[budgetcreep2012]

I am stuck choosing between The gtx 670 and the sapphire radon had 7970 oc. I have a few questions since I will be running this in a gaming rig and want the best performance no matter of the cost.
1. Will the 256 bit memory bus on the gtx 670 hinder its capability versus the 384 bit on the 7970?

2. Will the difference between the 2 gb on the 670 and the 3 gb on the 7970 make a noticeable difference ?

3: I know that the 7970 will not support physx. Will the 670 provide a better fps and a better experience?

I will be playing gta 4, minecraft, bf3, metro 2033, stalker call of prypiat, borderlands 2, modern warfare 3, and batman arkhm asylum all at max settings

My rig for this build iswithout gpu).

I7 3770k at 4.5 ghz
16 gb g skill ram at 1866
Corsair h100
Crucial m4 128 gb Ssd
1tb caviar black WD
Obsidian 650 d
Asus saber tooth z77 mobo
Corsair hx 1050 psu

My monitor is the Sony play station 3d display

Which card should I get based solely on performance? Thank you all comments are obliged

 

[starships]

I don't think we've seen the memory differences come into play yet, maybe we will in the future.

The 7970 trades wins with the 680 if both have are overclocked, so it will surely give you better performance than it's little brother. Here's a good round up of some 7970s, as you can see the sapphire does pretty well http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7970-overclock-review,3186-11.html the one they test is their dual-flex cooler, their vapor-x performs slightly better iirc.
It's pretty much Nvidia>AMD in BF3/Skyrim Amd>Nvidia in Crysis/Metro, as long as the cards are in the same tier. I think Witcher favours AMD and can't remember what Batman likes. Keep in mind, the differences are small and either the 670/680/7950/7970 will max your games at 1080p.

Objectively, the AMD cards are just a better value when you factor in overclocking. And, you should definitely also consider the 7950.

 

[Chewy]

http://www.overclock.net/t/1307626/hd-7970-or-gtx-670

 

[Gripen90]

Make up with yourself if PhysX is of importance to you, because a number of the games you mentioned are PhysX compatible.

 

[Lovidore]

Honestly no matter how you look at it, each card will trade blows with the other.

But to answer your questions:

1) No. There is no significant hindrance with the 256 Mbit bus. Depends if you go for a bigger screen/triple screen down the line, but even then it isn't that significant.

2) Again, it depends on your screen resolution. At 1080p, most definitely not. No game at 1080p could eat up 2GB of ram, unless you run an unbelievable amount of textures/vertices.

3) PhysX helps, but again it's nothing significant. The games that use PhysX are mostly nVidia titles (the ones that go like "The way it's meant to be played") and even then, it's nothing significant.

what I suggest you do is Google the games you're playing and add "bennchmark" on the end you'll tend to find how each game performs with each card on the market, and work your way from there.

Either way though, both the 670 and the 7970 are excellent choices, and believe you me you'll be happy with either.

Good luck.

 

[raghu78]

OP across a wide range of games the HD 7970 is faster than GTX 670. so if you want best performance HD 7970. If you want PhysX and other Nvidia features like adaptive vysnc get the GTX 670.

 

[Hyperion.]

Has anyone else seen those youtube videos where people are playing borderlands 2 on 7970 with physX? It actually works with a amd card. It supposedly doesn't work as well but it does work... weird lol.

I would definitely go for the 7970 over a 670.

 

[specopsFI]

OP listed eight games and three of them are PhysX titles. That would make the GTX 670 a good choice. Then again, Metro 2033 has PhysX but otherwise the 7970 is clearly stronger in that title. GTA IV is clearly in favour of GTX 670.

 

[specopsFI]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyperion.

Has anyone else seen those youtube videos where people are playing borderlands 2 on 7970 with physX? It actually works with a amd card. It supposedly doesn't work as well but it does work... weird lol.
I would definitely go for the 7970 over a 670.

You can run PhysX on the CPU but it destroys the frame rates.

