Sapphire Vapor X 7970ghz vs Galaxy GC OC GTX 680

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pckid22

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Oct 27, 2012
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So i had a build (before some defective hardware issued an RMA necessary) and it had 2 7970ghz vapor x by sapphire cards. Unfortunately the temps reached up to 91 degrees Celsius after playing far cry 3 or hitman absolution for a mere hour and a half because they were sandwiched next to each other. I figured I just needed to separate them a slot to get some airflow but to my dismay no crossfire bridges exist long enough to reach the three slot cards if i separated them. I would need a 120mm bridge but the longest is 100mm. However 120mm sli bridges do exist (no they are not compatible!) so I was planning on trading in these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202005 for 2 of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162105

Most people say the 7970ghz is slightly faster especially at my higher res of 1440p but the temps get so high I cannot decide which to buy. Should I settle for slightly less performance in exchange for much better cooling or should i let the cards heat up and ignore it (some people have said the max temps for the sapphire card is 115 celsius and that it will not decrease the lifespan of the card if it stayed on all day at 90. Keep in mind I have already set the fans to 100 percent. Water cooling is not an option unfortunately. The extra vram is needed for lots of skyrim mods/anti aliasing. I also have a sound card on top of the top gpu which conducts some heat and I am worried it could harm thew osund card so if anybody knows about that please tell me.
Here is a pic of the card setup: http://i1297.photobucket.com/albums/ag29/mike88931/IMG_0070.jpg
 
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No 120mm bridges eem to exist I have spent many hours looking. I need at least 4gb of usable vram for skyrim which I mod almost beyond recognition and plan to use 8 x supersampling and 8 x transparency antialiasing on once I get the system working. Also fallout 4 will be next gen and have as much mod support so it will need that much vram too! The dual gpu cards do not have enough vram and are not as fast as two non reference, very factory overclocked cards in crossfire or sli so worse case scenario I will have to settle for 2 680 2 slot cards instead which are slower than 7970 ghz cards. I need a way to keep the two cool without going custom liquid because I am all out of money =(
 
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The 690 has 4 gigs of memory which is essentially what you would get with a 680 in sli. So in reality a 690 would provide the same experience in a single card solution which is probably more stable in the end then two 680's in sli.

EVGA 690 4gb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130781
680 gigabyte (keep in mind even if you were to put 2 cards in sli you would still only have 4 gigabytes of memory)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130798 (edit had linked a 2 gigabyte card)

Now The only reason you would need more then 4 would be if you were doing things that could use up 4 gigabytes of memory a high resolution display for example or a multi monitor setup but other than that 4 would be the max I feel you would want to go at the moment.

This 7990 has 6 however again I don't see the need at least if you were going to argue ram.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131479
 
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Please tell me that by the time you have achieved the title of "Addict" on this website you have figured out that the "4gb" of vram on the 690 is only 2 usable gb. Maybe I did not make myself clear that I intended on paying for cards with extra vram. If this is so I apologize for being an arrogant prick. If not congratulations, you now know something that 90 percent of the people on this forum most likely already knew (I really am sounding like a douche but I cannot believe you did not know that by now). Anyway thanks for the reply. As added info modded skyrim with the kind of AA that could be applied with a powerful setup like this exceeds 3gb so the 4 is necessary.
 
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No because they are pairing up 2 4 gigabyte 680's in one card. To my knowledge if its 2 gigabyte and 2 gigabyte solutions that is falsified information on the card because it clearly states 4 gigabyte's. Look all I'm trying to do is help you find a solution that will number one increase air flow and number two maybe help you not have to use a sli bridge or crossfire bridge. If a card says 2 gigabytes sure I will agree that even if you add 2 you will still have 2 gb's but when a card says 4 gigabytes I'm sure its 4 gigabytes and not 2 split between the two. If you are after more ram for things like modding skyrim then perhaps a AMD card is more suited for you if you can manage to get your hands on one of these 2 cards I'd say you were golden. I've heard of the 100 mod thing people do with skyrim so I get that you want more vram just trying to help you save a little space as that seems to be something you are having an issue with now that and finding a bridge to give you that space sir.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&N=100006662&isNodeId=1&Description=7990&x=0&y=0
 
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Yea I wasn't thinking you needed much more then 3 I know there are 4 GB cards and next gen will have 6 to 12 if I remember reading right with the 8000 series cards.

And if what you say is true about the 690 that is pretty shady. But just keep in mind what I was trying to get across is trying to perhaps find a solution that only used one slot but you have 2 7970s so maybe taking a look at your cooling solution may be a avenue to go as well. New case possibly a custom water loop to cool the cards down who knows. I genuinely go on here to try and help people I swear pricks on here make it difficult.
 
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