# 670 2gb vs 7950 3gb (most future proof card?)



## ColdCheese (Sep 14, 2012)

I tend to squeeze my tech purchases to the last drop and was wondering if the 2gb on the gtx 670 will be enough in the next couple of years?

I'm pretty set on Nvidia, free Borderlands 2, physx, superior SLI drivers...
My plan was to buy a gtx 670 now and SLI another one when the prices eventually come down, but 2gb vs what seems to becoming the future standard of 3gb is the only thing holding me back on pulling the trigger. 

Currently I game on a single 1200p, but that may change in the fitire and have been eyeing the Korean 1440p monitors or may even go with 3x1200p if a good deal comes across. 

Hold out for Big Kepler early next year? 7950 3gb or go for 670 2gb and SLI it sometime next year?


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## erocker (Sep 14, 2012)

Get the 670 now. If you go and read some reviews, you will notice that the extra 1gb of vram doesn't make a difference.


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## D007 (Sep 14, 2012)

erocker said:


> Get the 670 now. If you go and read some reviews, you will notice that the extra 1gb of vram doesn't make a difference.



+1

670's a beast and a good price.. 2gb is ample for now and the foreseeable future imo..
Future sli is also a bonus..


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## D007 (Sep 14, 2012)

Phusius said:


> It used to make a difference in some games.  Shogun 2 when it first came out used nearly 2400mb of vram on my card and it looked gorgeous, but since they patched it they took some of the glint off the armor and some other graphical changes, now it barely uses 1400mb of vram.
> 
> Poor people holding us back.  Console peasants as well.



"Poor people" and "Console peasants" are pretty rude things to say man... Try this.. Think 1st..
Then speak.. It works out better in the long run.. :shadedshu


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## 3870x2 (Sep 14, 2012)

erocker said:


> Get the 670 now. If you go and read some reviews, you will notice that the extra 1gb of vram doesn't make a difference.



This may change at the turn of the console age.  I recommend the 7950 because I am partial to AMD and substantially biased.



D007 said:


> "Poor people" and "Console peasants" are pretty rude things to say man... Try this.. Think 1st..
> Then speak.. It works out better in the long run.. :shadedshu



I think he was joking around.  Actually, I am fairly sure he was.

Also consol peasants isn't new, those console dirtbags have been keeping the PC industry up for some time now.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Sep 14, 2012)

Phusius said:


> It used to make a difference in some games.  Shogun 2 when it first came out used nearly 2400mb of vram on my card and it looked gorgeous, but since they patched it they took some of the glint off the armor and some other graphical changes, now it barely uses 1400mb of vram.
> 
> *Poor people holding us back.  Console peasants as well*.



Hmmmm, that is a douchey thing to say.

OP: Get the GTX670. Like erocker said, the extra GB really doesn't do all that much.


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## Phusius (Sep 14, 2012)

Console peasants do hold back PC gaming... all the 1 GB video cards is the reason Shogun 2 got nerfed.  I want my shiny armies back, just because you all want 2GB vram and not 3gb like me doesn't mean I should be punished.


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## 3870x2 (Sep 14, 2012)

Phusius said:


> Console peasants do hold back PC gaming... all the 1 GB video cards is the reason Shogun 2 got nerfed.  I want my shiny armies back, just because you all want 2GB vram and not 3gb like me doesn't mean I should be punished.



they wanted to make sure that they didnt get sued by Pokemon for the inclusion of Shinies.  This has nothing to do with consoles.


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## cadaveca (Sep 14, 2012)

Phusius said:


> Console peasants do hold back PC gaming... all the 1 GB video cards is the reason Shogun 2 got nerfed.  I want my shiny armies back, just because you all want 2GB vram and not 3gb like me doesn't mean I should be punished.



Psh!


As if.


If you wanted more, then you'd be willing to pay more for PC games like you were willing to pay more for your hardware, and most aren't willing to pay more for PC games, and expect to pay less that console titles sell for. You pay less, you get less, and that's fair.

What's that? you DON't have over 400 titles in your Steam account? And you DARE call yourself a PC gamer? For shame, for shame!!!




I own a couple of 7950s. If you want to overclock, get the 7950, Gigabyte Windforce Edition. Wanna run stock? Get the GTX 670.


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## phanbuey (Sep 14, 2012)

i think once you take into account OC'ing you can really go too wrong with either option.

I like Nvidia drivers alot, but I would grab the 7950 just because I can get it a bit cheaper.


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## 3870x2 (Sep 14, 2012)

Pretty sure the 670 burns oil after a few miles.


