I think there are a lot of satisfied GPU owners from both sides, so we cant write off their experiences. I have been a long term Nvidiot and based on my experiences I will continue with NV cards. But there are also long term AMD/ATI folk who feel the same about their cards, so I can appreciate where they are coming from just as well. The people I am most interested in hearing their views are owners of both brands (same gen cards, Kepler/Tahiti). When these folk speak, I tend to listen more closely.
I've been using cards from both sides of the fence for at least as long as you have, so I don't entirely see your point. I can appreciate being burned one to many times however, and that's perfectly acceptable. I would say it's worth looking at the other side with a more open view for some people, and a handful seem incapable of that. I'm glad you're enjoying your card/s, and hope you enjoy them in the future. After all, that's why we buy the things to begin with.
Rather than make a new topic, I was hoping you guys could steer me in the right direction.. I'm using 6870 Xfire currently and am annoyed at how some games (Skyrim, Far Cry 3) all experience some form of stutter. It can be slight at times and brutal at other times.. even with high FPS never dipping below 50, there is this jitter that I can't shake. have tried various drivers, various configs, up to date CAP, d3doverrider.. nothing seems to make it go away. I know its crossfire as when I go single card, my performance obviously takes a huge dip but the game appears to be way smoother playing. all that said, if I were to replace my xfire with a single card, I can't decide if I should go with 7970 or 670. I haven't gone green since I had an 8800GTX (I know, long time) and feel like I should give them a try again.. Any opinions on this would be most appreciated.. if it helps, I plan on playing Diablo 3, Dead Space 3, I'm currently playing Far Cry 3 and will probably get back into Skyrim eventually.
I'm guessing the 6870 problem is aided by the small amount of memory it has to work with, especially when you start loading up mods in Skyrim. Either of the cards you're considering should allow you to max out the games you've listed par perhaps FarCry 3. That said, you've a solid PSU and there's nothing stopping you from adding another card in six months or so either - which I suspect might be your long term goal. The 7000 series is shown by tech report to have latency issues in some parts of Skyrim, but that's not really noticable when playing the game itself. There's also reports from users that Nvidia cards have latency issues in other parts of Skyrim. I'd say it's Apples to Oranges in that respect. I'd personally choose the best non reference card for the least money out of the two. Weigh up whether Cuda /PhysX support is a big deal against the decision. You'll be happy either way. If you're planning on using higher resolutions, especially multi-monitor I'd lean toward the 7970 personally.
Thanks for the info and your opinion! I won't be dealing with Multi monitor and game at 1920x1080. I'm kinda leaning toward the 670 as I can get one with Assassin's creed 3 free for $300 (PNY).. I think it is reference however I have an arctic cooling fan on one of my 6870s which I would plonk on the 670 and then oc.. Is it possible to flash bios on the reference cards? its this one.. http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133452
I know it's possible to bios flash some of the reference 680's but I couldn't speak for the 670's. I don't see why not, although I doubt it'd really be necessary. You make a good point on the games bundled, and if you don't already know about it I suggest taking a look at the Never Settle bundle for AMD cards. I believe it's still ongoing, and there might be a few titles of interest for you in the bundle. I think most 670's should come with some sort of bundle at the moment, either Assassins Creed 3 or Borderlands 2. It shouldn't be limited to PNY, and I'd personally recommend not going for a reference design unless you're grabbing an EVGA card. There's actually an EVGA 670 for not much more, considering the 700 series is around the corner and the step up program I'd probably lean toward that. Edit/Update: If it helps any there's an update on the latency issues, reported by TechReport.
