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Which card for 2560x1440

bakes0310

bakes0310

bakes0310

Soldato
Joined
22 Oct 2004
Posts
13,708
First of all i dont want to go down the SLI/Crossfire route or dual cards.
Ive narrowed it down to:

MSI HD 7970 Lightning 3072MB
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-152-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

KFA2 GeForce GTX 680 EX OC 4096MB
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-013-KF&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2255

I know theres a big price difference, but lets pretend their the same price. All i care about is gaming performance.And of course ill overclock them to hell, so which one do i go for?
 
Overclocked the 680 and 7970 are too close to call, depends then on the games.

You'll be happy with either.

The dual GPU card versions of both are just around the corner (690 out in ~2 weeks allegedly) however I guess based on your comments you don't want multi gpu
 
bakes0310 said:
First of all i dont want to go down the SLI/Crossfire route or dual cards.
Ive narrowed it down to:

MSI HD 7970 Lightning 3072MB
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-152-MS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=938

KFA2 GeForce GTX 680 EX OC 4096MB
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-013-KF&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2255

I know theres a big price difference, but lets pretend their the same price. All i care about is gaming performance.And of course ill overclock them to hell, so which one do i go for?
Click to expand...

Out of those 2 the 7970 because it's cheaper and only approx 5% slower.
TBH though the 2GB 680 is fine and closer to the price of the 7970.
 
If price isn't an issue then it's probably best waiting to see the reviews for the 4GB 680s. If the extra VRAM doesn't offer any better performance then a regular 680 might be the better option.
 
You will enjoy using just over 2gb of memory on some titles when you use plenty of AA such as skyrim or metro and even some betas of mmo games or even older games with high levels of forced AA at this resolution. The 4gb 680s are too expensive to buy a second one once you have invested on the initial card. I recommend buying a 7970 as cheap as you can and run it with trixx at 1125/1600 then soon you'll be able to pick up a second for £350 I'm sure. I know you don't wish for the dual card route but for this resolution you just need to, I'm suffering with 1 card and will buy another next month.
 
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Depends what you play. I can run star wars and Diablo 3 at 7680x1440 with one 7970 so 2560x1440 will be fine for most games.
 
I play lots of different games, some not very demanding others will be. I just want a card that doesnt have problem with me turning all the graphics settings to max.
 
Thanks for all the advice guys. I have decided if im to play games at max settings and smooth gameplay. Im gonna go for a dual card either the 690 or 7990. When are we expecting to see these cards?


I only said i didnt want a dual card in my OP, cause im having problems with my current card so it kinda put me off.
 
If you are going dual card then a couple of 7850/7870's will work fine and save you a bunch of cash. My crossfire 6950's handle everything I throw at it at 2560x1440 which are about the same performance as dual 7850's.
 
straxusii said:
690 should be announced in a couple of days and released this month or very early next.

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/its-coming-countdown/
Click to expand...

Cant wait cheers, im guessing the cost will be £650-£700

Clav said:
If you are going dual card then a couple of 7850/7870's will work fine and save you a bunch of cash. My crossfire 6950's handle everything I throw at it at 2560x1440 which are about the same performance as dual 7850's.
Click to expand...

What demanding games do you play, and can you really play games at MAX settings with very smooth gameplay?
 
Yes it will most like be £600-£700

After reading this review I wouldn't go AMD multi GPU
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/03/28/nvidia_kepler_geforce_gtx_680_sli_video_card_review/

Not trying to start a flame war, I'm sure plenty of AMD users on here will have flawless experiences with CF, just I do rate HardOCP.

SLI smoothness vs. CrossFireX smoothness

We don't know what other descriptive word to use, other than "smoothness" to describe the difference we feel between SLI and CrossFireX when we play games. We've expressed this difference in gameplay feeling between SLI and CrossFireX in the past, in other evaluations, and we have to bring it up again because it was very apparent during our testing of 680 SLI versus 7970 CFX.

We can't communicate to you "smoothness" in raw framerates and graphs. Smoothness, frame transition, and game responsiveness is the experience that is provided to you as you play. Perhaps it has more to do with "frametime" than it does with "framerate." To us it seems like SLI is "more playable" at lower framerates than CrossFireX is. For example, where we might find a game playable at 40 FPS average with SLI, when we test CrossFireX we find that 40 FPS doesn't feel as smooth and we have to target a higher average framerate, maybe 50 FPS, maybe 60 FPS for CrossFireX to feel like NVIDIA's SLI framerate of 40 FPS. Only real-world hands on gameplay can show you this, although we can communicate it in words to you. Even though this is a very subjective realm of reviewing GPUs, it is one we surely need to discuss with you.
Click to expand...
 
bakes0310 said:
Thanks for all the advice guys. I have decided if im to play games at max settings and smooth gameplay. Im gonna go for a dual card either the 690 or 7990. When are we expecting to see these cards?


I only said i didnt want a dual card in my OP, cause im having problems with my current card so it kinda put me off.
Click to expand...

690 / 7990 are still SLI/Crossfire (i.e. dual GPU set ups). Any issues you're having are as likely to be present in a single card with 2 GPUs as they are in 2 separate single GPU cards.

Two single GPU cards are more ideal IMO because they offer greater overclocking potential, less heat and more often than not it's cheaper.

The 690 looks to be a cheaper option than 2 680's at present but I believe that's more down to stock issues than anything.
 
Gibbo said:
A reference 680 when there is no shortages will be approx £399 Inc. Vat, but shortages shall continue for next 2-3 months.

The 690 will be a reference only card as such one can guesstimate it's retail price to be in the region of £699-£799 and again supply shall be very tight.

However I am neither confirming or denying this is what the 5th of May is about. :p
Click to expand...

I believe Gibbo's "guesstimations" will be in the ball park :)
 
Alright, then I've said nothing :D Looks like I might be getting a 690! wonder what price they'll be over here in clogland
 
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