Upgrade. 295GTX vs. 680GTX

[Deleted]

Is it a sensible move ?! I mean I'm not looking to spend money for a 25% increase in performance and I'm not computer savy either. Or perhaps I should be looking at another GPU ?! Not something expensive.

[Aldrashan]

From what I can tell, the gtx 680 is going to destroy the gtx 295 in performance. You might bottleneck it if you have a weak cpu tho so might be best if you post your whole setup.

[Deleted]

From what I can tell, the gtx 680 is going to destroy the gtx 295 in performance. You might bottleneck it if you have a weak cpu tho so might be best if you post your whole setup.

Oh

CPU: i7-2600k @ 3.40 Ghz
RAM: 8 GB
GPU: 295 GTX
Windows 7

[Deleted]

As far as the 680 is concerned, it totally destroys the 295. Performance wise it's roughly 5 times more powerful than a 295.

However, it depends which games you're playing. WoW is very CPU bound, if you have a weak CPU you may find there's no improvement after upgrading the GPU.

If you play other GPU heavy games you may see a huge performance boost. It all depends on your other components.

Edit: Having seen your post above - yes you should see good improvements with that CPU and system.

[noteworthynerd]

I probably wouldn't recommend the 680, you can get the 670 for $100 less and it performs nearly as well as the 680.

[Deleted]

It would be a significant upgrade, but however, I don't think a 680 would be the best choice right now.
7970 is within the same price range as a 670 and largely, it performs as good as a 680.

[Deleted]

Thanks for replies, all.

[Toffie]

If you primarely play World of warcraft then a suggest the gtx, wow engine favors it.

[Lemmiwink]

I can recommend the GTX680 for performance, not price. It is true, the 7970 performs on par with it and is cheaper but if money is no concern and you play in 1920*1080 go for the 680. In all games I have tested these two against eachother, apart from Metro, the 680 wins every time. I know cause I have a 7970 in my media center.

Media center setup:

Silverstone Grandia GD06
Asus Maximus V Gene
intel core i7 3770K @4,6GHZ
Corsair dominator platinum 2x8GB @2133MHZ
ASUS Radeon HD 7970 3GB GDDR5 Matrix Platinum 1100Mhz
Corsair AX750
Corsair H80

Edit: listed the Sugo SG08 as case then realised that one serves as a travel PC these days...

[Shinzai]

I'd recommend just going with an overclocked GTX 670. More bang for buck and only a fraction behind the 680 in performance. It's also a gigantic leap ahead of a 295.

[Faithh]

The performance difference (looking from 3dmark vantage) is like 3.5 times. OC'ing a gtx680 would be like 4 times. Bear in mind due that a gtx 670 has a smaller pcb will just be a few dba's louder & run warmer.

An overclocked gtx 680 would only perform 10%? faster than a gtx 670 but gtx 680's are better to overclock though.

Just to be honest, get a 670. They tend to have less coilwhine than 680's..

[Seiz]

That is a massive upgrade though I would go with the 7970 ghz edition or wait for the next ones coming out in a few months!

[Faithh]

That is a massive upgrade though I would go with the 7970 ghz edition or wait for the next ones coming out in a few months!

Hmm I don't think they will bring it out within "a few months". Possibly the highest chance nvidia will be the first this time releasing their new line..

[camphor]

That is a massive upgrade though I would go with the 7970 ghz edition or wait for the next ones coming out in a few months!

I was just deciding between an asus-overclocked 670 and a 7970. The 7970 is quicker, but I'm putting the 670 in a quiet case in a public part of my apartment--I picked the 670 because the quiet cooler on the card at heavy load was more important to me than the marginal performance gains.

[Faithh]

I was just deciding between an asus-overclocked 670 and a 7970. The 7970 is quicker, but I'm putting the 670 in a quiet case in a public part of my apartment--I picked the 670 because the quiet cooler on the card at heavy load was more important to me than the marginal performance gains.

Well I had AMD for years and lately Ive upgraded to a gtx 680 and seriously I just loved the gameplay. Everything just felt so much smoother while the nvidia wasn't even better than my 2x amd card's in crossfire.

I have the Asus as well and yep they're just too quiet :P

[Deleted]

At the price point I'd either recommend the GTX 670 or the 7970 GHz edition. As NWN posted above, the $100 is not worth the (on average) ~7% extra performance the GTX 680 offers.

[Faithh]

At the price point I'd either recommend the GTX 670 or the 7970 GHz edition. As NWN posted above, the $100 is not worth the (on average) ~7% extra performance the GTX 680 offers.

The performance difference just depends on the amount of overclock though. Check this, a decent gtx 680 OC'ed will outperform a 670 with 20fps -> http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/im...680-TOP-91.jpg

[Deleted]

The performance difference just depends on the amount of overclock though. Check this, a decent gtx 680 OC'ed will outperform a 670 with 20fps -> http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/im...680-TOP-91.jpg

You can OC the 670 as well....

The performance difference (looking from 3dmark vantage) is like 3.5 times. OC'ing a gtx680 would be like 4 times. Bear in mind due that a gtx 670 has a smaller pcb will just be a few dba's louder & run warmer.

There should be some 670s with a 680 PCB. The gigabyte windforce 3x comes to mind.

[Deleted]

The performance difference just depends on the amount of overclock though. Check this, a decent gtx 680 OC'ed will outperform a 670 with 20fps -> http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/im...680-TOP-91.jpg

You can overclock a GTX 670 as well. Some people even argue that the GTX 670 overclocks better than the GTX 680, but I reckon this depends on the card (PCB) and features supplies by the manufacturer.

The OC-argument is therefore moot. And always will be.

[Faithh]

You can OC the 670 as well....



There should be some 670s with a 680 PCB. The gigabyte windforce 3x comes to mind.

You can overclock a GTX 670 as well. Some people even argue that the GTX 670 overclocks better than the GTX 680, but I reckon this depends on the card (PCB) and features supplies by the manufacturer.

The OC-argument is therefore moot. And always will be.

Because the gtx 670 is a gtx 680 with 1 SMX unit disabled doesn't mean the 670 will overclock better. Basically a gtx 670 IS a gtx 680 with one SMX unit lasercutted (disabled) and nvidia ofcourse lowered their clock.

The gtx 670 has a smaller pcb which just simply means less space for more vrm phases & smaller pcb versions are not better, and especially the cooling on a gtx 670 is kinda poor compared to a gtx 680. The boost throttledown kicks in at 70° and you have to mod your bios to disable the throttledownstuff. I can be wrong, the boost could be for 670's around 80° instead of 70° for the 680 but doesn't matter :>

As far as I know from benchmarks, the gtx 680 top is running at full load 54° while the gtx 670 top is running at 70-71° full load.

I've seen hawks 660ti (zotac brand?) doing 1400MHz on stock volt >.<