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what to buy?

wilber

wilber

wilber

Associate
Joined
11 Mar 2009
Posts
1,273
Location
Wales
Hey everyone

I'm on the cusp of making a graphics card purchase but i am trying to decide if i should jump on the GTX 680 band wagon or purchase a GTX580? (I personally favor nvidia)

My specs are in my sig.

I game at 1920 x 1080

Mostly play RTS and FPS.

I was looking at this card for the 580 as i want something nice and quite but also something that will last me for 3-4 years to come
(last graphics card purchase was in 2009 :o )

Below is what i was thinking of going for

Gainward GeForce GTX 580 "Phantom" 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics

Or should i just go and purchase a GTX 680?

Thoughts please
 
I would say go for the cheapest 680 with the longest warranty. The cheapest gtx 680 is £400 only £35 more then the 580. If I was in your should shoe, the gtx 680 would be the obvious choice.
 
Did you actually read his post or just trolling?

"Gainward GeForce GTX 580 "Phantom" 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics"

He want something that's future proof, 1.5GB VRAM gpu is not exactly future proof.
 
antran said:
Did you actually read his post or just trolling?

"Gainward GeForce GTX 580 "Phantom" 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics"

He want something that's future proof, 1.5GB VRAM gpu is not exactly future proof.
Click to expand...

Of course the 680 has 2Gb of vram but I do wonder if all this power is really required for 1080p gaming.:)
 
antran said:
Did you actually read his post or just trolling?

"Gainward GeForce GTX 580 "Phantom" 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics"

He want something that's future proof, 1.5GB VRAM gpu is not exactly future proof.
Click to expand...

I was just about to call him out on that :P

Thanks for your advice antran and everyone else. I'm really tempted by the GTX 680, but someone is touting that it wasnt much of a % increase in performance over a standard GTX 580 hence why i was looking towards a 3gb version of the GTX580.

I dont think i can wait any longer to purchase, my GTX 260 is struggling with anno 2070, and there are a whole host of games i haven't purchased due to the performance issue with my current card (BF3, Batman AC, skyrim and some more)
 
i use a GTX 8800 on Borderlands and right now it's just about ok.... i'm after no less than 3gb, but dont forget there's a 4GB version of the 680 out next month, i would not buy right now, you might really regret it, this 680 is just the start of a pricing/ performance war.

dont forget that the card you prefer will be cheaper too, in 2 months time.... so right now it's win win all the way... do not buy now
 
The 580 would serve you well for a number of years the model with the additional vram is the one to get for future titles that need lots of vram.

The 680 looks like a cracking GPU, but As I've said elsewhere might be problematic in a year or so time because of vram issues. And if your looking at 3-4 years before your next upgrade the smart money would be on the 580, imho. What happens if you decide to up the res at a later date combined with new vram sapping games.

I'm not knocking the 680 it's just a concern that I have. For those that upgrade to the latest and greatest whenever it arrives there would be no problem, but for many like you who buy with the long term in mind, its a tough decision.
 
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spain said:
The 580 would serve you well for a number of years the model with the additional vram is the one to get for future titles that need lots of vram.

The 680 looks like a cracking GPU, but As I've said elsewhere might be problematic in a year or so time because of vram issues. And if your looking at 3-4 years before your next upgrade the smart money would be on the 580, imho. What happens if you decide to up the res at a later date combined with new vram sapping games.

I'm not knocking the 680 its just it's a concern that I have. For those that upgrade to the latest and greatest whenever it arrives there would be no problem, but for many like you who buy with the long term in mind, its a tough decision.
Click to expand...

yes, it's the only thing the pro gamers said to me... ``no less than 3GB vram to be future proofed`` .....
 
Ok, here is what I think!
I recently bought a Gainward Phantom GTX580 3GB! Im happy with it.
I like the idea of getting that 680, as it would be a more powerfull gpu. And the price its similar to what it cost me the GTX 580.
Now..., 3 GB means future proof. As of today, you can use those 3 GB with:
- A multi-screen setup.
- A Single screen setup, using highest settings for rage (via console, accessing huge size textures) and Skyrim.
- A Single screen setup full HD, with tripple buffering, v-sync and 3D Vision (last one not required) in some of the latest games.

When I bought this card, I really knew what I was getting. In the near future, if I need higher FPS with newer games, I would SLI with another card. And ... finally, up to this date the GTX580 (not specifically Gainward), its one of the best cards to use in dual mode (wether SLI or X-Fire (Im comming from ATI Cards)). I've seen some tests where GTX 580 does "flow" better than amd cards and other nVidia Cards (of course 680 not included in those comparisons). "Flowing" better, doenst mean higher FPS or better % of use as average, it means less in-game stuttering.

Last but not least. GTX 680 its new ... and that, more often than not, would mean trouble. As drivers would need to be polished, maybe bios too, and so on.
I believe GTX580 its safe, and 680 could be safe in the future, but now its kind of a bet!!
(some of the first GTX 580 tend to overheat until they fine tune them, for example!).

I would probably recommend to wait, as many in this forum, but I personally wouldnt wait, LOL. I got an i7 and a 3D nVision2 27" screen with the glasses and honestly ... I couldnt wait to have a proper card to play games in 3D. So I went for it! A month already. And as the saying says "When you go black... you never ...", well, LOL, the same with 3D ... at the begining I thought its was ... just ok, then I learn how to set it better ... IT'S AWESOME!!

Good luck with the purchase!!
 
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3GB Phantom is a bloody good card. Sadly it's still quite expensive especially when compared to the 3gb 7950.

However, if you don't like AMD nor want to go with them then the 3GB phantom is about your only choice in that price bracket.

I would find it LOLable if one single 680 owner could come into this thread and clearly point out to you why you should spend the extra £100.

Because when all is said and done the 580 (as much as those who are selling or have sold theirs want you to believe) is still an enormously capable card @ 1080p.

So if you don't want to go surround then there's no reason to spend £100 more.

In a way I wish now that I'd have bought the 580 Classified. I think I would have been happier with that than my 7970.
 
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