Upgrading 7970 to GTX 970

[cowboydude99]

Hi,
I'm not sure if this upgrade would be worth it for 1080p gaming.

The 7970 is really loud when gaming. I read some reviews for the Asus GTX 970. It is apparently one of the quietest cards going right now.

I also want to hit 60FPS, which I think this card might do for most games out now at 1080p.

My 7970 can do 60 for some new games, but mostly around 40-50 with very high settings. Some games it drops low, like in Far Cry 3 during some scenes.

Anyway, I'm just wondering if this is a decent upgrade. I'd sell my 7970 for around 150 (seems to be the going rate) and put that towards the new card.

 

[NBSN]

You would see huge gains from the GTX 970. The GPU is quieter, less energy consuming, and better performing. You should be able to max out games at 1080p with 60 fps.

 

[MrBanger]

ever thought about making a crossfire?
making a crossfire out of a 7970 is a monster!

 

[sincreator]

I recommend sitting on your 7970 as long as you are still playing games smooth. You may get another year out of it yet, and who knows what will be out by then.

FC3 is not a very well optimised game. Try turning the water to medium, and turning off anti alising. It will help your performance a lot.

 

[cowboydude99]

I've thought about Crossfiring the card, however the noise level is way too loud. I've read up on the microstutter/frame pacing problems, which I cannot deal with! I can barely play Skyrim because of the stutter, even on a single GPU.

The nice thing about the 970 is that if the ASUS GTX 970 really is only 30db at full load, that is pretty quiet. So adding a 2nd 970 later wouldn't be too bad.

I don't mind holding off, but I wasn't sure if the 970 is actually a good upgrade or a waste.

 

[NBSN]

I've thought about Crossfiring the card, however the noise level is way too loud. I've read up on the microstutter/frame pacing problems, which I cannot deal with! I can barely play Skyrim because of the stutter, even on a single GPU.

The nice thing about the 970 is that if the ASUS GTX 970 really is only 30db at full load, that is pretty quiet. So adding a 2nd 970 later wouldn't be too bad.

I don't mind holding off, but I wasn't sure if the 970 is actually a good upgrade or a waste.

What is the rest of your system. If you are having problems with Skyrim...that sounds like it may be related to the CPU.

Or amount of mods or something else.

 

[cowboydude99]

System:
i7 3770
8GB 1333mhz RAM
Skyrim on SSD drive (system drive)
Sapphire 7970 OC w/ Boost 3GB
Corsair HX1050
AsRock Z77 Extreme 4

Temps are good.

Skryim w/o mods is fine. I just used this as an example to show that crossfiring will have stutter/frame pacing problems, which isn't playable for me.

If I remove the ENB Skryim will play just fine (mostly).

 

[coozie7]

Know how you feel, I've just been forced into a core rebuild (my dearly beloved i5 750 passed away last week ) so moved to a i5 4690K/Z97 setup, keeping the HD7950 and am having a HUGE job keeping the credit card in my wallet.
CURSE YOU NVIDIA!
You have a good, strong system so no problems with it handling an upgrade...Pretty well any upgrade come to that.
From what I've seen the GTX970 is in a totally different class to the HD7970, so from a performance perspective it's a good move.
The new cards are in short supply over here in the UK so I'm expecting to see prices stay high or even go up over the next few weeks so if you decide to upgrade, do it quickly.
The obvious, and cheaper alternative is to quieten the existing HD7970.
With one on my 7950 I'm a great fan of the Gelid Icy Vision, Arctic Cooling also make an excellent dual fan cooler which, unlike the Icy Vision has PWM fans. Both would, obviously be a lot cheaper than a graphics card upgrade.
Be aware, Arctic Cooling supply a thermal epoxy adhesive to stick the various RAM/VRM heatsinks into place, making the change pretty well permanent while Gelid use more traditional sticky thermal tape.

 

[cowboydude99]

Thanks coozie7.

if I can get the Asus GTX 970 for $340 (current price on New Egg) I'll sell my HD7970 on eBay or something... Overall it will probably cost me around $200 to upgrade. Better performance, less noise and cooler temps... SLI seems to be a much better option over CrossFire as well.

The 970s are all sold out here too, from what I see.

I'm not sure about the DX12 portion of the 970 though.

 

[MrBanger]

if your card is too noisy you can try a after market cooler, personally i have a gtx 670, it was also noisy so i changed the cooler to a Arctic one, work much better and much quieter..

 

[cowboydude99]

I wasn't able to find one for the 7970. I haven't looked in a while though.

 

[MrBanger]

http://www.arctic.ac/worldwide_en/productfinder/gpu/index/?id=237
there are few...