• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Been out for a while, wut do?

MoNkeE

MoNkeE

MoNkeE

Soldato
Joined
18 Dec 2004
Posts
9,901
Location
NE England
Been out of it for a while, and wondering what my options are in terms of upgrading.

I've got an old Socket 1155 i5 cpu, 8GB of RAM and two GTX 670s. Now I'm not really wanting to do a full refresh at the moment, but is it worth ditching both the 670s for a single card? An AMD R9 380 for instance, as they seem about the £150 mark?
 
No.

The new £150 cards (R9 380/GTX960) are only at the similar performance level as the GTX670, so not worth ditching your GTX670s.

If you wanna ditch the two GTX670 to move onto a single GPU, a R9 390 should be the bare minimum (or may be 2nd hand R9 290/290x/GTX780/GTX780Ti at around the £125-£170 bracket).
 
Last edited:
Well my reasoning was that the 380 out performs the 960 (by 3-10fps), which I'd assume to be a slightly faster set up than a single card GTX670. I'm not entirely convinced that my SLi set up is giving me a whole lotta extra performance, and in certain cases likely decreases it.

The 390s seem a huge step up in price, altho perhaps the second hand market is the place to be. Seems I can shift my 670s for £65ish each.
 
MoNkeE said:
Well my reasoning was that the 380 out performs the 960 (by 3-10fps), which I'd assume to be a slightly faster set up than a single card GTX670. I'm not entirely convinced that my SLi set up is giving me a whole lotta extra performance, and in certain cases likely decreases it.

The 390s seem a huge step up in price, altho perhaps the second hand market is the place to be. Seems I can shift my 670s for £65ish each.
Click to expand...
Yes the new cards at the sub £200 haven't moved on much in terms of performance.

If you don't mind me asking...is your i5 the K version, and if yes, are you running it at stock or have you overclocked it? Also what games you feel that your SLI 670 are not performance as they should?
 
I would say you are fine until new cards come out. Any 2nd gen i5 and dual 670's will handle all current games perfectly (unless you're gaming at 1440p and running out of vram, maybe)
 
Thanks for the thoughts guys. Interesting that my graphics cards should keep me going for another year - think they're 3 years old as it is. Don't think I've seen the graphics scene be stagnant for so long before.
 
MoNkeE said:
Don't think I've seen the graphics scene be stagnant for so long before.
Click to expand...

Jumps in performance with each new release has slowed down over the last three to four years imo. Two 670s in SLI is still a very powerful combo, and I should imagine that just one 670 still handles 1080 / 1200p fine, like my 7970 did for the most part. :)
 
Last edited:
arc@css said:
Jumps in performance with each new release has slowed down over the last three to four years imo. Two 670s in SLI is still a very powerful combo, and I should imagine that even one of them still handles 1080 / 1200p fine, like my 7970 did for the most part. :)
Click to expand...

+1

We're right at near the end of a massive stagnation in GPU's. To get a real boost in performance your looking at the £500+ cards.

I would hang on until we get a die shrink and some real progress, it will cause a shake up in performance and prices across the board, older cards will see some great deals etc. The new midrange should offer a much nicer boost in performance VS price VS features. Just try and hang in there till we get some proper new cards...
 
Get a used 290 (the numbering is a bit confusing, but it's a lot faster than the 380) for around £150, stick with the MSI, Sapphire or Powecolor aftermarket coolers though if possible.
 
i agree with marine & arc
and i think its bit boring still at midrange
we just have a new tier on top right now!
 
If you go for a second hand aftermarket 290 or 290x avoid the MSI Twin Frozer Gaming and the Asus DCUII models. You run the risk of getting a card that cannot handle the heat. Go for a Sapphire (Tri-X)or Powercolor(looks like a Tri-x).
 
nashathedog said:
If you go for a second hand aftermarket 290 or 290x avoid the MSI Twin Frozer Gaming and the Asus DCUII models. You run the risk of getting a card that cannot handle the heat. Go for a Sapphire (Tri-X)or Powercolor(looks like a Tri-x).
Click to expand...

+1 to this, second hand 290/290X would be a nice upgrade
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom