Thinking about making the switch to the AMD and the 7970

[Stridulent]

So I have always used nvidia cards from the day I started building machines, but I've heard/read great things about what the AMD ones have to offer. From looking at benchmarks, the 7970 is the best performing card on the market current, is this still correct?

I am working on a new ivy bridge build so the 7970's pci-express 3.0 is intriguing in itself. I also have a 4 monitor setup (currently running off of a gtx 260 and a 9800gtx). I game a fair amount and also do a lot of video rendering/editing. This setup will also be watercooled, so overclocking should not be an issue with the card. I would also like to later crossfire the card with another, but I plan on sticking with just 1 card for starters.

Does the AMD 7970 sound like a good fit for me?

[prudhomb]

It out perfomrs the 580 so its as good as you can get. 6xx cards are supposed to hit the market as well this spring, if you arent building right now, then its probably better to wait for compition, as it will probably drive prices down.

[Stridulent]

Originally Posted by prudhomb

It out perfomrs the 580 so its as good as you can get. 6xx cards are supposed to hit the market as well this spring, if you arent building right now, then its probably better to wait for compition, as it will probably drive prices down.

Very valid point. I'll be waiting until April for the ivy bridge anyways, but I just haven't seen much in terms of release days for new card series. I intend to have the whole set up ready so that when the cpu (and possibly new gpus) comes out, I can just pop it in, screw in my water block, and boot her up.

One thing I also forgot to mention, is that I will be using a Z68 1155 and I've heard that AMD cards run better with these, so that would also be a plus.

[Slizzo]

Originally Posted by Stridulent

Very valid point. I'll be waiting until April for the ivy bridge anyways, but I just haven't seen much in terms of release days for new card series. I intend to have the whole set up ready so that when the cpu (and possibly new gpus) comes out, I can just pop it in, screw in my water block, and boot her up.

One thing I also forgot to mention, is that I will be using a Z68 1155 and I've heard that AMD cards run better with these, so that would also be a plus.

False. Everything runs well with the Z68 1155. I'm running SLI GTX470s on it and have excellent results.

[prudhomb]

I dont think there is a release date yet beyond q2

[hostage67]

March - April is the expected release date, for some reason I thought I saw March 12th specified, but can't find confirmation of that atm. I do show that the Z77 chipset is expected on April 8th though so I would assume the CPU's would probably be released on the same day though technically they would work in the current z68 chipsets.

[Stridulent]

Originally Posted by hostage67

March - April is the expected release date, for some reason I thought I saw March 12th specified, but can't find confirmation of that atm. I do show that the Z77 chipset is expected on April 8th though so I would assume the CPU's would probably be released on the same day though technically they would work in the current z68 chipsets.

The Ivy Bridges are set for April 8th, and I've seen it discussed many places. I can't find anything definite or even within a 2-month span of when the 6XX series video cards are set to release, so I will probably end up grabbing one of these 7970s or 7950s if they haven't said anything about the 6XX when Ivy Bridge is out.