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What to do with my GPU; Titan, 690, 670/680 sli or wait...

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dandare2012

dandare2012

dandare2012

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Hi,

I upgraded my whole system in December 12, and after a 3 month battle to get a refund for my faulty Gtx 680 I now have my money back, but am stuck running my old Gtx 480 for now. I was waiting for the predicted 700 series Kepler refresh, which now seems is not going to happen. From speaking to a few retailers in the UK the consensus seems to be that as AMD apparently announced the 7000 series would maintain through-out 2013, then Nvidia will also not be releasing a full Kepler refresh, and may well move to Maxwell later this year... according to one retailer they thought that the 700 series would arrive late summer or Q3 2013. Obviously we have no evidence of this, but the Titan seems to suggest that there will be no 700 series in March, and as Maxwell was predicted for 2014 they would be mad to release a full kepler refresh line later this year...

I have a pile of games such as Far Cry 3, Metro 2033 (And Metro Last Light in March), Crysis 2 and Crysis 3 - all of which I have not yet played because the current card is not up to the job. When I play graphic intensive games I like them to be at their 'best' I am also very keen to have a system that can handle Rome II Total War at Max settings when it comes out, and have the potential to run the game modded with extra unit sizes etc. For the time being I have just been idling along in Guild Wars 2, which runs fine on the 480, but I would like to get my pc "finished" so to speak.

As the title says, I am stuck between the choices listed; the Titan seems to be overpriced for what it is, one retialer in the UK are doing them for £839.00, but considering it comes up short against the 690 which I can get from them for £798.00. In additon to this another retailer offered me a deal price on two EVGA Superclocked 4gb 670's for £699 including shipping.

The Geek in me is saying, just buy two Titans and think about the cost later.... :D but I would be mental to do it. The sensible part of me is torn between getting an EVGA 690 or the two EVGA 4gb 670's for £99.00 less, but with 2Gb more Ram. The EVGA 4gb 680's are still £500+ so two would go over £1000 and just does not seem worth the extra £300.00 on the 670's

My main concern is the Vram... is the effective 2gb on the 690 enough in a card to last for the next 2-4 years, or is 4gb but slightly less performance a safer bet?

I have looked at getting 2gb 670's as well, I would get 2x EVGA FTW for £598.00, so that is now £200.00 less than the 690... and almost £100 less than the 4gn versions.... mind is spinning with what to do...

either that or I just say **** it and not play any high end games until the 700 series or whatever comes out, be it late this year or early next year, but that seems like a long time to wait.
 
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In exactly the same position but building a new PC from scratch. Also very much interested in peoples opinions.
 
The Geek in me said buy 2 Titans, so I did :)

The biggest factor for me (to put into perspective) is the resolution I game at (5760*1080) and the fact that I love 3D. All 3 of my monitors output in Nvidia 3DVision2 with the lightboost. I absolutely love these monitors (AsusVG278H) and because they have built in 3D emitters, I am tied to Nvidia unless I choose to lose the 3D. I had 2 680's 2GB and they worked well at this resolution but never quite enough to push full details with later games and 3D worked well but again, I would have to lower details for 3D surround.

Nowwwwwww here comes the sensible thinking me.

If I wasn't tied to Nvidia, I would be looking at 2*7970's (becuase I also enjoy benching and being competitive in all of our bench threads) but if not for benching, I would buy 2*7950's, as these perform so close to the 7970, the price saved would make me feel better and I wouldn't notice the hit in games. I am an Nvidia fanboy but AMD have the best price per performance in these 7950's and the "sensible" money would look for this.

Now if you want to stick to Nvidia, again the sensible choice would be the 670's and depending on what resolution you game at, would decide if 2GB or 4GB is needed. 4GB only realy comes into effect when you go three way SLI and as you are aware, this isn't cheap, so 2*2GB 670's for around £600 and these perform close to a 690 and so close at times, it would be hard to tell them apart in bench threads.

What res do you game at after all that :p ?
 
Mr. May said:
Did not mention what res you run mate ?
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gregster said:
The Geek in me said buy 2 Titans, so I did :)

The biggest factor for me (to put into perspective) is the resolution I game at (5760*1080) and the fact that I love 3D. SNIP!

What res do you game at after all that :p ?
Click to expand...

I am but a mre mortal using a 59hz 1920x1200 Eizo Monitor. I will never go 3d, as it makes me feel sick/weird and will never go multy monitor, as the cost/enjoyment ratio is not worth it for me.

My main concern is that I want this to last until the maxwell refresh (potentially) I like to upgrade every 2 series, and as it seems nvidia are going to skip the kepler refresh line, then i want to get a good 2+ years out of my investment. on this basis I am worried that 2gb vram might not be enough as the 1.5 on thr 480 is already exhausted by just hit man and assassins creed 3.

