A question thats been eating away at me

[Destro521]

Should i get 2 670s in SLI or a 7970 matrix platinum on its own

Now i know alot of people would instantly pick the 670s but personally im having a hard time because im an AMD fanboy .

The store is called PLE in australia and the hardware prices are pretty high, the 690 costs 1400 here while 2 670 sli is only 798$ which is a 602$ saving for 5% less performance.

i just want to know your output on what i should do

Also the case choice would have to be a HAF XM or a silverstone raven ro3

 

[Master&Puppet]

1. What resolution are you playing at?

2. The Matrix is almost universally massively overpriced - how much is a standard 7970 (with third party cooler)?

3. My default answer would be the 670s.

 

[Destro521]

1. What resolution are you playing at?

2. The Matrix is almost universally massively overpriced - how much is a standard 7970 (with third party cooler)?

3. My default answer would be the 670s.

the cost of a standard 7970 is 450$ and that is the XFX dual fan which i heard was pretty stock

I am trying to keep to a budget of no higher than 2400$
and with australia's hardware prices its hard
this is the build with the 670's
i7 3770k
hyper 212 evo
Maximus V gene
2x AFOX gtx 670 reference
XFX core 750W PSU 80plus bronze
Windows 8
case: HAF XM
GeIL veloce c9 2x8gb @ 1600mhz
120gb ssd
2tb HDD
And a few other components which stay the same between both builds including g105 keyboard and tplink wireless

This is the build with the 7970 matrix
Maximus V formula
Seidon 120m cpu cooler
i7 3770k
asus 7970 matrix platinum
xfx 750w
windows 8
CM Storm Stryker Full tower
the same ram as above and same storage
the monitor with the 670s would be 21.5 but upgraded later on in teh year
and the matrix 7970 monitor would be a 23" both 1080p res

 

[Excalabur50]

Have you checked out the prices from PcCaseGear or Umart as you may be able to get them cheaper

 

[Destro521]

i have check pc case gear and it comes to teh same price and the shipping is 152$ while ple is just down the road so i can pick it up
umart was even more expensive with the same parts for me plus im in perth so the shipping would be quite high

 

[Excalabur50]

Ok in that case just go the 670's and save a bit and put it toward a better cooler and some better ram than the geil and put a corsair psu in instead.

 

[Vlada011]

Buy 2x NVIDIA EVGA GTX670 (02G-P4-2670-KR) now for little more than 350$.
Excellent is GTX670 with 4GB but for SLI enough and much cheaper is that model
915MHz GPU
980MHz Boost Clock
6008MHz efective Memory
2048 GB, 256 Bit
1344 CUDA Cores
OC on 1000MHz GPU Clock and you are fine like rocket.

 

[Destro521]

while i admit i would love to have 2 670's i would feel like the f***wit with the overkill graphics because lets face it only battlefield 4 would test the 670s at 1080p and its way too much overkill for a home user haha. plus the never settle deal is on at ple and even while that graphics card is overpriced it can still outperform or come in line to a direct cu ii TOP 680 which is the performance im looking for and with the bundle and mousepad i just cant go wrong its mostly a personal preference sort of thing but i would like to try my hand at overclocking ( even if its gpu tweak haha ) and with the 7970 i can afford a sapphire x cpu cooling or even a seidon 120m

With the matrix inside of a HAF X wouldnt that be the ultimate gpu cooling combo? ( in terms of airflow not waterblocks )
With the 670s i have to make compromises but with the matrix i have the build that i want with full functionality ( vga hotwire ect )
plus with all the games that come with it including AC3 from the mobo i cant really go wrong can i?

 

[Master&Puppet]

What about a 7950 instead or even two?

You can save some money buy getting the i5 3570K instead of the i7 3770K. That's a no brainer for gamers really.

 

[Destro521]

What about a 7950 instead or even two?

You can save some money buy getting the i5 3570K instead of the i7 3770K. That's a no brainer for gamers really.

im not sure how a 7950 performs in CFX but i am doing 3d modelling and photoshop so that would mean i could use HT couldn't it?

One thing i cant justify in my mind is a dual 670 sli setup because i have one 1080P moniter now but i will be getting a new one.

Everyone seems to be suggesting the 670s over a single 7970 card and i wouldnt mind 2 670s in sli ( i am a performance freak haha ) i just dont want a repeat of my alienware m17x laptop ( bad purchase decision ) where after just a year it couldnt handle some of the newer games such as planetside 2 which was a big dissapointment and is part of the reason i am getting my desktop custom build because i have never owned a good desktop and the best one i have is an old 2006 one with 2gb ram and a really old motherboard that i cant get the name of with a 9800 gt i think it had

Just looked at Tinytomlogans review on the 7950 club 3D card and i must admit i had to re watch teh video to believe that so much OC can come from that card taking into account the silicon lottery
What are your views on crossfire with 7950s? Even if its an XFX tahiti pro2 or dual fan
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=609172&CategoryID=259
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=608846&CategoryID=259
some people have said XFX radeons are horrible is that true?

