Stick with 680 or upgrade?

shatpank81 · 26 Oct 2013 at 23:22

Hi guys
I am new, so be kind

I have just got into pc gaming after moving away from console.
I play my games on a 1080p monitor at 60hz, so nothing like some of you lot on here play on and visually looks brill to me
(i5 3570k, 16gb ram)

I have acquired some funds (can stretch to £400-at a push) and currently am using a msi 680 which i got from ocuk a few months back now. I want to play games like B4 on Ultra settings without making my pc struggle and with reasonable fps

Do i upgrade now (recommendations please) or stick with my 680

I know nvidia are yet to show their hand, price wise with the 780ti and amd yet to release much info on the 290 (none X model)

All help appreciated guys (and gals)

arc@css · 26 Oct 2013 at 23:42

What with the release of the 290x and Nvidia's 780ti in the not too distant future, I'd wait to see what happens to prices before deciding.

almighty15 · 26 Oct 2013 at 23:42

Wait to see what happens to the prices over the next few weeks... Maybe try and get an i7 too?

almighty15 · 26 Oct 2013 at 23:43

I live in Bilston too whereabouts are you?

shatpank81 · 26 Oct 2013 at 23:53

I initially built a prodigy for my first pc
So slowly trying to move away from m-itx to a m-atx motherboard, i am not sure whether to just buy a z77 and stick with my i5
Or go z87 and get an i7 (money and a decision to make)

Thanks for reply guys, think i will wait for amd and nvidia's next move

Almighty15, its classed as bilston but i think its more tipton.
Live off the great bridge road, by the metro tram bridge that keeps getting hit by lorries

almighty15 · 27 Oct 2013 at 00:18

I know the road... I grew up on the Rocket Pool....

Have you considered a 7990? Bargain GPU at £399

daveip · 27 Oct 2013 at 00:34

Get the 7990 before it goes up in price when Gibbo gets into the office on Monday!!!

shatpank81 · 27 Oct 2013 at 00:38

Not fair away then....

Certainly looked at it but i have a weird obsession with silence/low noise.
At present wouldnt get it in my case (moved from prodigy to cooler master silencio 352)

Anyway isnt the 7990, just like 2 cards in one? So even though it as 6gb vram in game it will only use 3gb on one monitor? Or have i read that all wrong?

As i have no interest in having multiple monitors etc, just want the best performance, fps etc on my single monitor

Five.Stars · 27 Oct 2013 at 00:40

Yeah, get the 7990, sell your 680 for ~£180 and for about £220 you have pretty much doubled your theoretical performance.

Failing that, hold off until the 31st and see what the prices are like for the 290 (non X) as it is reported to be 96% as quick as the 290X. If it is £100 less then that is incredible value also. But the 7990 will eat through everything at 1080/ 60 and that would be what I would do.

Hurry though, coz Gibbo has stated prices are going up on the 7990 as soon as he gets in office on Monday.

Five.Stars · 27 Oct 2013 at 00:47

Yes the 6gb VRAM is simply 3gb per core mirrored. You don't need to run multiple monitors to get the best out of a dual gpu.

Single card, you could get a 290X or a 780 if the £400 budget was exclusive of what you can bring in for sale of your 680? Only real upgrade from 680 are 7970 (more of a sidegrade as is 280X), 290X and 780. Titan is best not mentioned lol.

Pure performance the best upgrade you could make would be the 7990, but there are couple cards coming out in near future that might change that. The 290 looks to hit a very sweet spot price/ performance assuming it is £350 give or take.

shatpank81 · 27 Oct 2013 at 01:16

Oh man dont know what to do...

I had included the price of my 680, which i expected to fetch £170 give or take a tenner, a £200 bonus from work, means £370 and wife as allowed me to go up to a max of £400 (yes i am under the thumb-its easier on my ears thats way)

I know best bang for buck is the 7990, but the size of it and noise puts me off and they known for bad coil whine?
Also i have a evga 650w supernova, would that be ok?

nicnik · 27 Oct 2013 at 03:07

at 1080p the gtx 680 is plenty right now.
I would either stick with what you have or just wait till a cool/quiet card that is a big upgrade comes along (if u must upgrade).

eg, a cheap aftermarket r9 290.

