AT members choice: GTX 680 or 7970 (ghz) ?

[boxleitnerb]

The poll is a bit ambiguous on that. Anyway, what I was saying is that you cannot take one review and draw your conclusions from there.

 

[Grooveriding]

Poll results more than speak to the current landscape quite well. No need to derail the thread. It's pretty obvious we are choosing the 7970GE vs 680. Get over it.

 

[Jaydip]

AMD did an amazing job with 12.11, the game bundle was icing on the cake.But if they only extended that offer to the early customers, I remember purchasing 7950 DC II for my brother at full price but looks like NV is in hot pursuit, fun time

 

[Eureka]

The OP did specify GE. And we are not drawing from one review. I would've recommended the 680 two months ago. Today, not anymore.

Legit Review:

Hardware Canucks:

I'm picking them at random, yeah you can see 680 does have the advantage in Shogun 2 with 4xAA (the 7970s are far faster at 0xAA).

There are still some games that the 680 still has advantage, but unless nVidia still has a card up their sleeve, this round pretty much solidifies the 7970s.

 

[Subyman]

I'd pick the 680 again if I was given the choice. It has been rock solid without any driver issues at all. Combined with low temp and low power, its been great for my computer which sits right next to me. I added a water block and it is constantly at 34C under load without heating up my CPU (same loop.)

As for purchasing. I would recommend a 7970 if a friend was purchasing one. However, I think it is a toss up, both a great cards.

 

[lavaheadache]

I'd pick the 680 again if I was given the choice. It has been rock solid without any driver issues at all. Combined with low temp and low power, its been great for my computer which sits right next to me. I added a water block and it is constantly at 34C under load without heating up my CPU (same loop.)

As for purchasing. I would recommend a 7970 if a friend was purchasing one. However, I think it is a toss up, both a great cards.

Both are nice cards. I was just trying to see what we as a community felt was the best of the generation.

Masses have spoken.

I believe the clear winner is the 7970 GHZ.

Personally I stick the regular 7970 right there with the GHZ but I know some people who would hang me over that.

 

[thm1223]

I have 2 7970 Vapor-X editions and if I could I would make sweet passionate love to them.

That being said, is the Ghz edition superior?

 

[lavaheadache]

no, the clock speeds are a little bit faster

 

[Durvelle27]

I have 2 7970 Vapor-X editions and if I could I would make sweet passionate love to them.

That being said, is the Ghz edition superior?

XD

 

[Eureka]

I have 2 7970 Vapor-X editions and if I could I would make sweet passionate love to them.

That being said, is the Ghz edition superior?

Ghz is just the same as a regular 7970, except with stock 1050/1500 clocks at 1.25V, IIRC.

 

[blastingcap]

It depends on the price. A free GTX 680 beats a 7970GHzEdition@$450, for example.

 

[ICDP]

Personally I stick the regular 7970 right there with the GHZ but I know some people who would hang me over that.

I agree with this. A standard HD 7970 and the GE version both have the same OC potential, so in effect they are the same card but the non GE versions are cheaper.

If someone prefers the GTX 680 then fair play to them, it is a great card and they would be very happy with it. That doesn't change the fact the 7970 is a clear performance and price winner as of this date.

 

[nOOky]

I don't know. I purchased my 7970 before the 680 came out so... if I had to choose today it would require me to evaluate them side by side in games that I play at 1920 x 1200 and then look at price and go from there. I'd probably stick with the newest version of the 7970 I have as it's been running at the max slider overclock in CCC since day one with no issues, and the included games make the deal a bit sweeter.

 

[AdamK47]

I would take the 7970. Add it to my three and have quad-fire. Also, it's obvious that CrossFire > SLI.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Frame time consistency? for single GPU? I'm not sure there is a major difference.

I have had them both and I never noticed this.

Yeah for single cards there is not a difference really at all. I've used both cards too. Well, close... a 670 and 7950. There is an fps difference, but neither would stutter noticeably when you ran them alone.

I would take the 7970. Add it to my three and have quad-fire. Also, it's obvious that CrossFire > SLI.

I'll give you the fact that at 3+ cards SLI isn't cost effective and since that's what you run I suppose that's where you are coming from. I stand firm on my opinion that microstutter is worse on x-fire and capping my framerate is not the ideal solution.

 

[PCboy]

it has nothing to do with the driver. Even with the 12.11 the 7970 is not faster than the GTX680.

It's only price which dictates the poll.

I know you're really fond of Nvidia but you need to let it go and just face the facts; they lost lost this generation and the poll shows it.

I was really proud of Nvidia last generation and I still love my 580 Lightning Xtreme but this time around, they lost, plain and simple.

MSI couldn't even make a 680 Lightning Xtreme variant because Nvidia started pressuring their AIBs to stop doing custom designs. This is the same reason why we never saw the Asus Mars III, which what I was gunning for and was really let down to realize that Nvidia chose the "safe and steady" path.

