GeForce Titan GPU with GK110 Core Thread

[smbu2000]

BlueFalcon said:

smbu2000 said:
That is a great deal on the card, but it wasn't new. The sticker on the box clearly says that it's "used". It's still a great deal though.I'm going to be selling my 1.5gb gtx 580 cards for much more than that individually. Still trying to decide if I should get one or two 7970 cards.

If you are thinking of dropping $ on 2 7970s, wouldn't it make sense to see where the Titan lands and how well it overclocks? Also, some after-market HD7950s like Sapphire Dual-X or Vapor-X can overclock to 1100mhz at which point HD7950 is trading blows with GTX680/HD7970GE.  HD7950s OCx2 would save you $160+ over 2 7970s and would come in at $330 less than the Titan's rumored price of $899. ($280 x 2 = $560)

At 1200mhz, HD7950 blows right past GTX680/HD7970GE with ease.

 

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/HIS/HD_7950_X2_Boost/31.html

A lot of people forget that HD7950 is just a slightly cut-down factory underclocked HD7970. You still get the full 384-bit bus, same 32 ROPs, only a bit less shaders and TMUs. The card performs within 5% of HD7970 when both are at the same clock speeds:

http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/graphics/34761-amd-hd-7950-vs-hd-7970-clocks/?page=10

The HD7950 is one of the most underrated cards this generation. Probably because originally after-market versions were selling for $450-500 when GTX670 launched at $400. For $280-290, HD7950 is seriously an impressive amount of value in the hands of overclockers.

 

http://www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/his_7970_iceq_xsup2_ghz_edition_7950_iceq_xsup2_boost_clock,13.html

And if electricity costs are reasonable for you, you can make $80-90+ a month bitcoin mining on the side with AMD cards, which means they pay for themselves over time. 

http://www.bitcoincharts.com/

So far my 7970 OCx2 have made me $900 and I only bought them last summer. If this perk persists, next round I am getting Haswell with 4 PCIe Lanes and 4x HD8970s or 2x HD8990s. 

If you are not an overclocker though, then sure it makes sense to consider 7970s or the Titan :)

I know the 7950 is a good card as well. I've found a pretty good deal on some new MSI R7970 Lightning cards though. It's not the newer one that was introduced in October, but it is already clocked at 1070/5600 from the factory. It also has the nice Twin Frozer IV cooler. The price difference isn't actually that much off of a generic 7950.

My gtx 580 cards are good for games, but terrible for Bitcoin mining(just like all Nvidia cards), which is another reason I'm switching back to AMD. The money from the 580's will already put a nice dent into the cost of the 7970's, so it won't actually cost me too much to upgrade. If I only got 1 card then it wouldn't cost me anything.