Single gtx 670, is 4gb worth getting?

[draigan89]

Hi i've been looking at a single 670, and I wanted know if its worth getting the 4gb version instead of the 2gb.

Currently i'm waiting to sell one of my current cards on ebay before I make a purchase, but as soon as its sold i want to buy a new card. This ofc might take a while

Initially I was going to sell one card get a 2gb 670 then sell the other card. The price of the 4gb card put me off of completely, but ive come across some of the EVGA 4GB GeForce GTX 670 Superclocked cards for £370 compared to the £400.

So now im reconsidering, whether or not to get the 2gb or the 4gb.

So its either (unless anyone else has any suggestions)

2gb: GTX 670 Windforce 3X

or

4gb: EVGA 4GB GeForce GTX 670 Superclocked

I don't have any plans to go sli as using crossfire has put me off using multiple gpu's, ive not written it off completely its unlikely.

atm im kind of put off AMD, but thats mostly due to crossfire. So im also considering either a 7950 or 7970 as they come with 3gb vram (assuming i need it or can make use off it) plus they seem to have better game bundles. And the pricing is roughly the same for the 7970 and 670.

Monitor/Resolution wise

Currently i'm using, depending on the game.

3 x Dell u2711 @ 7860 x 1440
or
1 x Dell u2711 @ 2560 x 1440

Pc Specs

Antec DF-85 case
Crossfire ASUS HD 6950(Unlocked) 2gb (The cards im trying to sell)
i5 2500k @ 4.5ghz
8gb ram DDR3
p8p67 pro rev 3.1
240 gb ocz agility 3
1tb hdd
900w antec power supply (high current gamer series)

 

[Jaydip]

The 4gb 670s are only useful @ eyefinity resolutions and at your res you can actually make a good use of the extra 2gb vram.But given the same price-point I would suggest a 7970.

 

[Arkaign]

The 4gb 670s are only useful @ eyefinity resolutions and at your res you can actually make a good use of the extra 2gb vram.But given the same price-point I would suggest a 7970.

^ This.

I have a 670 FTW 2GB, and it's fantastic for 1920x1200, all stock. Great card, no regrets.

For the $, the 3GB 7970 with the newer better clocks is a better deal. If you happen upon one of the 2560x1440/1600 screens down the line, or go 3-wide.

 

[tviceman]

Save yourself the $$$ and get the 2gb model.

 

[Arkaign]

Save yourself the $$$ and get the 2gb model.

Did you read his resolution, looks like he is already at 2560, where the 7970 3GB pays off (newer clocked versions).

OP, look up threads where RussianSensation comments on the current crop of 7970s, he's got the lowdown on what to snap up. The GTX 670, even higher clocked 680PCB models like my FTW, fall behind a bit to the 7970 revised models at those resolutions.

 

[draigan89]

Did you read his resolution, looks like he is already at 2560, where the 7970 3GB pays off (newer clocked versions).

OP, look up threads where RussianSensation comments on the current crop of 7970s, he's got the lowdown on what to snap up. The GTX 670, even higher clocked 680PCB models like my FTW, fall behind a bit to the 7970 revised models at those resolutions.

By newer clocked versions I assume you mean the ghz ones?

Could i not get similar performance buying one of these or similar. Then overclocking them?

HIS HD 7970 IceQ X² 3072MB

XFX Black Edition Radeon HD 7970

And im going to look through his posts now, any in particular I should look at?

Also Ive noticed the For sale trade section on the forum. I cant get in though, I assume theres a requirement like number of posts? or membership duration?

 

[Rvenger]

The older 7970s are fine as well if you don't mind boosting the clocks to match the ghz edition. Even at stock you are in good shape too.

 

[jacktesterson]

7970 is the better deal for sure. (GHz editions don't really matter since I haven't seen a 7970 that failed to clock above 1000 MHz on stock voltage anyways. My Asus 7970 would run at 1175 @ stock before selling it)

I've had no driver issues since 12.6, AMD GPU division is doing things right lately.

 

[Arkaign]

By newer clocked versions I assume you mean the ghz ones?

Could i not get similar performance buying one of these or similar. Then overclocking them?

HIS HD 7970 IceQ X² 3072MB

XFX Black Edition Radeon HD 7970

And im going to look through his posts now, any in particular I should look at?

Also Ive noticed the For sale trade section on the forum. I cant get in though, I assume theres a requirement like number of posts? or membership duration?

You could try PM'ing him, or maybe start a thread "Which 7970?". He seems to have a pretty good rundown on prices and model features. Even things which can be annoying such as coil whine, loud fans, etc. These kinds of issues affect not just 7970, but many many models from both Nvidia and AMD from various vendors.

IIRC that HIS has coil whine issues, and XFX has cheaped out on quality and warranty. Don't quote me on that, but that's what I've gathered.

 

[cmdrdredd]

No single card is good enough for me at 2560x1440 or above. Doesn't matter if it's a 670, a 7970, or a 6GB toxic 7970. I would need more power than a single GPU can give.

It's not even VRAM because in many games I am not using 2GB at 2560x1440. It's raw performance.

So to answer the OP directly the 4GB model won't be very beneficial over the 2GB one just based on the performance not going up only the VRAM count.

 

[Arkaign]

No single card is good enough for me at 2560x1440 or above. Doesn't matter if it's a 670, a 7970, or a 6GB toxic 7970. I would need more power than a single GPU can give.

It's not even VRAM because in many games I am not using 2GB at 2560x1440. It's raw performance.

So to answer the OP directly the 4GB model won't be very beneficial over the 2GB one just based on the performance not going up only the VRAM count.

This is sensible, I think the only value in getting the 4GB model would be for SLI with 2560x1600, as some games already push 2GB at 2560x1440 (Skyrim + mods, GTA4 + mods, etc). For a single card it's kind of senseless, as the 670 doesn't push hard enough to really make 1440p/1600p move that well without backing off a good bit on AA. The 7970 3GB is somewhere between 20-30% faster at those resolutions once both are clocked to sane limits.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I ran skyrim with 4k textures, ENB mods and all the trimmings with 32x CSAA and didn't eat up my full 2GB. I'm sure it was close at times but never a problem. Not yet anyway.

Who knows what Crysis 3 will need or Watch Dogs later on.

 

[RussianSensation]

3 x Dell u2711 @ 7860 x 1440

I would go with HD7970 Cross-fire + OC.

The other sensible choice would be HD7950 CF OC. I wouldn't get 670 2GB for SLI now that 670 4GB versions are so much cheaper if you intend to use 3 monitors. Also, AMD cards are significantly faster in performance once you exceed 2560x1600 resolution and go multi-monitor.

GTX690 x 2 is barely faster than 2x HD7970 GE cards at 1920x1200 x 3 Monitors
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/graphics/display/geforce-gtx-690-sli_6.html#sect3

3x (2560x1440) monitors would swing the advantage even more in favour of HD7970 CF over GTX670 SLI. For single monitor use, 670 SLI is excellent.

 

[jacktesterson]

You could try PM'ing him, or maybe start a thread "Which 7970?". He seems to have a pretty good rundown on prices and model features. Even things which can be annoying such as coil whine, loud fans, etc. These kinds of issues affect not just 7970, but many many models from both Nvidia and AMD from various vendors.

IIRC that HIS has coil whine issues, and XFX has cheaped out on quality and warranty. Don't quote me on that, but that's what I've gathered.

XFX cards work fine if Overclocking isn't involved.

I use them for peoples builds often. They look great too.

I just find they usually are not suited for Overclocking compared to MSI, Asus, etc

 

[draigan89]

So as im probably, only going to be getting one card. The choice is really between a 2gb 670 and a 7970 then?

Im not overly bothered about being able to play on 3 monitors, as i didn't get them solely for gaming anyway.

And the only thing I seem to be playing atm is Guildwars 2, which i've been running at 7860x1440. On a single 6950 (the other card is bagged up ready to be sent when someone buys it).

Graphics settings wise I don't mind turning them down Id rather not but smooth game play to me is always more important, a lot of the time I don't really even bother with things like AA. I just tend to pick what seems to offer the most obvious improvement, for performance cost.

So im going to be good with either really, although from some places the 7970 comes with sleeping dogs, which I did think about getting at some point, and I do eventually decide to give multiple gpu'sa try again ill be in a better situation.

So It looks like ill probably be going with a 7970.

Also what should I expect to get for one of my cards. Currently its on ebay for £140 + 10 P&p buy it now. Not bothered with an auction. Some one did send me a message asking if id go for £125. But i hadn't set the listing to allow people to make offers. Since changing it i've had 2 both for £85.

 

[BusyBeaverHP]

I ran skyrim with 4k textures, ENB mods and all the trimmings with 32x CSAA and didn't eat up my full 2GB. I'm sure it was close at times but never a problem. Not yet anyway.

Who knows what Crysis 3 will need or Watch Dogs later on.

I'm also running all the 2k/4k textures, with ENB, a bunch of graphical enhancements, and 8xAA. The difference is that I also added extra parameters to my .cfg files to increase draw distances, and saw VRAM usage skyrocket:

1. Indoor Area
2. Outdoor Area
3. Winterhold. Notice the GPU usage.
4. Over 3100 MB VRAM in use

Generally speaking, the extra VRAM won't help with max FPS, but rather min FPS, where load time stutter is diminished by having extra game data in cache.

If the OP is about to get a GTX 670, the 4GB variant will come in handy in the case of Skyrim.

 

[BusyBeaverHP]

Also to OP: I was a user of Crossfire before I went green with SLI. I had 2x 4890's and the microstutter was very apparent, even with high FPS. I'm currently using 2x GTX 680 4GB in SLI, and it is a markedly smoother experience, even at low framerates. It feels like I'm using one card instead of two.

 

[RussianSensation]

Busy, this is because the slower the GPUs, the more the micro-stutter. You cannot compare micro-stutter on 4890s to 680 SLI / 7970 CF.

This is true for almost all GPUs. While I am not denying that SLI may be smoother overall, slower cards provide worse fps and once you dip below a certain level on dual GPUs, micro-stutter is severe!

This even shows up on HD6990/590s.
http://techreport.com/review/22890/nvidia-geforce-gtx-690-graphics-card/3

For single-GPUs at 2560x1440/1600, HD7970 GE Sapphire Vapor-X or MSI Lightning 7970 1070mhz or Gigabyte Windforce 3x 1100mhz HD7970 GE OC are pretty much the fastest card overall under $500 without going to the TOXIC or HIS X 7970. Guild Wars 2 doesn't have any advantage for NV either. However, with an upgrade path down the line, GTX670 SLI also seems like a reasonable choice.

For single-GPUs though, 670 is far behind a 7970 at high resolutions, 7970 GE is 3rd fastest card on that chart (all the way down): 19% faster than a GTX670 and 9% faster than a 680.

Also, HD7970 handles ENB much better than 670/680 series (that's not to say 670/680 are slow, but they are definitely slower):
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2012/test-amd-radeon-hd-7950-mit-925-mhz/19/

Finally, Guild Wars 2 seems to have excellent scaling even with 4x 7970s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nHKqbNX4fs

I think overall, can't go wrong with a GTX670 4GB and add a 2nd one later of HD7970 GE. Both are better choices than a 680 at current prices, especially the 680 4GB card is insanely overpriced.

 

[BrightCandle]

I used to have 2 7970s and the microstutter was very apparent. A pair of 680s on the otherhand is much better. Honestly I would call cross fired 7970s unplayable because the stutter happens at anything but 60fps. Even with just a single card the frame rate noticeably stutters. I have had a 4870, 4870x2, 5970, 2x7970 and now 2x680 and without a doubt the delivery of frames on the Nvidia cards is substantially better.

