The Best Graphics Cards: Full AMD and Nvidia GPU Comparison with Latest Drivers

What I see,borderlands 2 not such a demanding game...at 1200p,even gtx 460 or 6850 is doing pretty well with physx off...with physx on you may need a gtx 560 to get 40-50+ fps .....or a good cpu(core 2 quad or i3 2100) is enogh with 6870 to offload the physx rendering to the cpu and get 50+ fps avg .....my friend running bl2 with i3 2100+6870 on physx high and 45-50+ fps on most occasions...very good performance

amstech,

"It is funny how a GPU that was re-released and then called "The GHZ Edition" is somehow just a standard 7970, like the original 7970 doesn't exist. Regardless of why I still get some humor there."

By the same logic, all these are factory pre-overclocked versions with a premium and no one had a problem with them:

Radeon X850 XT PE vs. X850 XT (exact same) or X800XT PE vs. X800XT
GeForce 4 Ti 4600 vs. 4400 vs. 4200 (exact same GPU, different clocks)
GeForce 6800 Ultra Extreme (UE) vs. 6800 Ultra vs. 6800 GT (exact same GPU different clocks)

Again, if you don't like AMD's name of HD7970Ghz, ignore it and look at the price levels.

Newegg sells 1Ghz HD7970 with 3 free games for $360; that gives you GTX680 level of performance for way less $.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202008

Beyond that point, if you are spending $450, there are plenty of 1100mhz HD7970 cards and really cream of the crop Asus Matrix Platinum. No matter how you slice it, GTX680 lost the performance crown this generation. Don't be bitter that NV delivered a mid-range Kepler GK104 and priced it for $500 because that means next generation they might give us GK110 (or something way faster than GK104). You lose some, you win some. Like you said if you want PhysX natively in BL2, get an Nvidia card.

I think GTX680 is a great card but when people start defending a slower product that costs more and comes with less free games, you really have start to wonder about objectivity. That's not even touching performance with mods (Skyrim + ENB), 8xMSAA, or strictly looking at 2560x1440/1600P. And really, at high resolutions, GTX680 is not a contender but people spend extra for a GTX680 4GB. Marketing FTW.

http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_680_4gb,4.html

HD 7970 Ghz and HD 7950 boost are cards competing with GTX 680 and GTX 670. there are factory overclocked HD 7970 Ghz cards like ASUS HD 7970 Matrix Platinum(1100 Mhz), MSI HD 7970 Lightning Boost edition (1150 Mhz) and HIS HD 7970 X Turbo (1180 Mhz). so if you want a GTX 680 Lightning to be compared then bring a HIS HD 7970 X Turbo or HD 7970 Lightning boost edition.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_7970_X_Turbo/
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...-7970-3gb-matrix-platinum-edition-review.html

it won't change the equation. the HD 7970 Ghz is faster. Once you bring in voltage overclocking it will be even more in favour of HD 7970 Ghz and HD 7950 boost.



http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-181-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

its very clear to see you want to defend your purchase. no need for that. enjoy your GTX 670. its still a very capable card. and since you really like Nvidia's exclusive features its all the more better. why so serious . ha ha ha

Hd 7950 boost is the best price/perf card in my opinion .....much lower price than gtx 670 but going par or beating gtx 670 even in higher resolutions and demanding graphics games as hitman absolution,metro 2033,alan wake,alien vs. predator,moh war-fighter,skyrim,sleeping dogs,sniper elite v2 etc etc

.........7950 boost beats gtx 680 on demanding games as crisis warhead,dirt showdown,sniper elite v2,hitman absolution,sniper elite,warfighter,alien vs predator,sleeping dogs,etc etc

(considering the proven fact that metro 2033 and hitman absolution are the two most graphically demanding games out there until now...... )

also see this link-

http://www.legionhardware.com/artic...hz_edition_7950_iceq_xsup2_boost_clock,1.html

......amd 12.11 beta never settle driver is legendary for amd gcn cards and expect more as gcn is a ground up architecture unlike Kepler (which's refined Fermi) and code optimization is still in works for gcn cards.....

......and even the difference between 7970 and 7950 boost is very less(5-6 fps avg) and it even gives hard time to gtx 680 on specific occasions until now....


......even I am not taking into account the much greater overclocking potential of amd gcn than kepler cards


.....so,in this criterion 7950 boost is the best valued card in my opinion...

absolutely without a doubt. the HD 7950 boost with power option maxed out will run at 925 mhz consistently without throttling and gain performance which would actually put it slightly ahead of stock GTX 670. HD 7950 is 3 - 6% slower than HD 7970 at the same clocks.

