I'm seriously considering purchasing a HD7970 but all this talk of driver issues etc. makes it feel really risky. I'm using a GTX580 now and it's been working well but I want a more powerful card to get a bit higher framerates. 7970 is the only card that seem worth it performance-wise to me but I don't want to waste my money on something that doesn't work. Is it really that unstable like some say?
Can't answer that question since I don't own one but the 580 is still a very good card. I would wait and see what Nvidia/AMD next generation has to offer. If you really don't want to wait, I've heard that the driver issues are more related to crossfire setups.
Now if I had a 580 I would probably consider sli. Like right now I have a 7970 and when the next gen comes out I am going to hold onto this and crossfire and still beat out the.newer.cards. some people will aY its worth it but in reality most games that are comic.g out are console ports anyway. 7970 is a great card but so is a 580 still.
yeah the 7970 is a awesome card , wouldn't worry about the so called driver issues , like other members stated the 580 is still a good card , may add a second one , but if your 580 is a 1.5 gig model and your running out of vram , ( e.t.c using multiple monitors, or 2560x1600) a 3 gig 7970 may be a good option for ya
If you must buy a new card, a single 7970 will be fine. A better option would be to wait just a bit more or simply SLI the 580.
no big issues here but if you can get another 580 to sli might be better,also given the price drops of the 7970 that would be well worth too
should i ask, which game you are having problems with? or you just grew bored with your good ol' 580 and want something new ?
If you pick up a 7970 Ghz Edition you'll love it. Single card GPU issues are almost none. Crossfire DOES have bugs, but you can get past then with D3D Overrider etc. It's your choice, but you can't go wrong. If you want Physx/CUDA though, then you may as well get a GTX 670/680
Can't play Shogun 2, Arkham City, Crysis, Hard Reset etc. maxed out with a framerate I'm satisfied with. They all drop below 30 fps in certain situations which I find really annoying and thats not even maxed out. I don't like the lack of compute performance, the low memory bandwidth and the tendency to struggle when it gets tough (with exceptions of course) according to reviews I've read. I don't really care much if I have 120 or 135 fps, it's more important in more demanding games and 7970 appear to be much stronger in those games like Crysis(1 and Warhead), Metro 2033 etc and seem to lose less performance with AA.
A 7970 will do fine, just make sure it's a Ghz Edition. Kind of no point buying an original. You can flash them to the Ghz Edition, but its hit and miss it seems. Mine hit dead on at least.
If I buy a 7970 it would be the original version, either Sapphire Dual-X or Gigabyte Windforce. They are €320-350. The GHz edition isn't released here yet and will most likely be much more expensive. I could probably get €120 for the GTX570 I have in my other pc.
Okay well, just be warned if you try to flash it with the Ghz Edition BIOS. Not all cards accept it. If you do try, back up the original first. Btw where is here exactly? Your profile doesn't give a location?
but is it really important to flash a ghz bios ? besides the boost function, wont a normal 7970 when OC'ed and GHZ edition will perform the same ? my oc are just fine, i can go 1200\1650 (which is max in MSI AB if i do authorized oc) ...