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## Phusius (Sep 14, 2012)

3870x2 said:


> they wanted to make sure that they didnt get sued by Pokemon for the inclusion of Shinies.  This has nothing to do with consoles.



I'm simply stating that Shogun 2 looked better before they patched it up, and the only reason they patched it up is because AMD was the only company with enough balls the last two generations of cards to increase vram.  GTX 580 1500mb of vram, 6970 2gb, 7970 3gb, gtx 680 2gb.

I want to play shogun 2 with 3gb before the patch because the game LOOKED prettier when it is using 2600mb of vram.  Damn Nvidia for being cheap.


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## 3870x2 (Sep 14, 2012)

Phusius said:


> I'm simply stating that Shogun 2 looked better before they patched it up, and the only reason they patched it up is because AMD was the only company with enough balls the last two generations of cards to increase vram.  GTX 580 1500mb of vram, 6970 2gb, 7970 3gb, gtx 680 2gb.
> 
> I want to play shogun 2 with 3gb before the patch because the game LOOKED prettier when it is using 2600mb of vram.  Damn Nvidia for being cheap.



lol it was a joke


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## Hilux SSRG (Sep 14, 2012)

Can't go wrong with the gtx 670, esp. if you plan sli down the road.  Congrats on the upgrade regardless if ati or nvidia.


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## ColdCheese (Sep 15, 2012)

Phusius said:


> I'm simply stating that Shogun 2 looked better before they patched it up, and the only reason they patched it up is because AMD was the only company with enough balls the last two generations of cards to increase vram.  GTX 580 1500mb of vram, 6970 2gb, 7970 3gb, gtx 680 2gb.
> 
> I want to play shogun 2 with 3gb before the patch because the game LOOKED prettier when it is using 2600mb of vram.  Damn Nvidia for being cheap.



exactly lol damn you rich stock holders and penny pinching ceo's putting profit margins over tech advancements :shadedshu


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 15, 2012)

it would come down to pricing as no card is future proof in all due honesty


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## crazyeyesreaper (Sep 15, 2012)

grab the cheapest of the two clock the dog snot out of it. but considering the 670 costs closer to the stock 7970, might better off grabbing a cheap aftermarket cooled 925Mhz 7970 and clock the shit out of it.


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## Durvelle27 (Sep 15, 2012)

i say the HD 7950 as it has great overclocking headroom 

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/08/23/galaxy_gtx_660_ti_gc_oc_vs_670_hd_7950


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## hastalabs (Sep 15, 2012)

if U plans use 3 monitors HD 7950 is absolute answer but if U stay along for 1080p GTX 670 must be choice


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## newtekie1 (Sep 15, 2012)

I'd get the GTX670, in fact I'm buying one right now myself. They are just beasts of cards.  If you are really worried about the 2GB being a limitation spend sightly more and get one of the models with 4GB of RAM like this one:

EVGA 04G-P4-2673-KR GeForce GTX 670 Superclocked+ ...



Phusius said:


> I'm simply stating that Shogun 2 looked better before they patched it up, and the only reason they patched it up is because AMD was the only company with enough balls the last two generations of cards to increase vram.  GTX 580 1500mb of vram, 6970 2gb, 7970 3gb, gtx 680 2gb.
> 
> I want to play shogun 2 with 3gb before the patch because the game LOOKED prettier when it is using 2600mb of vram.  Damn Nvidia for being cheap.



Hardly true, at the time they patched it the HD7000 series barely worked with the game, it froze and crashed most of the time, if you got it to run more than 10 minutes you were lucky.  Not to mention there were GTX480 and GTX580 models with 3GB of RAM...


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## Zubasa (Sep 15, 2012)

Just grab this and call it a day, same price as the 670.
SAPPHIRE  Radeon HD 7970 OC 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI ...


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## borschwanger (Sep 15, 2012)

the review of the vapor-x 7950 sold me on it...except i could only find it at newegg and it was sold out.  sapphire has three other 7950s and one is $280 currently. 280 right now  while the others are $309 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006 and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102991

when you compare the $280 one with the other two the obvious difference is the base clock speed.  will the cheapest one be a lower binned card or what.  i would overclock it myself either way unless i cant because with neweggs comparison thing apparently the cheap one is lacking 'features.'  curious especially considering the one at 280 has an original price of 370 

then there is a gigabyte 670 with a 10% off promo bringing it down to $360 (HARDOCPX912G).  should i just not even worry about the 7950 and get this 670?  i am building a new system and was actually going to just suffer with the 3570k on board graphics while i researched but ive been waiting to buy some things because newegg is supposedly having 'last chance' sales the 14th through the 27th.  wasnt really looking to spend a lot on my card....but the more i read the more i wanted.  lol.  hopefully this is relevant enough to the thread and not breaking rules.  forum noob here... 

edit: also are there expected price drops anywhere with the 660 having come out or are they too far apart to have an effect?


