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Looking at buying a new g card

blacktiger

blacktiger

blacktiger

Associate
Joined
16 Feb 2012
Posts
46
Have been tempted by the new 7970 upgradeing from the nvidea 295gtx but have a few worries

Firstly my old motherboard is a asus P6T deluxe v2 and only has a pcie 2.0 slot and noticed the pcie 3.0 requirement for the g card, i did see another persons post on this forum saying the my mobo will accept it but was wondering how much would i loose graphics wise not having the rite slot for this, also would it be worth going for a pci 2.0 card instead if was too much of a loss

With new cards on horizon is it maybe worth holding out for the new nvidea cards to hit shelves as to me the card is a lot of cash tho do have funds to splash out.

Want to upgrade due playing bf3 and wanting it on ultra

Soz if a stupid question but am no tech savvy

Thanks
 
as mentioned, it'll make little difference (as in none) pcie2.0 vs 3 unless you planned to go to xfire later

the rumours are that Nvidia's new gen of cards are going to start seeing light of day in the next 2 months (April 12th is the date that is being thrown around)

if these rumours are true then this release will, if nothing else, force price reductions on the 7*** cards, but it's up to you if you want to believe the rumours or whether you'd be upset at spending over £400 on a graphics card now and then seeing the same card for £350 or less in 2 months time, which is always a risk with PC parts...
 
As above, you may be throwing away good money on buying a gpu that could be bottlenecked by your current hardware, what is the rest of your specs?

andybird123 said:
the rumours are that Nvidia's new gen of cards are going to start seeing light of day in the next 2 months (April 12th is the date that is being thrown around)

if these rumours are true then this release will, if nothing else, force price reductions on the 7*** cards, but it's up to you if you want to believe the rumours or whether you'd be upset at spending over £400 on a graphics card now and then seeing the same card for £350 or less in 2 months time, which is always a risk with PC parts...
Click to expand...

The only way there will be a price reduction is If the 680(or whatever it's badged) can compete with or beat the 7970.

Plus it could be wishful thinking that it will be priced where we would like. I really don't see Nvidia bringing out a bargain basement powerhouse myself, but fingers crossed I'm wrong and it gives the market a huge shake as imo, it's getting quite boring now.

If the rumours(again) about the new Kepler card only beating the 7970 on physX titles which are few and far between, then I don't see a ~£80 price drop myself, it will just cement the 79** pricing.

There could be some juicy information this time tomorrow on Keplers performance, but it looks like it will be demo'ing a physX title, which will be highly optimised for Nvidia hardware.

We may also get Nvidia 'benchmark' figures, but just like when AMD release in house bm's, do yourself a favour and take them with a pinch of salt.

The true indication of performance only comes when they get mass reviewed on release after Nvidia/Amd lift the embargo on set benchmarks for the early reviews.
 
my rig is:-
Asus p6t v2 board
12 gig ram
295 gtx graphics card
i7 920 core overclocked to 3.40
haf case air cooled
900 watt psu

soz for late reply been a tad busy
 
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tommybhoy said:
As above, you may be throwing away good money on buying a gpu that could be bottlenecked by your current hardware, what is the rest of your specs?



The only way there will be a price reduction is If the 680(or whatever it's badged) can compete with or beat the 7970.

Plus it could be wishful thinking that it will be priced where we would like. I really don't see Nvidia bringing out a bargain basement powerhouse myself, but fingers crossed I'm wrong and it gives the market a huge shake as imo, it's getting quite boring now.

If the rumours(again) about the new Kepler card only beating the 7970 on physX titles which are few and far between, then I don't see a ~£80 price drop myself, it will just cement the 79** pricing.

There could be some juicy information this time tomorrow on Keplers performance, but it looks like it will be demo'ing a physX title, which will be highly optimised for Nvidia hardware.

We may also get Nvidia 'benchmark' figures, but just like when AMD release in house bm's, do yourself a favour and take them with a pinch of salt.

The true indication of performance only comes when they get mass reviewed on release after Nvidia/Amd lift the embargo on set benchmarks for the early reviews.
Click to expand...

I didn't say they were or they are or there will be, all I said was that for the sake of a few more weeks, it *might* be worth waiting, if you are that way inclined or if you would be upset to discover *if* there is a new 7970 equivalent card or better for the same or less money
 
Since you already have a GTX 295 (a card that should still perform well in games), then I would suggest you wait a couple of months and see how the Nvidia Kepler actually turns out (there are so many rumors and "leaks" it is difficult to know what to believe). With this in mind it may be best to ignore the rumours and instead look back - Nvidia have a history of creating a card that is late - but is built to beat the competition's top single GPU card.

As for your PSU, since it is running a 289W card then you should be OK, but it would be useful to know what you are actually running.
 
Set yourself free from that dead duck.

2 series Nvidia cards are finished thanks to Nvidia dropping them like ginger stepkids.

If your PSU can handle a 295 it can handle anything.
 
cmndr_andi said:
Since you already have a GTX 295 (a card that should still perform well in games), then I would suggest you wait a couple of months and see how the Nvidia Kepler actually turns out (there are so many rumors and "leaks" it is difficult to know what to believe). With this in mind it may be best to ignore the rumours and instead look back - Nvidia have a history of creating a card that is late - but is built to beat the competition's top single GPU card.

As for your PSU, since it is running a 289W card then you should be OK, but it would be useful to know what you are actually running.
Click to expand...

This makes perfect sense. Seems a shame to possibly spend now, with a card capable of playing games at decent levels.
Money burns a whole in my pocket in a big way where it comes to buying computer bits and I would wait (trust me, it would be killing me). Makes sense, as the rumour is, that Kepler news will be released at sometime this weekend and even if you are a red fan, prices could tumble in a very short time.
Maybe I am wrong, but this is what I would do.
 
While the 7970 is a good performing card and is the current single GPU graphic card king, it is not perfect. The huge performance lost with MSAA application that plagued AMD cards on Frostbite and Frostbite2 engine (BFBC2 and BF3) and some other games remains even with the new 7000 series. If you look at the following bench at the result for 1920 res:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7950-overclock-crossfire-benchmark,3123-6.html
you will see that on application of of 4xMSAA, the 7970's framerate drop from 94.73 down to 68.43, which is a lost of 27.7% on performance...where as the year old GTX580 only drop from 69.58 down to 56.66, which is just a lost of 18.5% in performance. In another word, even if Nvidia's new card was only on par with the 7970 in terms of speed, it would still be faster in BF3 due to the lesser performance lost on MSAA application. But the chance are Nvidia's new card would most likely be faster than 7970 anyway.

But to be fair, 7970 would still allow you to run BF3 at decent frame rate even on Ultra if you were to get one right now...but if you are not in a hurry to upgrade your card, the it's probably best wait for Nvidia's release, as BF3 isn't the only game that's using the Frostbite2 engine...EA is going to release lots of future titles using this engine...so that's something to think about.
 
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