Screw the amd vs nvidia: The best overclocked model for the price

[Duuster]

New GPU, AMD/NVIDIA?

Hi, I'm going to make this quick, because no one likes to read a novel. New GPU, price range: maximum around 400 dollars (look longer down, price may be different between us and eu)
Want quality, performance and quiet. (building a quiet pc)
Been looking at an asus GTX 670 Direct CU II. Got a page here with gpu comparison with the market in my country filtered to match the price range:
http://www.edbpriser.dk/hardware/grafikkort.aspx?nf=price:[1500;2500]§&qt=Fql

Please take a look, and i don't want to start an amd/nvidia fight here, I don't care about brand, i care about products. I need your experience, since this is the most expensive and important part of a gamer pc. I would just like your suggestions, maybe also from cards not on this page, just within the price range. And by the way, my ATI radeon HD 5850 runs BF3 at ultra with 8x msaa at 40 fps. Holy **** that's amazaing for such an old card. Best card i've ever owned.

Specs in case there would be requirements for the GPU:
Processor and heatsink: AMD Phenom II x4 965 Black Edition 3.4 GHz OC to 3.8 Ghz with NH-D14 Cooler.
Ram: 2x4Gb Crucial DDR3 1333 Mhz
Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 5850 OC to 1050 MHz.
Harddisk: WDC WD5000AADS-00S9B0 ATA 500 GB.
Solid State Drive: Samsung 830 series 256 gb 6gb/s
Power supply: Corsair hx650 W (will get 750 w, the 650 made noice so got money back)
Motherboard: ASrock 970 Extreme3 AM3+
Case: ????

 

[Knufire]

Are you ever going to go triple monitor?

If not, go with the 670. If yes, grab a 7950.

(FYI to everyone else who's going to post help, prices are different there and the 7970 is out of his budget).

 

[Duuster]

Are you ever going to go triple monitor?

If not, go with the 670. If yes, grab a 7950.

(FYI to everyone else who's going to post help, prices are different there and the 7970 is out of his budget).

Damn the danish taxes.. I might be willing to go over price, since this is the GPU, would the 7970 make a great improvement compared to the 670? I've actually been looking at the XFX 7970 which is not to much over price. Anyone have experience with the noice of this thing? i will get the fractal case with sound dampening sides so it shouldn't be a great problem.
I might go with a dual monitor later on but that should be no problem for the 670 either right? What you're saying is that the 7950 is only better than the 670 because of triple monitor support right?

 

[Knufire]

AMD 12.11 drivers provided a healthy performance bump, puts the 7970 on about the same level as the GTX680

They both support triple monitors. However, the higher resolution you game on, the more video RAM you need. The 2GB on the 670 is fine for a single monitor, but probably not enough if you go for a monster resolution like 5760x1080.

If by dual screens, you mean that you're still only going to be gaming on one of them (versus gaming across both), then the GTX670 is still fine.

Actually, I don't know how the GTX670 compares to the 7950 after that driver update, might want to check that out. EDIT: I believe the GTX670 is still ahead.

 

[EarthDog]

12.11 drivers. The 10.11 are two years old.

 

[Duuster]

AMD 10.11 drivers provided a healthy performance bump, puts the 7970 on about the same level as the GTX680

They both support triple monitors. However, the higher resolution you game on, the more video RAM you need. The 2GB on the 670 is fine for a single monitor, but probably not enough if you go for a monster resolution like 5760x1080.

If by dual screens, you mean that you're still only going to be gaming on one of them (versus gaming across both), then the GTX670 is still fine.

Actually, I don't know how the GTX670 compares to the 7950 after that driver update, might want to check that out. EDIT: I believe the GTX670 is still ahead.

I appreciate your input. But i want to future proof my pc as much as possible given my budget. And i could just skip partying this weekend and get the money for the xfx 7970. Wouldn't you say it would be worth the extra money?

 

[Duuster]

I would really appreciate if someone could tell me if you would regret not throwing in an extra 50 dollars to get the xfx 7970 instead of the asus gtx 670

 

[Pierre3400]

Jeg havde til enhver tid taget 7950 over Gtx670, hvis altså du overclocker.

Man høre kun godt om 7950, den clocker godt. Har du prøvede at forhøre dig på hwt.dk eller hardwareonline.dk? Jeg elsker mit 7970!

Just to sum up, I would pick the 7950 over the Gtx670 if money is of concern, and if overclocking is planned.

 

[Frakk]

7950 on 12.11 Drivers is the same performance as the GTX 670, the 7950 is cheaper and has more vRAM and a higher Memory bus width.

 

[Duuster]

So i made a post here earlier, that didn't exactly give me the answer i wanted. I went to look at the stock models, instead of looking at the customs, like xfx, gigabyte, sapphire and so on. I want to find the best videocard (I know this is way too much to ask for, just want the answer you would give) for the money, which is around of max of 350 dollars. What i'm looking for is the best fps in 1920x1080 on ultra settings. And i want a card that's completely quiet at stable. Again, i'm not looking for models, like 7950 or gtx 660 and so on, i'm looking for the best overclocked card.

Every answer is appreciated.

 

[Ajay57]

Well Dollar for Dollar i would say these would go towards your choice list! AJ.

1, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125418

2, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150605

You would say why these 2 cards, i will tell you why 84% on the XFX 75 People say great card etc. On the Gigabyte 82% 93 people say great card etc, but the main point is look at all the games they play! And no complaints at all yes there are some who will say so differently? But they can not all be wrong!

 

[ssjwizard]

That gigabyte card is an exceptional value. The 3 fan cooler is also known to be very quiet on mild OC and capable of big OCs.

If you want to step up to a slightly higher level THIS 7950 is a killer deal also.

On the nVidia side this is one of the best 660Ti's around

Any of those cards will smash 1080P gaming for years im sure.

 

[EarthDog]

Who cares about the bus width, LOL! That part is built in with the performance!

 

[Duuster]

Thanks for the response. the 3 gb gigabyte card costs 175 dollars more than the 2gb. Is it really that great a difference when you're not planning to go triple monitor, and maybe not even dual monitor, since i'm good with just one monitor?

 

[moocow]

much better

 

[Duuster]

much better

Yea sorry, the price that was listed was much different than the one on the webpage, so it's out of budget. so i edited the post. Also going to put it here so everyone see it: Would the XFX 7970 be louder than the gigabyte 7970

 

[Duuster]

And is it a great downside that my motherboard has pci e 2 and not 3? It will still support the card right?

 

[Ajay57]

Well its what you want to spend in Denmark Duuster, as for the cards the Gigabyte is the quieter maybe! AJ.

P.S. All cards are backwards compatible and in some cases the Difference is not that you will notice.

 

[Duuster]

Thanks for the response. the 3 gb gigabyte card costs 175 dollars more than the 2gb. Is it really that great a difference when you're not planning to go triple monitor, and maybe not even dual monitor, since i'm good with just one monitor?

 

[Duuster]

Oh and i can get a vapor-x 7950 with 3gb aswell, would that be worse/better than the gigabyte 7970, keeping in mind i'm not going to go crazy with multiple monitors