I almost have a finished system with a i5 2500k but I am running without a video card. I wanted to get something more high end, and I can't decide between going with a gtx 670, gtx 680, or a radeon 7970. At first I was concerned by the loud noise of the 7970, because i am hoping to have an extremely quiet system (Currently running an h100 and i can barely hear it). The things im not sure about are how loud is the 7970, and would the sound bother you if the case was about 5 or 6 feet away from you? Is the performance increase of the gtx 680 worth the extra money more than a gtx 670? And what brand of gtx 670 would be the best?
If you are looking at price-per-performance and trying to keep a budget, then I would just go with a GTX 670. It all depends on a few things though. Such as are you going to be running multiple monitors and if so for what reason. (Gaming, General Browsing, Media Production, etc.) If money isnt a problem then I would suggest, obviously, going with the 680. However, that known, as I said earlier, it depends on what you want to use it for. If you plan on gaming at high/superhigh resolution for 2 or more monitors, that is about the time I would look at the Radeon as it has a larger memory buffer. Hope that helps clear things up for you a bit.
Im planning to use it for single monitor gaming, mostly LoL but some first person games and rpgs, and possibly some rendering, but i dont really care much for the speed of the rendering. Thanks for the response btw.
What resolution on that monitor? From what you told me a 670 should be plenty for you. There is the Cuda cores for rendering so that gives you a nice performance boost. The 670 is an amazing card but know that games such as BF3 and I'm sure Skyrim you may be able to run them at 1080p with maxed graphical setting except for anti-aliasing and antistropic filtering at about 60-75 fps. It all depends on your budget. If money isn't really an issue and you want the extra boost then go for the 680. If money is an issue then go for the 670 or even a 660ti would be perfect for your needs.