• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

New card for 1440p

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

jaymz9350

Member
Joined
May 13, 2006
Just upgraded my aging 1680 x 1050 to a 1440p monitor and my 7970 I showing it's age a bit. Look like it's between. 970 or 290x as they are about the same price at micro center. Now is it really a worth while upgrade and does it matter which purely in performance?
 
Given the same cost I would likely choose the 970, it performs a tiny bit better (depending on the game of course) and runs a bit cooler because of the lower TDP.
 
Thanks looks like out if my choices the 970 is $20-30 more but that's not a big deal, I knew this would happen and it's why it took me so long to go 1440
 
Well I went with the 970, and went back 2 weeks later for a second oops. One just put me at a performance point just on par with my 7970 and 1680x1050 monitor and that point was right around my limit before an upgrade. Funny how a $400 monitor turns into an $1100 one real quick.
 
Well, at least you got the performance and resolution you wanted! :rofl:
 
Well So far I am happy, though I've only gamed on both in one game for just a little while. But I went from bouncing around in the 50's maybe jumping into the low 60's to bouncing around in the high 80's-low 90's FPS. Now I gotta figure out what to do about my sound card, It blocks one of the fans on the top card and I didn't think too much about it until the bottom card runs half the fan speed and a little cooler than the top one (and the top was running around the same as it was in single)
 
That's good scaling!

The top card will always be a bit warmer unless your GPUs are on a water loop.
I expect the sound card isn't helping though.
 
Maybe this weekend I'll test it without the sound card and see if it cools off, or I should say quiets down the cards seem to keep themselves in the upper 70's just how fast the fans spin to accomplish that. Then see if the noise or the slightly lesser sound quality bugs me more (plus my sound card has cool red LED's I like lol) Either way it's way quieter than the 7970 stock leaf blower
 
Oh gosh, you had the reference 7970? That's definitely loud.

That ACX 2.0 must be night and day difference!
 
Oh gosh, you had the reference 7970? That's definitely loud.

That ACX 2.0 must be night and day difference!

Agreed, a buddy has 2 ref 7970s in one of those miner things (the open chassis, tiny little board, you know what I'm talking about), and it sounds like a jet taking off in his living room. Puts out about as much heat too.
 
Yeah the 7970 was definitely the loudest card I've owned and I've almost always had reference coolers, my 5870 wasn't anywhere near as loud. I almost got a 970 with a reference cooler but opted not to. I like the way they spit all the heat out of the case but I've come to like quiet a bit more as time goes on.

I did remove the sound card and it now lets the top cards fans stay quiet enough to be pretty unnoticeable over the rest of the systems fans so now to see what I can do to have the best of everything lol. My case has a +1 expansion slot vertically beside the rest and I may try a PCI-E riser cable or whatever they are called to see if I can use it there.
 
Glad the fans were able to turn down!

Sounds like the perfect candidate for a PCIe riser, IMO.
 
Back