Which graphics card?

Squaredude

I'm torn between getting this GTX 680 or this 7970.Which would be the better card to get?
My current spec is posted below,I'll be upgrading my psu to a Corsair AX850
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 450W
8GB G-Skill PC3-10667U CL9
Powercolor HD6870 1024MB Dual-DVI/HD1M2I5
ASRock Z77 Pro4-M, Sockel 1155, mATX
Intel Core i5-3570K Box
Crucial 128GB M4 SSD
WD Caviar Green 1TB
NZXT Phantom 630

Maragenie

The XFX 7970 on scan is a great deal with a couple of games aswell thrown in for good measure. I'm going for the 7950 black version myself, been trying to decide for weeks now and settled on that. It's getting great reviews, very cool and very quite.

BloodBath

I'd go with the 7950. Clock for clock it's only 5% slower than the 7970 and they should both overclock to around the same levels. I have a 30% stable overclock on my 7970. Bought second hand or I would have got a 7950.

Here's a good deal with 2 new free games.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-gigabyte-radeon-hd-7950-windforce-3x-5000mhz-gddr5-900mhz-1792-cores-dual-link-dvi-i-hdmi-2x-min

The base clocks on that are low but that means you have even more room to overclock. You could go to 1150-1250/6000-6400 from the base 900/5000 pretty easily if your ambient temps aren't too high.
At those speeds you will be within 5% of overclocked 7970's and 680gtx's for a lot less.


I'm not sure if you need to upgrade that psu tbh. You would be pushing it close to it's limits though which is probably not the best thing to do. That 850w is overkill though unless you plan on going crossfire down the line. Your motherboard only supports crossfire and not sli if you do. I have the same 1

Squaredude

Only going up to 850w as I plan to overclock the cpu and possibly crossfire/sli.I'll probably buy a new motherboard towards the end of the year.Cables on my current psu are really being stretched since I upgraded my case to the NZXT Phantom 630.

There's so many graphics cards out there and so many variations of them it's making my decision quite difficult.Might just get a GTX Titan

BloodBath

Why?

That would be a complete waste of money?

You're gaming at 1080p.

An overclocked 7950 is going to run most games at ultra settings at 60fps.

Squaredude

I was joking,there's no way in hell I'd waste my money on that.Yeah I'm probably going to rule out the 680,the damn thing is just too big.I'm leaning towards the HIS 7970 as the cooling on it is pretty damn good.Running at 60 C or below when overclocked and under full load.Will probably change my mind about 100 times before I actually buy anything.

Elessar

I've a ASUS DirectIICU HD7970 which is a beast (3 slots) and I'm very happy with it. OCs to 1125/6300 without trouble. Plays everything I can throw at it at ultra settings.

Don't forget to email your retailer for a voucher for the Never Settle: Reloaded offer from AMD. Basically, I just got download codes for Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite free just because I bought a 7970

murphthesmurf

I'm looking at one of these -
http://www.hardwareversand.de/3072+MB/72524/ASUS+MATRIX-HD7970-P-3GD5%2C+Radeon+HD+7970+GHz+Edition%2C+3GB+DDR5.article

If your not shy of overclocking this is the card to get. Has hand picked gpu, will overclock in excess of 1300MHZ, is built for it. Availability not looking good though.
Although I'm tempted by a few cheap GTX690's I'm watching on Ebay, they'll prob shoot up in price though

Squaredude

murphthesmurf wrote: »

I'm looking at one of these -
http://www.hardwareversand.de/3072+MB/72524/ASUS+MATRIX-HD7970-P-3GD5%2C+Radeon+HD+7970+GHz+Edition%2C+3GB+DDR5.article

If your not shy of overclocking this is the card to get. Has hand picked gpu, will overclock in excess of 1300MHZ, is built for it. Availability not looking good though.
Although I'm tempted by a few cheap GTX690's I'm watching on Ebay, they'll prob shoot up in price though

Was looking at the same one,they have it on overclockers but its €625.I think I'm going to get this GTX 680 as soon as its back in stock.Hopefully going to go for a triple monitor set-up in the near future.I ordered an ax860 power supply last night.This pc gaming really burns a hole in your wallet.

murphthesmurf

If the 7970 Matrix had some sort of delivery date it'd be the better buy. 70 euro cheaper and when overclocked would outperform that gtx680. The 4gb of ram on that 680 would be handy for a triple monitor setup. That kind of setup needs some serious horsepower. Can't believe that price on Overclockers, rip off!!
It's certainly an expensive hobby. I'm in the process of buying parts for a whole new build as my current pc is a bit long in the tooth now. I've been buying parts for around 4 months not counting xmas and still have a lot to get. Hardwareversand is the cheapest online shop I've found. Cheaper than Scan even.

Squaredude

I actually remember reading somewhere that the asus matrix has been discontinued,could be wrong though.Yeah since christmas I've bought a ssd ,a new monitor, a new hdd ,new speakers,a new mouse and a new case and next week I'll be getting a new gpu and I'll probably get a water cooler for my cpu and some case lights.And I swear after that I'm buying nothing else :rolleyes:.some of the prices on overclockers are terrible but some can be quite good,its hit and miss really.

Maragenie

Just ordered my GPU the other day from OC.uk, ended up getting the MSI OC edition 7950 and saved €40 because it was on a limited one day offer. Very lucky actually as the night before I was about to order the XFX version of the card because it was inside my budget and the MSI card was costing too much.

The whole thing with Crisis 3 and Bioshock set me back €275, on adverts.ie now there's fellas trying to get €300+ and that's 2nd hand, that site is just so frustrating...

BloodBath

Not bad. You're gonna overclock the crap out of it for Crysis 3. Seriously good looking game. The first game that I've had to turn some settings down a little in.

Ebay is alright for second hand stuff. You can get some good deals. I got a perfect sapphire 7970 for €280.

Maragenie

BloodBath wrote: »

Not bad. You're gonna overclock the crap out of it for Crysis 3. Seriously good looking game. The first game that I've had to turn some settings down a little in.

Ebay is alright for second hand stuff. You can get some good deals. I got a perfect sapphire 7970 for €280.

Well that's the thing, you took a chance and it paid off, I was considering getting one second hand aswell but their wasn't any real point or value in it, especially on Adverts, that site nearly drove me to drink.

All in all I'd been looking for a card for over a month and nothing came up, just got lucky with the timing on this card. I'll have it tomorrow so I'm pretty excited now as I'd been using the on board graphics of my i5 3570k cpu since I built the computer a month ago, in fairness the graphics weren't dire but then again I didn't try playing games like Crisis 3.

Squaredude

Ended up going for an Evga gtx 670 ftw in the end.Hoping to have it tomorrow.