1. #1
    Herald of the Titans Ron Burgundy's Avatar
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    single GPU config - 7970 vs 680

    with the current drivers available, which card is the winner atm?


    i play mostly blizzard games but i do want to dabble in battlefield 3 and armed assault 2+ which can be quite demanding titles.


    thoughts/opinions?
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  2. #2

  3. #3
    Blizzard games, specifically World of Warcraft, flat out perform better on nVidia cards. However, if you find yourself playing a wider array of games from different publishers you really can't go wrong with a 7970 GHz edition.

  4. #4
    Herald of the Titans Ron Burgundy's Avatar
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    wouldnt 680 titan be a better comparison to the 7970 ghz edition
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    Mechagnome Ineko's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Burgundy View Post
    wouldnt 680 titan be a better comparison to the 7970 ghz edition
    The titan has not released yet, and it is significantly more expensive, it will be retailing around $900 as far as I know. However, it will perform almost as good as a 690.

  6. #6
    A lot of games are better optimized for Nvidia cards but the 7970 has 3GB of VRAM which is better when playing in higher resolutions and with AA and AF. Also the 7970 uses a different memory interface so that it's bandwidth is higher compared to the 680 (264bit to 192bit). So when only looking at numbers the 7970 is the better card but the 680 isn't that bad compared to it and both cards will have enough power so that you can play every game with highest settings possible.

    The 680 has the advantage that you get CUDA so that you can use PhysX and you can use it for video encoding and other things. Also you get 3D Vision and 3D Vision surround which is the best stereo 3D available for PC games.

    When talking about Blizzard games they are not that GPU intensive. In WoW you need a very good CPU (as much GHz and cache as possible) and in Diablo 3 you need a very fast HDD. Starcraft 2 runs perfect on almost every system out there.

    So which card should you get? I'd say the 680 but only because I like Nvidia more and like having the option to turn PhysX on. When getting the 680 try to get one with 3GB instead of the normal 2GB so that you can use the full memory bandwidth (256bit) and get much closer to the 7970.

  7. #7
    If you choose to get the 7970, i recommend getting a normal 7970 instead of the GHz, to save money. Then overclock it yourself, to the GHz clock speeds, or higher if you want. I looked it up, and found out the GHz is just an overclocked 7970 basically.

    [QUOTE=lordjust;20063819]A lot of games are better optimized for Nvidia cards but the 7970 has 3GB of VRAM which is better when playing in higher resolutions and with AA and AF. Also the 7970 uses a different memory interface so that it's bandwidth is higher compared to the 680 (264bit to 192bit). So when only looking at numbers the 7970 is the better card but the 680 isn't that bad compared to it and both cards will have enough power so that you can play every game with highest settings possible.

    The 7970 uses 384bit, and the 680 use 256bit.
    Last edited by Valstorm Warsong; 2013-02-01 at 06:23 AM.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by lordjust View Post
    is better when playing in higher resolutions and with AA and AF
    Higher resolution means you need lower AA/AF for the games to look good.
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  9. #9
    The Lightbringer Toffie's Avatar
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    It's hard to compare because both drivers get updated and games get better performance, yet reviews use either old nvidia drivers & new amd drivers or other way around. Although looking at performance from newest drivers for both cards I can proudly say that the gtx 680OC outperforms 7970 ghz in all of those games you listed, but not much at all.

    The 7970Ghz is still cheaper than the gtx 680, so that is a deciding factor for the decision.
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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Burgundy View Post
    with the current drivers available, which card is the winner atm?


    i play mostly blizzard games but i do want to dabble in battlefield 3 and armed assault 2+ which can be quite demanding titles.


    thoughts/opinions?
    got any plans for going tripple screen in the future?
    if not nvidia is the way to go due to blizzard game performance favoring nvidia pretty strong.
    you also mentioned a the titan as a 680 spin-off but it will actually become a new special named card outside of the 6xx/7xx series. (but im guessing that will be severe overkill for those games unless you atleast go 1440p on the monitor aswell)

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by shroudster View Post
    got any plans for going tripple screen in the future?
    if not nvidia is the way to go due to blizzard game performance favoring nvidia pretty strong.
    Taking pricing into account, id say those extra 5-10 frames for WoW/Diablo3/SC isnt the 50 dollar/euro extra worth it. Seeing as the 7970 GHz does outperform the 680 in BF3.

    Either way, you cant go wrong with either card.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Toffie View Post
    It's hard to compare because both drivers get updated and games get better performance, yet reviews use either old nvidia drivers & new amd drivers or other way around. Although looking at performance from newest drivers for both cards I can proudly say that the gtx 680OC outperforms 7970 ghz in all of those games you listed, but not much at all.

    The 7970Ghz is still cheaper than the gtx 680, so that is a deciding factor for the decision.
    You say GTX 680 OC, yet the 7970 GHz can still be overclocked by a ridiculous amount.

    Mine's currently running @ 1200/1600 when base is 925 (1000) / 1375 (1500). (Parenthesis = GHz edition)

    That comparison is sometime in 2012, so they're a bit off when it comes down to the latest drivers at least. I know that AMD have been trying to squeeze more and more out for BF3, as there's almost always an increase every month.
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  13. #13
    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/A...ormance/1.html
    The benchmarks in this review are closer to how it looks with the drivers we have now.
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  14. #14
    The Lightbringer Toffie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Yohassakura View Post
    You say GTX 680 OC, yet the 7970 GHz can still be overclocked by a ridiculous amount.

    Mine's currently running @ 1200/1600 when base is 925 (1000) / 1375 (1500). (Parenthesis = GHz edition)

    That comparison is sometime in 2012, so they're a bit off when it comes down to the latest drivers at least. I know that AMD have been trying to squeeze more and more out for BF3, as there's almost always an increase every month.
    The 7970GHz is a overclocked 7970, so in comparison it is only fair to compare a high end card like the lightning or asus Direct CU II that is overclocked by manucfacture.

    n0ctural

    That was before the 310.70 that boosted the 680, but it's still the closest.. I cannot find any benchmarks that shows both cards at their newest drivers..

    http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/..._download.html
    Last edited by Toffie; 2013-02-02 at 04:20 AM.
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  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Toffie View Post
    The 7970GHz is a overclocked 7970, so in comparison it is only fair to compare a high end card like the lightning or asus Direct CU II that is overclocked by manucfacture.
    The 7970 GHz is sold as a normal card, therefore you can compare it with any 680. Yes it might be just an OCed 7970, but that doesnt matter. AMD is selling it as a different card, which they released to compete with the 680.

    7970 <-> 670
    7970 GHz <-> 680

  16. #16
    The Lightbringer Toffie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zeara View Post
    The 7970 GHz is sold as a normal card, therefore you can compare it with any 680. Yes it might be just an OCed 7970, but that doesnt matter. AMD is selling it as a different card, which they released to compete with the 680.

    7970 <-> 670
    7970 GHz <-> 680
    You know that an overclocked 680 provide 10 fps more than the shitty evga stock ones? It's not a fair comparision at all.

    It's not a different card, it's an overclocked 7970.....
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  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Toffie View Post
    You know that an overclocked 680 provide 10 fps more than the shitty evga stock ones? It's not a fair comparision at all.

    It's not a different card, it's an overclocked 7970.....
    It just is a different card. AMD sells it as one, so it basicly is a different card. If this one wasnt sold from AMD, but was done out of MSI/ASUS I would agree with you. But I just can't, it is a separate card from the 7970. If Nvidia would start selling a 680 GHz edition (for example) than that would also be a different card, even though it is just an OCed 680.

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