Upgrade from GTX670 SLI @1080p

[Amraam]

Hi all,

Have two GTX670 2GB. Had one, was great, bought a second for £75 and I'm thinking it was probably a mistake as it's the VRAM I'm lacking, even at only 1080p.

So, what can I look at getting? My screen is 1080p, but I often downscale from 1440p on some games. What a 980ti on a finance plan be a stupid idea?

 

[Amraam]

Dont you mean upscale !

Yes dont buy on finance unless its 0% interest or buy now pay later perhaps.

Have you thought about a 970 or a AMD 390 with 8gb ?

I probably meant downsampling in hindsight. My screen is 1080p but I use DSR to render at 1440p on ME3 etc.

Yeah I'd be looking at getting a 0% int deal if I were to splash out silly money.

I hadn't thought of those. I'd rather stay with nVidia in honesty. Really, SLI 670s is still a good setup, but I'm really struggling on VRAM, especially when the games I play the most are very modded with textures (STALKER, Skyrim, and ME1, 2, and 3). I gather, grunt wise, two 670s isn't a million miles away from a 980 series, but like I say, going from 2GB to >6GB VRAM is what's going to make the difference.

 

[Amraam]

Have you confirmed this with Afterburner?

Just that I never ran into problems with Skyrim or modded STALKER with a 1.5GB card. [/QUOTE]

Nope, but I need to find another way as you can run Afterburner or any OSD with ENBs. I'll check tonight to see if ENB (using the latest binary) has any form of usage monitoring built in.

Then again I only used HD textures, an ENB mod and a few grass/weather ones for Skyrim - I know you can go insane with them and end up using >2GB

Yeah I think I've gone insane, even though I've stuck to the 'lite' versions on the big textures mods (SFO etc.),but when I think about it, the only games I play are the ones mentioned above which I like to modify the hell out of. I'm almost at the point of saying sod it and buying a 980Ti. Even when held back (if you can say that) by a i5 2500k at 4.2 it'd still be a massive upgrade with 6GB over 670SLI 2GB and should see me a couple of years...

Don't want to rush into anything though...

 

[Amraam]

I just upgraded from an sli 670 to a 390 for gaming at 1080p and am delighted with the benefits considering the outlay.

3D mark benches:

Single 670 - 3400
Sli 670 - 5700
Single 390 - 5200

New card cost me 220 and have both 670s on eBay for ~80 at the moment so my net spend is pretty low and I've got all the benefits of single card performance / less heat/ more ram etc.

Also means I can upgrade to pascal / 4K monitor etc next year. Wouldn't say it's worth spending 980ti money on 1080p and certainly not if you're looking to finance it.

Is that a typo, or is the 980ti benching less than the 670SLI setup? As said though, I physically game at 1080p, but often use DSR to render at 1440p for a smoother image.

 

[Amraam]

The 390x looks decent but appears to be on par with the gtx980. 8Gb vram sounds nice but will I need it over 6gb at 1440p? Would I not benefit from the extra grunt of the 980ti?

 

[Amraam]

Buying now especially if you need to finance is not a great idea. Next year should see a really nice jump with proper dx12 cards. I would see if you can find a decent second hand 290/x which have 4gb vram. You should be able to get one relatively cheaply.

You will not need all of the 8GB vram on the 390, but at the same time having excess is not a terrible thing for less money than a 980. The 980Ti is a complete beast at 1440p, but do you really need that level of grunt for the games you play? I would not even go for a 390X as the 390 does just fine and is considerably more affordable.



Very good idea and you can grab 290/X at exceptional prices on the MM.

Very true, but I like to play Skyrim very photorealistic. If I can play skyrim with crazy amounts of graphics mods and ENB, and still get a solid constant 60FPS, then I'm willing to pay for it. I have the money to buy teh 980ti - if a 0% int finance was available it would just cushion the blow on the wallet is all

Regarding a 290 etc - is that actually going to worth paying for over a the setup I have? Actually, it might be, assuming I could actually sell my 670s at £75 each...

 

[Amraam]

Or buy a used 980ti?

 

[Amraam]

Not a typo, I gave the figures running the high / multi gpu fire strike benchmark tests. If you're seeing different figures for the 980ti guessing that'd have been doing the 4K test.

I really don't think a 980ti is worth the investment for gaming at 1080p. I upgraded from 670sli to 390 with free game for 220, sold the two 670s for 170 and so only spent £50 (plus got civ beyond Earth free).

Imo you should do the same and put your money aside for a proper upgrade when pascal etc comes out next year. The same applies to going for 390x not worth the extra cash for minimal performance improvement.

Sorry, I was being thick. I saw "390" and my brain just decided to read it as 980...

 

[Amraam]

I'm sure this will upset some, so apologies for that, but decided I definitely want to stay with nVidia. So, thinking now, perhaps I should just sell my 670 2GBs (got a buyer already at £150 for both) and get a 4GB 970. That way I'm only forking out £150 and I can always get something better when pascal arrives (even if it's just a 980ti for less money).

 

[Amraam]

You say you definitely want to stay with Nvidia but if you had got HD7950 or even HD7970 cards instead of those GTX670 ones you would have not been in your current situation LOL! p

True but the same can be said if I bought 4GB 670s Simply didn't need them when I bought them in 2012 I think it was. This is the reason I was originally thinking that I should cough up and get a 980Ti so that I can future proof it a little more.

If I were you and are using finance I would probably just wait until next year for the new generation 16NM cards.

I don't want or need to use finance, I was just hoping somewhere had 0% deals so I could spread out the cost a bit. 980Ti is probably overkill so I'm just trying to work out if a 980, or even a 970 with 4GB will suffice for my needs.

 

[Amraam]

Have you considered members market on here? Several 980ti's have popped up on it lately for sale at pretty ok prices. You'd be getting a card that is still pretty much like new, and any reputable seller would be more than willing to help out with rma if something did go wrong. I've bought quite a few gpu's in the market over the years without any problems.

I have yeah, and the few at circa £400 have been really tempting. To buy from MM would require I have the cash now, which I won't until payday next week though ha.

If I see one at sub £400 I'd likely jump on it tbf.