7970 vs 670 Which one for me?

[jonathanyu96]

So I was going for the 7950 at the 300$ budget but decided to increase to around 400$. I am not going to get my parts next week or next month. I will be getting it around November for the deals and hoping either the 7970 or 670 gets a little cheaper.

Brief overview on my build:

i5 3570k
Asus P8Z77-V Pro
Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 RAM
Corsair HX Series HX750W
1TB
128GB SSD
HAF 932

I might, might not overclock my GPU. If I do overclock, I will do it a little. So which one of 7970 or 670 is better for me? I will be getting the card that has high reviews and ratings.

For the 670, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787, this EVGA card is the more popular one.

For the 7970, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102961, this one looks good and has good reviews.

Which one will perform the best, without overclocking, can still overclock a little, stay low temps and voltage when overclocking a little?

Thanks, hope you guys take the time to help me.

 

[selayan]

Well the reference versions of the cards will not stay as cool as an aftermarket cooler on either card. The 7970 is a little more power hungry. If you don't plan to go for overclocking then the 670 is fine for you. The FTW is one of the best.

Since you are not going to overclock much, that 670 will auto clock on its own and maintain lower voltage/power usage. But if you do want to overclock then you can also push that card well.

The 7970 is a good choice too but I recommend getting one with an aftermarket cooler so it is quieter and stays cooler. The 7970's have really good overclocking potential too. Only reason I got a 7970 over the 670 FTW was because I was able to get a hell of a deal a few days ago on it so I snatched it.

 

[realibrad]

The 7970 should be faster in most games. Find the benchmarks for the games you expect to play, and see if that helps.

if you are going to get a 7970 with a stock cooler, then the diamond card.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103210

 

[Glacier]

Both of those cards are excellent, but the 7970 is better if you can afford it.

 

[blazorthon]

I recommend against getting a 7970 with a stock cooler unless it's under $400. Stock coolers for AMD aren't very good.

Also, if you overclock, then get the 7950. It can go just as far as a 7970 can. The difference in performance between the 7970 and the 7950 is primarily the GPU clock frequency and at the same frequency for GPU and memory, the 7950 and the 7970 are extremely close (usually a little closer than the 670 is to the 680) and the 7950 can be pushed just as far as the 7970 can.

 

[redeemer]

7970 non reference

 

[Embra]

Keep in mind that in Nov recommendations and prices will change.

 

[blazorthon]

Keep in mind that in Nov recommendations and prices will change.

*will* might be a little strong. *might* seems better unless you have evidence that it is impossible for prices to not change

This is how I see it right now, although this is just an opinion, not proven fact.
Chances are that Nvidia won't drop prices on any of their cards anytime soon unless AMD drops prices again too and that's unlikely unless Nvidia releases a new card that also hurts their current pricing scheme (a new card is not unlikely, but hurting AMD's current pricing scheme is).

 

[blazorthon]

GPU prices change every month if you count available MIR deals, specials, etc...

Anyways, the 7970 is just slightly the better card, but I would not recommend getting one with a reference cooler like the one you linked. I think if $400 is the top end of your budget, you're probably better off with a 670.

Not necessarily. Besides, the 7950, when overclocked, is still slightly better than the 670 anyway because it can go as far in performance as a 7970 with the same cooler. I find it difficult to honestly recommend a 670 because of that.

 

[redeemer]

GPU prices change every month if you count available MIR deals, specials, etc...

Anyways, the 7970 is just slightly the better card, but I would not recommend getting one with a reference cooler like the one you linked. I think if $400 is the top end of your budget, you're probably better off with a 670.

The 7970 and 670 shouldnt even be compared in terms of performance, the 7970 isnt just slightly better it blows the 670 out of the water. Higher end non reference 670 are pretty pricey in the range of 7970Ghz editions. The few dollars extra for a 7970 over a 670 is definitely worth it.

 

[vrumor]

Never understood the rationale behind asking what to buy 2 or 3 months before ya buy it. True there may not be any new hardware to come along in this time period, cept lower end cards maybe. But with Black Friday dropping in November, no one here can honestly say what prices will be when that happens. Ask a week before ya buy it, not 2 months.

 

[blazorthon]

Please don't post benchmarks without links to where they are from. Without links to verify them, they are useless garbage. Also, That the 7950 can go as far as the 7970s with the same coolers makes the 7970's higher price than the 670 meaningless because the 670 can't come close to the 7950 in price. Recommending the 670 just because it is cheaper than the 7970 is kinda dumb because of the 7950. The 670 is going to need more reasoning than being cheaper than the 7970 to be recommended.

