Upgrade from GTX670 SLI @1080p

Amraam · 20 Oct 2015 at 10:46

Hi all,

Have two GTX670 2GB. Had one, was great, bought a second for £75 and I'm thinking it was probably a mistake as it's the VRAM I'm lacking, even at only 1080p.

So, what can I look at getting? My screen is 1080p, but I often downscale from 1440p on some games. What a 980ti on a finance plan be a stupid idea?

varkanoid · 20 Oct 2015 at 11:53

Amraam said:
Hi all,

Have two GTX670 2GB. Had one, was great, bought a second for £75 and I'm thinking it was probably a mistake as it's the VRAM I'm lacking, even at only 1080p.

So, what can I look at getting? My screen is 1080p, but I often downscale from 1440p on some games. What a 980ti on a finance plan be a stupid idea?

Dont you mean upscale !

Yes dont buy on finance unless its 0% interest or buy now pay later perhaps.

Have you thought about a 970 or a AMD 390 with 8gb ?

Amraam · 20 Oct 2015 at 11:59

varkanoid said:
Dont you mean upscale !

Yes dont buy on finance unless its 0% interest or buy now pay later perhaps.

Have you thought about a 970 or a AMD 390 with 8gb ?

I probably meant downsampling in hindsight. My screen is 1080p but I use DSR to render at 1440p on ME3 etc.

Yeah I'd be looking at getting a 0% int deal if I were to splash out silly money.

I hadn't thought of those. I'd rather stay with nVidia in honesty. Really, SLI 670s is still a good setup, but I'm really struggling on VRAM, especially when the games I play the most are very modded with textures (STALKER, Skyrim, and ME1, 2, and 3). I gather, grunt wise, two 670s isn't a million miles away from a 980 series, but like I say, going from 2GB to >6GB VRAM is what's going to make the difference.

Paracelsus · 20 Oct 2015 at 13:29

Amraam said:
I hadn't thought of those. I'd rather stay with nVidia in honesty. Really, SLI 670s is still a good setup, but I'm really struggling on VRAM, especially when the games I play the most are very modded with textures (STALKER, Skyrim, and ME1, 2, and 3).

Have you confirmed this with Afterburner?

Just that I never ran into problems with Skyrim or modded STALKER with a 1.5GB card.

Then again I only used HD textures, an ENB mod and a few grass/weather ones for Skyrim - I know you can go insane with them and end up using >2GB

Amraam · 20 Oct 2015 at 13:35

Paracelsus said:
Have you confirmed this with Afterburner?

Just that I never ran into problems with Skyrim or modded STALKER with a 1.5GB card. [/QUOTE]

Nope, but I need to find another way as you can run Afterburner or any OSD with ENBs. I'll check tonight to see if ENB (using the latest binary) has any form of usage monitoring built in.

Paracelsus said:
Then again I only used HD textures, an ENB mod and a few grass/weather ones for Skyrim - I know you can go insane with them and end up using >2GB

Yeah I think I've gone insane, even though I've stuck to the 'lite' versions on the big textures mods (SFO etc.),but when I think about it, the only games I play are the ones mentioned above which I like to modify the hell out of. I'm almost at the point of saying sod it and buying a 980Ti. Even when held back (if you can say that) by a i5 2500k at 4.2 it'd still be a massive upgrade with 6GB over 670SLI 2GB and should see me a couple of years...

Don't want to rush into anything though...

ElliotHand · 20 Oct 2015 at 13:36

I just upgraded from an sli 670 to a 390 for gaming at 1080p and am delighted with the benefits considering the outlay.

3D mark benches:

Single 670 - 3400
Sli 670 - 5700
Single 390 - 5200

New card cost me 220 and have both 670s on eBay for ~80 at the moment so my net spend is pretty low and I've got all the benefits of single card performance / less heat/ more ram etc.

Also means I can upgrade to pascal / 4K monitor etc next year. Wouldn't say it's worth spending 980ti money on 1080p and certainly not if you're looking to finance it.

Amraam · 20 Oct 2015 at 14:10

ElliotHand said:
I just upgraded from an sli 670 to a 390 for gaming at 1080p and am delighted with the benefits considering the outlay.

3D mark benches:

Single 670 - 3400
Sli 670 - 5700
Single 390 - 5200

New card cost me 220 and have both 670s on eBay for ~80 at the moment so my net spend is pretty low and I've got all the benefits of single card performance / less heat/ more ram etc.

Also means I can upgrade to pascal / 4K monitor etc next year. Wouldn't say it's worth spending 980ti money on 1080p and certainly not if you're looking to finance it.

Is that a typo, or is the 980ti benching less than the 670SLI setup? As said though, I physically game at 1080p, but often use DSR to render at 1440p for a smoother image.

ALXAndy · 20 Oct 2015 at 15:20

780 Lightning whilst you still can.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-207-MS

RanxZy · 20 Oct 2015 at 15:51

Amraam said:
Is that a typo, or is the 980ti benching less than the 670SLI setup?

The post you're referring to is comparing an AMD 390 to 670SLI not a 980Ti

ALXAndy said:
780 Lightning whilst you still can.

A 390 may be a much better option than a 780, for not much more £, considering it's somewhat more compatible with DX12 and the op is particularly concerned about 2GB vram, which 3GB doesn't necessarily help with.

I would personally advise the 390 as a very good option for the op. Especially with the type of games being played are not necessarily cutting edge. 980Ti would be a touch overkill and money saved (390 almost half the cost of 980Ti) could possibly better spent on future generations when you might look to play more demanding games.

