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norg
Jul 5, 2006
Animal, are you playing Skyrim modded with hi-res texture packs? Because if so 2GB VRAM is going to get tested. I've seen people using in excess of 2GB in Skyrim while playing at 1080p, let alone 1440p.

Are you tied into Nvidia for any particular reason? A 7950/7970 with 3GB of VRAM would probably be better for modded Skyrim, or even a 4GB 670.

That said, it is just one game, and it's one where ultimately the VRAM useage is in your hands. If you're hitting the wall you can always install lower res textures. It's just something to bear in mind, I guess.

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norg
Jul 5, 2006
Agreed, do you have more info on this Skyrim issue with 12.11? I can't say I noticed anything amiss after installing the driver (unlike 12.9, which gave me loads of flickery glitching).

I saw something on Anandtech that very briefly mentioned they were missing a lighting pass on their 7970 but not their 7870, but that was about it. How does the problem manifest itself? I'm using an ENB for the game which obviously totally changes the lighting anyway, so I dunno if that affects the issue?

norg
Jul 5, 2006

norg posted:

Agreed, do you have more info on this Skyrim issue with 12.11? I can't say I noticed anything amiss after installing the driver (unlike 12.9, which gave me loads of flickery glitching).

I saw something on Anandtech that very briefly mentioned they were missing a lighting pass on their 7970 but not their 7870, but that was about it. How does the problem manifest itself? I'm using an ENB for the game which obviously totally changes the lighting anyway, so I dunno if that affects the issue?

Welp, I was wrong. Actually at night everything is too dark and unless it's bright sunshine it all looks a bit washed out too. Back to 12.8 again then I guess. :unsmith:

norg
Jul 5, 2006

FetalDave posted:

I spent a while looking at a bunch of 2GB vs 4GB stuff.

Basically, if you're not running games across 3 monitors at high resolutions, you're fine with 2 GB.

This is a retread from the previous page, but basically there are already a couple of instances (Bioshock Infinite & modded Skyrim) where you can approach or even exceed 2GB at 1080p, let alone 1440p. Going forward there's a good chance that will be more of a thing.

I was buying a GTX 770 personally I'd want it to have more than 2GB of VRAM, to avoid that VRAM becoming a limiting factor well before the raw grunt of the card. Depending on final specs/price that might well apply to the 760 Ti too.

norg
Jul 5, 2006
Is the only difference between the 7970 and 7970GE just some factory overclocking?

I have an opportunity to jump from a 7950 to a 7970 for £30. I know the 7970GE kinda trades blows with the GTX 770 but wasn't sure about the non-GE version.

norg
Jul 5, 2006

Agreed posted:

Here's Anandtech's article from a year ago when the 7970 GHz Edition launched. Gist back then was "well it's pretty much neck and neck for the future with the 680." Since the 770 is basically a 680 with artificially lowered TDP limits lifted and cooling to allow for that change, plus 7GHz VRAM (shipping 1750MHz modules from the factory is p-r-e-t-t-y cool), the 7970 does trade blows but I reckon once you start overclocking the 770 wins. Some games just run better on ATI cards, but they tend not to be ones that are super cutting edge graphically, making the performance difference moot for the high end (more of a concern for price:performance cards where they aren't both above 60FPS all the time).

Anyway, you can read the article to see the differences between the 7970 and the 7970 GHZ Edition. It is high time for AMD to get their refresh out there, the drivers are suggestive but not conclusive that it should happen soon-ish and we'll see what performance looks like for each maker when that occurs.

