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Can't decide whether to upgrade or not, opinion?

ryryryan

ryryryan

ryryryan

Associate
Joined
10 Jan 2010
Posts
791
So atm I have a 5870. While it is showing it's age now, it's still pretty powerful and runs every game no problem on high or ultra (depending on how old the game is. BF3 I run at high around 50-60 fps I think).

I game on a single 120hz monitor at 1080p.

Basically, is it worth getting a 680 now? Or when it goes sub 400, or even wait for the next generation again since I'm getting on okay atm?

I'm patient, but I also have money now for any GPU. I'm just wondering if the difference in performance will be worth it.

I'm also leaning towards nvidia because I have a 3D vision monitor, and have obviously never used the feature.
 
Get a 7970 if you have that much money to spend. They can be had for as little as £360 now which is £80 less than a 680.

There's no need to upgrade unless you really want to. If you find that your 5870 does what you need it to do and can put up with turning things down then don't bother to upgrade.

If you are going 3dvision then yes, get an Nvidia card. But, do try and wait just a while longer as I forecast a drop in price for the 680 when -

A. Nvidia finally get the production lines cranking.
B. When they realise they have to because the 7970 is now so much cheaper.

You can use active 3D with AMD BTW. Tommy can help you out there as he just set it up :)
 
Cheers for the response :)

Think you maybe right about not upgrading if my games run ok. I would like games like tribes and bf3 to be smoother, but if rumours are true about gtx700's at the end of the year (though I doubt it very much) it may be worth waiting.

Yeh I'm fairly decided about nvidia for the premium price. It's a shame about what you mentioned in the other thread about the v2 glasses with v1 monitor with the 3D stuff but i think I'll still try it out in the end anyway.
 
What happens at the end of the year firmly lay in AMD's hands.

If they can't respond with a much faster card then Nvidia have no reason at all to budge or bother. It's like Fermi. With round two they knocked it out of the park and at the top top end AMD had no answer. Nvidia then milked Fermi as much as they could to rake back the cash.

Don't expect to see any Nvidia tech updates until they need to. Kepler was awful quiet until Tahiti came along and we weren't supposed to see anything but a low to mid range desktop GPU and laptop GPUs out of it.

I would wait for the price war to unfold then bag yourself a new GPU. I can tell you now if the next Kepler actually works as it should and isn't a Fermi type affair then it will probably break records when it comes to price.
 
ALXAndy said:
Get a 7970 if you have that much money to spend. They can be had for as little as £360 now which is £80 less than a 680.
Click to expand...

As long as they're cheap enough it's OK then?

ALXAndy said:
I would rather glue my testicles to the heat pipes on my 480s than use AMD's drivers ever again.

I had three months of never ending issues and problems. With every driver release something was fixed and something else broken.

I guess that's what happens when you rush a release.
Click to expand...
 
Surveyor said:
As long as they're cheap enough it's OK then?
Click to expand...

Just because I had issues with the drivers doesn't mean others will. For me there was no fixing it.

But nowhere have I said the 7970 is a bad card. It just has really bad drivers that didn't work for me. It's still massively fast and at £360 it's a good buy.

It's the same as my experience with a 6970. It was a bad one, the card died after four weeks. Doesn't mean I would hate on the 6970 forever more or say that MSI were a bad company.

Chit happens.


buchtis said:
I guess the above is to never take ALXAndy's advice then?

Lol! :p
Click to expand...

If you have the ability to go through life and take your knocks without letting it cloud your judgement then you have done really well.

Just because I had a bad experience with the 7970 doesn't mean every one will. Just because I had nothing but problems with Crossfire doesn't mean others have had less issues.

At £360 providing the drivers work well on the system you use it in the 7970 is a good buy.

What is it with this forum? why do people automatically assume just because some one has a certain product that they automatically hate everything else ? and must defend what they own no matter what.
 
