ksham :
According to techpowerup, the GTX 780 is about 20% faster than the GTX 680. GTX 670 SLI is on par with a GTX 690, which is about 25-30% faster than a GTX 780.
With the new GTX 770 released yesterday, I strongly urge that you get it instead. It costs $400, which is 61.5% of the cost of the GTX 780 while being only around 10% weaker than a GTX 780. Much more affordable and it already beats out all other GPU contenders around the $400 mark.
Actually I'm very active in the GPU community on the EVGA forums and have discussed this at length with other enthusiasts. The GTX 770 is roughly 6% faster than a GTX 680. The GTX 780 is 35-40% faster than a GTX 680 and is only 5-10% behind a GTX Titan. The GTX 780 is actually about 30% faster than the GTX 770.
The GTX 770 is a GTX 680 that's been re-worked a little. It's specifications are identical to the GTX 680, it just has slightly higher clocks. It's still on the GK-104 chip, unlike the GK-110 chip used in the GTX 780 and the GTX Titan. The GTX 780 is *not* a direct replacement for the GTX 680, it's priced much higher than the 680 was, and it's been designed to create a new niche in the market, between where the 680 was and where the Titan still is. The 770 on the other hand is simply a GTX 680 refresh and is proving to be a bit of a controversial point, as it's not really much improvement over the previous generation of 670's.
SLI'd 670's will crush a GTX 780 into the ground. I personally have EVGA GTX 670 FTW's which are equivalent to stock GTX 680's, so my particular GTX 670's in SLI are about 45% more powerful than a single GTX 780.
To the original poster, if you do get 670's for SLI, I highly recommend that you get the EVGA FTW or the ASUS DirectCU II models, as they are superior to all other types of 670 on the market. There's really not much reason to buy a GTX 770 if you can get the FTW or DirectCU II 670's for £70-80 less, which you can. There's only a 7-8% difference between the 770's and the 670 FTW's. However, if your dad is buying these as a gift, and he doesn't mind paying for the dual 770's, I'd go that route. They're not much faster than the 670's, but they *are* a minor increase, so if he will buy them, go for those. Either SLI'd 670's or 770's will be vastly superior to a GTX 780 if you're only planning to buy one of them.