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Thread: What a difference new drivers make...

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    Pork & Beans Powerup Phage's Avatar
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    What a difference new drivers make...

    I pretty much only play BF3 and I had been repeatedly told how much faster the 680 was in this game. Particularly at the lowly 1900x1200 res I use.
    Now, I have a 7970, a huge thing that can be a bit hooverish when annoyed, combine that with <ahem> possible performance issues on my expensive card, and I was unhappy. I was considering trading it in on a 680 Lightning. The Lightning seems cool, quiet and suposedly much faster than the 7970.

    Then I saw this. Which showed the 680 handily beating the 7970, BUT only at the price of an additional £190.
    http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphi...ed-4gb/?page=7

    If we then look again at another 680, against a 7970 with an OC equivalent to mine. The 680 is slower !
    http://www.hardocp.com/image.html?im...pfOV80X2wuanBn

    So, now I'm hanging on to the 7970, and wondering did I just fall for the marketing ?
    Society's to blame,
    Or possibly Atari.

  2. #2
    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Re: What a difference new drivers make...

    Depends if you think the 680 drivers will improve with age like the 7970's have

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    Pork & Beans Powerup Phage's Avatar
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    Re: What a difference new drivers make...

    It's tricky isn't it ?
    I've been with the Red guys for a long time (since my 8800GT) so I have very little knowledge of how they have improved performance with driver releases in the past.
    Society's to blame,
    Or possibly Atari.

  4. #4
    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Re: What a difference new drivers make...

    I've got one of both, and in the past AMD updates would slowly but surely improve performance, and were really stable, while nVidia would do few updates but they'd have huge effect (for the latest cards and games.. unfortunately sometimes at the detriment of older ones). Now AMD has moved to the nVidia model so both make large gains with drivers I think.

    I still slightly prefer the AMD drivers especially for longer term stability, but I would expect nVidia to get some large gains in performance for the 680 as well.

    But given the drop in value, I would still be happy with a 7970 as you'd have to pay more than the theoretical difference in performance is worth IMHO.

  5. #5
    Pork & Beans Powerup Phage's Avatar
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    Re: What a difference new drivers make...

    I think you're right. Let's wait till next year.
    I'm a little embarrassed that I am so easily swayed by marketing.
    Society's to blame,
    Or possibly Atari.

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    Re: What a difference new drivers make...

    well as i said in another thread - i was almost in tears after spending weeks and weeks and weeks reading top notch forums on deciding on a gtx670 or hd7970.

    it all came to this - future proof, 3 gig ram and ohhh, so much compute power! And the PRICE - no brainer!

    if you did what i did - you will be happy with the hd7970 - i don't read one or two remarks, i dig deep as i can go!

    And from red and green - drivers will always be catching up on each other!

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