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With your 120hz monitor, it would be great to have a gfx card that can get BF3 running at 120fps. A gtx680 could do the trick. I've had a similar dilemma recently, and decided to wait until the prices drop. To satisfy my upgrade itch I treated myself to a new M4 instead.

If you can afford it, then why not? A nice new card will compliment your monitor. If you want to wait, then why not? With the money you save you can put it towards a 3D vision
kit. :)
 
im in the same boat as the op with a 5870,its hard to choose whether to spend a small amount on a slight improvement in getting a 7850 or taking the leap to a 7970,the low power draw compared to a 5870 does appeal to me with the 7850 but i feel id want to upgrade again in not to long a time
 
It's only a light hearted dig Andy.

Usually people recommended something they've had a good experience with not something they seem to have had 3 months of misery with for whatever reason.
 
Surveyor said:
It's only a light hearted dig Andy.

Usually people recommended something they've had a good experience with not something they seem to have had 3 months of misery with for whatever reason.
Click to expand...

Well it pays to be open minded. FWIW out of this whole forum one person is having issues similar to the ones I had.

Reviews don't lie and benchmarks certainly don't. It's still an incredibly fast card and good value at £360. Plus there's always DSR :D
 
OrWolf said:
With your 120hz monitor, it would be great to have a gfx card that can get BF3 running at 120fps. A gtx680 could do the trick. I've had a similar dilemma recently, and decided to wait until the prices drop. To satisfy my upgrade itch I treated myself to a new M4 instead.

If you can afford it, then why not? A nice new card will compliment your monitor. If you want to wait, then why not? With the money you save you can put it towards a 3D vision
kit. :)
Click to expand...

See, this is what makes me think I should upgrade hah! But at the same time I think that if the next gen for nvidia is supposed to be such a big step I'll be regretting my purchase next year. It's a hard choice, but I think I'll wait till the price at least drops on these 680's, cause those 7970's are at a good price point now.
 
OrWolf said:
With your 120hz monitor, it would be great to have a gfx card that can get BF3 running at 120fps. A gtx680 could do the trick. I've had a similar dilemma recently, and decided to wait until the prices drop. To satisfy my upgrade itch I treated myself to a new M4 instead.

If you can afford it, then why not? A nice new card will compliment your monitor. If you want to wait, then why not? With the money you save you can put it towards a 3D vision
kit. :)
Click to expand...

Wait. So a 680 can run BF3 at 120FPS?

You've got more chance of being handcuffed to a ghost.
 
arc@css said:
What cpu do you have, ryryryan? Is it overclocked?
Click to expand...

I have a 2500K @ 4.4 Ghz.

I built my PC last year in november (thread w/ pics for anyone interested: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18342881 ), and a new GPU would complete it fully :)

Already got a 256GB M4 which someone mentioned before. On the verge of my dream system, bar that GPU. But I am a patient man and don't like to go buying excessively when it's not truly needed (except the M4 admittedly :P ).


ALXAndy said:
Wait. So a 680 can run BF3 at 120FPS?

You've got more chance of being handcuffed to a ghost.
Click to expand...

Haha, but it will run over 60 for sure I'd imagine which I can usually tell the difference with in games.
 
ryryryan said:
Haha, but it will run over 60 for sure I'd imagine which I can usually tell the difference with in games.
Click to expand...

I strongly doubt that. BF3 is one of the best games around (as was BFBC2) for using as many GPU cores as you can throw at it and still I saw frames in the 50s even in single player (the tank level).

Add a 64 player MP map to that? well, I would imagine the 680 could maintain a min FPS in the 40s, maybe low 50s. But 120?

Was a good joke and made I laugh considerably :D

Seriously, you would need three 680s for that.
 
I have had 0 issues with NVIDIA drivers, so would recommend a 680. The lowest I have seen the frames drop is to 50 and this is just for a second or two, while a big explosion is happening. The average I would say is 85 and this is not running OC'd.

If money is the issue, it might pay to wait or even the 7970 @ £360 is a great price. You are on AMD drivers, so you know what is what.

I am talking FPS on 64 MP btw
 
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