Hi Guys, As you can see from my sig, I'm currently running a 560ti Twin Frozr, and, whilst this card has definitely given me my moneys worth, its just not cutting it really anymore. I have a budget of around £300 but I can increase if it's worth the extra, plus its my birthday soon so that could go up drastically! The main games I play are the Total War series, and I want to be able to play Rome II fully maxed out on its release date of the 3rd of September. Any advice? I was looking at getting a 670/80 maybe, seem enough on their own for 1080p gaming and hopefully the release of the 700 series will bump the prices down slightly... Also, just as a side note, I'm going to be purchasing 8G's Corsair Dominator Platinum 2133mhz RAM and a new 256G SSD in the next month or so, so bearing that in mind, would you notice any significant bottle necks in my rig? Is a 2500K still enough for gaming? Sorry for all the questions, been out of the tech-loop for a few months now! Thanks guys.
GTX 670 really - for 1080p the extra expense of a 680 isn't warranted in my eyes. Also, performance wise 2133Mhz RAM is a waste of money, and yes a 2500K is more than fast enough for gaming. You got an OC on it?
I'd echo Parge here - probably a 670, and preferably an EVGA F.T.W. version or Zotac AMP! or the like - they're 670 chips on 680 PCBs. Else, what about a 7970? You'd get some free games (which you could shift to bring the cost down), or play them!
Also the 7970 is the same price as a 670 but faster than the 680 in most games, and comes with more memory as standard. The only disadvantage of AMD over Nvidia is that the red cards are a touch more power thirsty and run a bit warmer. AMD have sorted their drivers for the 79XX cards now.
Yep. 670 or 7970. Only reason to splash the extra for a 680 would be if you were planning on getting a higher res monitor in the near future. Don't count on the 680 retail price dropping due to the 780. 680 will still be a very desirable card for a while yet.
I have to say I'd be more inclined towards the 670 over an AMD card, I've always used Nvidia cards and wouldn't really want to buck the trend so to speak, although I'll do some more research into them. Parge, yeah it's currently running at 4.5ghz on my Corsair H60. Stable as hell. With regards to the RAM, its mainly a cosmetic decision as I have a window in my Corsair 600T case and the RAM I have at the moment is just plain ugly. Been meaning to do it for a while and the Corsair Platinum stuff just looks too good to miss imho. So to sum up, I'm not going to see any improvement gaming at 1080p with anything over a 670 or a 7970? As long as everythings running 35-40fps with AA and max textures I'm happy.
You should be absolutely fine with a 670 or 7970 - both will OC nicely if required, and will be a good pairing with an OC'd 2500K. As Parge says - no need on the RAM from a performance POV, but for aesthetics, go for it!
7970 will smash everything at that res. As will the 670. I love my 7970, first amd card but would be happy to buy another.
HD7950 and clock it a bit. Same free games as a 7970, within 5% at the same clocks (most should do 1050/6000 quite easily) and £60 cheaper for a decent one.
I recently went from a 560ti to a 660ti, not massivley impressed by it so far..... Not that it answers your question but perhaps will prevent you making the same mistake! I only upgraded as the 560 gave up the ghost. Could have done without the added expense at the moment!
I went from a 670 back to a 560Ti 448 and really felt the difference. Back up to an OC'd 7950 and I'm happy again.
Perfect. Thanks for the advice guys. 670 it is. Unless I can convince the family to chip in for a 770 for my birthday!
The 7950 can be had for £200 with free games and cant be beat for price performance but if you have to have nvidia it might be worth looking for a second hand gtx 680 theres been quite a few going since the release of the gtx 780, seen one go yesterday for £200
