Graphics Card Choices

[ToxicTBag]

I am not an expert and I wander between Amd and NVidia dependant on price and performance.

Has there ever been so much choice now that there seems to be a re-alignment of pricing with Nvidia price cuts and Amd trying to squeeze in as much as possible for less?
I was extremely happy with 2 x 7990's in quadfire for benching they were grand and with frame pacing/improved drivers gaming was a joy. Now that its time for a change I am waiting on the nda to lift on the 780ti before I make my final decisions.
At the end of the day I want reliability rather than overclock ability and cannot for the life of me decide which way to go, primarily gaming with a bit of benching what would you do?

Rig is 4930k Gigabyte Ud7 X79 16gb TeamXtreme 2133 ram and a Thermaltake Toughpower 1500w psu in a Corsair Carbide 540. I will probably end up watercooling at some point so I look forward to your suggestions

Thanks in advance

 

[rpggamesplayer]

780 ti if the leek benchmarks are anything to go by,

 

[ToxicTBag]

Yeah must admit am itching to see them now I think its 2pm today they are out .... that's me not getting any work done today

 

[RavenXXX2]

Best value for performance for Dual cards I would go 290's and water cool, single card would be again a 290 under water. If money is no object then of course a 780ti and two for SLI.

 

[BigBANGtheory]

IMHO buying top end GPU atm is something of a problem, buying a step down at the discounted 780 or R9 290 is looking better IF that is what you're in the market for.

You can't ignore the fact that Nvidia Maxwell is predicted to launch early in 2014 Q1 which makes the 780 ti a risky proposition for the sake of waiting 3months.

 

[Kaapstad]

You could see if you can pick up some secondhand Titans, I have seen some on the MM for a good price. The reason I mention them is they are reliable (low clocks) and come with 6gb of vram which future proofs them for gaming.

As to benching and overclocking there is no outstanding card that will win in everything.

NVidia cards will win on Heaven 4, Valley, 3dmark11 Extreme, and possibly 3dmark Firestrike Extreme but in most cases will need volt/bios mods.

AMD cards will win on 3dmark11 performance preset and 3dmark Firestrike performance preset. At the moment they need the Asus bios and GPU tweak to do it.

The above is unlikely to change even when the 780ti launches as it will probably preform similar to a Titan when overclocked but about 5% faster.

So at the moment there is no clear answer, read the 780ti reviews and see how much bang for buck they come with.

 

[LtMatt]

I'd stick with what you have because 2x7990 is faster than 2x290 or even 2x780TI for benching and games. Assuming the games have good gpu scaling support, which any decent current game does.

 

[ToxicTBag]

Best value for performance for Dual cards I would go 290's and water cool, single card would be again a 290 under water. If money is no object then of course a 780ti and two for SLI.

Aye its looking like the 2 290s vs this afternoons nda

IMHO buying top end GPU atm is something of a problem, buying a step down at the discounted 780 or R9 290 is looking better IF that is what you're in the market for.

You can't ignore the fact that Nvidia Maxwell is predicted to launch early in 2014 Q1 which makes the 780 ti a risky proposition for the sake of waiting 3months.

Very good point I had forgotten about Maxwell zoikes Q1 I thought it was at least Q2-Q3 aww hells bells summat else to think about

 

[Boomstick777]

I am not an expert and I wander between Amd and NVidia dependant on price and performance.

Has there ever been so much choice now that there seems to be a re-alignment of pricing with Nvidia price cuts and Amd trying to squeeze in as much as possible for less?
I was extremely happy with 2 x 7990's in quadfire for benching they were grand and with frame pacing/improved drivers gaming was a joy. Now that its time for a change I am waiting on the nda to lift on the 780ti before I make my final decisions.
At the end of the day I want reliability rather than overclock ability and cannot for the life of me decide which way to go, primarily gaming with a bit of benching what would you do?

Rig is 4930k Gigabyte Ud7 X79 16gb TeamXtreme 2133 ram and a Thermaltake Toughpower 1500w psu in a Corsair Carbide 540. I will probably end up watercooling at some point so I look forward to your suggestions

Thanks in advance

If money isn't the main priority, a pair of GTX 780ti's would be epic, otherwise watercooled 290 / 290X's?

 

[ToxicTBag]

Thanks for that Mr K and Lt.M, aye I wondered about the "reasonably priced" titans but doubt I would be happy getting a trio of cards that had been benched and used not that there would be anything wrong with em I am sure.
Unfortunately I got shot of the 7990's Matt and am rocking a 9600gt for the next few days, I did not have the luxury of being able to afford to keep them in case the new offerings were not a match so I took the decision to flog em and hope for the best.

Just waiting on some last minute pennies to roll in then I will be able to at least say what my budget will be, that might help

 

[pgi947]

Wait it out T, if the ti comes in at a good price (£500 or less with 780/770 taking another price drop) I'd go for one or two. Otherwise I can't see past the 290 pro.

Why did you ditch the pair of 780's you had?

 

[ToxicTBag]

Wait it out T, if the ti comes in at a good price (£500 or less with 780/770 taking another price drop) I'd go for one or two. Otherwise I can't see past the 290 pro.

Why did you ditch the pair of 780's you had?

Hmmm that is interesting if the 780ti did come in at under £500 I probably would be all over em like a rash, would also be a bit sad as I promised to sell a new ps vita to a chap for 1p if they came in at under £499.97

I cant think if there was any 1 reason why I ditched the 780's might have been the 7990's I don't recall

 

[pgi947]

Hehe

Hope they come in at £499.99 for your sake then!

Got a budget in mind Tony? And does it include block costs?

 

[ToxicTBag]

Depends on what my bank balance says by 2pm, all my direct debits are paid barring mobile bill so am hoping for £1000 and might push it a bit further to get the blocks or just play on air for a few weeks to gauge performance

 

[pgi947]

A good budget, if the ti isn't up to much you could just about scrape 290 pro tri fire...

When is the ti getting announced anyhow? My wallets staying closed until all of the cards are on the table.

Edit: Gibbo just said in the pro thread the ti is unleashed on Thursday.

 

[Gregster]

A full fat 780Ti or 2 would be my choice. The 290X is a good card but needing over 1.4v to pass current 780's/Titans leaves me remembering my 680's and having to do the same to beat 7970's. It seems to be vice versa this time with AMD needing the volts and Nvidia clocking the cards low.

Maxwell is rumored for Q2 2014 however, I would be very surprised to see it then. I am more inclined to say Q3, purely on Apple hogging up all of the 20nm wafers.