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Upgrade from GTX680?

zola25

zola25

zola25

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Wiltshire
I currently have two identical PCs both running GTX 680s in a very small room. Both the Mrs and I game at 1900x1200 with vsync, and the 680s have been struggling at max settings in recent games such as Hitman Absolution, Crysis 3, Tomb Raider and Far Cry 3.

I had been holding out for the GTX780, and although it's in my price range I am completely underwhelmed by the price/performance ratio. I don't want to SLI the 680s as they are the Twin Frozr model, which run very cool as single cards but hot in SLI. I tested both cards in SLI and the temps went up 15-20 degrees as this cooler dumps a lot of heat inside the case. The performance was great, but 4 of these in the small room would be too hot and loud. The logical thing in my mind is to go with Crossfired HIS 7950 IceQ cards, the only thing that's holding me back is that my previous experience with Crossfire (3870s and 5870s) was not great. I'd be interested in anyone else's thoughts.

TL,DR version: Got GTX680, want more oomph, don't want a GTX780 or 680SLI, considering 7950CF. Is this a good move?
 
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I know you don't want to SLI but since you have two cards already you may as well try it. Upgrade one rig to a 780 and SLI the other. If that's still not for you buy more cards. At least this way you only have to buy one card initially.
 
Thanks for the input imb4tman.

I have tried the existing cards in SLI and this was unusable even in 1 machine due to the heat and noise. I did borrow a friend's 670's with reference coolers to try, and these were fine due to the blower type cooler.

To be honest, we'd like to keep the machines the same, and I don't really want to indicate to nVidia that I agree with their 780 price/performance policy ;). This is what was leaning me toward the 7950s as they seem to offer a lot of bang for buck.
 
I would honestly just dial back the game settings and wait for next year, seems nonsensical to replace a 680 so soon. I have a 780 myself but I upgraded from a 470 GTX, the only reason I shelled out £550 is how big an upgrade it is.

My 470 also ran those games your 680 is struggling with just fine. Tomb Raider for example I used custom settings and all but 2 of the options were Ultra or High, the other remaining 2 being Normal, and the internal benchmark gave me 25FPS. I know that sounds unimpressive but the game still ran smooth.
 
zola25 said:
I currently have two identical PCs both running GTX 680s in a very small room. Both the Mrs and I game at 1900x1200 with vsync, and the 680s have been struggling at max settings in recent games such as Hitman Absolution, Crysis 3, Tomb Raider and Far Cry 3.
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Really? I'm still running everything at acceptable framerates on a GTX 480 at1080p! Sure there might be one or two unoticable graphics settings that i might have to turn off or turn down in the odd game but that isnt a big deal.

I'm thinking off upgrading to a 680 when they drop price/or a 770!
 
Jono8 said:
Really? I'm still running everything at acceptable framerates on a GTX 480 at1080p! Sure there might be one or two unoticable graphics settings that i might have to turn off or turn down in the odd game but that isnt a big deal.

I'm thinking off upgrading to a 680 when they drop price/or a 770!
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I think I am just really sensitive (petty? :p) about variance in frame rates and jaggies - I tend to use 4xAA where possible. I probably should have mentioned I also play a heavily modded indie flight sim that just eats GPU memory, and it's hitting the 2Gb limit when loaded up with custom textures.

Had performance of the GTX780 been markedly better in comparison to 680/670, I'd certainly have gone for the 780.

I am wondering if a second 680 with a blower type cooler would limit the impact on the Twin Frozr, but I'd still be limited to 2Gb of RAM.
 
I think this is more of a case of you wanting to upgrade rather than you needing to upgrade. As above has said if you feel its not enough then by all means upgrade to a gtx 780 however common sense would tell you just to dial back the settings and wait for next gen. Do you really want to pay £550 for 30% or so improvement or wait next gen and get even more for your money?
 
Rossi~ said:
I'd sell up and go for a GTX690.
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This also crossed my mind, but the difference in price between the 690 and 7950CF is huge despite similar performance. Granted, I've had beter experiences with SLI than crossfire.

Gripen90 said:
I'd buy a 2nd hand GTX 680 2GB card with reference cooler and run SLi or nothing at all !.
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This sounds like a good idea. I was ready to pull the trigger on additional Twin Frozr's a month or so ago, but testing ruled this out. I'll see if I can find any details of what heat/noise is like with a Twin Frozr and reference card together.

If that's still not looking good, I'm tending to agree with those of you who've advised I stay with the single 680 until the next gen rolls around.
 
^Gregster should be able to tell you, fairly sure he ran a 680 Lightning (frozr cooler) alongside an EVGA reference 680.
 
Jay85 said:
I think this is more of a case of you wanting to upgrade rather than you needing to upgrade. As above has said if you feel its not enough then by all means upgrade to a gtx 780 however common sense would tell you just to dial back the settings and wait for next gen. Do you really want to pay £550 for 30% or so improvement or wait next gen and get even more for your money?
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I agree that upgrade itch vs. common sense is playing a part here. :D

As mentioned above, I really don't think paying £550 for 30% improvement is good value for money, which is why I was looking at options other than the 780. Dialling back settings and sticking with what I have is also an option I am strongly considering.
 
I am using a GTX680 and most games are hitting near the 120fps cap except for Last Light/Crysis 3/Far Cry 3 of course but i managed around 70-80fps always in Far Cry 3....most of the newer titles anti aliasing lowers your fps way too much which may aswell be turned off.(this happens mainly in Crysis 3/Far Cry 3/BF3 and in Hitman i hit 100-120fps nearly always with it off)

As for Tomb Raider it's the TressFX feature causing your low fps i bet.

Only reason i am going SLI is for BF4/Rome Total War 2.

Anyway in your case i wouldn't upgrade at all unless you are on 120hz/2560x1440 resolution or multi monitor.
 
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Rusty or Tommy would be good people to ask about their 7950 xfire experiences. On the whole they both speak very positively of them and when you factor in the sale of the games that come with both 7950's you're looking at the cost of an expensive single 680.

For example this 7950(http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-065-HS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1673) can be had elsewhere for £230. Tell ocuk you want a price match and they'll do it, i know i just got one from ocuk. So £230+£230=£460. Sell the 8 games =£400 maybe less. Compare that to a pre-oc'd 680 with a custom cooler with only one game Metro Last Night. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-014-KF&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2255

I know which id prefer. :)
 
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zola25 said:
This sounds like a good idea. I was ready to pull the trigger on additional Twin Frozr's a month or so ago, but testing ruled this out. I'll see if I can find any details of what heat/noise is like with a Twin Frozr and reference card together.
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I did this with a Gigabyte GTX 580 windforce and a GTX 580 reference for a brief period. No issues at all - I just put the windforce card on top and the reference card in the bottom and the noise levels were quite low. Just about noticeable in load. Putting the reference card in the bottom of the case gave it cooler air and thus lower temperature and lower rpm speed, and then best of all it's heat dissipation didn't affect the top windforce card at all :)
It may not be a "pretty" setup when you looked inside the case, but the performance was there !.
 
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