So whilst i technically have enough in my savings for 2-3 Titans i feel I should not shell out that kind of cash when 1/4 of that kind of money could still enable me to get 60fps on max in the high end games. Also consider that I spend maybe 1/3 of my gaming time in high end stuff and the rest in Guild Wars 2, which will run on just about anything.
 
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gregster said:
Look for the sensible choices then Dan :)

2*7950's make good sense and will save a nice few quid.
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whilst i partly agree I am not a fan of ATI cards. They seem to have too many driver issues. I have been nvidia for ever so I am more inclined to stay with them. never the less I will have look tomorrow and see...

you think that 2gb vram is ok for 2-3 years use... i am not shooting myself in the foot?
 
if you wanted to be absolutely guaranteed they will last 2-3 years then you'd be better of with 4GB (e.g. 670 SLI)... however I'm not 100% sure that 670 SLI of any flavour will still be decent in 3 years time... so you might be better off with 670 2GB SLI for now with a view to sell and upgrade in 1-2 years time

that would be the best price/performance option from nvidia right now and give roughly the same performance as a 690

dave_beast said:
A very common and wrong misconception which keeps Nvidia in business and able to charge galatic prices for similar performance.
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you say that, but I was recently convinced to give AMD another try and have had nothing but problems with my laptop and spare machine, so my spare will be getting a 670 from my main machine and my laptop will be a paperweight till I can be bothered to swap that out (or AMD finally release working Enduro / Cryengine 3 drivers)
 
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dandare2012 said:
whilst i partly agree I am not a fan of ATI cards. They seem to have too many driver issues. I have been nvidia for ever so I am more inclined to stay with them. never the less I will have look tomorrow and see...

you think that 2gb vram is ok for 2-3 years use... i am not shooting myself in the foot?
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Forgot the Driver crap lark. AMD drivers are 1000% better then they were 2 years ago. And they are only getting better.

2x 7950's will be amazing when overclocked, and they would be my choice
 
dave_beast said:
A very common and wrong misconception which keeps Nvidia in business and able to charge galatic prices for similar performance.
Click to expand...

Yeah right, AMD's drivers are terribad and you know it. :rolleyes:

Sony and Microsoft need rock solid drivers and hardware for their next-gen consoles, that's why they wouldn't touch AMD GPUs with a ten foot... um, wait what were we talking about again? Oh yeah, disregard everything I just said.
 
Not wanting to turn this into an Nvidia V AMD thread but for the last 9 or so years i wouldn't buy anything but Nvidia, i was always reading lately how good AMD was so in november when i got my new rig i thought bugger it i'm gonna give em a go, so i bought a 7850 just to test them out so to speak.
Well the drivers have been solid and the card hasn't missed a beat and i'm now undecided wether to get a 7970 in the next few weeks or wait till the end of the year for a 8970.
As long as AMD keep performing as they are i can't see me ever going back to green :D
 
Thanks for all the feed back above. As you say above, we don't want this turning into an nvida vs AMD rant, but AMD has never appealed to me because on many of the games that I play the forums have laways been rife with AMD driver issues. I know they are cheaper, hell I could get 2*7970 HD for less than a 690, but the little voices are telling me not to do it.

So I am now at a total impass, i read this thread http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18490609

And it is now making me think that maybe Titan is the way to go, but to wait for a bit until the price comes down. I really am torn, the 690 /2*670 seems to beat the Titan hands down, BUT, future drivers could push performance much closer. Then there is the prospect of upping my monitor to a large res single monitor... but that is a different story.

What is putting me off the 690 or SLI 670 is the whole stutter thing... i mean i only had a GTX295 for a few months and did have issues on a few games, which was partly why i went for a 480, but then again the Titan is already almost outdated as a single one is still not capable of running the likes of far cry 3 at 60fps even at 1920x1080.... aaaaaah. why did nvivda have to go and screw up things like this, the damn card should have been £550 and then I would not be asking the questions, and would just have bought it.
 
I dunno why you really needed input from anyone. You have a short list of cards in your head. You aren't Interested in AMD cards whatsoever, and your left with a decision only you can make.

But the titan if you can justify it. Go sli if you want more performance. Or hold out til nvidia give you a more definitive choice.
 
dandare2012 said:
Thanks for all the feed back above. As you say above, we don't want this turning into an nvida vs AMD rant, but AMD has never appealed to me because on many of the games that I play the forums have laways been rife with AMD driver issues. I know they are cheaper, hell I could get 2*7970 HD for less than a 690, but the little voices are telling me not to do it.

So I am now at a total impass, i read this thread http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18490609

And it is now making me think that maybe Titan is the way to go, but to wait for a bit until the price comes down. I really am torn, the 690 /2*670 seems to beat the Titan hands down, BUT, future drivers could push performance much closer. Then there is the prospect of upping my monitor to a large res single monitor... but that is a different story.

