R9 280X vs OC'ed 7970 (Watercooled)

[surjerrylee]

Hey guys, I just bought a Sapphire 7970 (non-GHz edition) for $240. Currently, the Sapphire R9 280X Toxic edition is on sale for $300. I'm wondering if it's worth the $60 upgrade. From what I've read the R9 series will overclock until it reaches its thermal limit. I keep hearing the R9 280X is simply a "rebranded" version of the 7970GHz Edition. I've seen benchmark tests and the two are almost identical in performance, but would I be better sticking with the 7970, watercooling, then overclocking it?

 

On one hand, if I get the R9 280X, it already comes with a great cooling system, so water cooling isn't really necessary, but I suppose I could get even better performance if I did. On the other hand, I could keep the 7970, watercool and overclock it. The question is, would the difference in performance justify the $60 jump?

 

My build is:

Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD3H LGA 1150 Intel Z87

CPU - i7 4770K

RAM - G. Skill Sniper Series 2x 4GB 1866MHz

SSD - Not sure yet

HDD - 2x 1TB Seagate HDD in RAID 0

PSU - Corsair TX 750W

WCS - XSPC Raystorm D5 Photon AX240 (with the addition of GPU depending on the GPU verdict)

Case - Corsair Carbide 500R

 

I will be gaming in 1080P for a long time. Maybe 2+ years, which is why I'm deciding to not buy the R9 290. If you guys recommend watercooling the R9 280x or the 7970, which waterblock would you pick and why? And which radiator/fan combo and why?

 

Can you show me any benchmarks? Thanks!

[thomas66]

Not worth the upgrade imo seeing that you can get the same performance by OCing or close to. 

7970 will play games at 1080p for years to come.

[Andrew0472]

looking at some benchmarks, the 280x would only be like 5 fps give or take faster than the 7970. Once you overclock it especially under water the difference would be hard to tell, like what is 5 fps really when you have a card capable of 60fps in most games. I'd save the 60 bucks and buy a couple of case fans or something like that

[kreotis]

A waterblocked 7970 will run miles around a 280X on air. They are the same GPU.

[Unhelpful]

They are literally the EXACT SAME CARD. You can even crossfire a 280x with a 7970.

[surjerrylee]

Alrite this makes sense, however one of the features I really like about the R9 290 is that it will overclock until it reaches its thermal limits. Is this true about the R9 280X? If so, would that feature alone be worth the extra $60?

[BYOGamingPC]

Keep the 7970 especially on water. It's a bangin card that should last you quite a while and for the price you got it at, it's a steal.

[surjerrylee]

I plan on buying Battlefield 4 and currently the Gigabyte Windforce is on sale for $300 AND it comes with Battlefield 4. If I stick with the Sapphire 7970 and I plan on getting BF4 anyway, wouldn't it make sense to just get the Windforce? Which one has higher overclocking headroom?

 

Here's the Windforce card I'm talking about: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?SID=HijP1lvDEeOOKX6F092uNwuiPB_orcq3_0_0_0&AID=10440897&PID=1225267&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-cables-_-na-_-na&Item=N82E16814125490&cm_sp=

[bob345]

keep the 7970. the two cards are the same thing.

[surjerrylee]

keep the 7970. the two cards are the same thing.

 

The R9 280X has a higher clock speed and since I plan on getting BF4 it'd be like a $20 price difference. Is it still not worth it? 

[bob345]

The R9 280X has a higher clock speed and since I plan on getting BF4 it'd be like a $20 price difference. Is it still not worth it? 

 i personaly don't think it is worth the upgrade. just overclock the card and you will be good to go. The 7970 is a great card by itself and should have no issues running bf4.

[surjerrylee]

Okay it makes sense, but what about Mantle support and other features that come with the R9 280X? Is there really NO benefit other than higher performance?

 

Also, I'm looking at the "Effective Memory Clocks". The HD 7970 has 1425MHz(5.7Gbps) / 1450MHz(5.8Gbps) where the Windforce has 6000MHz

 

Can anyone explain what this means?

[SlaughterSmurf]

They are the same card so why pay more for the same thing?

[SkulD]

Okay it makes sense, but what about Mantle support and other features that come with the R9 280X? Is there really NO benefit other than higher performance?