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/34761-amd-hd-7950-vs-hd-7970-clocks/?page=3

its easy to see that a overclocked HD 7950 will give an overclocked GTX 680 a run for its money. In fact its clear that an average clocking HD 7950(1.15 Ghz) will match or exceed a GTX 680(1.3 Ghz). A golden HD 7950 (1.25+ Ghz) will beat even a voltage unlocked GTX 680 lightning at 1.35+ Ghz.

Pity that owners had to wait a eleven months to reap the benefits. Who remembers that it took AMD some time to actually get a whql driver out for Tahiti, or that VCE -a key bullet point in Tahiti's press kit - was basically fubar'ed for five months. It would have been legendary if 12.1 was the driver in question.

Not really. Closer to a gutted (of FP64 shader cores, ECC,sacrificing shader hot clock for higher shader count ) Fermi . Each manufacturer taking a leaf out of the others book. Nvidia going small die, perf/watt, perf/mm^2, primarily gaming orientated (traditional ATI/AMD strongholds), while AMD add compute at the expense of die size, perf/watt and perf/mm^2 (trademarks of Nvidia since G80)

http://www.legionhardware.com/artic...hz_edition_7950_iceq_xsup2_boost_clock,1.html

(7970 and 7950boost are very close in this bench with many modern games)

Ihave some questions:

1. Was that min fps, average, max, what?
2. Was Bf3 benchmark made in MP? (cause its kinda useless if it wasnt)
3. Why dont you do a benchmark about which card is for which cpu? I mean, can someone put 680gtx on a Phenom II x4 and have a same gpu usage as someone with i5 3570k?
This cpu dependency with gpu manufactures is a living nightmare for any gamer so clearing it up would mean so much. I if you takke this tas, please do Mp games cause they are much more demanding than Sp.

PS
I read your review Bf3 cpu vs gpu performance, thats not enough, frames in Sp and MP cannot be compared

Stopped reading the rest of your post when you said a single 6870 is enough for 2560x1600. Not even a 6970 can do that res without turning settings down and its the fastest single card in the 6 series generation.

Wtf does this have to do about the article this is a round up of gaming videocards!

I think your on the wrong site bro.

Go cheerlead for NV elsewhere!

Great article!

It was a great article Steve thank you for taking your time to do it.

I never noticed how many butthurt Nvidia trolls are on this site.

OMG it not fair that's an overclocked card, OMG it doesn't have cuda, OMG where is the 690 card.

I think you guys should go to a pro nv site for your information since no one cares about your tears!

Maybe you guys should write up your own reviews and created your own site so you can pun a green spin on your benchmarks really sad.....

AMD did make a 7990 that would still be on top of the gtx 690 so it dont matter.

I would have liked to see the GTX 670 and 680 4gb cards, as well as the HD 7970 GHz 6gb card, especially at higher resolutions.

Great article and a nice round out of the final lifecycle of current AMD/NV cards for the year.

While there is a lot of butthurt/gloating from both camps smeared all through this thread I'll lay my 2c down on thr GTX690, since I don't have a price point when I do my builds, I built my last machine with one. It's a very elegant solution and a niche piece of technology that was fun to build a machine around such a well build card.

Would I do it again? No. For all the technology gusto that card has, working with SLI profiles feels like a total crutch to the whole package. Game engines are exceeding the ability of single GPU solutions easily at 1440p and up resolutions unless your willing to retard the settings in teh game. SLI(Xfire) feels cumbersome trying to hen peck tweaks here and there to get decent dual GPU performance from combined (or sli separate) cards.

I believe software/drivers need an evolutionary improvement in how they work with DirectX and game engines to smartly adjust to scaling and performance, till then it just feels like using a sledge hammer to do dental work.

@ Blue Falcon.
I think the point your missing is that this GPU battle between Keplar and Southern Islands didn't start when AMD slashed thier prices then shortly after released new drivers that made an astounding difference. Originally they slashed thier prices because a 670 handled a 7970 at 1200p and matched it a 1600p for months. This GPU battle specifically, started Q1/Q2 of this year (when they all released) and at that time and for several months after, the GTX 680 did hold a lead and matched the GHz Edition overall. This is when many people bought thier GPU's. Thats nice that 6 months later they release drivers that take the single GPU crown. Your still getting a bang for your buck GPU with more driver issues and less features. GTX's cost more because you get more.
I do agree with you about Keplar, look at its performance and its only 256bit. Lets not talk like these large bandwidth GPU's are new, my 8800GTX was 384bit, my GTX 280 was 512bit. I would like to see the GTX 780 512bit, in 4GB and 8GB frame buffer as options.

That's a way to look like a fan boy.

100% bias fanboy.

And future post from him will be ignored.

If he wants see his pretty little card on the top he should create his own reviews.

:facepalm: Please, not more Radeon sheep.
Nothing I said was Pro Nvidia or Pro AMD, everything I said is factual and non-arguable. Period.
Does it come across biased? Perhaps. Not my intention.This particular GPU battle has been very close and competitive.