Should I upgrade? GTX 670 to...

stringsonfire · 17 Mar 2013 at 16:02

Hi

I have a Gigabyte GTX 670 2GB Factory OC. I've just purchased 3x Dell U2412M monitors, each at 1920x1200. With bezels taken into account, I want to game at 6000x1200. Playing Skyrim at this resolution with everything on max (maybe I've been spoilt for a while with graphics on a single HD display...) things start to lag.

I'm certainly no expert, and wonder if a 4GB card would have made all the difference.

Should i sell and step uo to the 4GB version? Buy another of the same and go SLI? maybe the 680 2 or 4GB? I'm a little lost.

Advice much appreciated!

Thanks

Diagro · 17 Mar 2013 at 16:06

You would want 3GB+ for that res.

Are you not intrested in 7950 in crossfire? can be had for £400 and will run well at that resolution

if not then a 680 with more vram would be my choice

Gregster · 17 Mar 2013 at 16:11

I just did a run at 5760x1080 in Crysis 3 and hit nearly 4GB or VRAM.

The biggest problem is having the GPU grunt to push those settings that require that amount of VRAM. I had all settings maxed and was getting around 35 fps in Crysis 3 with SLI Titans.

2x2gb 670's will be fine and you would need to drop settings slightly to get decent fps anywhooo.

stringsonfire · 17 Mar 2013 at 16:22

I thought the 670 was a better card than the 7950? I'd also read some negative points to their drivers, and I'm not sure if there's any advantage with multi-display with AMD?

Then again, they seem to have lost a lot of money, much more affordable to crossfire than to SLi.

Lazy · 17 Mar 2013 at 16:22

I've never seen my vram usage exceed 2GB however a few times I have got extremely close.
But I would agree with gregster in the above points. I probably shouldn't have paid the premium for the 4GB cards I have (view sig, also running on 3 u2412m's) .

I'd say you might as well just get another 670 2GB and SLI.

Diagro · 17 Mar 2013 at 16:29

stringsonfire said:
I thought the 670 was a better card than the 7950? I'd also read some negative points to their drivers, and I'm not sure if there's any advantage with multi-display with AMD?

Then again, they seem to have lost a lot of money, much more affordable to crossfire than to SLi.

>.<
i have also read a lot of negative things about Nvidia Drivers.

Anyway, just get a second 670 and be done with it.

Rusty0611 · 17 Mar 2013 at 16:37

Diagro said:
You would want 3GB+ for that res.

You haven't played that res have you? No, so don't talk and recommend things you haven't tried and tested especially when you're wrong.

@OP: At surround resolution (5760*1080 and above) 2*2GB 670s and 680s will be fine as you will be hitting the wall with regards to the memory bandwidth/GPU grunt before the actual amount of VRAM comes into it. I did test Skyrim with a decent amount of mods too although if you do use a LOT of mods then it's possible in this game to hit the VRAM wall though there's nothing stopping you turning off a couple to save yourself a tonne of cash.

It would be a waste of money upgrading to a 4GB 670 as:

a) they're not very cheap
b) with one GPU it's extremely likely to not make a bit of difference in any game

Gregster, whyscotty and I have all tested 2GB 680s at surround resolution and came to the same conclusion regarding VRAM. whyscotty actually tested 2 and 3 670 and 680s with 2GB and 4GB!

That said, I do agree with Diagro's point about considering AMD at this resolution. Their 7900 series cards have a wider memory bus which helps at your resolution.

I tested 2 7950s vs 2 680s both with a large overclock and in BF3 the 680s went from 8% faster at 1920*1080 to 27% slower at 5760*1080. That is a swing of ~35% by just increasing the resolution when everything else is constant.

The 7950s when overclocked are now a touch faster than an overclocked 670 but they're close enough to be termed even.

Diagro · 17 Mar 2013 at 16:41

Rusty0611 said:
You haven't played that res have you? No, so don't talk and recommend things you haven't tried and tested especially when you're wrong.

lol @ you

Sold it tho as it gave my neck ache when doing uni work

Back when i had that setup i was running a 5970 and a 5870 in tri-Fire and it reached the 2GB vram limit far to often and needed more ram.

Gregster has also shown that 4GB is needed at that res.

Rusty0611 · 17 Mar 2013 at 16:43

Diagro said:
lol @ you

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i61/phoenixdancer/IMG_0158.jpg[IMG]

Sold it tho as it gave my neck ache when doing uni work ;)[/QUOTE]

*digs out random triple monitor pic from internet*

Even more worrying then is your lack of knowledge on the subject as opposed to just recommending blindly. Either one is pretty bad - your choice :D.

Gregster · 17 Mar 2013 at 16:44

^^ What res are those monitors?

Diagro · 17 Mar 2013 at 16:48

Rusty0611 said:
*digs out random triple monitor pic from internet*

Even more worrying then is your lack of knowledge on the subject as opposed to just recommending blindly. Either one is pretty bad - your choice .

Oh dear, Do be quiet, just to hush you up
Here is the Rig that powered them

So i am digging them out from the internet randomly? Even tho its my own Photo bucket account? o.O

Gregster said:
^^ What res are those monitors?

1920x1200 is what they were two Dell 2408 and a HP LP2465W if my memory is correct

Rusty0611 · 17 Mar 2013 at 16:51

Diagro said:
Oh dear, Do be quiet, just to hush you up
Here is the Rig that powered them

http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i61/phoenixdancer/DSCF3505.jpg[IMG]

So i am digging them out from the internet randomly? Even tho its my own Photo bucket account? o.O[/QUOTE]

Sense of humour failure. Go and do your homework :D.

Lack of knowledge it is then as opposed to blind recommendations. It's fine though, I've corrected it no need to clog up the thread with large images.

Diagro · 17 Mar 2013 at 16:53

Rusty0611 said:
Humour failure. Go and do your homework .

Lack of knowledge it is then as opposed to blind recommendations.

Meh, I am just going by what people say on this forum. if i am wrong then i will go hide

My mind is full of farty uni work to work correctly on anything other than Vertical Mineshaft Surveying Devices >.<

SOOOO OP!

a second 670 will do well as people are saying if you want some extra grunt.

yashiro · 17 Mar 2013 at 16:57

Quick solution = A second GTX 670.
A more expensive solution = 2 AMD 7970's.
The more money than sense solution = 2 GTX Titans.

stringsonfire · 17 Mar 2013 at 17:59

So another 670 would be ok. Both at 2GB. But for the money, would it be better to get 2 7970s? I wonder what would last longer before I'd need another upgrade, having the 6gb RAM between then as opposed to 4GB which some games hit now?

Thanks for all so far

Gregster · 17 Mar 2013 at 18:07

Not usre if you know that SLI/CF retains the same usable VRAM as a single card. So 2x2GB = 2GB usable and 2x3GB = 3GB usable.

stringsonfire · 17 Mar 2013 at 18:39

Ah, no I did not. So another 670 may not be such a good long term solution after all?

Would I be better with a single 7990 or 690?

Or two sapphire 6gb 7970s?

I don't want to have to change again anytime soon, so long term at this resolution would be ideal.

What do you think?

whyscotty · 17 Mar 2013 at 18:42

Another 670 is a better/cheaper option than a 690.

Its also a better option if your happy to turn down a few settings till next gen

Gregster · 17 Mar 2013 at 18:44

whyscotty said:
Another 670 is a better/cheaper option than a 690.

Its also a better option if your happy to turn down a few settings till next gen

+1

These will last a good while and the odd setting turned down is acceptable for most

stringsonfire · 17 Mar 2013 at 18:54

So it's not worth 2 x 670s at 4GB total?