How much better is a single GTX 970 than 2x 7870 XT?


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Is it worth the upgrade @ 1920x1080? (all modern games in maximum detail, including the games for the next year or so).

 

I know my two current cards use quite a bit of electricity.

 

I think, if I've read this correctly, my cards use:

 

47w "idle" for each card - 97w for the two cards (I use two displays)
169w "average" for each card - 338w for the two cards
184w "peak gaming" for each card - 368w for the two cards
215w "maximum during benchmark" for each card - 430w for the two cards

 

Whereas the EVGA GTX 970, for example, uses:
 

76w "idle"
306w "peak gaming"
284w "maximum during benchmark"

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To me it'd be worth it when considering how much Maxwell will save you in terms of power usage vs the 7870 XT's. Not to mention that you'll get double the VRAM (2GB vs 4GB), double the pixel rate and double render output processors. You'll also be more "future proof" in regards to things like DirectX 12 too.

 

I say yes, go for the 970. It's an awesome card with an amazing price-to-performance.

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I'd wait if I were you, it's rumoured that AMD's next cards are coming early next year and will have stacked memory, which, for this generation, will be 4-5x faster than GDDR5. Can't really tell what effect that will have on performance and power usage, but it should provide good price/perf competition. It may even make Nvidia release the GM210 cards like they did with 680 > 780 (GK104 > GK110).

 

As for your original question, my guesstimate is that the 970 is 15-25% faster.

 

Also, stay away from EVGA 970s.

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i dont think it's a worthwhile upgrade. You'd save a bit in power consumption, but you probably wont see much, if any, performance increase.

 

Anandtech has a GPU database with which you can compare these cards. They dont have the 7870 CFX listed, but you can compare the 970 to a single 7870 or a 7990.

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To me it'd be worth it when considering how much Maxwell will save you in terms of power usage vs the 7870 XT's. Not to mention that you'll get double the VRAM (2GB vs 4GB), double the pixel rate and double render output processors. You'll also be more "future proof" in regards to things like DirectX 12 too.

 

I say yes, go for the 970. It's an awesome card with an amazing price-to-performance.

 

Perhaps 2 or 3 dollars / year. I say don't touch the 970. You'll gain no performance and no actual power saving. 

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Your setup is frankly already bordering on overkill for 1080p, you won't gain a whole lot from upgrading. You will save a bit on power, but it's going to take a couple of years usage for it to really offset itself so it really isn't worth it IMO.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Your setup is frankly already bordering on overkill for 1080p, you won't gain a whole lot from upgrading. You will save a bit on power, but it's going to take a couple of years usage for it to really offset itself so it really isn't worth it IMO.

That's what I was thinking but more and more games are needing 4 GB VRAM for ultra textures (e.g. The Evil Within) and although I have 2x 2 GB VRAM cards, that unfortunately doesn't work as 4 GB VRAM in CrossFireX configurations.

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That's what I was thinking but more and more games are needing 4 GB VRAM for ultra textures (e.g. The Evil Within) and although I have 2x 2 GB VRAM cards, that unfortunately doesn't work as 4 GB VRAM in CrossFireX configurations.

 

It states:

 

GeForce GTX 670 or equivalent with 4GB of VRAM

 

Since when did 670 have 4GB of VRAM? Even the EVGA ones don't. It's a type more than likely.

 

Yeah, must be an type. 4GB RAM and the same amount of VRAM? Not going to happen. Also if they meant SLI or CFX...it doesn't work like that.

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It states:

 

GeForce GTX 670 or equivalent with 4GB of VRAM

 

Since when did 670 have 4GB of VRAM? Even the EVGA ones don't. It's a type more than likely.

 

Yeah, must be an type. 4GB RAM and the same amount of VRAM? Not going to happen. Also if they meant SLI or CFX...it doesn't work like that.

There are 4 GB varieities of the GTX 670, here's an example.

 

It's 100% not a typo :(

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