Hi all, I have been toying with the idea of a GPU upgrade for the past few months, and now the new range of AMD's is out, though I would take another look at the idea, in the hopes the prices may have dropped. I have no idea what would make a good 'bang for buck' upgrade from what has been a really good GPU in my GTX580. I don't really wan't a minor performance increase and also don't really want to spend 300 quid unless the upgrade performance gain is really exceptional for the money. So I wondered if some middle of the road option was a good idea like the below 7970 for a little over 200 quid. The below Antec GPU bench seems to show some good gains over my current card, just not sure if it's a good option in the long run or worth 200 quid. I game at a resolution of 1920*1200 and have noticed that some games have started to use more than the 1.5vram avaialbe on my current GPU. I have been very happy with my 580 and if no good options are there currently I can wait it out but I am not stuck only to nvidia cards, i'd deffo consider AMD as per the below, especially if the cards and drivers are good Any assistance would be much appreciated. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-...00mhz-gddr5-28nm-gpu-925mhz-2048-cores-hdmi-m http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/770?vs=767
Right now you've got a chit ton of choices. However, the dust hasn't settled yet so now is a bad time to order a GPU unless it's stupid cheap like the £371 7990 was. I would urge you to wait for a couple of reasons.. 1. The Radeon R9 290 is about to launch and could fit into your budget. I would say it'll be £300-£350 depending on just how hard AMD want to hit Nvidia. That will then make the 'cheap' GTX 780 look rather expensive at the current £400 price point. Thus Nvidia will need to counter again and drop the price, hence why it's not a good time to spend £300 on a GPU. 2. Mantle. Apparently it can use just the GPU and could be the next best thing. Sure it could end up like Physx, but it's definitely something to watch out for. So yes. The 290, 290x and 780 are all worth buying if the price is right. But you also need to hang on for the after market 290x and 290 cooling. The stock cooler is pants, and there really is no reason to put up with it when it's pretty much a given that good cooling is imminent. All of the above mentioned GPUs will hand your 580 its ass, and all should be within your reach if you just hang on a bit longer.
Just to add to Andy's comment, the GTX 780Ti will be releasing within the next 2 weeks and will more than likely cause AMD to drop the price of the R9 290(X) cards, to try and undercut the GTX780's, at which point Nvidia could also do the same. You would be best waiting atleast 2 to 4 weeks before you order.
Absolutely yeah, I forgot about the TI. It's supposed to launch at $699, so around £550? which makes the 290x look bad, so prices down.... The war isn't over yet, far from it.
Right now, today, the value cards on NVIDIA's side are the GTX 770 (£240-280 depending on make or model) and the GTX 780 at sub £400. Obviously with your budget we're looking at the GTX 770, which for the money is an absolutely stonking card. Of course, you could wait for the 290 to land, and see if it changes prices any, but I have a feeling it'll have an impact (if any) on the GTX 780, and the 770 won't move. The 780Ti is going to be priced so far away from the £200-300 end that it won't make any ripples at all. tl;dr - buy a GTX 770.
I'm in exactly the same situation. Stopped playing games for a while on my PC and so didn't bother upgrading my gfx card. Now when I want to come back and play a bit of BF4 I need to upgrade my gfx card. It's probably the best decision to hold on. You could end up waiting for ever but personally I echo the sentiment in this thread and think it's best to hold off for the new cards to take an impact on the market. I've got my eyes on a 290 with after market cooler.
Now although people are quite right to say that if you're going to spend 300 on a gpu, it's probably best to wait for the 290 and 780ti and 780ghz to launch and let the dust from the ensuing price war settle. But, you will REALLY want an aftermarket cooler and you'll be playing a premium for it. As with every other generation before, no 2 top range cards will compete in the same price bracket, there will end up being a convenient gradient where price increases with performance and will end up like this: £300 - stock 290 £350 - aftermarket 290 £400 - 780 £450 - stock 290x £500 - aftermarket 290x £550 - 780ti Now that very simplified and prices could slide down a bit From your opening post it seems like you'd rather not spend 300 on a gpu and if that's the case, buy now. Those bargain 7970's will not be around for long. I would say the extra vram on the 7979/280x would be of benefit over the 770 with those extra 228000 pixels over the 1080p benches you'll likely be comparing against and they overclock like a champ. You could also flash the bios to a ghz edition.
Cheers for the discussion all, I'm in no hurry but was having the same thoughts about how long those the good deals on the 7970s will last. Ebuyer do have the confusingly named DD 7970 for £192: http://www.ebuyer.com/434549-xfx-hd...-dvi-hdmi-mini-displayport-pci-e-fx-795a-tdjc Apparently not to be confused with the 'DD Edition' 7970: http://www.ebuyer.com/391821-xfx-hd-7970-black-dd-edition-3gb-ddr5-dvi-hdmi-dual-mini-fx-797a-tdfc Which on ebuyer is £230 but apparently the difference is that the DD edition is 125 mhz faster on the core. Not sure how much in-game performance that equates to and if I will then end up with a hotter, nosier card as a result? Obviously if I was going to go for the 925mhz variant, Scan is the cheapest at £202. I'm still not sure if the performance increase on the 7970 is worth £200, or if I would be better off waiting and making a bigger leap when I do :S
580 to 7970 will not be a major increase in performance, You would notice it in crysis and stuff of its ilk might let you get better settings. ( 580 to 680 is a similar small gains, 680 / 7970 basically perform very similary) 580 to 780 is a much bigger jump and would be the better purchase
Hmmn, Think I will hold off for a little bit longer. The new R290 4 gig looks good price per buck wise but I am put off by the noise and high temps. I like the look of this 780: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-...8mhz-gddr5-gpu-941mhz-boost-993mhz-cores-2304 As it wont dump the heat into my case like many of the other 2/3 fan coolers and as some have said, it will be a bigger leap performance wise. I will wait till the costs start to drop a bit. 300-350 would be good...!
Hi all, been away for a bit moving house, still no internet so can only post occasionally while at work. I have re-read this thread/comment and re-evaluated my upgrade options. I am still thinking the 780 as a good option, but I want a model like the titan cooled one and they are still north of 400 pounds, where I really think my max budget for a card like that is £350. So I have been wondering if the 770 as previously mentioned would be a good option. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-...5-gpu-1085mhz-boost-1137mhz-cores-1536-dport- But then I came across this bench on anand tech that makes me think they are basically at the same performance level as a 7970: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/770?vs=829 Is it worth paying £270 for a GTX 770 or is it a similarly smallish increase in performance as the 7970 would be?
Friend just changed from a 580 to an Asus DCU2 780. Has been a really good card for him. 290/290X are fine but they run hot and loud, if you can deal with that then go for it as they definitely tick the £/performance box at the moment. Perhaps a good idea to hold for a little though as I heard a lot are having issues and are being RMA'd.
