£600 to spend on a single Graphics card ! What one should I get ?

[MOOGLEYS]

Pc gaming is all about buying £600 GPU's to max crappy games designed to run on ancient console hardware and badly ported to the PC.

We need some decent PC only games to showcase the true performance of these GPU's. Hopefully star Citizen will do the job.

 

[Gregster]

Yea But in that case Nothing can play Crysis 3 at Truly Maximum settings.

True max would be All max in CCC and in game no? then watch it run @ 20fps with 290x Xfire

Anyway, Will use Max (No AA) when i refer to Max in future just for you

I agree. SLI/CF is needed just for 1080P to get some decent frame returns.

3/4 cards for 1600P is a must with max settings and I think that the games max settings would be max settings. Seems a little OTT to start adding all manner of AA from CCC/NCP

Anyway, the Crysis series has always used masses of details to cripple our systems but the games are poo. First was decent ish but the next 2 were pretty awful IMO.

 

[Wizzfizz]

Which Reference 780tis would you lot choose if you were buying now? I say reference because I'm guessing they are best suited for SLI. Are the cards quiet and do they run hot in this configuration?

 

[wunkley]

Which Reference 780tis would you lot choose if you were buying now? I say reference because I'm guessing they are best suited for SLI. Are the cards quiet and do they run hot in this configuration?

The cheapest you can get basically if going reference. I got a pair of inno3d's when they were on offer on here (sub 500) a few weeks back.

They are nice and quiet until the fan gets above 60%. I run a custom fan curve to keep them under 81 degrees. They both boost to 1006 constant doing this, and fan gets to about 67% max. This is only in something really punishing (skyrim enb for instance) or if benchmarking. For a lot of games they're not massively pushed so purr along quietly and cool.

 

[delpy8]

Personally I do not think it is worth paying the extra for either a 290x or 780ti over the 290 or 780.

I do find the Nvidia drivers considerably better than AMD and the Ge-force experience works very well. Everything feels a bit more polished and thought out with the Nvidia cards.

I AGREE 2 x 290s and you will be set for a few years

 

[Rusty0611]

My view on the Term "max" in this situation is not the same as yours gregster sorry.

Max is max. There's no compromise.

Yea But in that case Nothing can play Crysis 3 at Truly Maximum settings.

There's no such thing as 'truly' maximum settings. You're either maxing or you aren't.

In the case of your original point, if you're toning down the AA then the extra VRAM definitely isn't making any difference.

 

[ICDP]

To the OP. If you want single GPU with the most performance then GTX780Ti is the best option. R9 290X does come very close at stock but overclocking should widen the gap in favour of GTX780Ti.

The truth is that you will need to compromise on settings. I use an R9 290X at 2560x1600 and do need to reduce settings slightly to keep FPS up.

 

[jasonsony735]

Looks like you all had a blast on this topic lol ! OK point taken , Im going to invest in 780 ti and then buy another one in 6 months time to boost my FPS in new games. I think that is my best bet.

 

[The Guru]

Get the 780Ti EVGA Classified.

 

[3t3P]

for once I think NVs top card the 780ti is relatively good value and its an impressive card to take us into maxwell.

having seen how well the 690 has done even now, a 790 could be an interesting proposition.

It will be some time however before I spend £8-900 on a GPU, even if I can afford it.

SLI is addictive, I rarely have any problems, just farrr more grunt than the original card gave you. It looks cool in your case, cool in control panels and extends your e-peen which is the most important thing in life

 

[Agent Orange]

Anyway, where's he gone? Everyone else seems more interested in his dilemma than him

Reading through the great debate on this thread and I noticed the OP hadn't said a word, then I see this and **** myself!!!

 

[jh30uk]

Can you blame him, always the same when someone asked what to buy.

His OP originally stated no Crossfire/SLI but someone said buy a 7990 (no doubt not knowing its 2 GPU's) then all the other SLI answers.

TBH best to do some major reading in reviews and make your own mind up asking here will only mess your head up.

1 other claims he still Maxes nearly all games on a GTX 580 at 1440p which is BS.

 

[The Guru]

In the case of your original point, if you're toning down the AA then the extra VRAM definitely isn't making any difference.

It certainly makes a difference at resolutions at 2560*1440 and above. It also makes a huge difference when using any resolution and Custom AA especially MSAA+SGSSAA (Sparse Grid Anti Super Sampling Anti Aliasing). This is a massive GPU ram killer and makes a huge difference in gaming compared to the crappy ingame AA settings. In my opinion i wouldnt buy anything that has less that 4GB but then i do game at 1440p on 120hz with high levels of Custom AA. If you use ingame AA then most games like 99% should be good with 3GB. 2GB is enough but its starting to show abit now in more and more games when maxxed out even with ingame AA.

 

[arc@css]

I didn't even realize 1440p 120hz monitors were available.

 

[Diagro]

Max is max. There's no compromise.



There's no such thing as 'truly' maximum settings. You're either maxing or you aren't.

In the case of your original point, if you're toning down the AA then the extra VRAM definitely isn't making any difference.

I run 2x AA on Bf4, yet my Vram usage is at 3.95Gb in SP lol

 

[Diagro]

I didn't even realize 1440p 120hz monitors were available.

Yea they are

 

[Rusty0611]

It certainly makes a difference at resolutions at 2560*1440 and above. It also makes a huge difference when using any resolution and Custom AA especially MSAA+SGSSAA (Sparse Grid Anti Super Sampling Anti Aliasing). This is a massive GPU ram killer and makes a huge difference in gaming compared to the crappy ingame AA settings. In my opinion i wouldnt buy anything that has less that 4GB but then i do game at 1440p on 120hz with high levels of Custom AA. If you use ingame AA then most games like 99% should be good with 3GB. 2GB is enough but its starting to show abit now in more and more games when maxxed out even with ingame AA.

The post you quoted said "toning down the AA". I don't think that qualifies as toning down the AA .

I run 2x AA on Bf4, yet my Vram usage is at 3.95Gb in SP lol

Well I don't have any VRAM related slow downs on my 780. In fact with 2x MSAA my performance is very high.

 

[Gregster]

I run 2x AA on Bf4, yet my Vram usage is at 3.95Gb in SP lol

Is that what is reported by AB? If so, you need to halve that as you use CF.

 

[Diagro]

Is that what is reported by AB? If so, you need to halve that as you use CF.

AB seriously still does the Whole double number thing? How long as he had to fix that?

 

[Gregster]

AB seriously still does the Whole double number thing? How long as he had to fix that?

Yer, not sure why AB reports SLI as normal but doubles CF.