Graphics Card - GTX 670 or 7850

BhoyRayzor

having a real hard time deciding on what graphics card to get for my build. two examples below were suggested in builds as my budget increased.

GAINWARD PCX GTX 670 2048MB Phantom is €390.45

ASUS HD7850 2GB is €234.40

is the 670 worth the extra €155? I'm learning a bit more each day I look into these but I'm still a bit lost. Is the core clock relevant if you intend on over clocking the card? the ASUS has a higher effective memory clock but again I don't really know if that matters

I'll be using a 32" tv with 1080p
Processor: Intel Core i5-3570K Box, LGA1155
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4, Sockel 1155, ATX

Also, is this chart a good indication in comparing cards between the two?

SpannerMonkey

up to you really the gtx is far better , but depends if you want to play every game maxed out
i have a Asus gtx 670 Direct Cu II Top (the factory overclocked edition and its epic it eats up and spits out all games on ultra settings but it is a fair bit more expensive than a 6850

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_670_Direct_Cu_II/33.html

comparing performance
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_670_Direct_Cu_II/28.html
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Eboggles

The GTX 670 is a beast of a card and if you need that performance, there's no reason why you shouldn't get it. However, the 7850 is more than able to pull its weight at 1080p and can overclock to over 7950 levels. I'd personally go for the 7850 as I enjoy overclocking, and the fact that it means I can spend another €150 on other parts or just pocket it.

ZeroThreat

I wonder how an overclocked 7950 compares to an overclocked 670 though

Eboggles

ZeroThreat wrote: »

I wonder how an overclocked 7950 compares to an overclocked 670 though

It's going to lose by a lot, but I don't think that's the point.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

is the 670 the best card to get for one of those korean 1440p monitors??

Skylinehead

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

is the 670 the best card to get for one of those korean 1440p monitors??

No, the 690 is. Stupid money though :pac:

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

Skylinehead wrote: »

No, the 690 is. Stupid money though :pac:

lol

should have seen that coming

yeah the 690's are stupid money

400 odd euro on a 670 is bad enough, I ain't going around a grand for a 690


jesus a grand.. i'd never actually looked at their prices before, i saw the 680's were high enough and said screw the 690's

.. although now I kinda want one

Eboggles

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

lol

should have seen that coming

yeah the 690's are stupid money

400 odd euro on a 670 is bad enough, I ain't going around a grand for a 690


jesus a grand.. i'd never actually looked at their prices before, i saw the 680's were high enough and said screw the 690's

.. although now I kinda want one

Going by this chart:



it looks like the 7970 is your best bet if you can get it near the same price as the GTX 670, as they can be easily overclocked to GHZ edition levels and beyond.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

hrm
still lots to think about so

Skylinehead

I'd probably get a 7970 at the same price as a 670 too (if only for the extra gig of DDR5), but there seems to be about €50 difference on average.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

yeah, the 50 isn't much but i've already spent around 300 on a monitor.. i want to buy a dual link dvi cable in case the one supplied with the monitor isn't great.. I need to get a few cables to move my sata hd's around to fit the new gfx into my case...

like is aid 50 isn't much really, but it's all adding up. the extra ram on the 7970's is a nice perk already at 2560x1440 but really.. I dont know if I'll ever need that, maybe in a few years time.. but will any game out now even break 2 gigs on a video card?

Eboggles

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

yeah, the 50 isn't much but i've already spent around 300 on a monitor.. i want to buy a dual link dvi cable in case the one supplied with the monitor isn't great.. I need to get a few cables to move my sata hd's around to fit the new gfx into my case...

like is aid 50 isn't much really, but it's all adding up. the extra ram on the 7970's is a nice perk already at 2560x1440 but really.. I dont know if I'll ever need that, maybe in a few years time.. but will any game out now even break 2 gigs on a video card?

New PC games are gobbling up the RAM; Max Payne 3 takes up 5.8GB at 5760x1080. Which means:

5760x1080 =6'220'800 pixels = 5.8GB
2560x1440 =3'684'600 pixels = 3.4GB

I think that's how it works, could be wrong . If I'm right, it means that 3GB is still on edge.