Thanks. I would prefer a GTX 770 but the 4GB card is a bit expensive compared to the 7970, and I don't really want to downgrade my VRAM with the 2GB card. Maybe I'll leave it.

norg
Jul 5, 2006

Agreed posted:

Well, if your 7970 overclocks really well there's not much reason to get a GHz edition anyway. And if it overclocks really well then it should still be performing very nicely in games. The 770 will perform better, but that doesn't all of a sudden make your card poo poo, you know? Spend money if you feel it's merited, but full-bore Tahiti is a strong architecture and while AMD has nothing to respond to the GK110 chips with, they already have good performers in the more affordable Tahiti/GCN architecture which I should hope you're enjoying right now :)

Definitely don't upgrade from a 7970 to a 7970 GHz unless your overclocking totally sucks, and even then, that's throwing good money after bad imo, the performance difference just is not that big. They put the 7970 GHz out to make sure they had a card competitive in more scenarios with the 680, it's not any real departure from the 7970 except in terms of software overclocking options and a little more TDP to work with. Not worth the price of an upgrade, you'd be better off if you intend to spend around that much doing what I just sort of cautioned Yudo against - getting a second 7970 and going Crossfire for top-quality current gen performance. But I'd wait until AMD's patch for the known issues in Crossfire goes live. They're behind schedule on releasing it, but to be fair it's a pretty huge project to fix something that broken.

Thanks for that. I wasn't thinking of moving from a 7970 to a 7970GE though; I currently have a 7950. As such I don't need to upgrade, but looking at how much I could eBay the 7950 for, there's a situation where I could upgrade for the following outlay:

7970 - £30
7970GE - £70
GTX 770 4GB - £95

The 7970 for just £30 was the one that caught my eye initially, although it looks like it's only a 10% performance bump over the 7950 in general.

I'll probably just stick a Boost BIOS on my 7950 (MSI Twin Frozr, so I think I can do that), and hang in there.

norg
Jul 5, 2006

El Scotch posted:

I'm curious as to the gooncensus on how much free games/bundles factor in to GPU purchases.

In my mind they're at the bottom of my points of comparison between products, to the extent of being a non-factor. I'm curious if I'm an anomaly in this respect.

I figure you can still eBay them for a decent amount of money, which in turn effectively lowers the price of the card.

norg
Jul 5, 2006
Gainward Phantom (good cooler) is now £400 for the 780 or £250 for the 770, so it#s definitely made its way to the UK. Other brands not much more. Pretty sweet deal.

norg
Jul 5, 2006
What are the differences between the 280X, 7970, and 7970GHz? Is it just clock speed?

norg
Jul 5, 2006
Factory Factory: I think I saw you say a few pages back that you had a Corsair H55 on your GTX 680. Is that in your Prodigy? If so how did you fit it? I was looking at putting one in my Prodigy with an NZXT G10 bracket, but it doesn't seem like it'll fit in the case.

norg
Jul 5, 2006

Factory Factory posted:

I used a Dwood bracket, which is functionally identical to a G10, and I sawed off part of it with a Dremel.



If you have a windowed side panel, you will need a low-profile fan, too. A vented side panel will work fine with the G10's stock 25mm-thick fan. I actually replaced my panel's window with some mesh from a cheap letter holder, so, that's a third option, I guess.

Ok I'm actually gonna do this I think. I have a vented side panel so the stock fan should work. Is that fan ok or is it better to replace it anyway? And is the VRAM cooled adequately with this setup?

norg
Jul 5, 2006
If I'm buying a 970 to go in a Prodigy am I better off getting one with a crappy blower cooler to vent out the back? Or is an ACX/Twin Frozr etc still worth doing?

norg
Jul 5, 2006

BurritoJustice posted:

^^Don't buy an ACX card this gen, it is junk. Wait for reviews on the new TF5 from MSI, it is a radical change so it could swing either way. Prodigy's have very good airflow so a non-reference card is very likely ideal.

Ok cool, I've taken the 3.5" bay out and have a 230mm Spectre Pro as a front intake so hopefully it'll be fine to get the TF card, even if it is making GBS threads hot air right into the case.

norg
Jul 5, 2006
Will a Coolermaster V700 PSU run SLI 970s ok?

norg
Jul 5, 2006
http://www.kitguru.net/site-news/announcements/zardon/amd-withdraw-kitguru-fury-x-sample-over-negative-content/

:/

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norg
Jul 5, 2006
With the 1070 being so much more expensive than the 970 was at launch, does this mean we're more likely to get a 1060 Ti this time around? Assuming they keep the 1060 about where you'd expect it to be in terms of price/performance, that seems like it'd be an enormous gap in their lineup without a 1060 Ti.

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