[tulipdu]

Hi,
I wanted to buy a new GPU as my last GPU expired. But I am really confused which one to take "EVGA 670 FTW Signature 2" / "SAPPHIRE HD 7970 Vapor-X GHz Edition".

Can anyone help me choosing one?

NB: I had a bad experience of SAPPHIRE HD 7950 950Mhz, as it died after 3 month

.

 

[glina]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tulipdu

Hi,
I wanted to buy a new GPU as my last GPU expired. But I am really confused which one to take "EVGA 670 FTW Signature 2" / "SAPPHIRE HD 7970 Vapor-X GHz Edition".

Can anyone help me choosing one?

NB: I had a bad experience of SAPPHIRE HD 7950 950Mhz, as it died after 3 month

.

As a single GPU, the 7970 is more powerful (it's a direct competitor to the GTX680) and on top of that, has generally more overclocking headroom, so performance wise it's the best choice.

If you want to go SLI in the future, Nvidia is generally more consistent when it comes to performance scaling, although AMD is now working hard to have the Crossfire working properly on new and big titles.

7970 GHZ will probably also run hotter and louder comparing to the EVGA 670, so this is something to consider, especially when OCing.
Going underwater with the Vapor-X will not be easy as it's not a reference design and there are no full size blocks available for it. If you ever see yourself doing that, it could be better to get a reference design card.

 

[tulipdu]

I am not thinking of SLI / Crossfire right this time and will use a single monitor in 1080p. The fact is 7970 price is around 30$ more, in my area. Is it worthy enough? :-SS
And thx for the suggestion

.

 

[raghu78]

which region are you from ? also fill in your config

http://www.overclock.net/t/1258253/how-to-put-your-rig-in-your-sig

HD 7970 Ghz is faster than GTX 680. and its easily faster than GTX 670 FTW signature 2.

 

[boxwunder13]

Benchmarks;
7970 vs 670

Beats it on nearly all the benches and is not even OC'ed. My vote is for the 7970.

 

[glina]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tulipdu

I am not thinking of SLI / Crossfire right this time and will use a single monitor in 1080p. The fact is 7970 price is around 30$ more, in my area. Is it worthy enough? :-SS
And thx for the suggestion

.

So get a 7950 and OC. It's a far better deal performance/cost wise.
You are pretty much guaranteed to reach and exceed 7970 GHZ clocks and the 7950 vs 7970 clock for clock is ~5%.
In either case, you probably will not want to go much over 1200MHz without watercooling, as the heat and noise then skyrockets.

 

[Skorpian]

Quote:

Originally Posted by glina

So get a 7950 and OC. It's a far better deal performance/cost wise.
You are pretty much guaranteed to reach and exceed 7970 GHZ clocks and the 7950 vs 7970 clock for clock is ~5%.
In either case, you probably will not want to go much over 1200MHz without watercooling, as the heat and noise then skyrockets.

Uhm, no. Not any card is guaranteed to reach such high overclocks really. Don't buy a card based on its overclocking capabilities as you could probably end up with a card that doesn't overclock so well.
To OP, single monitor 1080p you probably won't need to crossfire or SLI as the 670 and the 7970 are strong enough. If you like applying heavy texture mods to games like Skyrim, you might want to get the 7970 as it has 3 GB of VRAM vs the 2 GB of the 670, which could be toppled with so much texture mods, unless you can get the 670 4 GB for cheap which I highly doubt.

 

[tulipdu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by glina

So get a 7950 and OC. It's a far better deal performance/cost wise.
You are pretty much guaranteed to reach and exceed 7970 GHZ clocks and the 7950 vs 7970 clock for clock is ~5%.
In either case, you probably will not want to go much over 1200MHz without watercooling, as the heat and noise then skyrockets.

So you are suggesting 7950 because I intended to go on 1080p? Not a bad idea :-?
But can you tell me how much performance upgrade will I experience using 7970 instead of 7950?

 

[glina]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tulipdu

So you are suggesting 7950 because I intended to go on 1080p? Not a bad idea :-?
But can you tell me how much performance upgrade will I experience using 7970 instead of 7950?

I suggest 7950 because it's more bang for your buck. Once running at the same clocks, 7950 is on average only 5% slower (depends on application) comparing to 7970. A part of the shaders are disabled on 7950, otherwise these are exactly the same chips.
And despite what Skorpian says, the chance to get a 7950 which wont reach 1050 MHz core is near zero.

It should also be mentioned that 7970 GHz runs at a higher vcore (1.25V default).
The average voltage unlocked 7950 will reach 1200+ MHz with 1.25V.

There are two reasons to get a 7970 - you want a reference design PCB 7970 for watercooling (which is a great idea) or you want an awesome card such as the MSI Lightning or Asus Matrix Platinum which are only available in 7970 flavor.

 

[rdr09]

tulip, in most games it is the cpu not the gpu that needs to be oc'ed. in bf3 MP, i have to oc my cpu to 4.5GHz leaving the gpu at stock to maintain 60 minimum. i play at 1080, ultra with 4msaa. same goes with c2. c3 is a different animal.

edit: i'm referring to my second intel rig.

 

[tulipdu]

Thnx guys for your opinion
And glina, I did some searching and totally agree with the fact that "7950 is more bang for your buck".

But can you help me a little bit more in choosing between?

HD 7950 Vapor-X OC Boost or HD 7950 DirectCUII TOP V2
And if possible what about their overclocking potential.

 

[glina]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tulipdu

Thnx guys for your opinion
And glina, I did some searching and totally agree with the fact that "7950 is more bang for your buck".

But can you help me a little bit more in choosing between?

HD 7950 Vapor-X OC Boost or HD 7950 DirectCUII TOP V2
And if possible what about their overclocking potential.

The Asus is said to be voltage locked, so you should expect no extreme overclocks with it.
That being said, you should still be able to get 1050-1150MHz with stock volts and this with the quietest cooler of any HD7950 around.

The Sapphire on the other hand is not voltage locked, but if you up the voltage and push up to 1200MHz and higher, the fan noise will get pretty annoying - for me personally it's not worth it.
The 1100MHz I get with stock volts is a sweet spot and this is what I run as a daily overclock. The fan speed does not exceed 2500rpm and is unobtrusive, but probably louder than the Asus.

You may also consider the Sapphire DualX. It's said to be as quiet as the Vapor-X, also voltage unlocked AND cheaper. Also it's 2 slot wide instead of 2,5 of the Vapor-X so will be easier to Crossfire if you choose to do so in the future.

The unlocked voltage can also be used to undervolt. I can run 1000MHz core with 1.02V (0.96V effective) which is pretty much silent. If I ever go Crossfire, I will surely undervolt to minimize combined power, heat and noise.
The Asus is 3 slots wide so you will not be able to Crossfire on most typical motherboards.

 

[raghu78]

OP for HD 7950 go with Sapphire HD 7950 boost with dual x cooler. good cooler and unlocked voltage.

 

[General123]

The FTW's are overclocked enough at stock to be on par an even in same games no heavily shader based, beat it slightly. I would still go for the 7970 with that said, just trying to clear up the confusion as the FTW is not a regular 670 by any means.(stock)