Video Card Opinions

[cDnStealth]

Alright, I posted this in another thread but it seems to be getting burried. After much debate with myself I've decided to upgrade my HD 5850. I've got an i7 and I am only using a single monitor. At the suggestion of flamingreen I took a look at the HD 7950 and the GTX 670.

I notice that on average, the HD 7950 is less expensive. Is it worth spending $50 more for the GTX 670? Any manufacturer you guys recommend? I've had Sapphire in the past and I am quite satisfied with my current ASUS card/components but I've heard some mixed things about their recent cards. Thoughts on EVGA?

In particular, these were the two cards I was debating on:

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX37640
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX39671

I've taken a look at a number of benchmarks and the 670 out performs the 7950 in almost every test. But at what point do those benchmarks stop meaning anything? I am not going to notice a difference between 120 fps versus 90 fps. Which card do you guys think will have a longer life span?

Any thoughts or alternative suggestions are welcome.

[photon]

I'd prefer the GTX because it uses less power. And I usually go with whichever has the best (quietest) cooler, so ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI would be the ones I'd be looking at. Otherwise whichever had the better warranty.

[Komskies]

XFX has a lifetime warranty if you register the product on their website. Edit: Looks like XFX only sells Radeon cards on MemEx.

[cDnStealth]

Originally Posted by Komskies

XFX has a lifetime warranty if you register the product on their website. Edit: Looks like XFX only sells Radeon cards on MemEx.

Interestingly, the XFX 7950 Double D Black Ed is $10 cheaper on newegg and they have a $30 rebate. I don't see any rebate under the MemEx listing.

Edt. Actually it appears newegg.ca has dropped their prices on their cards. The EVGA GTX 670 is now $14 cheaper.

[keratosis]

MemEx will price match.

[jamoro]

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 670 Windforce is worth a look also. It has 3 fans for better overclocking. its what I use

[Tyler12]

MX has a really nice Deal on a 580gtx. Not as high end as the cards you mentioned but the $/Performance Ratio is really nice.

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX33264

[flamingreen]

Either or are great cards. Personally, I find Nvidia's driver support better than AMD's.

If it was me I would go for the Gigabyte Gtx 670 OC, super quiet and keeps the card quite cool. It gives you near gtx 680 performance but it's $200 cheaper. NCIX has a deal on them for 369.00

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=71107&promoid=1043

[Esoteric]

Originally Posted by flamingreen

Either or are great cards. Personally, I find Nvidia's driver support better than AMD's.

This is a huge factor when I buy a card. ATI just doesn't provide the sample level of service as Nvidia does. I had an ATI card a few years ago, and the driver support was terrible. Now I go Nvidia every time.

[cDnStealth]

Originally Posted by Esoteric

This is a huge factor when I buy a card. ATI just doesn't provide the sample level of service as Nvidia does. I had an ATI card a few years ago, and the driver support was terrible. Now I go Nvidia every time.

I've only ever bought ATI and I've been happy with the quality of their product. However, looking at this generation of cards it's pretty obvious that Nvidia has the edge. Add to that the number of games which are optimized for their cards and it's become hard for me not to pick Nvidia. I've pretty much decided on a GTX 670 now it's just deciding on which specific card and waiting for the price to come down a bit.

Never bought anything off NCIX. I know MemEx will price match web deals but does shipping come into the equation if I am buying in store?

[photon]

Some stores will take shipping into account when pricematching, but I don't think the last few times I did it at MemEx they did.

[Esoteric]

Originally Posted by cDnStealth

Never bought anything off NCIX. I know MemEx will price match web deals but does shipping come into the equation if I am buying in store?

Memory express does not factor in shipping at all when price matching.

[photon]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/gra...ulez-3000.html

670 with super quiet cooling, that's what I like to see.

[Diemenz]

Good call on the Nvidia.

I was an ATI guy for about 8 years and recently picked up a 670 and I am sold on Nvidia. First off im done with dual gpu's crossfire had me pulling my hair out but mainly the Nvidia card rocks in cooling. The card is near dead silent for me even when playing BF3 vs my old 5870's sounding like a low flying G6.

And no micro stutters.

[cDnStealth]

Just wanted to thow out a thank you to everyone for their help. I ended up getting a Gigabyte GTX 670 OC yesterday.