Upgrade worthwhile?

strumpusplunket · 21 Sep 2015 at 17:27

I bought a GTX 780 (at a very good offer price) about a year ago for my last Christmas gaming session and I was pleased with being able to max out Dragon Age and Wolfenstein.

This Christmas I'm planning to spend my month off playing GTA V, Shadow of Mordor and The Witcher 3 (can't wait!

)

I've heard some reports of poor performance with 7xx cards particularly with Witcher 3, although I'm not quite sure if and to what to degree this was ameliorated with the promised driver fixes.

Mid-December to Mid-January is my main gaming time as I am able to take a long time off work, much of which is whilst the kids are in school and my wife is at work, so I like to get in as much top quality gaming experience as possible. So I do want to max everything out and enjoy the best gaming I can get. I do only game at 1080p though.

What are people's thoughts about the likely difference between a GTX 780 and a 970 for 1080p gaming in those titles? (I have a G-Sync monitor so I'm not too bothered about unstable frame-rates as long as thing stay above 40-45fps or so at high/max settings.)

All advice much appreciated.

Supernaut91 · 22 Sep 2015 at 15:59

Don't go from a 780 to a 970 imo that is almost a downgrade.

Go 980ti to enjoy Witcher 3 and GTA V without hiccups at ultra tier settings.

/close.

PayneUK · 22 Sep 2015 at 16:08

Never had any real issues with Witcher3 at 1080p on my 780, Shadows of Mordor ran very well and GTAV ran surprisingly well at 1440p on the same card. Sure some settings had to be reduced or turned off but nothing that a 970 wouldn’t have struggled with as well. All the games still looked good at playable FPS (and I didn’t have g-sync on the 1080p monitor, which will help also)

So imo, 1080p? stick with the 780, 1440p? The 970 won’t be able to do much, if anything, the 780 can’t. Stick with the 780.

Ian Evey · 22 Sep 2015 at 17:33

I cant comment on witcher 3 as i have played it but gta v and shadow of mordor play very well with mix of ultra and high settings @ 1920x1200. A 980 would be an upgrade but hardly worth the price atm and a 980 ti would be a big upgrade, but for me the 780 is ample at 1080p.

Gregster · 22 Sep 2015 at 17:46

Stick with the 780 or go big with the 980Ti. The only real choices IMO.

nashathedog · 22 Sep 2015 at 19:05

Going from a 780 to a 970 has been covered. It's a waste of time and money for virtually no benefit. A 780 is fine for 1080p although a lot of titles will need settings to be lowered to keep it playable. You want at least a 980 for a performance hike but a Ti would be better. Then you could also take advantage of upping the resolution too 1440p as well as the settings so you can get as much visually as a 1080p monitor will allow.
Personally I only go up to 1440 with my 1080p screen as 4k makes things too small in the menu and any text I have to read but 1440 does provide a noticable visual improvement while keeping in-game text readable and not being too taxing. A 980 will give similar performance to my Fury pro and I can play most games (not all) at 1440 with max settings and good frame rates. There will always be games that you can't run totally maxed regardless of the card but both a 980 or a 980 ti will give a noticable improvement over a 780.

strumpusplunket · 23 Sep 2015 at 00:23

Cool. Thanks for the replies, guys.

A 980 (and especially a 980Ti) is too rich for my blood. I generally try to keep my spending on individual components under £200. Just because things could easily get out of control otherwise, so both the 980 cards are out for me.

At least good to know I shouldn't be too badly off going into these games with my current card (it does overclock quite well, too.)

Cheers!

MissChief · 23 Sep 2015 at 00:38

Having had a 780 (6GB model) it has played everything I've thrown at it although I haven't played Witcher 3 at all. It sadly bit the dust and I'm getting a 980 as a replacement. As said, the 970 isn't a huge increase, as a minimum I'd be looking at a 980. Stick with the 780 IMO.

strumpusplunket · 23 Sep 2015 at 08:15

Thanks. Unless by some miracle I spot a second-hand 980 for under £200 before Christmas I guess I'll stick with my current card. I may need to get around to reapplying the overclock I spent so long stress-testing when I first got it...

zola25 · 23 Sep 2015 at 11:09

I'm not sure of their second hand value, but you could look into getting a second 780 to SLI with your existing one.

Glanza · 23 Sep 2015 at 11:11

Stick with the 780, I ran Witcher 3 with no issues @ 1440p.

If your PSU is upto it you could pick a 780 up out of the MM and go SLI.

CyberCrow · 23 Sep 2015 at 11:40

Stick with your 780 an skip the 9xx series, then jump aboard the next Ti revision

most of the threads an comments in driver section have put me off the 9 series.

Mine still plays every thing maxed out at 1080 silky smooth with no problems, not played W3 thou so no comment on that other than ive heard its a mess (was).

strumpusplunket · 23 Sep 2015 at 16:39

Very pleased to see such a strong consensus in favour of sticking with my current card!

SLI is a thought that crossed my mind, but I was unsure a) if it would be overkill for 108p, b) if my PSU would be up to it (it's a few years old now) and c) whether I'd get microstutter.

Or, maybe I can put the upgrade money towards a bigger SSD, since my 240GB on is filled very quickly with the size of modern games...

Dave2150 · 24 Sep 2015 at 07:19

strumpusplunket said:
Very pleased to see such a strong consensus in favour of sticking with my current card!

SLI is a thought that crossed my mind, but I was unsure a) if it would be overkill for 108p, b) if my PSU would be up to it (it's a few years old now) and c) whether I'd get microstutter.

Or, maybe I can put the upgrade money towards a bigger SSD, since my 240GB on is filled very quickly with the size of modern games...

A 500/1000GB SSD sounds like a good option

CyberCrow · 24 Sep 2015 at 10:19

strumpusplunket said:
Very pleased to see such a strong consensus in favour of sticking with my current card!

SLI is a thought that crossed my mind, but I was unsure a) if it would be overkill for 108p, b) if my PSU would be up to it (it's a few years old now) and c) whether I'd get microstutter.

Or, maybe I can put the upgrade money towards a bigger SSD, since my 240GB on is filled very quickly with the size of modern games...

Get couple TB 64 cache HD then have the SSD as Os drive,ive got my game directory on a 3TB still just as fast as having it on the SSD.

The only game i notice to be slow starting/loading is Path of exile but that's down to the game/server connecting.

Marine-RX179 · 24 Sep 2015 at 10:23

With only around a £200 budget, you won't get any meaningful upgrade coming from the 780. You only realy choice is

a) jump all the way to the ~£500 980Ti
b) holding onto your 780 for longer, and wait for next gen graphic cards

Winnter · 24 Sep 2015 at 10:38

I had a gtx 780 and IMO the 3GB is not enough for 1440p. I went to a GTX 980TI with 6GB and the jump is massive.i know it's over your budget.but it's well worth the money.

Simon Belmont · 24 Sep 2015 at 11:02

Winnter said:
I had a gtx 780 and IMO the 3GB is not enough for 1440p. I went to a GTX 980TI with 6GB and the jump is massive.i know it's over your budget.but it's well worth the money.

This^ if your gaming 1440p you'll need more then 3gb ram.

CyberCrow · 24 Sep 2015 at 14:52

Winnter said:
I had a gtx 780 and IMO the 3GB is not enough for 1440p. I went to a GTX 980TI with 6GB and the jump is massive.i know it's over your budget.but it's well worth the money.

Simon Belmont said:
This^ if your gaming 1440p you'll need more then 3gb ram.

"What are people's thoughts about the likely difference between a GTX 780 and a 970 for 1080p gaming in those titles?"