I have an asus gtx670 dcu II an i must say i am very please about it.I have more than 12 games install on my ssd,and they all run like a charm at 1920x1080. NFS shift ,Dirt 3, Borderland 2 ,Modern Warfare,Modern Warfare 2,Modern Warefare 3,Black Ops 2,Rage,Alien vs Predator, Few others games are install but i dont remember what they are lol. Not a single problem to run all those game with aa on with aniso,and sometimes v-sink depend on the game. So its up to you but im sure you will like a gtx670
if you want a 670 get one of these. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130843 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162107 I would wait for the 700 series coming out in about 3 months, if anything the 600 series will be cheaper then too. I almost bought 2 680/670, but I can deal with sli 580`s for the time being
The next official beta driver is supposed to include fixes to frame latency. I think alot of the stutter problems lie here. Until you get something new you could try using a frame limiter and cap the frames at the monitors refresh rate its night and day for me. Also i just came from a crossfire setup thinking the stuttering in game was fromm the cf. Sadly its not but like i said use the trick i just mentioned and it all goes away.
/\ thanks for your thoughts all.. I think maybe I will just try to hang in there and wait for 7 series.. thought it would be longer before it came out but a couple months isn't too bad.
As I mentioned earlier, I'm pretty sure EVGA have a step up program. You could buy a 670 now and then pay the difference to upgrade to a 770 when they're released. You'll need to look into that to be sure however.
think you could get by til then. the 780 is rumored 40% faster then a 680. bet the 680 will come down in price right before the 700 series
See with far cry 3 I use a frame limiter and it still doesn't play smooth.. same with skyrim. Single card plays fine. I think I will wait on the next round of drivers and see if they make a diff.. if not I may consider grabbing a 680 and then stepping up with EVGA..
The beta's are out: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=373749 Although as I said, I suspect a large part of your problem is the small amount of V-Ram. If the step-up program is still available I'd make the jump now mate. No use in not enjoying your games for a few months. You'd not really be paying anymore and still have access to the 700 series.
It certainly seems like ATI has had a terrible history of buggy drivers, and everyone knows this. But, since quite some time (I'd say maybe 2008-2010), their drivers have really been improving. Forward to 2012-2013, and you have both companies working at the same time on the same bugs and game issues and both releasing new drivers which address the same issues at the same time. That almost never used to happen before. Before the 6xx series from Nvidia, I never really heard of people complaining much about Nvidia's drivers. I never had any real driver issues with my GTX260, except for some HDMI overscanning issues which had plagued Nvidia cards for 3 years (2008-2011, don't know if they have been fixed), one that required registry edits and OverrideEDIDFlags on <2xx.xx drivers. Nvidia then released the 2xx series of drivers which changed that registry structure and I have not yet found any way to override those EDID Flags and eliminate HDMI overscanning. This generation, I saw some issues plaguing Nvidia drivers, such as the adaptive Vsync issue, stutter, etc...but thing is, most issues are not that serious and are eventually resolved. That applies for both companies. Some people from both sides have had zero problems with the drivers of the company they decided to go with. Driver stability is sometimes relative. I say we need to somewhat forget the bad history ATI had with drivers. Oh and don't get me started on PhysX...until it performs as good as it may look, without requiring a dedicated PhysX card which could be rendered useless anyways with proper CPU physics implementations (at least until the GPU implementations get more efficient or exploit GPU parallel processing power), I wouldn't be that excited for PhysX. Got a dedicated PhysX card for it along with my GTX260 back then, worst decision I ever made. I'd say open standards could give GPU physics more of a push. Maybe OpenCL physics implementations. AMD is pushing OpenCL as well, and Nvidia is pushing CUDA since 2006.
you have to buy a card with a lifetime warranty or buy an extended warranty. plus you have 90 days to step up. the card has to be released to retail afaik. then you have to wait in a que and may take a while to get your step up. http://www.evga.com/support/stepup/
That sadly makes things a bit more tricky. Could be worth outright waiting for the 700 series after all. That said, roughly 3 months should be enough time if you wait a little for the program to still be effective. Buy early next month for instance. Aren't the cards due out around March? Taking into account delays beyond that.
3 months or so, the warranty I think is fully transferable if you decide to sell it after the 90 step up