Bart_Hunt · 27 Oct 2013 at 03:47

I'd wait till r9 290s, non x, arrive and prices settle a bit.
Maybe around Xmass.
Thats what I'm doing anyway.
Maybe you will find a good deal for 290 and manage to water cool it?
Or you can get a 280x, for 400£ you can easily water cool it.

almighty15 · 27 Oct 2013 at 07:46

For BF4 I think moving to an i7 would maybe benefit you more then a GPU upgrade... Especially if the BETA is anything to go by.

shatpank81 · 27 Oct 2013 at 09:48

Cheers for all the help lads..
Think i am going to wait till the 290s are released and hopefully with aftermarket coolers on them
Going to list my i5 and asrock itx on fleabay, money i get for those will nearly cover the i7

ALXAndy · 27 Oct 2013 at 09:52

shatoank81 said:
Cheers for all the help lads..
Think i am going to wait till the 290s are released and hopefully with aftermarket coolers on them
Going to list my i5 and asrock itx on fleabay, money i get for those will nearly cover the i7

Before you buy anything (and that includes the CPU !) wait and see what Mantle brings to the table.

If you're patient (and it sounds like you are) then I would hold onto what you have and wait and see how Mantle reacts with AMD FX 8 core CPUs and AMD Radeons. It could turn out that the FX beats the 4770k, depending how Mantle is used.

If you're impatient and want a mega bargain? get a 7990. But I would hold off on any CPU purchase to see what's going to happen now that AMD pretty much own PC gaming lock stock and barrel.

almighty15 · 27 Oct 2013 at 10:00

shatoank81 said:
Cheers for all the help lads..
Think i am going to wait till the 290s are released and hopefully with aftermarket coolers on them
Going to list my i5 and asrock itx on fleabay, money i get for those will nearly cover the i7

What's you exact specs?

And honestly go with a 7990........ There's nowt wrong with Crossfire....

I'm pulling frame rates in games like you wouldn't believe with a couple of 7950's and a 7990 at the same clock speed would be faster!!

spankingtexan · 27 Oct 2013 at 10:09

Maybe hold off to see what the AMD 290 brings, GTX 780's may also come into your budget as it's rumoured it may drop prices.
A 7990 would certainly give you a boost but it is a dual card and they aren't for every one. @ ALXAndy "AMD pretty much own PC gaming lock stock and barrel." Now that is a brave statement to make and of course completely false.
Personally I would get a 7990, they are an absolute bargain.

almighty15 · 27 Oct 2013 at 10:31

spankingtexan said:
@ ALXAndy "AMD pretty much own PC gaming lock stock and barrel." Now that is a brave statement to make and of course completely false.

I would say AMD have Nvidia by the balls at every price point so his statement is pretty much true..

£100 - 2GB 7850, beats anything from NVIDIA at sub £125
£150 - R9 270X, close to HD 7950 performance for sub £150, really has no competition at this price point.
£200 - HD 7950 3GB, this simply has no competition at this price and 3GB of RAM.
£230 - £250 - R9 280X and HD 7970 GHz, again nothing rivals the performance of these at this price point.
£450 - HD 7990, absolutely destroys everything!

ALXAndy · 27 Oct 2013 at 10:33

spankingtexan said:
@ ALXAndy "AMD pretty much own PC gaming lock stock and barrel." Now that is a brave statement to make and of course completely false.

No it isn't.

Sony Playstation 4 - AMD Jaguar APU 8 core.
Xbox one - AMD 8 core custom APU.

AMD Gaming Evolved. AMD APUs, which will use HSA the same as the consoles do. AMD Mantle - an API designed specifically for AMD's CPUs and GPUs.

Even if you ignore HSA and what it will do for budget APU rigs (running the soon to be launched Kaveri APUs that mimic the consoles) and Mantle, and Gaming Evolved (where AMD offer up huge sums of money for full hardware support and liasons with the developers) and this article -

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-future-proofing-your-pc-for-next-gen

Then it simply comes down to history and what has happened in the past.

99% of PC games (Arma series and some Crysis games being the exception to the rule) are console cross coded 'ports'

Payday goes something like this for a game developer.

Xbox 360.
Playstation 4.
Handhelds.
PC.

Thus, they will always prioritise on what will sell the most units. Thus, they will optimise it better for what sells, rather than what doesn't. With AMD having their own custom APUs in both consoles you can bet your ass that games will support 8 AMD cores. That's just a given, and, requires hardly any work to make it do the same on the PC.

If you think game devs are going to spend loads of time to make something work on something that has no relevance to them? then shame on you. That's why Intel have dominated the PC gaming market for so long, simply because game devs could not be bothered to spend the time needed to make a game fully work properly on a Bulldozer CPU.

As time passes? right now I could easily write you a review where the 8320 overclocked beats the 4670k overclocked in every single area. Be it games, benchmarks? doesn't matter. There are now enough of both to show how well AMD FX CPUs can work.