lol, I beg that you don't get a XFX lol. thumb.gif
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post #6 of 18
5/25/12 at 7:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kyismaster View Post

Lol, I beg that you don't get a XFX lol. thumb.gif

Why? Ive had 5 XFX cards, and the one that died was RMAed fairly quickly by XFX. It originally had a water block installed and they had no issues with that at all.
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post #7 of 18
5/25/12 at 7:23pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by yanks8981 View Post

Why? Ive had 5 XFX cards, and the one that died was RMAed fairly quickly by XFX. It originally had a water block installed and they had no issues with that at all.

tongue.gif I had 3 RMA's in a row, all on the same RMA card lol.

The amount to ship it to them would have bought me a new GPU lol.

Oh well.
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post #8 of 18
5/26/12 at 1:08am
Thread Starter 
Thanks for the replies!

I am in the uk so XFX is out of the question, they are really anal here about warranties.

I have checked and MSI lightnings are due blocks in 3-5 weeks from EK biggrin.gif

My only purpose for the cards is gaming but my monitors use tridef which works a lot better with AMD
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post #9 of 18
5/26/12 at 1:16am
Definitely the 7970 Lightning. 670s and 680s are voltage locked right? If so, then there's no point to water cooling them.
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post #10 of 18
5/26/12 at 1:38am
Thread Starter 
I'm not much of an overclocker, I do it more for the epeen than anything else.

Silence is my main aim, hence watercooling smile.gif
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