GTX 690/ 7990 vs GTX970

[Johny3310]

Which one will be better to buy for gaming now and in the future? Radeon 7990 or GIGABYTE GTX 690 or MSI GTX 970? I have a one full HD monitor. I can get all of these cards for same price so i don t know which one to get. PC is used for gaming and CPU is I5 4690K. Power Supply it s not a problem because i need new. Sorry for my english i m not native speaker. Thanks

 

[Agera One]

GTX 690 and the HD 7990 is simply waste of money for that resolution. They're used for multi monitor, 4 K setups. Even the GTX 970 is plenty for a 1080p monitor.

 

[Johny3310]

I know but the price in my case is the same !!! So i would like to buy the best of these cards. Cause it is PC for a more than two years.

 

[Agera One]

I wonder how these three are in same prices. The GTX 970 can't compete with GTX 690 or HD 7990. GTX 970 can last for more than two years.

Anyway, http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7990-geforce-gtx-690-frame-pacing,3599.html

The result is very close. The 7990 is 768-bit with 6 GB and consume more power (75 watts more) than the GTX 690 with 4 GB VRAM and being 512-bit. If money is not a concern, I will go with 7990.

I suggest referring the separate reviews for each of the card and choose the one suits you.

 

[Johny3310]

OK thanks Agera One. I can buy these cards from my company so money aren t problem. Do you think that 7990 or 690 will be better for last two years than 970?

 

[rakoja]

Hello,

i guess the 7990 would be a bit better than the 690, in fact that it has 2 additional gigs of vram, which can (not must) be usefull in future.
On the other side you need to know, that the 690 is more efficient, it wont waste as much power as the 7990. This also effects the temperatures and how noisy the card is, the 960 do not need to be cooled as much as the 7990 does, so i guess it's much quieter with perhaps a lower temperature.

If you can get those cards for the same price, wouldn't the 980 be an option? I guess its better to compare to the other two cards than the 970

 

[Agera One]

OK thanks Agera One. I can buy these cards from my company so money aren t problem. Do you think that 7990 or 690 will be better for last two years than 970?

Can't guarantee though. No one knows the future. But now the 690 or 7990 is more powerful than the GTX 970.
MORE POWERFUL !

 

[Johny3310]

OK thanks so much guys. Last question thes power supplies: EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G2 / or Corsair RM750 will be enough for 7990 or 690GTX? Which one is better choice? Processor it will be 4690K and motherboard MSI Z97-G43 GAMING. Thanks

 

[rakoja]

The power supplies are nearly identical (except the wattage).

Since the cables of the evga ones looks much nicer and it's cheaper (in europe, you can get 850W for the price of 750W for the corsair one) I would chose this. Both should deliver enough power, but for safety i would take the 850W, who knows weather you want to overclock a bit, or a bit more 😉

 

[Johny3310]

OK so I will buy EVGA. Thank you so much for advices

 

[17seconds]

I hope you're not seriously thinking: #1 of buying a 7990 3GB for any reason whatsoever, #2 a GTX 690 2GB will be more future proof than a GTX 970 4GB.

First VRAM is an issue here. The performance numbers are somewhat comparable. The GTX 690 is the fastest of the bunch, but only has 2GB of VRAM, which will be a factor at some point in your future gaming. Those dual GPU cards do not "stack" their VRAM, so it's not double the amount. The 4GB GTX 970 is going to be the best for any VRAM intensive situations.

Second is the dual GPU versus single GPU issue, that favors the GTX 970 for those situations where a game isn't well supported for dual GPU's.

Third, the GTX 970 is fully supports DirectX 12, a true measure of future-proofing.

Last, if you are think of buying a 7990, a card that was discontinued as a failed product after only two months on the market, all you need to do is read this quote from Tom's Hardware's Editor in Chief:

"When it launched, a generous eight-game bundle had me on the fence about the 7990’s prospects. But after spending time evaluating its thermals and acoustics (to say nothing about its crashes and performance hiccups in CrossFire, which could become a story unto itself), I can’t think of one reason to recommend 7990 to a friend. And, at the end of the day, that’s what this job is all about."
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7990-crossfire-overheat,3539-3.html

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Palit/GeForce_GTX_970_JetStream/25.html

 

[Johny3310]

So, do you think that gtx 970 will be the best solution? Cause the price is the same in my case and in benchmarks GTX 690 or 7990 looks better. And overhetaing in 7990 is a very big problem? Also i dont understand this VRAM problem cause Nvidia says that GTX690 has 4GB VRAM. And now i don t know that in games like GTA IV when your graphic details depend on VRAM it shows you 2GBs or 4GBs VRAM together.

 

[rakoja]

Yes, overheating with a 7990 is a big problem. It is not running efficiently, a big part of the overall wattage it takes is just the heat which needs to be defeated. So the cooler will be running at 100% in gaming, maybe 40% - 50% in idle. From my preferences 690 > 7990, but i dont know how it looks with the 6GB of the 7990.

Notice: You wont have 4 gigs of VRAM to use with the 690. It is two cores, 2048MB VRAM per core. Each core has its own ram, they cant both use one VRAM. So basically you are able to use 4gigs, but your games wont benefit since each of the two cores pump his own memory up with nearly the same information (textures and so on), thats a big disadvantage.

So for futureproof: take the 970. If you are able to (for the same price as you mentioned that you can buy it from your company), then go for the 980. For futureproofment: get another 970 in the future, i guess 970 sli is a powerfull combination, since the efficiency is better (if we look at the tdp, two 970 will need 328W and a 690 will need 300W. Two 970 will just outperform the 690. Also you must calculate stuttering with this "old" sli card. I dont think that they will optimize it much in future.

 

[17seconds]

To be clear, dual GPU cards do not stack their VRAM. That means that, yes, the 7990 has 6GB of VRAM total, but each GPU only has access to its own 3GB VRAM modules. So in effect, it only has 3GB per GPU. If you are playing a game that is using 3.5 GB of VRAM, that will exceed the limit and you will get the associated stuttering. Same for the GTX 690's 2GB per GPU. The GTX 970 has the full 4GB VRAM available for its single GPU.

In the end, the performance difference is only ~11%.

 

[Johny3310]

Ok thanks it looks like a GTX970 will be the best choice