Another price drop on this popular graphics card.
Seems to be cheaper than everywhere else
Powercolor Radeon HD7970 3GB OC $319 + $13 Shipping from PCCG
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not bad, graphics cards are dropping recently, 280x's have dropped too, if you're not in a rush, best you wait a couple more weeks, a similar deal to http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/121265 might pop up :)
Asking cos I have been on the lookout, which 280x has dropped on price?
Probably means this, that's probably the initial price though:
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/121889Forgot about that one. Shame its's NSW only.
PCCaseGear has one for $10 less, check the deal's comments.
Keep dropping in price, than I get it :)
Cheers.
Bought this Card at $329 last time. It's an awesome card. Not the best looker but very quiet and runs nice and cool.
Give it until two weeks or so after the 780 Ti's debut (November 7th) and we should see most retailers clearing out their remaining 7000 series stock with more possible $299 deals on 7970's.
At $300 dollar US and $350-370-ish AU RRP, the R9 280X can't really get much cheaper but I expect 7970's to possibly go below $300.
with more possible $299 deals on 7970's….
The only question is will they have enough stock for when that does happen ? :S
How would the R9 280X compare against 2 GTX 670s in SLI?
I'm building a comp in two weeks, I can get a second hand GTX670 for $200 and will probably buy a second one when they're on clearance (like the $230 Centrecom deal, around that price)
Which one would you choose if you had a choice?
Mainly for BF4Unless those 670s have 3GB VRAM each or more, you already have a 700W PSU or better and two 16x speed PCI-E slots on your mobo; no.
BF4 with 4x MSAA and everything on Ultra already damn-near uses up 3GB VRAM; remember in multi-GPU setups the VRAM is not shared, so one card can't allocate extra memory for the other (hence 2GB + 2GB does not equal 4GB total VRAM).I had two GTX 460s for about 2 years and it wasn't exactly what I hoped it would be. Not only do they get very hot (and depending on your cooler noisy; luckily the WindForce was quiet) but game developers just do not give 2 hoots about optimising stuff for multi-GPU rigs.
For every game that scaled really well on SLI and gave me roughly double the performance of a single 460 (equivalent to a 10% lead over a GTX 580) there were at least 4 other games that made almost no utilisation of the second card, it's usage hovering around 10-40%. BioShock and GTA IV are two that stand out.
I never came across a game that would flat out refuse to run, but instability and woeful performance were pretty common.
Also, micro-stuttering made demanding FPS games aggravating to play. Whenever you suddenly demanded that the cards render a very complex scene (e.g. a firefight with 20 guys just bursting into action) the FPS would take a massive dip before it returned to normal and the lack of a smooth framerate really hampered your accuracy just when you needed it the most. In general, wildly fluctuating frame rates (50-30-40-20-30-50) is something that annoyed me back when I had SLI.
Micro-stuttering still an inherent design flaw of SLI/CF and it doesn't look to be resolved until NVidia and AMD can invent a better bus for the SLI/CF bridge that has way more bandwidth as it's simply too congested (that's the reason why micro-stuttering disappears in three-way SLI/CF rigs because there's an additional card with a lot of extra bandwidth).
So… R9 280x?
Should I go with the $200 gtx 670 first?I will probably wait the two weeks and see what happens first though.
I'd say either a 7970 (with an OC to at least 1050Mhz) for $300 or less or an R9 280X for under $350 (might have to wait though).
If the 670 in question is one of those 4GB VRAM models (and you already have a 4GB model in your PC); then go for it. Just my take. I also wouldn't mix and match different vendors/PCBs.
The amount of VRAM needed also depends on the resolution. For most settings 2GB is fine but since he's looking at SLI I'm guessing he runs at a high resolution?
http://www.bf4blog.com/battlefield-4-retail-gpu-cpu-benchmar…
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/battlefield_4_vga_graph…Considering whether I should upgrade to 23.6" 1080p or get a 27" 1440p now, I want to have upgrade options available in the future, that's all.
Upgrading from a 14" laptop
Pretty sure 23.6" 1080p will be fine with just one GTX670?Btw Bentan, how is that $199 netbook coming along? :p
I have 2x 7950 in crossfire. I haven't noticed any issues at all with stutter in BF4, ultra, 4xMSAA, 60fps, 1080p. They run at about 50-60% usage, hence cool and quiet, the fan speed barely increases. During many hours of game play, single and multiplayer, I have not once seen the Vram usage go above 2GB, despite the recommended Vram being 3GB and the only reason I replaced my GTX680 to go with AMD.
Perhaps multi-monitor setups would need more than 2GB.
Of the 30 odd recent games I have, all but one (Sherlock Holmes) run fine in crossfire. Even Crysis 1.ah yes, http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/battlefield_4_vga_graph…
seems like only 3840x2160 and above would demand more than 2GB. Makes me wonder why 3GB was recommended, if not to trick people into buying AMD cards (as most Nvidia are only 2GB).
Which brand are your 7970s?
They would've based their recommendations off the Alpha/Beta versions of BF4 (they used more VRAM than the Retail version).
So… a 450w PSU probably wouldn't cut it would it. Guess I'll have to wait for a deal on the 7950s.
450W could be enough but it depends on what model it is and what else is in your computer.
A 7970 doesn't use much more power than a 7950.
Agreed - if the PSU isn't good enough to handle a 7970, it likely won't be able to handle a 7950 either. Upgrading your PSU is better than downgrading your GPU if it's a bad model.
Even if it's a top brand PSU , 450W is cutting it close for a 7950. Might not work.
If it's not a top brand PSU, you should probably get a new PSU anyway.
would it be worth the extra $29 for the Powercolor R9 280X?
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&p…
I don't think so, no. The coolers seem to be identical, so you won't be getting any decrease in temps / better custom OC'ing performance, and the only thing differentiating the two is a difference in base clocks (and the 'boost' on the 280X).
Probably not… Looks like exactly the same card with a different badge.
Maybe the 7970 chip is certified for higher clocks? (though the 7970 has a 955 stock clock).
R9 might have better resale value, cause people think it's newer…?
My monitor died, so now I'm on a 27inch with a 560ti, and its taken a performance hit. I kinda want a new card now but I dunno if I should hold off a few weeks….
Its not the size of the monitor that matters, just the resolution…, 1080p or 1440p or higher ?
im playing at 1080 atm
looks like it dropped another $10 since last deal