Which is better 7970 or gtx 670?

[CrimsonJudgment]

I am 2 weeks away from getting my next paycheck which will give me enough money for my first ever pc build and I need to make a final decision on the graphics card for the pc I'll be buying. Should I get the Sapphire 7970 oc with boost 3gb or the msi gtx 670 oc 2gb. I don't plan to run games in eyefinity or anything and i'll wont be using 3d glasses either. Just for reference here are the components to the rest of my planned rig.

Intel Core i5-3570

ASUS P8Z77-V LX LGA 1155

Corsair Vengeance 8 GB ( 2 x 4 GB ) DDR3 1600 MHz

Corsair Enthusiast Series 650-Watt 80 Plus Bronze

OCZ Technology 128GB Vertex 4 Series SATA 6.0

Western Digital Caviar Green 3 TB

Corsair Hydro Series High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler H60

[zahlio]

7970 can be overclocked like a beast, and even more if you but a water block on it.

The 670 isn't in any case weak.

Lets look on performance:

670 2gb BF3 frames: 81

7970 3gb BF3 frames: 97

So if we look on this stats the 7970 is better in raw performance, and even better if you OC that beast.

The standard price of the 670 is about: 380 USD

and the 7970 is is also about 380 USD.

So therefore the frame per dollar would be better for the 7970.

Personally i would go for the 7970 as it can be overclocked like heck, i wouldn't get the 670 but a 680, but again that's another price category.

The nVidia vs AMD thing is a personal preference.

[CaptainSi]

zahilo explained it concisely, however it does boil down to more than personal preference. For example, Nvidia GPUs have a feature called CUDA cored which accellerate Adobe programs, as well as other 3D and animations programs. If you're only using it for gaming, get the 7970, if you're going to be Photoshopping, or working with 3D work, editing with Premiere, etc, then perhaps perhaps the 670 is worth a bit of thought. Hope this helps!

[thegamezbeplayed]

AMD cards have there own skew for Adobe... The 7970 rivals the 680. It destroys the 670.

Also heard the 670 doesn't have the same drivers that allow acceleration in adobe.

[Unknown]

It depends on the situation:

Both at stock speed and at (1920x1200) resolution single screen the gtx 670 outperformed the 7970 by 4% this is an average taken from all games tested by techpowerup. (source: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Catalyst_12.11_Performance/1.html). You can also check the difference in speed at all the games that are tested.

A 7970 with a nice custom cooler can be OC'd to a greater extend than a gtx 670, when overclocked a 7970 will in almost every game at almost every resolution outpreform the 670 by quite a bit more than 4%.

pro's and con's 7970:

+ better in openCL computing

+ when it has a good cooler (not stock) it has great overclocking potential.

+good multiple screen support (because of more memory bandwith)

- more power consumption especially when overclocked

- stock cooler makes alot of noise

GTX 670

+ CUDA and openCL

+ consumes less power

[DrainDoc]

I am normally a Nvidia Fan Boy, but in this case I would have to go with the 7970. In some cases, it out does the 680.

But that is in reference to the 2gb version of the 680. The 4gb 680 version might tip the scale toward Nvidia. But

much larger price tag.

[CrimsonJudgment]

Thank you everyone for the quick response and the help you all provide for me. From the information I have gathered from your comments and my own research I have decided to go with the 7970. :)

[Opsilon]

7970 can be overclocked like a beast, and even more if you but a water block on it.

The 670 isn't in any case weak.

Lets look on performance:

670 2gb BF3 frames: 81

7970 3gb BF3 frames: 97

So if we look on this stats the 7970 is better in raw performance, and even better if you OC that beast.

The standard price of the 670 is about: 380 USD

and the 7970 is is also about 380 USD.

So therefore the frame per dollar would be better for the 7970.

Personally i would go for the 7970 as it can be overclocked like heck, i wouldn't get the 670 but a 680, but again that's another price category.

The nVidia vs AMD thing is a personal preference.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6025/radeon-hd-7970-ghz-edition-review-catching-up-to-gtx-680/10

this is the last significant driver update... so your stats are flawed, check more reviews and do some your own, one game does not give the entire story

HD 7000 is a better "work horse" series so this is a good thing to keep in mind

[Opsilon]

AMD cards have there own skew for Adobe... The 7970 rivals the 680. It destroys the 670.

