770 SLi or Crossfire 7970 Ghz Edition cards?

M

matas17

New member
So I am in a dilemma here and I don't know which to go for Im off on a choice between two 770's or two 7970's Ghz Edition cards. I am gone be watercooling both GPU's so I wont have any problem with temps, also wondering would Corsair 760w PSU would do me fine or im hiting the limit?

My Rig spec is:
Intel i7 3930k
Gigabyte Ga-x79-UP4
Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 1866
Two 770's or two 7970's GHz Edition cards
Corsair Ax 760watt PSU
OCZ Vertex 4 128GB SSD
WD Green 2TB HDD
Fan Controller
Swiftech MCP655 pump
NZXT Switch 810 Case.
 
that's a tough call, In benchmarks and games the results of those cards are very close to eight other, although the 770 performs a little bit better, the 7970 overclocks better, so it's really a personal chose. I would go with a 770 because it is newer and also faster.

I'm not a specialist is psu's but i think that with a system like that you are hitting the limits of your psu especially when you are overcklockink. Notice that the 770 consume less than a 7970 but it will still be around the limits of your psu.
 
770s would easily do it for me because of AMDs driver issues in crossfire.

As for the PSU - if your 3930K is running at stock then you'll be OK although it will be working pretty hard at times. If it is overclocked you are going to need an extra 100-200w depending on how heavy the OC is.
 
Master&Puppet said:
770s would easily do it for me because of AMDs driver issues in crossfire.

As for the PSU - if your 3930K is running at stock then you'll be OK although it will be working pretty hard at times. If it is overclocked you are going to need an extra 100-200w depending on how heavy the OC is.
Click to expand...

I wont be overclocking anything gone leave it on stock clocks, dont wanna mess up with £350 cards just because im not really experienced with overclocking yet.
 
matas17 said:
I wont be overclocking anything gone leave it on stock clocks, dont wanna mess up with £350 cards just because im not really experienced with overclocking yet.
Click to expand...

Running those on a 750W/760W psu will mean shortening the lifespan of your PSU. It will be running pretty hard when gaming / at load. Personally I'd invest a little more into an 850W Power Supply.
 
In benchmarks complete systems like these pull about 500 to max 700W from the wall under load(without overclock). That PSU prob has 85% efficiency so can pull about 900W from the wall.. Dont worry about the PSU m8 it will do fine.

About the GPU's, well in terms of price the AMD cards are much more attractive, performance wise the Nvidia's have a small edge(without overclock)
 
Depends on the game or program, but the 3GB vs 2GB can make a difference yes. The whole point is simple, as long as you dont run out of video memory it doesnt matter if you have 3GB or 2GB, but when is does run out games are definitily unplayable. This was the whole reason why i switched my old HD5850's with 1GB.
I have two HD7950's now running eyefinity(5760x1080) and some titles require more than 2GB(even more than 3GB!), but lowering shaders or AA makes a huge difference.
So it all depends on your resolution, settings and personal preferences:)

Cheers
 
Master&Puppet said:
As for the PSU - if your 3930K is running at stock then you'll be OK although it will be working pretty hard at times. If it is overclocked you are going to need an extra 100-200w depending on how heavy the OC is.
Click to expand...


My sig would say differently. I am running a 4.6ghz overclock on a 3930k and sli 680s which are basically the same as the 770 and mine are overclocked and I am also running an ax760 and my rig runs fine. I am even thinking of seeing if I can squeeze some water cooling in too.
 
770's because of that cooler <3 _ <3

Also I wouldn't go near Crossfire with a bargepole, you should really get up to speed about the AMD frametime driver issue :)
 
B3rni3 said:
My sig would say differently. I am running a 4.6ghz overclock on a 3930k and sli 680s which are basically the same as the 770 and mine are overclocked and I am also running an ax760 and my rig runs fine. I am even thinking of seeing if I can squeeze some water cooling in too.
Click to expand...
Well that's up to you :D

There's a 4670K @ 4.6 and a 770 sitting on my desk at the moment powered by a ax760i.

Idle power draw is 90w
Load CPU draw (aida64) is 130w above idle
Load GPU draw (Valley) is 190w above idle.
Theoretical power draw up to 410w but a more realistic gaming load would be 300-350w.

Add a second 770 and it would be up to 550w.

A 3930K, especially OC'd, is going to draw a lot more than this little Haswell i5 and the idea of running a PSU at over 85% of it's max power draw under normal gaming conditions for a lot of it's life doesn't appeal to me.

Yes you have spare watts, should you fill them up? Not in my opinion.
 
Master&Puppet said:
Well that's up to you :D

There's a 4670K @ 4.6 and a 770 sitting on my desk at the moment powered by a ax760i.

Idle power draw is 90w
Load CPU draw (aida64) is 130w above idle
Load GPU draw (Valley) is 190w above idle.
Theoretical power draw up to 410w but a more realistic gaming load would be 300-350w.

Add a second 770 and it would be up to 550w.

A 3930K, especially OC'd, is going to draw a lot more than this little Haswell i5 and the idea of running a PSU at over 85% of it's max power draw under normal gaming conditions for a lot of it's life doesn't appeal to me.

Yes you have spare watts, should you fill them up? Not in my opinion.
Click to expand...

I won't be overclocking anything just because i dont want to risk damaging the components and I'm not that experienced with Overclocking.
 
matas17 said:
I won't be overclocking anything just because i dont want to risk damaging the components and I'm not that experienced with Overclocking.
Click to expand...
If everything is at stock I think you'll be fine. The GPUs will be working flat out and the CPU won't be working too hard because of the frame rates in a triple screen config. You'll probs be looking at 550-600w load which is fine.
 
Master&Puppet said:
If everything is at stock I think you'll be fine. The GPUs will be working flat out and the CPU won't be working too hard because of the frame rates in a triple screen config. You'll probs be looking at 550-600w load which is fine.
Click to expand...

I will be watercooling them so I wont have any issue with heat :)
 
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