Not quite.....how's the build quality of the 680 vs. the 7970? That must factor into the discussion of which one is the better choice for each individual person. If speed is your only concern, sure, the 680 is the only choice. If longevity is also a factor, then it's not quite so clear cut, is it?
Actually it's quite clear. EVGA has the best warranty and support in the business. Name me one other card company that has anything even close to their warranty. After 3 years the card is so devalued both price and performance wise, so who cares if a "better" built card lasts you 10 years. Goody for you.
I can't remember the last time a card died on me. That said, I would prefer a better quality build. Has anyone ever put together something that shows better longevity for certain cards/boards based on chip or manufacturer? Considering the relatively short life of video cards...
570s had the issue. Never heard of a 480 popping vrms as well as 580s. Maybe you just pushed them too hard.
I had 480s on water and they were fine at 900 core and 1.2v
Actually it's quite clear. EVGA has the best warranty and support in the business. Name me one other card company that has anything even close to their warranty. After 3 years the card is so devalued both price and performance wise, so who cares if a "better" built card lasts you 10 years. Goody for you.
Again, what's a warranty got to do with how a product is built? And I really discount the "in 3 years the card's worthless" argument. Worthless how? Maybe for cutting edge games, but that again is only applicable to the enthusiasts that insist upon being cutting edge. I look on the various F/S sections of various forums and see video cards older than 3 years for sale routinely, and they're quite viable for more mundane uses. They're still vastly superior, for instance, than any built in gpu today. So longevity does matter to some and is a viable consideration when buying.
Heck, you only have to browse some of the other video card threads here and see people wondering if the 7970/680 will last them 5 years like their previous card has.
And since you bring up EVGA's warranty, I wonder why EVGA's version of the GTX 680 is a -KR part and not an -AR part, a part that would have a lifetime warranty? Makes one wonder. Oh, and the -KR part can have its warranty extended to 10 years if one chooses to pay the price. But I wonder why this card fails to have an -AR suffix affixed to it like so many other EVGA cards have.
Actually it's quite clear. EVGA has the best warranty and support in the business. Name me one other card company that has anything even close to their warranty. After 3 years the card is so devalued both price and performance wise, so who cares if a "better" built card lasts you 10 years. Goody for you.
You may want to recheck the warranty policies. If you don't register with EVGA, MSI and Asus are about equal with EVGA (both have *slight* differences).
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2225815
EVGA does have the best warranty, but it's nearly a tie between the 3.
You know what matters to me when my card breaks down? Two words: TURN AROUND
EVGA cross ships from California. I don't think you can get a replacement any faster than that.
Still have a 8800gts 640mb in another machine thats running well for 5 years now, and used almost every day by family members. The 8800 series were sold in such huge quantities simply because they had no competition for 2 years. Thats probably the reason we may hear of some 'failures'.Relatively short life is a relative concept, don't you think? While we enthusiasts tend to run through hardware like water through our fingers, the vast majority of users don't. I just sold a 4870 after years of using it and it was still working perfectly. I don't think the people that have had to reflow their 8800's can say the same thing......and, yes, I know two different gens. and such. It's just that I've rarely if ever heard of ATi/AMD cards having build quality issues while Nvidia cards over the years have had numerous issues. Seems Nvidia just goes for speed over everything else. To wit:
I'm surprised people still bother upgrading desktop video cards unless they're running triple high resolution displays. I've got an Alienware M18x notebook w/580M SLi (cut down desktop 560 Ti) and it plays every game I throw at it with max settings. A 7970 or 680 blow away the performance I get and with most games being console ports, its way overkill.
AMD has no need to lower prices. NVidia only had a handful to sell anyways it seems. They mainly wanted to be able to say: "See, we're not behind by 6-7 months this time. We got the so-called Crown back on our heads."
Newegg is completely out of 680 cards. Will be VERY interested to see how fast stock comes back and how much. That will really tell....
Yeah this is a blah post but I don't care.
That review is messed up. They don't state the clocks of the OC'ed 7970, and the "OCed' 7970 is slower than the stock card on some of the graphs
That's crazy, that's the first I've heard of a 480 dying due to vrms, reference 570 was commonplace for awhile, haven't heard much on the 580 either though.
The 570s were popping at over 900 core over stock voltage if I remember right.
And that would be one of the differences between AMD and Nvidia until now, AMD has had a hardlock on wattage for a long time.
5xxx series was TDP capped across the board, while 4 series from Nvidia, well not so much.
Overclocking was one of the big reasons to go Nvidia over AMD these last few generations, neither 5xxx nor 6xxx really overclocked well on avg, while the Nvidia counter-parts showed excellent overclocking, some cards more so than others.
Sold my 7970 and went with the 680. Back to stable drivers.
Again, what's a warranty got to do with how a product is built? And I really discount the "in 3 years the card's worthless" argument. Worthless how? Maybe for cutting edge games, but that again is only applicable to the enthusiasts that insist upon being cutting edge. I look on the various F/S sections of various forums and see video cards older than 3 years for sale routinely, and they're quite viable for more mundane uses. They're still vastly superior, for instance, than any built in gpu today. So longevity does matter to some and is a viable consideration when buying.
Heck, you only have to browse some of the other video card threads here and see people wondering if the 7970/680 will last them 5 years like their previous card has.
And since you bring up EVGA's warranty, I wonder why EVGA's version of the GTX 680 is a -KR part and not an -AR part, a part that would have a lifetime warranty? Makes one wonder. Oh, and the -KR part can have its warranty extended to 10 years if one chooses to pay the price. But I wonder why this card fails to have an -AR suffix affixed to it like so many other EVGA cards have.
AMD does deserve some credit
Sold my 7970 and went with the 680. Back to stable drivers.
I am starting to think about doing this too.
I have not gamed all day nor put any sort of 3d load on my card,but i was sitting around googling stuff,when i heard my fan ramp up,so i check and see my card right up at 96cel ,fan at 25%,vddc sitting at 1.158...thats higher then a game load voltage,and i had booted up the machine this morning.
Why it decided to do that is beyond me,my machine stays on quite often so luckily i was in the room to catch it doing this,i even ramped up the fan to 100% dropped it to 60cel,dropped the speed down to 25% and watched it hit 80cel in less then a few mins,no game or app running,idle gpu usage.
Check out some card stats for failure....AMD isnt doing as well as NV...sorry.
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