• 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.

Need opinions on choosing a new graphics card

Dark Light

Dark Light

Dark Light

Associate
Joined
16 Nov 2011
Posts
1,052
Location
127.0.0.1
I am wanting to get a new graphics card, I have 2304 x 1440 and 2560 x 1440 monitors (only use one for gaming). I am not sure which card would be the best, on one hand I would like a really good card and on the other I know that it won't be that long until Maxwell and Sea Islands. I only get a few months a year to play games and I do not want to waste it.

I am looking at these options.
GTX 760 (£190) then a new card this time next year
GTX 760 sli (£380)
GTX 770 4GB (£340)
GTX 770 2GB sli (£600)

The GTX 760 in sli does seem to in some games beat the Titan, however in others it does not even beat the 770. My thinking is that there is some limiting factor in the GTX 760 that is causing loss of performance for very intensive games. For example if you look at Crysis 3 at lower resolutions the Titan beats two 760s, then as the resolution and graphics settings goes up the two 760s are the clear winner against the Titan. However when you reach very high levels of intensity(lower then 20FPS) the two 760s drops off dramatically not even beating the GTX 770. I am thinking that this might be caused by the memory bandwidth as the GTX 680 has the same memory bandwidth as the GTX 760, and the GTX 680 suffers from the same affect. Maybe a memory OC would help this?

I am wanting to be able to play "next gen" games such as Watch Dogs and Unreal 4 games at resolution at decent FPS (30), obviously if there is a massive drop off at about 20 FPS it does not really matter since I would turn the resolution down.

The other option would be the get a single GTX 760, as even a single GTX 760 can play almost every game at 2304 x 1440 and considering that the monitor is a CRT slightly lower FPS is ok and I can turn the resolution down to 1920 x 1200.

And then there is of course the option of GTX 770 in sli which would play everything, but would it be worth it as I could just save money then get a new card this time next year.

Current PC specs:
3930k, not yet OCed
P9X79 Pro
16 GB DDR3 2133
AX 850
HD 4870 1GB
 
Last edited:
arc@css said:
I would probably get a 770 2gb, and add another if you need more fps. Another option is 670 SLI.
Click to expand...

I didn't like the 600 series from the start, which is why I decided not to get one when it came out. Never really looked at the 670 though, but I still think that it is never a good idea to get old tech.
 
What months do you get to play games?

I am wanting to be able to play "next gen" games such as Watch Dogs and Unreal 4 games at resolution at decent FPS (30), obviously if there is a massive drop off at about 20 FPS it does not really matter since I would turn the resolution down.
Click to expand...

For all we know Watch Dogs, etc... might need more than 2gb vram at max settings for all the eye candy at 1920 or above, so if I was deciding now then I'd pick a 4gb 770.

The 4gb card will have a higher resale value too.

Or a 3gb 7970 GHZ Edition, as they're roughly the same price.


If it is after the 4th quarter / BF4 release that you'll get to game, then I'd wait & see what AMD bring to the table before deciding.

Even if you don't want an AMD card, the release of newer cards should affect NV's pricing & save you a few £££'s.
 
arc@css said:
Any particular reason why?
Click to expand...

The GTX 680 was never really that good in my opinion, the memory bandwidth was not that great. In addition the pixel fill rate was not that great either. If you compare the GTX 680 and the HD 7970, the GTX is more powerful, however as the resolution goes up the GTX 680 drops off. If I remember correctly this is due to the GTX 680 originally being the GTX 670, however since the gk110 got delayed the mid rage gk104 got promoted to high end. If you compare the GTX 680 and the GTX 770 on Crysis 3 at 2560 x 1600 with anti-a, you can see that the GTX 770 gets considerably more FPS even though they are in affect the same card.

This is the reason why I did not get the GTX 680.
 
Dark Light said:
The GTX 680 was never really that good in my opinion, the memory bandwidth was not that great. In addition the pixel fill rate was not that great either. If you compare the GTX 680 and the HD 7970, the GTX is more powerful, however as the resolution goes up the GTX 680 drops off. If I remember correctly this is due to the GTX 680 originally being the GTX 670, however since the gk110 got delayed the mid rage gk104 got promoted to high end. If you compare the GTX 680 and the GTX 770 on Crysis 3 at 2560 x 1600 with anti-a, you can see that the GTX 770 gets considerably more FPS even though they are in affect the same card.

This is the reason why I did not get the GTX 680.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. :)

I agree to a certain extent, though at high resolutions (1440p / 1600p) when the performance drops down when using a 670 / 680, the 7000 won't be doing that much better anyway - if at all in some games. The above resolutions invariably require dual card systems to sufficiently bolster the frame rate.
 
Last edited:
Starting to think that the GTX 770 4GB has absolutely not benefit over the 2GB version, I noticed that OCuk had a sale on a GTX 770 for £299.99 and at 5am two were unsold. I wonder if I could still get one presuming they didn't sell.
 
Dark Light said:
Starting to think that the GTX 770 4GB has absolutely not benefit over the 2GB version
Click to expand...

Yes, until you really crank up the resolution by the way of multi monitors, I don't think you'll see any noticeable benefit. The memory bus and amount of vram is quite sufficient for 1440p or even a little higher. :)
 
arc@css said:
Yes, until you really crank up the resolution by the way of multi monitors, I don't think you'll see any noticeable benefit. The memory bus and amount of vram is quite sufficient for 1440p or even a little higher. :)
Click to expand...

I presume at 4k things would drop off, but then again at 4k you wouldn't be getting anywhere near a playable FPS.

Any idea if I could get one of those £299.99 GTX 770's from OCuk?
 
You don't mind 30 fps, turning down resolution and don't play all year round?

Then don't waste your money. GTX 670 or 760 would be my choice.
 
Ehm GTX 760 and GTX 770 ARE GTX 600series tech refurbished ! there's really nothing new here ! With GTX 760 and 770 you will run into the same issues that you would with GTX 670 and 680 !.
The only "new" tech is GTX 780 and Titan.
 
Gripen90 said:
Ehm GTX 760 and GTX 770 ARE GTX 600series tech refurbished ! there's really nothing new here ! With GTX 760 and 770 you will run into the same issues that you would with GTX 670 and 680 !.
The only "new" tech is GTX 780 and Titan.
Click to expand...

Well no, the GTX 680's issue was the memory bandwidth, the GTX 770 fixes this.

Take Crysis 3 for example.
1920 x 1080 high no anti-a:
GTX 770 53.41
GTX 680 47.13

2560 x 1600 4x anti-a:
GTX 770 20.71
GTX 680 12..46

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/zotac_gtx_760_sli_review,14.html
 
You can easily overclock at 670/80 up to 7000mhz to match the memory bandwidth of the 770. Mine is running at 7200.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom