Having trouble deciding

[miseryguts]

between a GTX680 (see my other recent thread) & a 7970 DirectCU II..
The 7970 has been suggested by friends & on several other forums as more than a match for the 680 & at a far better price.

Can someone educate me on the positives (and negatives) of both, personal opinions & experiences with either card would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[profJim]

Re: Having trouble deciding

The GTX 680 was recently released with very aggressive prices that forced AMD to reduce the prices on their cards.
Both cards are at the top of the performance heap with high prices.

The first question is do you need the most powerful card in your system?
Why do you need one of these models? Gaming? Multi-monitor setup? Demanding graphics software?

AMD currently offers newer 7xxx cards at lower prices that offer excellent performance.
Nvidia will be releasing similar newer models shortly.
Right now the GTX 680 is quieter and draws less power than the 7970.

The best gfx reviews are at HardOCP.
Others have different website preferences.
HardOCP has a recent preview of the soon to be released GTX 690 with an estimated MSRP of ~$900.

With your current P35 system, it seems like buying a king of the hill video card is overkill.

[miseryguts]

Re: Having trouble deciding

The first question is do you need the most powerful card in your system?
Why do you need one of these models? Gaming? Multi-monitor setup? Demanding graphics software?

Well it's mostly for gaming & i also do a lot of video processing.
I've also just been given an almost brand new 2560x1600 monitor so I'm guessing I'm going to be needing a significant GPU boost in order to run things at max detail & with mods installed (Skyrim etc) at that res.
It's also due to the fact that my wife is expecting a baby soon & quite frankly I'd never get away with spending this amount on a new GPU after our daughter is born (even though she games too & I probably won't be doing very much gaming then) so I'm looking to get as powerful a card as I can now because I'll most probably not be upgrading anything else anytime soon.

[profJim]

Re: Having trouble deciding

Have you checked out video card reviews to see which models give the best game play experience for the games you play?
It appears that right now the Nvidia drivers are better, but this might not be an issue with a large single monitor.
I don't think that you'll go wrong with either brand, but you will often get better cooling with less noise when you pay a bit more for a video card with a "custom" cooling solution. Many on the forum prefer Sapphire brand video cards (Radeon only).

Let us know which brand/model you end up with.
Good luck on both accounts: daughter and video card

[wazza300]

Re: Having trouble deciding

Look to the eu (europe) to buy 7970 or 680,much cheaper than UK and no import fees

[miseryguts]

Re: Having trouble deciding

Look to the eu (europe) to buy 7970 or 680,much cheaper than UK and no import fees

Howdy wazza & thanks for contributing.. can you suggest some particular sites..?

[wazza300]

[miseryguts]

Re: Having trouble deciding

are you serious about buying one? as i dont wanna give out where to buy in public ill pm you

[wazza300]