I hated every minute with those 7970s they were terrible and I put up with it for 6 months and kept raising the issue with amd. I got nowhere took a punt that nvidia sli was better and couldn't believe by how much. You don't need more than 2gb at all, I run 5760x1200 and my cards are more than sufficient. Intact the 2x 680 achieve 3 screen gaming in games the 7970s really struggled with.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I'm also running all the 2k/4k textures, with ENB, a bunch of graphical enhancements, and 8xAA. The difference is that I also added extra parameters to my .cfg files to increase draw distances, and saw VRAM usage skyrocket:

1. Indoor Area
2. Outdoor Area
3. Winterhold. Notice the GPU usage.
4. Over 3100 MB VRAM in use

Generally speaking, the extra VRAM won't help with max FPS, but rather min FPS, where load time stutter is diminished by having extra game data in cache.

If the OP is about to get a GTX 670, the 4GB variant will come in handy in the case of Skyrim.

Maybe but I know there has been proof thst precisionx and afterburner are sometimes not reporting the true in use number. I forget the program used to get the real number. Some type of process explorer thing. Anyway yeah I guess maybe you can force it to go over. I never saw the need to mess with the config files. Either way, generally speaking the overall performance does not change that much just from extra memory.

 

[jacktesterson]

I used to have 2 7970s and the microstutter was very apparent. A pair of 680s on the otherhand is much better. Honestly I would call cross fired 7970s unplayable because the stutter happens at anything but 60fps. Even with just a single card the frame rate noticeably stutters. I have had a 4870, 4870x2, 5970, 2x7970 and now 2x680 and without a doubt the delivery of frames on the Nvidia cards is substantially better.

I hated every minute with those 7970s they were terrible and I put up with it for 6 months and kept raising the issue with amd. I got nowhere took a punt that nvidia sli was better and couldn't believe by how much. You don't need more than 2gb at all, I run 5760x1200 and my cards are more than sufficient. Intact the 2x 680 achieve 3 screen gaming in games the 7970s really struggled with.

Sorry, but this was not my experience at all with 2x 7970s. I felt it worked great.

At 5760x1200 the 7970's are faster than 680's too.....

 

[BusyBeaverHP]

Busy, this is because the slower the GPUs, the more the micro-stutter. You cannot compare micro-stutter on 4890s to 680 SLI / 7970 CF

Sure you can, if both card setups can be benchmarked at 60 FPS, it's easy to feel the smoothness of one setup over the other.

Let's say you're running something that even a pair of 4890's can overwhelm on the highest settings, like UT3 or Killing Floor, which should run 60 FPS min, you can run the same bunch of games through a pair of GTX 680's, and compare the relative smoothness between the two setups.

Of course, the feel is subjective; if you wanted to get scientific and extract hard numbers for comparing the micro-stutter, FRAPS can measure the latency between each individual frames.

Without even showing the numbers, let me tell you: 60 FPS on my HD 4890's is not the same 60 FPS on my GTX 680's, not even close.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Sorry, but this was not my experience at all with 2x 7970s. I felt it worked great.

At 5760x1200 the 7970's are faster than 680's too.....

This seems to be turning into a micro stutter debate. I did my research and asked people and I always found that users noticed more stutter on AMD setups vs nvidia. I was even told that while the fps is higher by a bit the game feels laggy due to the stutter. You may notice it and you may not but one thing I have found out is high fps is only part of it.

 

[Dark Shroud]

By newer clocked versions I assume you mean the ghz ones?

Could i not get similar performance buying one of these or similar. Then overclocking them?

HIS HD 7970 IceQ X² 3072MB

XFX Black Edition Radeon HD 7970

And im going to look through his posts now, any in particular I should look at?

Also Ive noticed the For sale trade section on the forum. I cant get in though, I assume theres a requirement like number of posts? or membership duration?

Get the Gigabyte Windforce model, it has a great cooler and strong factory over clock.

http://pcpartpicker.com/uk/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvr797oc3gd

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-097-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

 

[Dark Shroud]

This seems to be turning into a micro stutter debate.

Of course it is, you only do this all the time.