 

[Juni]

7970. Crazy overclocker. Way more than enough for a single monitor.

Aren't those playstation monitors locked at 60fps?

 

[Hyperion.]

Honestly if this was between the 680 and 7970 it would be a toss up. But since hes talking about a 670 then the clear winner is the 7970.

1. 7970 trades blows with the 680
2. has more vram for future titles or higher resolutions
3. Is around the same price as the 670

Also about phys X, I agree nvidia will run it better but these guys are running it on medium at 70-80 fps. Thats not really tanked imo that is very playable. On high they do go around 50fps and it tanks down in boss fights but from what i hear so do the nvidia cards.(talking about borderlands 2 here)

In my own opinion, Based off of weeks of research, reading reviews, Looking at endless benchmarks, and about to be a 7970 owner myself. I can 100percent tell you to go with the 7970 if the other choice is a 670. If you are deciding between a 680 and 7970 then its a toss up. Do like someone told me to do and flip a coin.

 

[budgetcreep2012]

No its 120 hz

 

[sherlock]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyperion.

Honestly if this was between the 680 and 7970 it would be a toss up. But since hes talking about a 670 then the clear winner is the 7970.
1. 7970 trades blows with the 680
2. has more vram for future titles or higher resolutions
3. Is around the same price as the 670
Also about phys X, I agree nvidia will run it better but these guys are running it on medium at 70-80 fps. Thats not really tanked imo that is very playable. On high they do go around 50fps and it tanks down in boss fights but from what i hear so do the nvidia cards.(talking about borderlands 2 here)
In my own opinion, Based off of weeks of research, reading reviews, Looking at endless benchmarks, and about to be a 7970 owner myself. I can 100percent tell you to go with the 7970 if the other choice is a 670. If you are deciding between a 680 and 7970 then its a toss up. Do like someone told me to do and flip a coin.

680 gets steamrolled by a OCed 7970 or 7970Ghz and is more expensive(by $100/$50) than both, it is really no contest. 670($400) on the other hand is still cheaper than 7970 in most factory OC forms and performs close enough for its much lower power consumption to prove useful for owners. If you plan on gaming on a 1440p IPS Ghosting Infinity monitor instead of a 120/144Hz 1080p then the 3GB vram and better Ram bus of 7970 makes it better but 670 definitely still have its merits.





p.s most of the reviews out there were done with catalyst 12.7/.8 drivers vs 301.42 nvidia driver or a beta driver, the new nvidia 306.42 stable driver released this month have improved 670 performance in games quite a bit.

 

[specopsFI]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyperion.

Honestly if this was between the 680 and 7970 it would be a toss up. But since hes talking about a 670 then the clear winner is the 7970.
1. 7970 trades blows with the 680
2. has more vram for future titles or higher resolutions
3. Is around the same price as the 670
Also about phys X, I agree nvidia will run it better but these guys are running it on medium at 70-80 fps. Thats not really tanked imo that is very playable. On high they do go around 50fps and it tanks down in boss fights but from what i hear so do the nvidia cards.(talking about borderlands 2 here)
In my own opinion, Based off of weeks of research, reading reviews, Looking at endless benchmarks, and about to be a 7970 owner myself. I can 100percent tell you to go with the 7970 if the other choice is a 670. If you are deciding between a 680 and 7970 then its a toss up. Do like someone told me to do and flip a coin.

I've seen numerous cases of people saying PhysX runs great on CPU. I have also tested it myself and it has always sucked big time. Can't say if Borderlands 2 is the same, but for example Metro 2033 with PhysX ON is totally unplayable on my 4.3GHz i7-3820.

With PhysX out of the equation, then 7970 for sure.

 

[Hyperion.]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sherlock

680 gets steamrolled by a OCed 7970 or 7970Ghz and is more expensive than both, it is really no contest. 670($400) on the other hand is still cheaper than 7970 in most factory OC forms and performs close enough for its much lower power consumption to prove useful for owners. If you plan on gaming on a 1440p IPS Ghosting Infinity monitor then the 3GB vram and better Ram bus of 7970 makes it better but 670 definitely still have its merits.
p.s most of the reviews out there were done with catalyst 12.7/.8 drivers vs 301.42 nvidia driver, the new nvidia 306.42 driver have improved 670 performance in games quite a bit.