 

[Josh Weston]

There's no way to accurately predict what the future holds, but a 670 SLI setup is not going to be obsolete in a long time.

 

[Destro521]

There's no way to accurately predict what the future holds, but a 670 SLI setup is not going to be obsolete in a long time.

Thanks for that assurance
the 7950 amd cards are 40$ cheaper for XFX dual Fan
and around 75$ for the tahiti pro 2
PLE still runs teh never settle deal but in your opinion what are the relative performance differences between the 670 sli and 7950 cfx?

 

[Master&Puppet]

It's often game dependent. 7950s are pretty mindblowing if you overclock and having that extra vRAM might provide useful in their lifetime. 670s are just plain excellent out of the box. That's the way I see it.

 

[Destro521]

It's often game dependent. 7950s are pretty mindblowing if you overclock and having that extra vRAM might provide useful in their lifetime. 670s are just plain excellent out of the box. That's the way I see it.

Are gtx 670s difficault to overclock? and in a 7950 vs 670 Stock clocks format how deos the 7950 fare? because the 7950 gives me a bigger monitor setup possibly ips if im lucky and the never settle bonus

Ive lost way to much sleep over getting my first proper desktop and i find myself doing more browsing on forums and websites for info on hardware and desktop parts than i do gaming
I mean right now its 2am and still looking for info on multi card perfromance haha

 

[NRG!]

Good gosh don't get the xfx DD cooler it's garbage ROFL.

In your case you need to think about coolers very carefully, did you consider that? Video card coolers with heatpipes are designed to be positioned horizontally. If the core coldplate has heatpipes the extrude 'upwards' while in our configuration before bending 'downwards' along the length of the card (most dual fan designs) then you will lose cooling performance.

For example, my 680 lightnings overvolted to ~1.3v would top out at 75c iirc in SLI in a 600t but reached nearly 100c before I shut things off in my rv02-e. (And everyone knows the RV02 spanks the 600t for airflow)

Silverstone reccomends exhaust blower coolers (eg, evga 670FTW, which is the only 670 exhaust worth buying as the reference is a whiny loud annoying thing).

 

[USAdystopia]

Get the 7970...then when you can afford it...add another one...you won't be sorry!

Don't listen to the anti XFX propaganda! Mine run at 72-74C on demanding games and the fans stay under 45% on auto! You can add a supplementary exhaust fan like I did on the back of the case pulling warm air from the GPU rear exhaust area for enhanced airflow.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvOeV2XJxKQ&feature=relmfu (without extra fan)

 

[Destro521]

i dont really mond noise because almost 100% of the time im going to be wearing my tritton 7.1 surround sound headset and it basically cancels out alot of sound so i wouldn't be hearing the fans.

To put things into perspective ill give you the url for all the stores graphics, the only 7970 and 7950 cards are XFX with the asus matrix 7970 as the only asus card.

And with the gtx 670 i have to go reference because i can really afford to drop down more gear because im going to be using HT on the 3770k and i really like the stryker

this is the stores custom system builder: http://www.ple.com.au/ViewKit.aspx?KitId=610104

the graphics list: http://www.ple.com.au/ViewCategory.aspx?CategoryId=259

case list
http://www.ple.com.au/ViewCategory.aspx?CategoryId=227
It was this website that made me want to use a 7970 over the 680 just that there is a lack of models for the 7970 with only the xfx and the Matrix P card

 

[USAdystopia]

Didn't see my cards on the list: XFX7970 TDBC...

Are you building the system yourself? It is amazing all the combinations that can be put together to get a great rig! Just choose your components carefully. Most of the newest components will work beautifully. Sometimes we enthusiasts like to overkill our builds. Notice my concentration was primarily on the motherboard, PSU and GPUs and cooling...conservative on memory and cpu.

 

[Destro521]

originally i wanted to go down the path of
i7 3770k
maximus V formula
7970 matrix platinum
16gb ram
2tb hdd
128gb ssd boot drive
stormstryker case
xfx core 750W PSU

but now theres the option of sli 670s on a asus p8z77 v
or a cfx 7950s

and i dont really know what to choose haha i am getting it custom made

 

[USAdystopia]

If you go with the single 7970...there are very few games that you won't be able to run at high specs...these cards overclock beautifully at decent temps!

If you can...future proof your build with a larger psu. You'll still be OK with the 750...I had a Corsair as the specs and reviews were better than the XFX. Price is low at Newegg....$59 USD. If you go with a 2nd GPU...go big on power...850w or more!

Sounds like a great rig...can't wait to see it! Build it yourself and you may be able to afford the 2nd card...