 

[blazorthon]

Being from Techpowerup is irrelevant without a link to the article. I knew the site, not the exact article. That article's numbers are useless because many of the tests were stupid. Not using AA when it is an option and the cards are already pushing for 80-100FPS is a useless comparison. Several of the tests were like this. They also didn't include overclocking where the 670 loses significantly no matter what and on that note, didn't include an overclocked 7950.

 

[blazorthon]

Their results are hardly useful when they don't give more than basic info on the tests. Tom's isn't perfect, but they give more info. You can actually get something out of them more meaningful. Results don't need to be consistent when you know how to compare them properly and have the info to do that with. Trying to be consistent in results can muddy up the usefulness of a test's results when they don't give enough info about the situation around each test.

 

[blazorthon]

Also, when games that aren't played often compared to how often the most popular games are played are given equal significance in tests to those more popular games, the results, again, are less meaningful. I'm not being an AMD fanboy or whatever. I've owned more Nvidia cards than Ati/AMD and my last was a GTX 560 TI.

Instead of going by a few numbers, I like to actually look into how things work the ways that they do. The only constant with most review sites is that none of them do things nearly as well as they could in many areas. Techreview, for instance, doesn't give nearly enough info about each test and doesn't give enough info about the results, so what info they do give you is reduced in meaning through a lack of context. Tom's does better in this, but not a whole lot better. Still, better enough to be able to get more meaningful info out of their tests.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

The two score differently depending on test suite chosen. On a "bang for the buck" basis, at Guru3D, the 670 takes the win.....at techpowerup, the recent price reductions have AMD and nVidia in a tie.

Guru3D uses the following games in their test suite: Hard Reset, COD-MW2, Far Cry 2, ANNO 1404, Metro 2033, ANNO 2070, BFBC2, BF3, Crysis 2, AvP, Lost Planet 2.

The GTX 670 costs $400 and scores 917 fps which results in a "bang for the buck" of $0.44 per frame
The GTX 670D CII costs $420 and scores 999 fps which results in a "bang for the buck" of $0.42 per frame
The 7970 costs $420 and scores 872 fps which results in a "bang for the buck" of $0.48 per frame
The 7970 DCII costs $430 and scores 924 fps which results in a "bang for the buck" of $0.47 per frame
The 7970 Ghz Ed costs $470 and scores 952 fps which results in a "bang for the buck" of $0.49 per frame

TechPowerUp used the following common games (games which weren't used on all cards listed were eliminated from totals) in their test suite: Alan Wake, AvP, Batman Arkham City, BF3, BattleForge, COD4, Civilization 5, Crysis. Crysis 2, Dirt 3, Dragon Age II, Hard Reset, Metro 2033, Stalker CoP, Starcraft 2, Shogun 2, Skyrim, WoW

The GTX 670 costs $400 and scores 1157.3 fps which results in a "bang for the buck" of $0.35 per frame
The GTX 670D CII costs $420 and scores 1265.3 fps which results in a "bang for the buck" of $0.33 per frame
The 7970 costs $420 and scores 1191.8 fps which results in a "bang for the buck" of $0.35 per frame
The 7970 DCII costs $430 and scores 1303.0 fps which results in a "bang for the buck" of $0.33 per frame

As far as the 7970 having an OC'ing edge, i'm not seeing it

Max Stable OC on Asus 670 TOP gets 9839 on 3DMark 11 .... that's a 5% advantage over the Ghz Edition and 4 % over the 7970 Lightning
http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-geforce-gtx-670-directcu-ii-top-review/23

Max Stable OC on 7970 GH Edition gets 9403 on 3DMark 11
http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review/24

Max Stable OC on MSI 7970 Lighning gets 9449 on 3DMark 11
http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-radeon-hd-7970-lightning-review/26

When all is said and done, I'm in agreement with this review.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_670_Direct_Cu_II/33.html

With the power, heat ,noise and feature advantages, I have an easy time picking the 670 over the 7970 at 1920 x 1200 ...... At 2560 x 1600, ya have to weight the 7970's performance advantage over the 670's power, heat ,noise and feature advantages . The power and heat issues can be handled easy enough so it comes down to the extra performance of the 7970 at this resolution versus the loss of PhysX ..... and as much as I enjoyed the PhysX and 3D on Batman AC, I'd go with the 670 ...... if ya not that impressed by PhysX and 3D, ya'd have to go with the 7970 at 2560 x 1600.

I found a new site I am gonna start using for tabulating figures .... very detailed info on each test and lots of criteria including 5760 x 1080:

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/2725/9/nvidia-geforce-gtx-670-review-plus-sli-and-3-way-sli-batman-arkham-city

 

[blazorthon]

Guru3D's worst issue is that they don't update their results, so once they're outdated, they're almsot completely useless.