Amraam · 20 Oct 2015 at 16:04

The 390x looks decent but appears to be on par with the gtx980. 8Gb vram sounds nice but will I need it over 6gb at 1440p? Would I not benefit from the extra grunt of the 980ti?

TheRealDeal · 20 Oct 2015 at 16:18

Buying now especially if you need to finance is not a great idea. Next year should see a really nice jump with proper dx12 cards. I would see if you can find a decent second hand 290/x which have 4gb vram. You should be able to get one relatively cheaply.

RanxZy · 20 Oct 2015 at 16:19

Amraam said:
The 390x looks decent but appears to be on par with the gtx980. 8Gb vram sounds nice but will I need it over 6gb at 1440p? Would I not benefit from the extra grunt of the 980ti?

You will not need all of the 8GB vram on the 390, but at the same time having excess is not a terrible thing for less money than a 980. The 980Ti is a complete beast at 1440p, but do you really need that level of grunt for the games you play? I would not even go for a 390X as the 390 does just fine and is considerably more affordable.

TheRealDeal said:
I would see if you can find a decent second hand 290/x which have 4gb vram. You should be able to get one relatively cheaply.

Very good idea and you can grab 290/X at exceptional prices on the MM.

Amraam · 20 Oct 2015 at 18:09

TheRealDeal said:
Buying now especially if you need to finance is not a great idea. Next year should see a really nice jump with proper dx12 cards. I would see if you can find a decent second hand 290/x which have 4gb vram. You should be able to get one relatively cheaply.

RanxZy said:
You will not need all of the 8GB vram on the 390, but at the same time having excess is not a terrible thing for less money than a 980. The 980Ti is a complete beast at 1440p, but do you really need that level of grunt for the games you play? I would not even go for a 390X as the 390 does just fine and is considerably more affordable.

Very good idea and you can grab 290/X at exceptional prices on the MM.

Very true, but I like to play Skyrim very photorealistic. If I can play skyrim with crazy amounts of graphics mods and ENB, and still get a solid constant 60FPS, then I'm willing to pay for it. I have the money to buy teh 980ti - if a 0% int finance was available it would just cushion the blow on the wallet is all

Regarding a 290 etc - is that actually going to worth paying for over a the setup I have? Actually, it might be, assuming I could actually sell my 670s at £75 each...

Paracelsus · 20 Oct 2015 at 19:57

Amraam said:
Nope, but I need to find another way as you can run Afterburner or any OSD with ENBs. I'll check tonight to see if ENB (using the latest binary) has any form of usage monitoring built in.

Don't need the OSD, just play for a few mins in a town then alt-tab out and check Afterburner itself to see what values it's been logging

Moot point anyway I suppose - something's def holding you back and whether it's shader power or VRAM it doesn't change anything

I'd second the 2nd-hand 290X or similar approach. 4GB should be plenty then you can re-assess when Pascal etc come out. I don't think it's a good time to buy a new card right now, either get a deal on the outgoing 780/770 series, or second hand.

inb4 'it's never a good time to buy a new card'

Amraam · 20 Oct 2015 at 20:06

Or buy a used 980ti?

ukxenon · 20 Oct 2015 at 20:35

Get the ti if I was you

ElliotHand · 20 Oct 2015 at 23:17

Not a typo, I gave the figures running the high / multi gpu fire strike benchmark tests. If you're seeing different figures for the 980ti guessing that'd have been doing the 4K test.

I really don't think a 980ti is worth the investment for gaming at 1080p. I upgraded from 670sli to 390 with free game for 220, sold the two 670s for 170 and so only spent £50 (plus got civ beyond Earth free).

Imo you should do the same and put your money aside for a proper upgrade when pascal etc comes out next year. The same applies to going for 390x not worth the extra cash for minimal performance improvement.

Amraam · 21 Oct 2015 at 09:05

ElliotHand said:
Not a typo, I gave the figures running the high / multi gpu fire strike benchmark tests. If you're seeing different figures for the 980ti guessing that'd have been doing the 4K test.

I really don't think a 980ti is worth the investment for gaming at 1080p. I upgraded from 670sli to 390 with free game for 220, sold the two 670s for 170 and so only spent £50 (plus got civ beyond Earth free).

Imo you should do the same and put your money aside for a proper upgrade when pascal etc comes out next year. The same applies to going for 390x not worth the extra cash for minimal performance improvement.

Sorry, I was being thick. I saw "390" and my brain just decided to read it as 980...

RanxZy · 21 Oct 2015 at 15:30

Amraam said:
Very true, but I like to play Skyrim very photorealistic. If I can play skyrim with crazy amounts of graphics mods and ENB, and still get a solid constant 60FPS, then I'm willing to pay for it. I have the money to buy teh 980ti - if a 0% int finance was available it would just cushion the blow on the wallet is all

As I say, it's a given that the 980Ti will leave you wanting for nothing in terms of grunt for modded Skyrim and ME3. If you have the money and are happy to get it then that's great. Just saying that the 390 would likely do the job for half the price. Skyrim is not particularly fond of dual GPU configs to my knowledge, so that might be one reason why your 670SLI setup is not cutting it.

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...n-R9-Fury-4GB-Review-CrossFire-Results/Skyrim

If you look at the fps, the 980Ti compared to the 290X (similar to the 390) are not very far apart, the price is though. This gap obviously widens on more demanding games, so it's really up to you if you're happy with the outlay

Amraam · 23 Oct 2015 at 09:18

I'm sure this will upset some, so apologies for that, but decided I definitely want to stay with nVidia. So, thinking now, perhaps I should just sell my 670 2GBs (got a buyer already at £150 for both) and get a 4GB 970. That way I'm only forking out £150 and I can always get something better when pascal arrives (even if it's just a 980ti for less money).