£400 to spend on a GPU

elliottmarter · 23 May 2012 at 12:58

I have only recently installed an EVGA 560Ti which i got for around the £160 mark, it works ok, can play Skyrim on ultra without issue. But I am thinking towards Crysis 3 and Farcry 3 which I am expecting to be only able to run on medium to low settings. Anyway long story short I feel I need an Nvidia 600 series, so do I save some money and get a top of the line 670 or do I spend another £100 or so and get a low end 680?

Any advice will be appreciated

HankScorpio · 23 May 2012 at 13:10

If the drivers worked I'd say get x2 7850s and overclock them.

Barry1987 · 23 May 2012 at 13:18

The cheapest 680 is £413 so ever so slightly over. That only comes with one fan as well. Ideally for a powerful card in this range you want 2 or 3 cooling fans.

If I were you I would just get a 7970 which has more memory capacity, better core clock, better memory interface, better memory clock, more processing cores and so on. However according to Anandtech they are almost inseparable (some games work better using 7970, some games work better using the 680) - Battlefield 3 runs better with the 680 but Crysis Warhead runs better with the 7970.

Benchmark

The Gigabyte GTX 670 Windforce seems like an incredible card for what you get and the price. Arguably the best 670 to have right now.

The VTX3D HD 7970 X-Edition is unbeatable for the price and most importantly has dual coolers and tweaked.

Personally I would opt for the Gigabyte 670 which is cheaper than both and will overclock to give you equal to or better performance than the 680 at stock (pointing out the obvious there but always worth considering).

Marine-RX179 · 23 May 2012 at 13:33

What is the spec of your system? Need to make sure your CPU won't be a bottleneck first.

masscrazy · 23 May 2012 at 13:38

Barry1987 said:
....

The VTX3D HD 7970 X-Edition is unbeatable for the price and most importantly has dual coolers and tweaked.

Not sure about this.

Hear VTX are not so good when it comes to support.

Barry1987 · 23 May 2012 at 13:43

masscrazy said:
Not sure about this.

Hear VTX are not so good when it comes to support.

That's definitely a factor to consider with them, yes. But spec to price wise it is unbeatable for the 7970 range.

BodgeITandRun · 23 May 2012 at 13:47

If you can at all afford it, I would say get a non ref 7970 or a 680. Sure you can get a 7950 and OC it, along with doing the same to a 670. But it's not like the 7970/680 don't overclock too. If you want value for money and still a good card, get the 7950 when on offer or the 670. If you want the best card, 7970/680.

Amraam · 23 May 2012 at 13:51

The GTX670 Windforce is insanely fast, but a lot of people including myself are having stuttering issues in many games, despite very high FPS.

Rusty0611 · 23 May 2012 at 14:20

Barry1987 said:
If I were you I would just get a 7970 which has more memory capacity, better core clock, better memory interface, better memory clock, more processing cores and so on. However according to Anandtech they are almost inseparable (some games work better using 7970, some games work better using the 680) - Battlefield 3 runs better with the 680 but Crysis games run better with the 7970.

Since when have we ever compared memory clock and core speed across two different AMD/nVidia cards?!?

Not a very good justification

Rusty0611 · 23 May 2012 at 14:23

Additionally, it performs better in Crysis: Warhead - not Crysis games across the board:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-680-review/23

Not talking huge amounts but that part of your post is incorrect. Please can you edit it.

HankScorpio · 23 May 2012 at 14:31

Barry1987 said:
The VTX3D HD 7970 X-Edition is unbeatable for the price and most importantly has dual coolers and tweaked.

I have this, great price for a great card. Almost noiseless as well. Not started to OC it yet, but the factory overclock is nice.

dave_beast · 23 May 2012 at 15:26

AFAIK, VTX support is handled by OcUK themselves.

Ghøst · 23 May 2012 at 15:33

I've just ordered a MSI 680 Twin Frozer OC & a copy of Diablo 3 to test it out for £450 will let you know how it looks / feels tomorrow.

shawsy109 · 23 May 2012 at 15:37

dave_beast said:
AFAIK, VTX support is handled by OcUK themselves.

Correct. OCuk will handle any issues that arise during warranty with the VTX cards.

jellofund · 23 May 2012 at 15:45

HankScorpio said:
I have this, great price for a great card. Almost noiseless as well. Not started to OC it yet, but the factory overclock is nice.

Do you mind me asking what the temps are like at idle and load and what % the fans are running at under load?

Thanks!

HankScorpio · 23 May 2012 at 16:08

jellofund said:
Do you mind me asking what the temps are like at idle and load and what % the fans are running at under load?
Thanks!

39c Idle and between 60-65c on full load

Been folding GPU 100% for a few hours in this pic

Barry1987 · 23 May 2012 at 17:01

Ghøst said:
I've just ordered a MSI 680 Twin Frozer OC & a copy of Diablo 3 to test it out for £450 will let you know how it looks / feels tomorrow.

The 680 will eat Diablo 3 alive. Expect over 120FPS.

Test it on The Witcher 2, BF3 or Metro 2033 to get a real indication of performance for your money.

Rusty0611 · 23 May 2012 at 17:03

Barry1987 said:
The 680 will eat Diablo 3 alive. Expect over 120FPS.

Test it on The Witcher 2, BF3 or Metro 2033 to get a real indication of performance for your money.

I get 120FPS capped in Diablo 3 even while running in 3D

jellofund · 23 May 2012 at 17:36

HankScorpio said:
39c Idle and between 60-65c on full load

Been folding GPU 100% for a few hours in this pic

Thanks, I very much appreciate you posting up the pic.

That's really helpful - the load temps look pretty good compared to the reference cards.

HankScorpio · 23 May 2012 at 17:57

Barry1987 said:
The 680 will eat Diablo 3 alive. Expect over 120FPS.

Same with my 7970

jellofund said:
Thanks, I very much appreciate you posting up the pic.

That's really helpful - the load temps look pretty good compared to the reference cards.

No probs. It's a great card, very glad I bought it. At the price I got it £323 it feels all the sweeter!