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## Zubasa (Sep 15, 2012)

Zubasa said:


> Just grab this and call it a day, same price as the 670.
> SAPPHIRE  Radeon HD 7970 OC 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI ...


Depends on how much you really want to spend on the card, for sheer performance that Sapphire 7970 OC wins with that 1000Mhz bios which puts it on 680 level performance.
If you are considering the 670 in the first place, you are willing to pay $400 for a card anyways, might as well get the best card you can afford.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Sep 15, 2012)

actually wrong newtekie as far as im aware on Socket 1155 the issue wasnt a problem

from what im aware on TWC the issue was limited to just about every other socket except 1155 for whatever reason. with 6 machines built all socket 1155 with AMD HD 7000 series gpus Shogun 2 had no problems however even now on 1336 2011 AM3+ etc the problem still persists.


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## newtekie1 (Sep 15, 2012)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> actually wrong newtekie as far as im aware on Socket 1155 the issue wasnt a problem
> 
> from what im aware on TWC the issue was limited to just about every other socket except 1155 for whatever reason. with 6 machines built all socket 1155 with AMD HD 7000 series gpus Shogun 2 had no problems however even now on 1336 2011 AM3+ etc the problem still persists.



Odd, but still the point is the HD7000 series has some major issues with the game, regardless of how much RAM it has, so the fact that no one but the HD7000 series offered 3GB of RAM likely wasn't part of the decision to scale back the graphics since the cards with 3GB of RAM don't reliably work with the game anyway.

And again, nVidia had 3GB cards as well before the HD7000 series was even released, so his whole rant about nVidia not having 3GB cards was false.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Sep 15, 2012)

that is true but again not just limited to HD 7970 etc the problem exits on ALL HD 7000 series gpus to an extent in Shogun 2, but simply put newtekie its a game engine issue, as its the same engine as Napoleon and Empire which have no issues of which i am aware of. but CA is more interested in milking the game for money than patching up issues at this point as their focus is on Rome II and the 40% budget increase they got from SEGA. 

Altho it seems some motherboard BIOS have also stopped the issue on certain motherboards mostly AMD boards but still AMD and Shogun 2 seems to be a terrible match 90% of the time unless your on 1155. To bad too. great example of manufacturer and a developer not caring enough to find a fix. 

regardless a very real issue does exist in Shogun 2 but it seems to have spared socket 1155 for whatever reason at least from what ive been able to find.

BUt yea 3GB existed on the GTX 580 long before


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## ColdCheese (Sep 15, 2012)

borschwanger said:


> then there is a gigabyte 670 with a 10% off promo bringing it down to $360 (HARDOCPX912G).  should i just not even worry about the 7950 and get this 670?



That's the exact card and deal I had in mind and I was planning to buy Borderlands 2 anyways, so to me thats worth an extra $40 off considering green man gaming has it for preorder around that price. 

My friend's holding out for the next gen big kepler, he thinks will be released around xmas time or Q1 2013 with 3gb+ standard. He strongly believes this current 2gb kepler is an Nvidia cash grab since originally the 670/680 were believed to be mid range cards but only became higher tier when they matched or beat  AMD's top tier 7950/7970's. Leading him to believe that Nvidia is holding back and selling these midrange cards for a premium and will be outdated prematurely when the real deal is released soon.


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## Solaris17 (Sep 15, 2012)

lol console peasents. shits halarious. Did no one else find it funny? Im been glued to my PS3 after almost a year of primary desktop failure and I wasnt insulted.








but seriously 670


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 15, 2012)

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5691/...w-his-7870-iceq-turbo-powercolor-pcs-hd7870/2


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## borschwanger (Sep 15, 2012)

well i just saw this:  http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-gpu-radeon-graphics-card,17606.html

basically answers my questions about price drops.  rebate on the $280 7950 lasts through the end of the month so maybe itll go down more by then.


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## solofly (Sep 18, 2012)

3870x2 said:


> Pretty sure the 670 burns oil after a few miles.



That's still alot better than being broken down on the side of the road due to stinking AMD drivers...


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 18, 2012)

solofly said:


> That's still alot better than being broken down on the side of the road due to stinking AMD drivers...



never had issues with the drivers actually


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## Horrux (Sep 23, 2012)

Phusius said:


> I'm simply stating that Shogun 2 looked better before they patched it up, and the only reason they patched it up is because AMD was the only company with enough balls the last two generations of cards to increase vram.  GTX 580 1500mb of vram, 6970 2gb, 7970 3gb, gtx 680 2gb.
> 
> I want to play shogun 2 with 3gb before the patch because the game LOOKED prettier when it is using 2600mb of vram.  Damn Nvidia for being cheap.



