7970 or 680?

[AnyOldName3]

That makes me want to go to John Lewis right now and buy one. Shame I can't afford to drop 7K on a TV, and they usualy close between 5 and 8 PM, and it's half past 10.

[kirbypuff]

(03-24-2012, 06:40 AM)Gir Wrote: GTX680 supports 3840 x 2160, imagine that resolution in Dolphin

2160p TVs are already out
http://www.johnlewis.com/231549250/Product.aspx

HD7xxx GPUs support that resolution as well.

But even if you have such a setup, you still can't use it to its full potential, because Dolphin doesn't have a setting for 6x (integer) IR
(Window size / Fractional causes glitches)


7970 is still a better buy (after the price drop, of course):

* 3GB of VRAM (vs. 2GB on the 680). More future-proof.
* The drivers for the 7970 are still far from optimized (Catalyst 12.4 should address many of the game glitches, OpenGL, OpenCL, AA and performance issues. Check out the beta driver - it's awesome)
* OpenCL and DirectCompute apps run much faster on the 7970
* AMD cards have better analog / 2D image quality (if you still use one of those old displays with a VGA connector)
* Uses less power at standby, idle and low to medium load.

[lamedude]

AMD because GCN architecture runs GCN games better. [citation needed]
You get a bigger die, more PCB layers, and RAM so Tahiti feels like a better value.
I'd wait for GK110 or price drops. I wouldn't spend >$400 for a <50% increase over a 6970.

[Zee530]

680 anyday

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:* 3GB of VRAM (vs. 2GB on the 680). More future-proof.

*facepalm*

That's like saying buying a 1GB 8500GT was more future proof than a 512MB 8500GT.

Quote:* AMD cards have better analog / 2D image quality (if you still use one of those old displays with a VGA connector)

A BS urban myth that nobody has ever been able to produce any proof for.

Quote:* Uses less power at standby, idle and low to medium load.

Not according to any of the reviews I've seen.

Quote:AMD because GCN architecture runs GCN games better. [citation needed]

That makes no sense.

Quote:You get a bigger die, more PCB layers, and RAM so Tahiti feels like a better value.

Neither a bigger die or more PCB layers are necessarily good things.

Quote:I'd wait for GK110 or price drops. I wouldn't spend >$400 for a <50% increase over a 6970.

Agreed, although that's not what the OP asked for.

[Ness]

Alright, I'm still not completely sure.. The 680 seems like a pretty big improvement over the 7970 (15fps or so in some benchmarks) however the 7970 runs on 3GB GDDR5 - Since I'm running on three monitors @ 5760x1080, will this make a noticeable difference? I'm an AMD fan so I may just end up getting a 7970 however for a while of having my 6970 I lusted for the 580, and my first discrete graphics card was an 8800 GTX, so I could really go either way.

[admin89]

toss the coin to choose

[NaturalViolence]

Quote: Since I'm running on three monitors @ 5760x1080, will this make a noticeable difference?

It shouldn't but benchmarks do show that for whatever reason the 7970 seems to win when running at extremely high resolutions like that.

Quote:I'm an AMD fan so I may just end up getting a 7970 however for a while of having my 6970 I lusted for the 580, and my first discrete graphics card was an 8800 GTX, so I could really go either way.

Well although I do think the 680 is a better overall card I will admit they aren't very far apart. So get whatever floats your boat.

[AnyOldName3]

If you are planning on getting many nVidia enhanced pc games that use PhysX and cuda then that should make you buy the 680. If you won't be doing anything involving these things then your still just as stuck.