7970 worth it?

[Beeblebrox]

I was going to try and hold out til the next generation AMD gpus came out, but since thats not coming anytime soon, i'm going to have to bite the bullet and get a 79xx card.

I know Linus generally recommends the 7950 for its performance/value. I'm looking at it more as a longevity thing. I'd rather spend the extra $80 on the 7970 if I know it'll be worth it in the long run. With AMD cards not coming out til the end of the year, I don't want to get stuck paying $300 for a 7950, and then need to buy another card in a year to keep my system up to par. Or will I be in that boat even with a 7970? Or will they both still be competitive even after next gen cards come out?

FX-8350 build, 1920x1080.

[EChondo]

Well, you can overclock a 7950 to 7970 levels and you can overclock a 7970 to GHz levels. The 7970, in my opinion, would last you a long while, it probably won't max out 2014 games, but I'm pretty sure it will be just fine till 2015 or even later with a bit lower graphic details.

I say bite the bullet or go with a Nvidia 700 series. AMD says their 7000 series can beat Nvidia's 700 series, so I bet they are testing their cards to the max with all kinds of benchmarks and different drivers to try and see if they can create the ultimate driver for the 7000 series before they release their next generation. I own two 7870s, I bought my first one back in November of 2012 and I just bought my second one 3 weeks ago, I feel and know that I am set for a good while, so even down the line, you could always find a 7970 for cheap in a couple years and double your performance(theoretically).

If you want to save a bit of money, then go the 7950 route and just overclock it a bit in a year if you need more power.

[Frestylezz]

AMD says their 7000 series can beat Nvidia's 700 series

This goes both ways, but I don't believe either of them when they make such a statement...

[Beeblebrox]

The other problem, is a lot of people are reporting that a few vendors are voltage locking their newer shipments of cards. Gigabyte, XFX and Sapphire are all reported to have voltage locked cards now.

[EChondo]

AMD says their 7000 series can beat Nvidia's 700 series

This goes both ways' date=' but I don't believe either of them when they make such a statement...[/quote']

Yeah, I agree with you there. It does go both ways so we'll have to see what the 700 series entails.

The other problem' date=' is a lot of people are reporting that a few vendors are voltage locking their newer shipments of cards. Gigabyte, XFX and Sapphire are all reported to have voltage locked cards now. [/quote']

I've never read this, I know Nvidia and it's vendors for the 600 series are voltage locking their cards after the MSI debacle. Can you link me to where you saw this information?

[Beeblebrox]

Trying to find where I read it. It was on the Overclock.net forums.

I know for a fact Gigabytes are all voltage locked now. I was going to get the Gigabyte 7970 when it was on sale for $379. Reviews on both Amazon and Newegg are full of people complaining about it, and flashing the bios doesn't unlock it. Same for the Gigabyte 7950.

[christoi]

From what I've seen, futureproofing typically isn't worth it in the long run, even with the current incremental upgrade cycles. The price/performance of the HD7950 is better in the first place, you you aren't necessarily paying for a huge performance increase either. Personally I'd go with a HD7950 since it can max out most games today at 1080p, but that's your choice.

Just wondering however, where did you hear about Sapphire locking their cards? I've been reading that they are fine, at least their Dual-X and Vapor-X cards.

[EChondo]

Well either way, I have two 7870s from MSI and I can overvolt both of them just fine. Maybe it's certain vendors? I doubt AMD only vendors are locking their cards, I think it might be the vendors who manufacture cards for both teams like ASUS, Gigabyte, EVGA, MSI, etc.

[OPSJono]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sapphire-11196-09-40G-HD7950-Vapox-X-Graphics/dp/B0091MFBZC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360965602&sr=8-1

Or

http://www.amazon.co.uk/XFX-RADEON-7970-925M-HDMI/dp/B006VX52Q2/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=1BILA1X4OU29U&coliid=IVBRTVQNGJSOV

there's only about a £30 difference, but I'm just left wondering why the XFX 7970 is so cheap :/

Any thoughts?

Thanks

[Baxterz]

I`m using a 7970 right now and i would totally recommended it. It`s a great card, I can run pretty much every game all maxed at 60 FPS. And its got 3GB of RAM which put it a little bit better in performance over the 680.