Single monitor 2560x1600. Which GPU ....

[Abz Hussain]

To last me at least say 3 years, give or take. I have a 7950 at moment but i dont see that seeing me out for three years, agree?
I want a card i can put in there and forget about it. Will overclock it when say in 2 years, or earlier, i may need some more perfomance from it.
Play mainly race sims but looking to try my hand at some of this crysis and battlefield stuff & i understand my current card my not be adeqate.
Price is not an issue but justifying it maybe. (just became a new dad, shes priority over a GPU lol).
If it helps:
Monitor is dell u3011.
Cpu is 2700k @ 4.7
The card i buy will be watercooled as i prefer the silence.
Oh and i prefer not to crossfire or sli - just the one good card please and it should be reasonable on power consumption too.
Thanking you.

 

[spoffle]

Realistically, it doesn't exist currently.

 

[Kaapstad]

As much as you don't like the idea, another 7950 is probably your best option.

Before anyone says it a single Titan is not enough @1600p unless you want to turn the game settings down and will definetly not cope in 3 years time.

 

[Diagro]

You wont find one, A 7990 is good if you want a single card solution

 

[andybird123]

It is still crosfire though so another 7950 would still be comparable and cheaper

 

[Geo-Gamer]

As much as you don't like the idea, another 7950 is probably your best option.

+1

 

[marc2003]

it's quite simple really. play games at non-native res.

 

[Abz Hussain]

So my options are to have two cards and xfire/sli, reduce my upgrade period to lower than three years or play lower res games on my high res screen.
The latter i have done and it just does not look nice at all. You do get a good fps increase but at the cost of looks. Only other option would be to downgrade my monitor to a lower native res.
How does my opening post apply to 1440 and 1080?

 

[arc@css]

You might find you need less AA at 1440 / 1600p, which could help considerably.

 

[Abz Hussain]

You might find you need less AA at 1440 / 1600p, which could help considerably.

Yes that could be very true. However i do think that will only get me so far.

 

[Abz Hussain]

As much as you don't like the idea, another 7950 is probably your best option.

Before anyone says it a single Titan is not enough @1600p unless you want to turn the game settings down and will definetly not cope in 3 years time.

What about a 690? Dual gpu i know but its on one card which is fine.

 

[oweneades]

You wont find one, A 7990 is good if you want a single card solution

Only in the sense that you don't have two physical cards in the system. It still has all of the advantages and disadvantages of CF otherwise.

If you are giong down that route a second HD7950 makes far more sense.

Single card wise the only current solution is a clocked Titan. Roughly GTX690 performance but at a hefty cost.

TBH you are better off waiting until the next gen hit. The top end cards should offer roughly Titan / 690 / 7990 performance but at a more palatable price tag.

 

[Abz Hussain]

Just to clarify, a dual gpu on a SINGLE card is fine, as long as it does not bring any problems with it. I hear the terms scaling and microstutter with xfire/sli, im not 100% on what they are tho.

 

[Abz Hussain]

TBH you are better off waiting until the next gen hit. The top end cards should offer roughly Titan / 690 / 7990 performance but at a more palatable price tag.

I understand there is nothing in the pipeline from both camps until very late 2013 or 2014.

 

[oweneades]

Just to clarify, a dual gpu on a SINGLE card is fine, as long as it does not bring any problems with it. I hear the terms scaling and microstutter with xfire/sli, im not 100% on what they are tho.

Dual GPU single cards are nothing more than CF/SLI on a stick so they will suffer from potential micro stutter and scaling issues just like normal CF/SLI. Whether you notice micro stutter (generally a feeling that the game is not running as well as the absolute framerate suggests) is another question entirely.

 

[Kaapstad]

What about a 690? Dual gpu i know but its on one card which is fine.

Out of all the 2 GPU solutions it is probably the best for quality, unfortunately it is also one of the most expensive. 2 x HD 7950s are bit faster and also the 2gbs of vram per GPU on the 690 limit it for future proofing.

 

[Abz Hussain]

So if i say that to maintain good performance on most games, for at least two years say, at 1600, my best bet is another 7950?

 

[Kaapstad]

So if i say that to maintain good performance on most games, for at least two years say, at 1600, my best bet is another 7950?

Yes and also the cheapest.

Also at the end of 2 years you still have the option of selling the 7950s and upgrading for a reasonable amount.

 

[bemaniac]

Huh.......I've been running games with everything apart from the extreme AA settings and games have been playable for me with a 7970ghz. Battlefield, tomb raider, crysis, ff14 ARR, and loads more like alan wake. I get mostly 60fps but with sleeping dogs with AA maybe 50fps which is nice and fluid and tomb raider is the only one that taxed the card down to 30fps in normal gameplay which is fine for a slow paced adventure game like that. Upcoming games for 3 years though you will need to crossfire that existing card for £200 and you'll have more power than a £900 titan. To be fair £500 for secondhand trifire 7950s is just an amazing bargain right now.

 

[Abz Hussain]

Yes and also the cheapest.

Also at the end of 2 years you still have the option of selling the 7950s and upgrading for a reasonable amount.

Ok, the only other questions i have then is could i keep these xfire 7950's at stock or would they need to be overclocked? Do i need to purchase the exact same 7950 as i have now? Its a twin frozr v2 but these are hard to get hold of now. I will be taking the coolers off and putting water blocks on as i prefer the silence.