If you compare a 580 and a 6970 vs a 680 and a 7970, the difference is huge. The 680 just pales in comparison to its predecessor, let alone being 3 months late and only coming out with 2GB. They have no one else to blame but themselves.

 

[Siberian]

Poll results more than speak to the current landscape quite well. No need to derail the thread. It's pretty obvious we are choosing the 7970GE vs 680. Get over it.

A forum dominated by AMD fans voted for the AMD product. Pretty thin veil there.

Go look at the steam survey which shows what people are actually buying. The 680 is ahead of the 7970 even though it has not been for sale as long.

 

[Eureka]

A forum dominated by AMD fans voted for the AMD product. Pretty thin veil there.

Go look at the steam survey which shows what people are actually buying. The 680 is ahead of the 7970 even though it has not been for sale as long.

There's no doubt that nVidia has always had the popular vote in general. However, we here at anandtech prefer to go off of objective metrics such as actual performance.

 

[Rvenger]

A forum dominated by AMD fans voted for the AMD product. Pretty thin veil there.

Go look at the steam survey which shows what people are actually buying. The 680 is ahead of the 7970 even though it has not been for sale as long.

How about if Nvidia was the clear winner that poll would look a lot different. I would have told you a different story back in June as well. Facts are facts whether you like them or not. The poll speaks for itself. We know if AMD was 50% faster you still would think they were slower or did not have physx etc etc.


I have owned the 680, 670, 7950, 7970. They are all fantastic cards.

 

[Siberian]

How about if Nvidia was the clear winner that poll would look a lot different. I would have told you a different story back in June as well. Facts are facts whether you like them or not. The poll speaks for itself. We know if AMD was 50% faster you still would think they were slower or did not have physx etc etc.


I have owned the 680, 670, 7950, 7970. They are all fantastic cards.

An opinion poll is now a fact? If this poll ran at geforce.com would you expect the same result?

The steam survey tracks actual ownership and that is a fact.

 

[Eureka]

An opinion poll is now a fact? If this poll ran at geforce.com would you expect the same result?

The steam survey tracks actual ownership and that is a fact.

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...han-hd7970-since-12-11-catalyst-even-in-bf3-/

 

[cmdrdredd]

I think what it comes down to is AMD took longer than they should have to get to where they are now on new drivers. Nvidia didn't need to do anything. On day one they were faster and sold a ton, still sell a ton based on those older reviews and likely some cause of physx.

Lesson here is not to release a good card with poor performing drivers and expect your product to sell based on a future chance of higher performance. Part of the reason we have Ghz editions and lower pricing while Nvidia hasn't lowered prices much at all.

 

[Ferzerp]

I think what it comes down to is AMD took longer than they should have to get to where they are now on new drivers. Nvidia didn't need to do anything. On day one they were faster and sold a ton, still sell a ton based on those older reviews and likely some cause of physx.

Lesson here is not to release a good card with poor performing drivers and expect your product to sell based on a future chance of higher performance. Part of the reason we have Ghz editions and lower pricing while Nvidia hasn't lowered prices much at all.

Ignoring SLI vs CFX for a moment (because I'm in the minority in using multi-gpu).

The reason nvidia got my money this round was that when the 680 was released, it was both cheaper and faster than the AMD offering. It was really poor planning on AMD's part (as we've come to expect) to release a part at the price they did, and then have the nvidia offering best it on release. Anyone who did what I did (wait until both products were out to decide which to purchase this time), would have gone with the nvidia product. Months after the battle was over, AMD flipped the performance and got back on top for single gpu performance, but at that point, it was too late to get my $ (and I'm sure many others). How do the sales figures (total cards sold, not amd vs nvidia) look for the few months after the 680 release compared to the more recent months?

That, and the majority of people just don't *want* to buy AMD product. Personally, I don't care, I buy based on performance and little else, but even when the AMD cards are superior, people still buy the nvidia. The value of the AMD name is very, very low.

 

[Eureka]

That is pretty true. I would've gone with a nVidia card, I was going to buy a 660 2 months ago but then I decided to save up for a top card. The 7970 came back with a punch.

However, that doesn't matter. The simple point is, the OP asked which card is better now, and the answer would be the 7970. It's clearly the faster card now, even if the ownership doesn't reflect that.

 

[cmdrdredd]

That's what I was saying. You are a perfect example of what I am talking about. If you are only buying single cards now of course a 7970 is better, but when you look at it at the time of the GTX680 release when some people might have been ready to upgrade what happened? The 7970 wasn't looking as good against the 680.

So yeah, when you're ready to buy a card and you check the benchmarks is when it matters. Not months after your upgrade. Also I know a few people who won't buy AMD based on their marketshare or stock pricing which is not something I personally consider anyway.

Nvidia has been around a long time in the GPU business, they have that name. I think partially AMD's CPU division being slower than Intel's offerings hurts their overall image and people equate the CPU to the GPU division which is unfair to begin with.