What is putting me off the 690 or SLI 670 is the whole stutter thing... i mean i only had a GTX295 for a few months and did have issues on a few games, which was partly why i went for a 480, but then again the Titan is already almost outdated as a single one is still not capable of running the likes of far cry 3 at 60fps even at 1920x1080.... aaaaaah. why did nvivda have to go and screw up things like this, the damn card should have been £550 and then I would not be asking the questions, and would just have bought it.
Click to expand...

Personally I avoid dual card solutions like the plague. Benchmarks don't show the full picture, you can't beat the hassle free consistent performance of a big fat card.
 
I'm in the same boat mate [Apart from 'when'. I got my new rig together in November/December '11].

I have a HD6970 DCII... But (still) to my surprise, it plays most games at 60FPS, or thereabouts, regardless of what's maxed. If I do find it to struggle with something, I usually turn AA down a little; force some FXAA if needed, and put the shadows on 'High', down from 'Ultra'. That seems to do the job on most games. I was playing BF3 yesterday, at 50-60FPS with AA off; FXAA on, of course, and everything else is slapped on Ultra.

Sometimes, I feel like I don't need to upgrade, just because of that kind of performance; but when I launch, say.. The Witcher 2, Hitman: Absolution or Metro 2033, and my rig cripples at the sheer thought of it. It makes me think otherwise! [I think Metro 2033 is a poor example here, it's so resource demanding it's insane.. And Hitman is more CPU limiting than Skyrim, when it was initially released].

I was holding off for the HD8000 and the GTX700 series before I made the jump. I really hate jumping one cycle ahead, I feel like I don't always get my moneys worth if I do that, since the performance leaps aren't massive.. I prefer missing out the introductory architecture, and grabbing the refresh. I like getting a big hit of performance, as opposed to an incremental upgrade - It cures the itch a little more. I have, many times, had R7970s in my basket on OcUK, or a GTX680/690.. And every time I do it, I just hit 'CANCEL'. It's just too easy to grab them. I mean, £600-700-ish nets you two R7970 GHz edition cards, and they're beasts. It's really insane how much power those AMD cards have [and how energy efficient they are too!]. I'm just stunned that they don't have more grunt when it comes to gaming. They have way-more raw-power than the nVidia equivalents.

Although, now that we have THE TITAN (almost) on the shelves and with AMD throwing in the towel - It looks like we're stuck. All we are getting now is the HD8000, which is just a HD7000 refresh, that is for OEM only [By the looks of things, Sony got the OEM refresh too ;)]... And now that nVidia have the Titan out there is no reason to release a Keplar refresh, there is no competition. So why suffer the R&D, marketing and manufacturing costs when they're still selling 670+680s?

nVidia may or may not release the Maxwell cards in the immediate future; but 2014 is a definite. Nobody knows what their plan is, but my guess is they'll milk The GTX600 and Titan sales for at least another year before they start getting us moist with their GTX700 [Maxwell] series; or at the very least, up until the end of this year->the beginning of next.

Between their latent release of The Titan and AMD hanging up their coat, I think nVidia would be foolish to rush Maxwell to the market. They may as well spend some more time in R&D labs on their GPU+ARM product and flesh it out some more; especially with the steady stream of cash they'll have flowing in from The Titan project.

At the minute, I see the Titan as my only choice of upgrade, as it's the fastest single-core GPU that will be released this year; I just wish it didn't have 6GB of VRAM and wasn't so stupidly expensive!

I might start doing some GPGPU to stretch its legs :L

Like yourself, 3D makes me go cross-eyed after an hour or so. A movie at the cinema is my limit before my eyes start rolling around in my head. The human brain isn't meant to decode imagery like that :L We've been used to 2D for too long. If only we could OC our brains to handle 3D images! ;)

I'll be in the market for a 1440P monitor, that's for sure! :D

EDIT:
OcUK should give us special forum badges, like "Titan Owners Club" - Or a free 'TITAN' mug! ;)

Buying this thing makes me feel like I'm buying a highly-refined car, like a 6.5L V12 Lamborghini Reventón, as opposed to buying AMDs venom spitting 8L V10 Dodge Viper. The Dodge may have more grunt (and noise), but the Lambo has more refinement around the edges, and will be the more enjoyable ride.

You get what you pay for, and I'm hoping that for £800 I won't be disappointed!
 
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tbh said:
Sony and Microsoft need rock solid drivers and hardware for their next-gen consoles, that's why they wouldn't touch AMD GPUs with a ten foot... um, wait what were we talking about again? Oh yeah, disregard everything I just said.
Click to expand...

That's a little irrelevant as a company producing products under a contract for another company is a tad different. I'm sure AMD will have to prove their hardware software under the terms of the contract with Sony and maybe AMD won't provide any drivers anyway. Ie, build a graphics component to the specifications that Sony want and Sony will write the software to interact directly.

I don't deny however that AMD drivers these days are indeed as good as Nvidia's later in the product lifecycle, just that some products have been rushed to market in the past to gain a competitive advantage (ie, first DX11 cards for example).
 
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