Upgrading my GPU

[vSpooKy]

Well today I filed my tax's and found that I will be getting a nice bit of cash coming my way, now I am planning on upgrading my GPU. Currently I have two GTX 560's and I have decided that buying two of those two years ago was a mistake when I could just have gotten on bigger GPU for the price I payed for both. Now my decision is between the GTX 680, GTX 670, or a Radeon HD 7970. I have looked at benchmarks for all three cards, but I would like some owners opinions on the GPU's.

 

[timnswede]

I was in the same situation as you, and I chose the 7970. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202001 It is the most powerful gpu, but if you care a lot about power consumption then go for nvidia. I'll just give you some thoughts on my 7970 Vapor-X GHz since that's the card I have. It maxes everything I've played, which includes Far Cry 3, Arma 2, Battlefield 3, Witcher 2, Skyrim, and Fallout 3/NV. Some of those games I have to turn down Anti-Aliasing though, as the FPS hit is ridiculous. x8 AA on Far Cry3 dropped me 30 FPS.

Pros- Things stated above, runs very quiet when fan is below 55% (pretty much all the time), Runs very cool- the hottest temperature I've seen is 61 degrees on Crysis 3, most games it'll stay around 50-55 degrees. 3 GB of vRam standard. I really don't think 2 GB is enough, I almost topped 2 on modded Skyrim.

Cons- Fan is extremely loud past 65%, that's really the only con I can think of.

Oh and here's a chart of the relative performances: http://tpucdn.com/reviews/VTX3D/Radeon_HD_7870_XT_Black/images/perfrel_1920.gif