Need help deciding on a graphics card, $400ish budget

[mtrotchie]

So I recently built my system and have been running on HD 4000 graphics for awhile until I got the money for a dedicated GPU and I finally have it. I have $400 and could always spend an extra 20 or so but not a whole lot more as its already quite a bit. So far I'm debating between a gtx 670 and a radeon 7970, no particular model of either. Of course this will be for gaming and not much more, maybe some video editing and stuff like that later on. I know amd has the advantage in multi display (which is a possible addition later on) as well as compute power. How would compute power affect its performance? But on the flip side I know nvidia has better driver support and seems to have the advantage in more games (I won't be playing anything in particular). Now the main thing that has me stuck is the current deals they are offering on places like new egg, amd cards get BioShock infinite and crysis 3 vs 150 in game cash from nvidia. The amd deal sounds better but the card is a bit more than a 670. Lastly I plan on water cooling in the future

 

[mtrotchie]

oh and my relevant system parts are
mobo: asus p8 z77 pro
CPU: i5 3570k oc to 4.5GHz
psu: cm silent pro 750w

 

[dish_moose]

GTX670 - if I had $400 to spend.
-Bruce

 

[mtrotchie]

any reason why you say 670?

 

[ikaz]

Why do you plan on Water cooling ? sounds like you plan on OC'ing if that is the case I would go with 7970 when OC's it should be fast than an 670 OCed. Plus take a look a the game I perfer the AMD deal better however since nvidia is offering free money in F2p games you maybe able to give them a test run to see if you like them.

 

[mtrotchie]

yes I plan on over clocking, I'm new to it but I feel like its an addiction already and I've just barely started... also I hear the 7970 is loud
and yeah I like AMD's deal better too

 

[timnswede]

My 7970 is inaudible under 50% fan speed. But I do have the vapor-x which is around $460 which is out of your budget. But if you plan on water cooling then you would need (I'm pretty sure) a reference 7970, which are very loud and very hot. Not sure how loud the reference 670 is, but any reference design will be hot and loud. If possible I recommend getting enough money for water cooling and buying it with the card. I recommend a 7970 if you can do that since it's on par with a 670, and overclocks well. Plus you get an extra gig of vram.

 

[mtrotchie]

I love the extra vram, and no it doesn't have to be a reference. I checked coolingconfigurator.com and several of the custom cooler cards are supported by a few full cover blocks. I know there's a saphire custom cooler card for like $410 but I read several reviews caliming a pcb that was warping or something like that and a gigabyte windforce card but neither seemed to get that great of reviews
sapphire: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202008
gigabyte: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125413
of these 2 (or others if you know of) which would you say is better?

 

[mtrotchie]

One last thing, I'm reading around everywhere that the majority of the companies selling the 7970s have locked the voltage on their cards... any idea which ones are still unlocked?

 

[timnswede]

Well it seems that most new cards are locked, but the MSI ones are not. The MSI ones are expensive though. Just because they are locked does not mean that you cannot overclock though, just in case you didn't know. I'd personally go with the Sapphire because I remember seeing people complaining that the Gigabyte was loud, but if you're going for water cooling that wouldn't really be an issue. Ultimately if you're going to water cool temps and cooling won't really matter so go for whichever one is cheaper or has less complaints.

 

[mtrotchie]

Dang.. MSI cards for a 7970 seem to be around $460+. Would I be better off with a MSI 7950 for $330? I hear performance is very similar between 7950/70

 

[timnswede]

Well I don't really overclock, but MSI 7970s were the only ones that I could find that people confirmed were unlocked. I'm not really sure where to find a list of unlocked cards, maybe try asking on here. An unlocked and overclocked 7950 would most likely not be as powerful as a regular overclocked 7970, but you could always get the 7950 and water cool right away. Also don't forget overclocked cards are random. Some may overclock really well, others may not.