I will be building a new gaming PC in the coming months. I am wondering which is better: a GTX 680 or 7970 (GHz Ed., if better). Would you reccomend your 680 or 7970? Which one is it? Would you reccomend doing an SLI or Crossfire setup with 7970's or 680's? Thanks in advance!
If you want to do triple monitor stuff, go with the 7970. If you need CUDA for editing and stuff go with a 680. Simple as that. If you want plain single monitor gaming, I'd go with an asus 670. You can overclock them loads so theyre basically the same as a reference 680.
Unless you're going to specifically use applications with CUDA or play games specifically optimised for Nvidia graphics cards (which are diminishing now) then go for the 680 otherwise go for the 7970's as they generally give more frames and are cheaper.
being a user of crossfire I can honestly say I wouldnt recommend it
driver support + waiting for the CAP releases are a nightmare
dont get me wrong, when it works gaming is heaven
when it doesnt... gaming is hell
For dual GPUs I'd say you're better off with the Nvidia cards, mainly the ones from EVGA. The Nvidia cards run cooler than the AMD cards, and the EVGA models use the blower style cooling system so the air is pushed out the back of the case instead of onto the second GPU. Also, you're probably better off going with 2 670s. They're $100 less ($200 less since you're buying 2) and are only a couple fps slower than the 680, and can compete with the 7970 pretty well.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787