Also, a good heat, and noise comparison doesn't involve caring about the reference coolers when there are far better non-reference coolers. Including undervolting and such can help too. AMD's higher power consumption is pretty much unavoidable with Radeon 7900, but undervolting might be able to change things up a little for the non-overclockers. AMD set voltages pretty high for their stock performance.

If PhysX matters to you, then a 7950 plus a GTS 450 or a similarly performing Nvidia card to run PhysX can beat a 670 so badly that it's not even funny in performance, albeit not in power consumption.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

If PhysX matters to you, then a 7950 plus a GTS 450 or a similarly performing Nvidia card to run PhysX can beat a 670 so badly that it's not even funny in performance, albeit not in power consumption.

Since you're the one with the issue regarding sources .... link please. And we talking "bang for the buck" so factor in the $100 cost of the 450 and the argument falls apart.

Guru3D's worst issue is that they don't update their results, so once they're outdated, they're almost completely useless.

I love the arguments that one manufacturer's card with updated drivers beat the other manufacturers card with old drivers. The table is set for both manufacturers evenly. Both have updated drivers which improve performance. Pick 20 sites and see how they stack up.....the results are fairly consistent. The updated driver arguments and faster overclocker arguments are just not supported by the numbers

The buying public would appear to be in agreement. Despite a huge head start in release dates, nVidia's 6xx sales have passed AMD's 7xx series. This is a summary of the hardware survey conducted by Steam based upon what hardware (DX11 GFX Cards) hit their servers in the month of July. Make of it what you will.

Columns are:

-Overall rank out of DX11 Cards (number hitting Steam Servers)
-Card Name
-% of total DX 11 cards

32 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 0.99% (1.5 months since release)
35 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 0.90% (5 months since release)
42 ATI Radeon HD 7850 0.62% (6 months since release)
46 ATI Radeon HD 7970 0.54% (8 months since release)
56 ATI Radeon HD 7770 0.39% (6.5 months since release)

After just 6 weeks, there are more 670s in use by Steam gamers than any AMD card .... by a factor more than 1.5

 

[jacknhut]

If you can find a non reference HD 7970 for the same price as GTX 670, then pick the non reference HD 7970 and flash it to the Ghz edition bios and enjoy. If not, pick a preoverclocked GTX 670 such as Asus Top or Gigabyte GTX 670 Windforce 3 or EVGA FTW.

 

[selayan]

It depends what games you will play more. I think the 7970 is better for multiple monitors and higher resolutions. Get which ever one saves you more money.

 

[viridiancrystal]

Before AMD's 12.7 driver beta the 670 and 7970 were fairly close, and that is when most benchmark sites did their tests. With 12.7/12.8 drivers the 7970 is MUCH better. anywhere from 10-20% better across the board. Keep that in mind when your looking through reviews.

Personally, with 7970's sitting around $430, I would absolutely pick it up over a 670.

 

[redeemer]

Tomshardware is not a good site to judge overall relative performance - their benchmark suite is way too small, consisting of just a few games and often at weird graphical settings.

The 7970 is just slightly faster than the 670:
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_7970_Toxic_6_GB/images/perfrel_1920.gif

And prices change all the time on GPUs... there was a crazy nice deal for the HIS IceQ 7970 for $394 that just ended a couple days ago.

I just think that reference 7970s are a bad idea... the reference cooler is kinda loud and not anywhere near as good at cooling as the custom coolers are.

There's many nice custom cooled 7970s for $410-430, and all of those are better than the 670, but if his budget can't go past $400, then the 670 is the better option.

If you have $420-430 to spend, then I'd recommend (in this order)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102982
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161412
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129265

over the 670

your graphs are out of date, bear in mind the 7970 is stock and the 670 is autoboost overclocked

 

[spentshells]

can't lose get whats cheaper

all the benchmarks in world won't matter once you game with either card both will be spectacular , but as mentioned reference coolers are generally louder and less effective

 

[drinkingcola86]

Sapphire 7970 without reference cooler.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102982

I have the 7950 version of this card and I can't hear it over any other fans that i have going in my case or the fan in my room...I've set it to 100% to see at how loud it actually gets and it is completely tolerable. Highest i've seen my gpu is 62c and the fan speed at 65%.

 

[spentshells]

So because my graphs take ~17 games into account and show that they're the same, and then you post 5 graphs where 1 game (AvP) is known to favor AMD considerably and the others show 3 mild wins for AMD and 1 for Nvidia, my graphs must therefore somehow be out of date?

Put the drink down man.

The game is old news