Oh you are quite right, I am saddled by nVidia's money grabbing schemes, selling cards with never nearly enough VRAM on them, counting on their fanbois to upgrade the next year when "crazy game devs make games that take WAAAAAY too much VRAM" instead of realizing that the red team does it right and their worshipped green team is greeding on them.  I always get a kick out of that.

About a year ago I had the same conversation on another forum, where all the NV fanbois were screaming their heads off that 1.25gb on a 570 was PLENTY of VRAM, and I was insisting that a 6970 with its 2gb was a much better solution, given that games tend to get BIGGER and definitely not smaller, and that then-current games were nothing to go by, given that you don't buy a card for playing games in the past. You always buy a card for playing games in the future.

Anyway, I got boooohed to no end, the object of ridicule and whatnot... And I knew from experience, how I was already handicapped by the ridiculously small VRAM on my two GTX 570s... BF3 came out, no Ultra because there isn't enough room on the cards, and plenty of other games get VRAM ceilinged...

Isn't it interesting how nV released a 570 that is of similar performance to a 6970 at a similar price but... With barely more than half the VRAM? A decent 570 was a LOT pricier than a 6970, and THAT is what should be used to compare performance.

While I'm not saying 2gb is going to be a limit overnight, you might want to upgrade by adding a second card instead of simply changing a single card, and that means stretching the active life of your hardware. In such circumstances, ESPECIALLY with a new generation of consoles coming, you REALLY DO NEED to buy the card with as much VRAM as possible.

Consider the following scenario: you buy a card this month. No matter if you go green or red, it'll play all the current games really well and the VRAM isn't a limitation. GREAT! But, you will keep your card for what, AT LEAST A YEAR, right? Next fall, what are the games going to be like? We simply don't know. But wait... Comes the end of 2013, and you feel like you need a little boost... Adding a second card of the current generation is by then cheap and will pretty much double your fps! So you do it! And now you are set for another year for cheap! 

But but but a few months down the line, all the games top your 2gb of VRAM at settings you can run at 100fps because you have so much GPU power and not enough VRAM...  Ah, but if you have 3 or 4 gb, you might be happy running that same setup for another year and a half, all because you have the VRAM _and_ the GPU power to enjoy your games at the fullest.

No, I say NV is trolling us with their small VRAM, they are taking advantage of their rabid fanbois and creaming the crowd. Good for them, but bad for us. The real GTX 680 is the 4gb model, compare that in price/performance to the 7970 and THEN make your decision. Make sure you're not buying a $450, 2gb card that will let you down some months down the line, when you could be buying a $400, 3gb card that won't let you down for a couple years at least. All for what, 3-4 fps over the short term.


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## newtekie1 (Sep 23, 2012)

All that long rant, and it is made totally moot by the fact that nVidia offered the GTX570 with 3GB of RAM.  It wasn't nVidia that limited the memory amount, they allowed the manufacturers to use either 1.5GB or 3GB, it was the manufacturer that decided limited the RAM on the card.  Bitch at them, not nVidia.


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## Horrux (Sep 23, 2012)

newtekie1 said:


> All that long rant, and it is made totally moot by the fact that nVidia offered the GTX570, even the GTX480, with 3GB of RAM.  It wasn't nVidia that limited the memory amount, they allowed the manufacturers to use either 1.5GB or 3GB, it was the manufacturer that decided limited the RAM on the card.  Bitch at them, not nVidia.



You fail to see that the whole market positioning of the nv cards is falsified by the fact that, as I posted, the REAL model of any nv video card is one that has double the amount of what is considered "the standard" VRAM. I knew there were 570s with 2.5gb of VRAM for about $100 more than the then $320 GTX 570 with 1.25gb. Now let's see some benchmarks of the $320 Radeon HD 6970 2gb and see how it stacks up to the $420 GTX 570 2.5gb. No? Thought so. You know, in the real world, there is something called money, and most people don't have infinite amounts at their disposal... Which makes my point not moot at all, but rather a greater point.

You are making my point for me, and I stated what you state in my "long rant" post.


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## erocker (Sep 23, 2012)

ColdCheese said:


> That's the exact card and deal I had in mind and I was planning to buy Borderlands 2 anyways, so to me thats worth an extra $40 off considering green man gaming has it for preorder around that price.



Sounds good! Enjoy the card and the game!


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