An early view of third quarter investing from CB Insights suggests an uptick in venture fundings, with $7.9 billion distributed to 790 companies.

The research firm claims that a similar performance in the fourth quarter could push yearly totals to a 10-year high of $30 billion.

The upbeat account says investment levels rose 46% in dollars from a depressed third quarter of 2010. However CB Insight’s figures for past quarters differ noticeably from those in the more widely viewed MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters, publisher of this blog.

The third quarter MoneyTree survey is due out next week.

For instance, while the CB Insights study says venture capitalists did 768 deals in the second quarter, the MoneyTree Reports records 966.

Discrepancies aside, CB Insights says the third quarter saw seed stage deal making increase to 15% of overall deals, even as dollars for early stage rounds fell. Internet companies in the quarter were hot.

So was New York. The study says New York passed Massachusetts in deals competed and dollars invested, following only California.