GPU Upgrade

[cbh]

I am currently running dual GTX 460's and one of them is shitting the bed so I want to upgrade. I was looking at the GTX 680 but I notice on amazon that the GTX 7 series are cheaper. Any help is appreciated, I'm a noob when it comes to pcs. Also my rig is a custom Alienware Area 51 PC. (I know now, I should have built my own) my power supply is 650 watts if that helps. Thanks!

[Ganador]

i believe a gtx 770 out preforms the 680 and it is cheaper. AMD is releasing their new cards in the next couple weeks and are supposed to be really impressive in both power and price. Im in a similar situation but i am waiting o see how the new AMD card look before buying a new card.

[Nafrayu]

To help you a bit further, what price range do you want to stay within? Since you linked a 680 I would think about 450-550?(USD that is) Additionally what kind of gaming quality are you doing? 1080p? 1440? 1600? What kind of settings do you want to be playing at as well?(BF4 with ultra settings and decent FPS? or WoW?)

waiting o see how the new AMD card look before buying a new card.

Also quoted that since there are new cards just around the corner

[Lumineus]

770 is the best bang for your buck right now.

Personally I wouldn't wait for AMD, but that's my issue rather than yours (will never forgive ATi for all the corrupted Windows installs I had to fix about a decade ago, due to their terrible drivers).

[cbh]

I don't want to spend more than 350. I could have read the prices wrong but the 680 was $319 and the 770 was $274. My monitor at the moment is 1400 x 900 and I mostly play wow added a few games coming soon like black flag

[glo]

770 is the best bang for your buck right now.

Personally I wouldn't wait for AMD, but that's my issue rather than yours (will never forgive ATi for all the corrupted Windows installs I had to fix about a decade ago, due to their terrible drivers).

That would make sense if ATI still made video cards.

[cbh]

I just double checked amazon and it was the GTX 760 super clocked w/ ACX cooler 2GB GDDR5 256 bit for $265. What do you guys think? That's def. within my budget and will this be a superior upgrade from the dual 460s?

[enhancedmg]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125470
this is what i use and i am satisfied with it. stays cool and runs very smooth. plus 4gb of memory is a solid number for future games.

Edit: its a 12 inch card and it needs a 550+Watt PS to run.

[Zogarth]

I would personally wait and look at the new AMD cards comming out within the next month or so. They appear to be launching a 600 dollar card that can outperform the Titan.

[Deleted]

I don't think 760 quite requires a 550W PSU.

Anyway, just wait for the new AMD cards, if only to see how they affect nVidia's pricing.

[glo]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125470
this is what i use and i am satisfied with it. stays cool and runs very smooth. plus 4gb of memory is a solid number for future games.

Edit: its a 12 inch card and it needs a 550+Watt PS to run.

4GB doesn't matter for a 760. It only has a 256bit membus which will choke it out in almost all situations before it can utilize that kind of memory efficiently. Even ignoring that, the 760 doesn't have enough kick to get hindered by 2GB of memory. The actual card itself will buckle before it has memory issues. Mid range 4GB cards are mostly a gimmick to separate people from their money.

[cbh]

4GB doesn't matter for a 760. It only has a 256bit membus which will choke it out in almost all situations before it can utilize that kind of memory efficiently. Even ignoring that, the 760 doesn't have enough kick to get hindered by 2GB of memory. The actual card itself will buckle before it has memory issues. Mid range 4GB cards are mostly a gimmick to separate people from their money.

I think I misinterpreted what you wrote but are you saying the 760 isn't that good of a card or just that the card w/ 4 gigs isn't worth the $

[Deleted]

770 is the best bang for your buck right now.

The 7970 and its recent price drop says hello.

I can get one for 250 euro, while a 770 costs 360+. And in the US you can pick one up 100 dollar cheaper.
There is at the moment no reason to pick a 770 over a 7970, unless you are dead set on Nvidia.

I think I misinterpreted what you wrote but are you saying the 760 isn't that good of a card or just that the card w/ 4 gigs isn't worth the $

The 4 GB isnt worth the money.

[Lumineus]

The 770 destroys the 7990 in Passmark, I don't know what you are talking about.

[Deleted]

The 770 destroys the 7990 in Passmark, I don't know what you are talking about.

But is it $100 worth of destruction in all things? I don't think so.

[Deleted]

The 770 destroys the 7990 in Passmark, I don't know what you are talking about.

Using passmark for GPU performance.......

Passmark is the most useless benchmark for just about everything. Even double so for GPU's.

A 7990 still beats the crap out of a 770 in games, which is why you would buy a GPU. (Just looking at pure FPS, not latency issues)

Also, you were talking about bang for buck. A 770 cost around 400 dollar, a 7970 300. (Prices I can get them are, 360+ for the 770 and 250 for the 7970)
The 7970 is just behind the 770 in most benchmarks. Plus you have the added bonuses of bigger membus and extra vram (4 GB 770s are a waste of money, except for some small exceptions). And with mantle coming up, which looks promising.

So tell me how the 770 is a better bang for buck card than the 7970?

[Lumineus]

It's a superior benchmark to FPS tests in games. Because essentially, "what game?" You certainly can't be talking about Far Cry or Crysis when you make such a bold statement about AMD cards. OP also runs SLI so I assume he'll eventuially want to do so again-- and SLI beats the pants off Crossfire in practically every application. AMD cards also don't support full-frame 3D @ 120Hz, which is a thing, if you're into it.

[Deleted]

I'm not sure what the situation is with Crossfire and windowed mode applications and whether it works or not, or how it scales, but that doesn't interest me as I don't ever plan to run multi-GPU again. I'll let you have this point though.

.

I think since the last drivers they have improved CF a lot. Nvidia is till a bit ahead I think. But with the new series coming out, CF might be just as good as SLI.

Other than that, fully agree with you.

[Alantor]

...

I expect your feedback in a month ^^

Edit: It's odd you're the only person i've heard about this issues with nvidia cards :/

[Faithh]

Well a 770 or a 7970? 7970. I won't be looking at the frames really since they will be very close to each other but I'm kinda sure the frame latencies are on a 7970 much lower and sustained than a 770 in BF3/BF4.

The 770 is just a rip-off card imo, I really hate cards with a 256bit membus. When I upgraded to a 780 (384bit like a 7970) I noticed in BF3 that the frame latencies were just so much better. It's clear enough that AMD wins in every budget segment. I would recommend to get an Asus 7970 Matrix, it does look nice and is quiet and has a handy feature the led lights which shows the load of the gpu.

I used to have a 6970 & 6950 in CF, in windowed mode it never worked but wasn't really a big deal, think it's the same with SLI. Haven't noticed any driver issues or stuttering, worked even better than my 670 sli horror. That SLI always works better than CF isn't quite true.