I agree for what it is the 670 is a very good card. I'm not trying to discount that what so ever. I'm just saying that between the 2 cards money/power consumption aside the card that preforms the best is the 7970. Of course if power usage is a factor, you want to save 50$, and want the card to run a bit more silently go with the 670. But if you are looking to get all you can out of a single card, and you have a budget that the 7970 fits into. The 7970 would definitely be a better investment.

 

[sherlock]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyperion.

I agree for what it is the 670 is a very good card. I'm not trying to discount that what so ever. I'm just saying that between the 2 cards money/power consumption aside the card that preforms the best is the 7970. Of course if power usage is a factor, you want to save 50$, and want the card to run a bit more silently go with the 670. But if you are looking to get all you can out of a single card, and you have a budget that the 7970 fits into. The 7970 would definitely be a better investment.

If you disregard power consumption(also heat generated, the higher TDP 7970 will run hotter with the same cooling system in the same case, it is simple Thermaldynamics),3D(Vision2 >HD3D), compatiable 120Hz monitor(ASUS VG278HE(144Hz) > Samsung 27A950) and really want to get the most out of a single card, or really want to play RTS/MMORPG on a 1440p catleap or some other IPS then 7970 is a little better because it packs a bit extra performance& Vram, but whether you can actually notice that performance increase depend the game and the end user.

Was in the same situation as the OP a while ago, took the 670 because:
1. They offered Borderlands 2 that I latter sold on Ebay, 7970 had no competing offer at the time.
2. I didn't like Samsung 120Hz's stand & gloss screen, preferred ASUS's rotating stand & matte screen.
3. I could get by with a 750W for SLI instead of 850W.
4. The performance difference between the two in my main game(BF3) was much smaller than the average difference(actually 670 was a little better at 1080p Ultra).

In the end, unless you are using a really bad beta driver or buying for a bad manufacture, neither card will disappoint you for 1080p, 1440p is ATI's domain though(granted I don't forsee flagship(Nvidia's X80/ATI's X70) cards being good enough to saturate 120 Hz 1440p/1600p in SLI/CLX for another year or 2 and by that time I would have upgraded anyway).

I recommend OP look up some more reviews on 670/660 as you can see the latest 670 vs 7970 benchmark runs for different games, although 7970 is a slightly better card they still trade blows at 1080p so want the best card for the game you will play the most.

 

[Hyperion.]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sherlock

1. They offered Borderlands 2 that I latter sold on Ebay, 7970 had no competing offer at the time.
2. I didn't like Samsung 120Hz's stand & gloss screen, preferred ASUS's rotating stand & matte screen.
3. I could get by with a 750W for SLI instead of 850W.
4. The performance difference between the two in my main game(BF3) was much smaller than the average difference.
.

1.I agree
2.You can use any monitor with any card. 3d is over hyped, hey buy new stuff with 3d because everyone has a tv/monitor and we need you to upgrade! 3d in these monitors is not very good. The benQ has decent 3d and yes you will need a nvidia card to use it.
3.You can run 2 7970's on 750w
4. Ok.

 

[Stoffie]

The answer is 7970 you are comparing prices with your question not performance, if a 7970 is where you want to be performance wise compare it with a 680, if a 670 is where you want to be performance wise compare it with a 7950.

 

[Hyperion.]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stoffie

The answer is 7970 you are comparing prices with your question not performance, if a 7970 is where you want to be performance wise compare it with a 680, if a 670 is where you want to be performance wise compare it with a 7950.

this

 

[ForNever]

7970 is a more powerful card, no question. The only reason I went with a 670 was (hopefully) better dual card support when I need to add a second. I was less than impressed with AMD's crossfire driver support. Just something to consider. If you have no plans to add a second card, then there's really no reason not to get a 7970.