-
Competitor rules
Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.
GTX 480 Sli vs AMD 7950
- Thread starter Mattuk69
- Start date
Soldato
480 SLI is a lot faster than a 7950.
Surround is a pain, but then so is Eyefinity, but at least you don't need stupid DP adapters and all that.
Surround is a pain, but then so is Eyefinity, but at least you don't need stupid DP adapters and all that.
Won't two GTX 480's make 3gb Vram?
No, 1.5gb per card.
Highly specific on the game being played and how much AA being used. For a lot of stuff out there now the two 480' will destroy a 7950. In some games under some setting the 480 will hit their lower vram headroom and suffer a massive performance hit against a 79X0 card. Personally if I had a 480 already I would SLI it for now (I have done this myself with the EVGA's 480's being up for such a good price) or if looking at a whole new upgrade get a 79X0 card or wait see what Kepler brings (with more VRAM)
edit: just noticed I am agreeing with ALXandy that an NVIDIA solution is better than an AMD one in some circumstances, whats the world coming to!
edit: just noticed I am agreeing with ALXandy that an NVIDIA solution is better than an AMD one in some circumstances, whats the world coming to!
Last edited:
Soldato
Tough one, i'd say for 3 screens something like 6950 xfire would be better as VRAM is precious.
Otherwise, the 480's would win
Otherwise, the 480's would win
Tom's has a 590 Vs 6990 comparision at the res being asked about which quite well demonstrates the situation.
A 6990 if almost always faster that a 7970. The 590 and the 6990 trade blows on different games neither getting that much ahead of the other except in setting like metro at 5760 x 1080 High quality AAA/4AF, 4xAA/16AF when the 590 (with its effective 1.5gb Vram, same as a 480) manages 2.3fps to the 6990's (with its effective 2gb Vram) 21.7!
I would say that SLI 480's would generally give you a better gaming experience except with lots of AA when the 79X0 would be better by lots but still not great (21.7 fps still sucks). Therefore I think SLI 480's are better unless you are willing to pay out more for crossfire 79X0's or wait for (most likely SLI'd) Keplers
Conclusion single 79X0 card has the Vram but not the processing grunt to play at this resolution well
SLI'd 480's has the grunt (well more so that a single 79X0) but will run out of Vram and therefore fall over under certain settings
A 6990 if almost always faster that a 7970. The 590 and the 6990 trade blows on different games neither getting that much ahead of the other except in setting like metro at 5760 x 1080 High quality AAA/4AF, 4xAA/16AF when the 590 (with its effective 1.5gb Vram, same as a 480) manages 2.3fps to the 6990's (with its effective 2gb Vram) 21.7!
I would say that SLI 480's would generally give you a better gaming experience except with lots of AA when the 79X0 would be better by lots but still not great (21.7 fps still sucks). Therefore I think SLI 480's are better unless you are willing to pay out more for crossfire 79X0's or wait for (most likely SLI'd) Keplers
Conclusion single 79X0 card has the Vram but not the processing grunt to play at this resolution well
SLI'd 480's has the grunt (well more so that a single 79X0) but will run out of Vram and therefore fall over under certain settings
Last edited:
Soldato
480s overclock well too. Easy extra 100mhz on stock volts with no heat rise.
Soldato
They're still ridiculously hot!
A GTX 480 with a windforce cooler is the same noise as a 6970 on stock!
Soldato
GTX 480 may seem like a good deal becausce they are cheap, but there is a reason they are cheap, it's old tech now, power hungry and hot.. The 1.5GB will limit it's performance at higher resolutions than 1080P especially games like BF3..
You might be better off with two HD 7870 2GB's in Xfire depending on their performance, reviews will be here anyday now..
Otherwise HD 7950 3Gb is the best bet..
You might be better off with two HD 7870 2GB's in Xfire depending on their performance, reviews will be here anyday now..
Otherwise HD 7950 3Gb is the best bet..
Soldato
Yawn @ power hungry and hot. So are nearly all high end cards, especially when overclocked.
I'd rather have SLI any day. I'd rather lop a teste than run Crossfire ever again. As if AMD's drivers weren't bad enough on a single card without adding to the problem.
Soldato
Meh
No the GTX 480 is definitely in it's own league regarding power consumption and heat output. To say anything else is just blatently not true.
GTX 480 Sli now in 2012 while HD 7XXX is out and Kepler round the corner would be a huge waste of money imho.
GTX 480 is old, memory limited, hot, power hungry... Not very attractive for nearly £200 per card. If the OP is considering SLI then im sure Crossfire won't be a problem either. Just becausce you don't like Crossfire you don't have to condem anyone else who may use it. I have used Crossfire and SLI and had no problems with either..
Crossfire HD 7870 will more than likely be much faster than SLI GTX 480's, whilst running cooler and quieter, supporting DX 11.1, PCI-E 3.0 built on 28nm etc...
The OP could wait for Kepler? Not long now according to the 'rumours'..
Last edited:
Soldato
7950s are not exactly cool either when overclocked and the reference cooler is dire, very loud just like all reference coolers once you crank up the voltage.
Honestly at this stage if you already have a single or SLi GTX480s Mattuk69, hold out. Don't upgrade now, it is the wrong time to do so. You want to be on a level playing field with both sides having released the bulk of their next generation cards.
Sapphire 7950 OC (BIOS 1) Load 301w 67°C
Sapphire 7950 OC (BIOS 2) Load 302w 65°C
Radeon HD 7970 OC Load 364w 70°C
Radeon HD 6970 OC Load 364w 86°C
GeForce GTX 580 OC 438w 85°C
The 7950 at its maximum comes very close to 7970OC performance. The increase in core and memory speed when overclocked allows the 7950 to pull ahead of the GTX 580 when overclocked.
source: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1392/pg11/sapphire-radeon-7950-overclock-edition-vs-7970-oc-vs-gtx-580-oc-vs-6970-oc-review-power-temps-noise-overclocking.html
Sapphire 7950 OC (BIOS 2) Load 302w 65°C
Radeon HD 7970 OC Load 364w 70°C
Radeon HD 6970 OC Load 364w 86°C
GeForce GTX 580 OC 438w 85°C
The 7950 at its maximum comes very close to 7970OC performance. The increase in core and memory speed when overclocked allows the 7950 to pull ahead of the GTX 580 when overclocked.
source: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1392/pg11/sapphire-radeon-7950-overclock-edition-vs-7970-oc-vs-gtx-580-oc-vs-6970-oc-review-power-temps-noise-overclocking.html
Well i have a single 5850....
I was holding out on the 69xx for the 7xxx. But if kepler is coming out in April i guess i can wait a little more. I just hope the price and performance won't be a let down.
Soldato
You could always get a cheap 2nd hand 5850 and Xfire them to tide you over.
Like I say, it is never a good idea to upgrade at this stage, we don't know what nVidia is bringing to the table and what that will do to the current AMD cards pricing. So if you can it would pay to wait before purchasing a next gen card.
Like I say, it is never a good idea to upgrade at this stage, we don't know what nVidia is bringing to the table and what that will do to the current AMD cards pricing. So if you can it would pay to wait before purchasing a next gen card.
Information about the 680 etc, if you like that sort of thing.
http://www.guruht.com/2012/02/nvidia-gtx-680-kepler-gpus-prices.html
http://www.guruht.com/2012/02/nvidia-gtx-680-kepler-gpus-prices.html