ZeroThreat

What price are these new Ghz 7970s going at anyway, I haven't seen them on hwvs yet.

Eboggles

ZeroThreat wrote: »

What price are these new Ghz 7970s going at anyway, I haven't seen them on hwvs yet.

Around GTX 680 levels I think, I'd say they'd be in stock by the end of the week but I'm not 100% certain. Much better off getting an aftermarket 7970 and just overclocking it.

ZeroThreat

Eboggles wrote: »

Around GTX 680 levels I think, I'd say they'd be in stock by the end of the week but I'm not 100% certain. Much better off getting an aftermarket 7970 and just overclocking it.

Would you recommend the Gigabyte windforce version? Can't go wrong with 3 cooling fans on a card.

BhoyRayzor

would this 7970 be better than a 670 then after over clocking?

this chart seems to have them on a par

smileyj1987

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-benchmark,review-32468.html

What tomshardware are saying is buy a normal 7970 and install na aftermarket cooler because you will get similar results with slightly better thermals .

ZeroThreat

I'm not sure all the specs of these so-called 'Ghz edition' cards, but it seems to me there's already existing versions of the card available with a 1ghz core clock speed out of the box....

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/3072+MB/55671/Gigabyte+Radeon+HD+7970+WindForce+3X%2C+3GB+GDDR5%2C+PCI-Express.article

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i went with the 670 in the end, 426 delivered from amazon.de

dabs.ie was cheaper at 418 but for some reason whenever I hit payment.. nothing happened. im gona hve to keep going back and checking my "previous orders" on that site today and tomorrow to make sure they wont charge the card, im pretty sure the order didnt go through though.

smileyj1987

ZeroThreat wrote: »

I'm not sure all the specs of these so-called 'Ghz edition' cards, but it seems to me there's already existing versions of the card available with a 1ghz core clock speed out of the box....

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/3072+MB/55671/Gigabyte+Radeon+HD+7970+WindForce+3X%2C+3GB+GDDR5%2C+PCI-Express.article

Its just an normal 7970 but its overclocked by the manufacturer is all , you can OC a normal one to the same speeds .

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

yeah but as I understand it (which to be honest, probably isn't terribly well) it's the best of the chips/cards that are manufactured that get pulled to be the "factory overclocked" versions so in theory you can push them even further along through overclocking

ZeroThreat

smileyj1987 wrote: »

Its just an normal 7970 but its overclocked by the manufacturer is all , you can OC a normal one to the same speeds .

In fact the msi 'ice Q' card comes at 1050Mhz out of the box

ZeroThreat

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

i went with the 670 in the end, 426 delivered from amazon.de

dabs.ie was cheaper at 418 but for some reason whenever I hit payment.. nothing happened. im gona hve to keep going back and checking my "previous orders" on that site today and tomorrow to make sure they wont charge the card, im pretty sure the order didnt go through though.

Which version of the 670 did you get btw?

The gigabyte windforce 7970 goes for €435 on hwvs, I had my heart set on the 670, but may change my mind, you get a bit of a boost in performance with the 7970 over 670 afaik, and for very little extra, still way better value than the 680 though.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

yeah i saw the gigabyte 7970 on hws alright but I didnt want to deal with the bank transfer or any of that, once the bug hit me that I was buying the card tonight I wanted it over and done with

i got the gigabyte 670
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-gigabyte-gtx-670-windforce-3x-28nm-pcie-30-%28x16%29-6008mhz-gddr5-gpu-980mhz-boost-1058mhz-cores-13

basically same thing but nvidia instead of ati I spent a few hours today reading various sites I pulled through google and the gist I got was while the 7970 was technically more powerful in some respects.. nvidia had their finger in more pies with regards game optimisation for their cards.

BhoyRayzor

decided to go for the ASUS GTX670-DC2T-2GD5

supposed to be a good card and hopefully will get a few years out of it