Decisions decisions. The 670 or the 7970? :)

[xander89]

so by a pure stroke of luck I managed to pick up a asus direct cuII 7970 ( thia one has a stock speed of 1000 mhz too) on amazon for £200. All of those in the uk will know that even with the new pricing that is 130-40 cheaper that it usually is (£340).

So my question is. Should I keep my 670. Which is somewhat of a golden chip. It can do do 1330 on the core and 7000+ on the memory even before the manual voltage control. Now since the serious performance bump that the amds got in the most recent driver update it's tempting to swap out my 670 for the 7970.

My dilemma is I don't know which would be better in the long run. The 7979 has 3 gb of ram so if I was to go over 1080 that would be a plus. Also things like bitcoin mining ( I know the price has collapsed but you never know. It could have a resurgence) also I know the 7970's clock very well, and under water I was wondering whether it would beat my 670?

On the other note. My 670 runs cool as hell (40c while fully boosting in game) it munches up bf3 ( which is the main game I will play) it has physx( small but also a plus) its a proven gold chip and with msi afterburner 2.2.3 on the horizon & manual voltage control I could see boost clocks well in excess of 1400mhz if I'm lucky.

The main game I will be playing is bf3( and probs bf4 when it comes out) But keep in mind I play with vsync, so as long as the 7970 maxed can keep it at 60 fps while maxed, I suppose that is fine.

So opinions people. Also in terms of selling one. I suppose I could get around 320/30 for the 7970 new. And maybe the same/ more for the 670 because it's a beast, also I would probs sell the 670 with the ek block / backplate so the cost would run in excess of 400 for everything.

So suggestions people. What do I do?

 

[v1ks_]

I'd keep the 7970 and sell the 670. Then hold on to the cash, if possible, and wait for another 7970 to CF them... or just spend it all on beer, haha...

As far as mining goes, a quick research shows that 7970 beats even 680 by a good margin, so the 670 would trail well behind. Plus, bitcoin value has been creeping up for the last three, four months (40% up, iirc)... though it still doesn't make it profitable, methinks.


ETA:
I'm biased, no real arguments as to why amd would be better than nvidia, hehe...

 

[irrykuxeh]

AFAIK, the 7970 would mine bitcoins faster than your 670 not only because it is the faster card, but also AMD cards are much faster at bitcoin mining anyway.

 

[xander89]

i know that amd cards tend to mine bitcoins faster, but that isnt the main point of this thread its just an added bonus. it was just and overall look at both the cards and what they offer. in the end it depends what is "faster" in the long run. will amd keep this recently gained lead over nvidia, or will manual voltage control and a new driver update kick amd out of the park. Its more opinions on what people think is going to happen in the next 3-6 months. Also i was under the impression that sli scales better than xfire? am i wrong?

 

[v1ks_]

Eh, who knows... It's not like only nvidia can come up with a new driver pack to tweak the performance and iron out bugs.
Since 670 is way out of my budget, I haven't even checked how much vram it has. I assume it's 2gb, in which case it should be enough for some time, unless you go multi monitor or games suddenly start using a lot more vram.

To be honest, what I would do is either sell the 670 and wait for another sweet deal on 7970 to crossfire them or sell both the 670 and 7970 and get a 680. In the second scenario you still come out as a winner and save more than a few quid.

As far as cf/sli scaling goes, that is something I really don't have a clue about. I was under impression it's mostly architecture/driver dependant.

 

[Knufire]

Frankly the performance is so close on both that arguing over this decision based on performance that debating on that point probably isn't going to make the decision any easier.

I'd sell the 7970 simply because it's easier to sell than a GTX670+waterblock. And harder to convince someone of the value of a high OCing card unless they bench.

 

[Frakk]

If you have a 'golden' GTX 670 and are happy with it then keep that, the 7### performance is up enormously on later drivers, but AMD's drivers stability needs some work as you may know. And while there are a lot of stories around about the insane clocks the 7970 is capable of, there is no guarantee of that. Yours might be the one that's a complete dog.

 

[bluezero5]

GTX 670 ~= 7970 gaming performance wise

nvidia Drivers > AMD drivers, any day of the week.

so. there.

 

[xander89]

hmmm yer i think im going to stick with my 670 i wont ever seriously use the 7970 for anything but gaming. Also good news i thought that the one i bought was simply the DCUii version but its actually the top. Apparently there are voltage issues with the normal DCUii one but the top is fine. Also the standard price for a top is around is usually nearer the £390 mark so i wont have any issue flogging this for £350 on ebay! hehe

 

[bmwbaxter]

You are unlikely to be able to sell the 670 for a profit. But given your insane deal on the 7970 you can definitely sell if for a profit. Seems like an easy decision.

But it sounds like you have already come to that conclusion.

If you can bench the 7970 before you sell it

 

[xander89]

You are unlikely to be able to sell the 670 for a profit. But given your insane deal on the 7970 you can definitely sell if for a profit. Seems like an easy decision.

But it sounds like you have already come to that conclusion.

If you can bench the 7970 before you sell it

haha i would love to bench it, but I will be able to sell for for more if its unopened. If its opened. Then i will

 

[Frakk]

Let us know how much you got for it.

 

[xander89]

Let us know how much you got for it.

roger

 

[xander89]

THE ******** CANCELLED THE ORDER. RAGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

They said it was out of stock.....5 days after i bought it. Legally are they allowed to entirely cancel an item that was in stock when i bought it? Not to mention the money went out of my account at the time...? any thoughts how i can ***** out about this? or are my hands tied?

i made sure to print out a copy of the order confirmation ( now the order has disappeared from my amazon account)

 

[bmwbaxter]

Demand a full refund with interest, in a letter drafted by a lawyer. That gets people's attention.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Demand a full refund with interest, in a letter drafted by a lawyer. That gets people's attention.

Do something like 5-10% compounded daily.