GTX 680 or AMD 7970 - Page 11

Originally Posted by Bruennis 

Kind of late? Hardly...
It's been competitive since 12.7 beta (July). 12.11 beta simply changed the scheme of all things pushing the performance Tahiti cards beyond that of the competition. Factor in voltage control, superior overclockability, a larger bus width, more video memory, and affordability eliminates any comparison between 670/680 and 7950/7970. The latter is not only the better buy but the better performer(s).

Originally Posted by Malo 

Guys, I am torn..... its my Bday soon and I'm getting alot of gift cards for tigerdirect... so the 6870's are going to be replaced... both cards have their advantages over eachother....
NVIDIA
- Physx
- higher stock clocks
- Less power consumption
AMD
- more vram
- overclocks higher
- Faster

they are pretty much the same price I think nvidia is 50$ more but thats really not an issue.... I going to sell my current cards for 200 so should be an easy sell so money isnt an issue.... please people sell me on one or the other
*edit*
I play alot of BF3, borderlands, and skyrim
thnx, malo

Originally Posted by Bruennis 

Kind of late? Hardly...
It's been competitive since 12.7 beta (July). 12.11 beta simply changed the scheme of all things pushing the performance Tahiti cards beyond that of the competition. Factor in voltage control, superior overclockability, a larger bus width, more video memory, and affordability eliminates any comparison between 670/680 and 7950/7970. The latter is not only the better buy but the better performer(s).

Originally Posted by Warmonger 

Yes late, if AMD released these drivers back when 7900 series debuted. Effectively the same day, they would of sold way more cards then they will now. Most people grabbed the GTX 680 because its superiority in games. If these drivers were readily available more people would of jumped on the AMD bandwagon.

Originally Posted by Bruennis 

Would not have made a difference. Keep in mind Kepler did not arrive until early Q2 and suffered from supply constraint but even then these two factors didn't help 7900 series Q1 sales did they? More people simply prefer Nvidia over AMD.
From a performance standpoint; January to March was dominated by Tahiti with Kepler absent leaving the 580 as the lone competitor from the Nvidia. April to July was largely dominated by Kepler. July to October proved to be competitive with the release 12.7 beta and onward. And now with 12.11 beta, Tahiti is unquestionably the superior performer. I do not foresee Nvidia ousting AMD now until the release of Sea Islands.

Originally Posted by Warmonger 

Kelper was proven faster in benchmarking at debut

Originally Posted by Warmonger 

, I don't see any reason for a gamer to go Nvidia. Unless they do CUDA work or enjoy PhysX benefits. At a price/performance perspective, anyone who strictly does gaming Tahiti is where its at.

Originally Posted by Warmonger 

Kelper was proven faster in benchmarking at debut, this is more then enough to post pone millions of purchases. If the 7970 came out of the gate faster then the GTX 680 in most of today's modern games. I think a large margin of them wouldn't of waited on production. Now that 12.11 is out and bringing new life to Tahiti, I don't see any reason for a gamer to go Nvidia. Unless they do CUDA work or enjoy PhysX benefits. At a price/performance perspective, anyone who strictly does gaming Tahiti is where its at.

Originally Posted by amstech 

Southern Islands released before Keplar, if I am not mistaken.
Keplar was faster for the better part of this year.
I see a lot of new enthusiasts getting all excited or offering consumer advice based on this one driver release, displaying their lack of experience within their comments.
If you have been doing this as long as I have (17 years) you will start to learn and pickup on what makes a GPU better.
Its not just what shows up on a chart, those results don't show you how the game truly feels and plays.
If you look at just the last 5 years, AMD's reputation isn't on the same page as Nvidia.
They have had hundreds of bugs/glitches/issues and stability problems with their driver sets (yes Nvidia has had some, but not nearly as many or severe) and many owners of both companies have confessed about the Radeons 'spiky' performance, many on this forum as well, and well respected posters.
It won't show up on a chart, but there is more to raw performance then min and max frames, and OC headroom.
For example, my 6970 was just as fast as my 570 on paper, and on benchmarks.
But for games, the 570 was smoother and didn't 'jump around' as much.
Both hit around a P6000 3DMark11 on my rig, but the 570 just felt stronger and smoother, although my Radeon was just as fast if not a tad faster.
Quality of drivers/hardware is more then just raw top end performance or overclock ability. It's how smooth it looks and feels.
I had about 15 quotes from users on here talking about the same thing but that was months ago now and in the last couple of driver sets AMD has made great strides to eliminate issues.
But to conclude, it will take years of solid hardware and software from AMD to truly rival Nvidia like they want.
Steams recent poll showed the majority game with Nvidia, and if AMD want to change that they need to keep on keeping on.
I will say, they have did much better on this GPU battle then any of the recent ones.
The ultimate experience with full FXAA, PhysX, folding etc can only still be had with GTX's, and if the performance crown has been slightly taken by AMD, so be it...thats only one category of several.

Originally Posted by Bruennis 

Kepler was faster at debut but it didn't debut until late March therefore millions would not have known of its performance advantage before its launch or before the launch of Tahiti(Late December 2011). Even if Tahiti cards were faster from the get-go, I do not think AMD would have increased market share to any significant degree simply because Nvidia is more popular between the two. And it's been this way for a long time...

Originally Posted by amstech 

If you have been doing this as long as I have (17 years) you will start to learn and pickup on what makes a GPU better.