 

Also, I'm looking at the "Effective Memory Clocks". The HD 7970 has 1425MHz(5.7Gbps) / 1450MHz(5.8Gbps) where the Windforce has 6000MHz

 

Can anyone explain what this means?

TRy to OC the memory to 6000mhz I did that with my 7970 from sapphire, I OC it to 1000mhz core and 6000mhz Vram with +10% power just in case it ever needs moar powah, works great.

[surjerrylee]

TRy to OC the memory to 6000mhz I did that with my 7970 from sapphire, I OC it to 1000mhz core and 6000mhz Vram with +10% power just in case it ever needs moar powah, works great.

 

Do you have a guide on how to do this?

[SkulD]

Do you have a guide on how to do this?

Sorry if my reply is kind of late.

 

I'll make you a guide or find you one tomorrow, I am going to bed right now, and I have to get up early tomorrow for work Dx.

 

But basically you have to

1. go to the catalyst control center,
2. under the performance tab,
3. then graphics overdrive,
4. enable graphics overdrive 
5. the "high performance GPU settings" set it to 1000MHz
6. the "high performance clock settings" set it to 1500MHz
7. the "power control settings" set it to +10%
8. Then Apply the changes

 

after that do a stress test with Furmark, kombustor or OCCT, and play a couple of games to see if it is stable.

 

If it crashes, then your gpu can't take the OC, or you could try increasing the power control setting, or rolling back the OC a little bit.

 

A proper guide will be more useful, what i just did is a step by step quick OC of this particular card.

 

There are better programs for OC like "afterburner" from MSI or the "sapphire trixx"

 

I overclocked my card with catalyst because it was already installed, and it worked from the start I used GPU-z to log the GPU usage, to confirm that my card wasn't throttling or anything.

 

See you tomorrow.

[SkulD]

Okay it makes sense, but what about Mantle support and other features that come with the R9 280X? Is there really NO benefit other than higher performance?

 

Also, I'm looking at the "Effective Memory Clocks". The HD 7970 has 1425MHz(5.7Gbps) / 1450MHz(5.8Gbps) where the Windforce has 6000MHz

 

Can anyone explain what this means?

Hi again, I re-read you post and I'll quickly answer somethings =D

 

1.- "Okay it makes sense, but what about Mantle support and other features that come with the R9 280X? Is there really NO benefit other than higher performance?"

 

A: the r9 280x is a re-branded 7970 Ghz edition with a little OC, BOTH card will benefit from mantle, because mantle WILL support HD7000 series cards and up, starting with the HD 7850.

 

2.- "Also, I'm looking at the "Effective Memory Clocks". The HD 7970 has 1425MHz(5.7Gbps) / 1450MHz(5.8Gbps) where the Windforce has 6000MHz"

 

A: my 7970 has those very same clocks, because it has 2 bios, wich means that by a flick of a switch (while the PC is turned off) you can change the operating speed of the GPU from 950 to 1000MHz and the effective memory clocks from 5.7Gbps to 5.8Gbps, BUT i overclocked my memory by +50 to reach 6000MHz.

 

Another thing is

1425*4= 5.700 (5.7Gbps)

1450*4= 5.800 (5.8Gbps)

1450+50*4= 6.000 (6.0Gbps) this is my overclock, VERY small overclock, but i like round numbers .

 

I can't remember exactly why you had to multiply those numbers by 4, but it had something to do with the dual channel memory architecture of the Vram plus the fact that they are GDDR5. please someone correct me if i'm wrong.

 

Now to sleep bye bye.

 

Also, I bought an R9 280x (windforce from gigabyte) and crossfired it with my 7970 (OC boost from Sapphire) works like a charm, since they share the same GPU (not to be confused with graphics card, the GPU is the core of the graphics card).

[surjerrylee]

Sweet! Thanks for the info! I have the same setup as well! What are the odds! How big is your PSU? I have the 750W Corsair TX but I'm definitely going to upgrade to perhaps 1000W so I don't have to worry.

 

As of now, is there a way to toggle crossfire on/off like Nvidia?

[WoodenMarker]

They are literally the EXACT SAME CARD. You can even crossfire a 280x with a 7970.

A 7970 even shows up as a 280x in gpu-z.