Also heard the 670 doesn't have the same drivers that allow acceleration in adobe.

7970 does not destroy the 670... because the original bin for the card was on the same level in gaming as the 670, only when you count overclocking in ( ghz edition is just a higher binned 7970 ) you get a boost, and ghz is loud as hell, and heat and power consumption are a big problem

Open CL is a different story...

1 more thing if you have a single card the 600 series has a more fluid gaming experience, and that is more important than who has the highest peak

on the value side 7970 standard is the best card if you can get a custom cooled one, oc potential is awesome

[thegamezbeplayed]

AMD cards have there own skew for Adobe... The 7970 rivals the 680. It destroys the 670.

Also heard the 670 doesn't have the same drivers that allow acceleration in adobe.

Idk what benchmarks your looking at but 7970 is on par with 680.

[Eric Kazer]

I have 2 R 7970s referance cards. The ref. speeds are 925 MHz GPU, & 1375 for the memory in default configuration. I already know that I can run the things @ 1100 Mhz, & 1400 MHz GPU & Memory. Hows that for a overclock.

DMC 4 Bench results @ 925 & 1375

Test 1 416.55 Test 2 367.2 Test 3 351.21 Test 4 268.12 Average 363.98 Cat 12.1

Test 1 442.38 Test 2 378.93 Test 3 410.72 Test 4 296.07 Average 382.025 Cat. 13.1

DMC 4 @ 1100, & 1395 ( best Tests)

Test 1 439.95 Test 2 385.13 Test 3 423.93 Test 4 296.63 Average 385.66 Cat 12.1

The 7970 is getting better all of the time with the new drivers that AMD is coming up with. That bench test with Catalyst 13.1 was almost as good as the one ran with the 1100 & 1375 OC.

Single 7970

280.82, 221.08, 351.21, 220.26, Average 268.34 with Cat 12.1 & 925 & 1375 Ref. Speed

HD 7970 is awsome. Fastest single GPU in the world it's called by many.

I'm running mine with

SABERTOOTH 990 FX

FX 8150 @ 3900 MHz Turbo

16 Gigs @ 1366 MHz Memory Motherboard default

WD Greens 1TB

Recon 3D Fatality Champion Series Sound Card

To complete summery

[BroliviaWilde]

With each new release, both sides are basically leap frogging each other to take that "crown" back over who makes the better gpu. Facts are that there are so many variables that it is next to impossible to determine. Both chips are used in a wide variety of solutions by many different gfx card manufactures with all kinds of different cooling and performance enhancements. Also, many games are geared more towards one chip over the other, and both chips are better at different things. All that being said, let's hear Linus give us the final answer in a ncix video he did awhile back:

[TechFan@ic]

It depends on the situation:

Both at stock speed and at (1920x1200) resolution single screen the gtx 670 outperformed the 7970 by 4% this is an average taken from all games tested by techpowerup. (source: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Catalyst_12.11_Performance/1.html). You can also check the difference in speed at all the games that are tested.

A 7970 with a nice custom cooler can be OC'd to a greater extend than a gtx 670, when overclocked a 7970 will in almost every game at almost every resolution outpreform the 670 by quite a bit more than 4%.

pro's and con's 7970:

+ better in openCL computing

+ when it has a good cooler (not stock) it has great overclocking potential.

+good multiple screen support (because of more memory bandwith)

- more power consumption especially when overclocked

- stock cooler makes alot of noise

GTX 670

+ CUDA and openCL

+ consumes less power

WHAT THE !? Since when does nVidia use AMD licensed technology ?! the 670 doesn't have openCL only Cuda .

[Draconorst]

When I brought a gigabyte GTX670oc about 4 months ago it used to destroy a stock 7970 and was comparable to a stock GTX680. Now with the relatively new AMD drivers giving the 7970 has better performance than the GTX670. for gaming go with the 7970. That is unless Nvidia bring out new drivers that take the lead back.

[JamesZ]

Nvidia has lost this round to AMD, the 7000 series is better then the 600 series, I suggest going for a 7970 GHZ edition.

[deadbc77]

I have a Sapphire 7970 toxic6gb ghz Edition, and GTX 680. Right now the 7970 is best bang for the buck

[Jason]

i would get a 7970 just because of the performance per dollar and the fact that overclocking my 7870 was really fun :)

[s0nrise]

7970 is a better value, and its a better overclocker.