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Thread: GTX 295 replacement

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    Va Va Voom Lowe's Avatar
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    GTX 295 replacement

    Well, at the moment there's nothing wrong with my 295 - it's a bit juicy I guess but BF3 plays OK in 1080p. That said I'm always keeping one eye on the horizon and with the new nVidia cards on the table I'm wondering where I need to pitch to get a card which will show a significant improvement.

    Now, this suggests that even the new daddy isn't that much quicker.

    http://www.hwcompare.com/12404/gefor...ndwidthExplain

    Is this really the case? Am I worth sitting it out for another generation?

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    Re: GTX 295 replacement

    The 680 and the 7970's are quite expensive at the moment. This may be due to a pricing strategy or most likely due to manufacturing shortages for the new 28nm process.
    Your 295 is still a powerful card, being able to achieve over 50 fps in Crysis. And most new games which have come out are quite easy on the graphics department. 90fps vs 50 or 60fps is not a huge difference. So I guess from a performance point of view, it's not really worth forking out £400 for a new graphics card.

    However, the new ones consume a heck of a lot less power and can overclock like beasts.

    If you need more performance, maybe you could buy an aftermarket cooler for your 295 and overclock it, that is if you psu is capable enough.

    So it all depends on whether you really need more performance or have the budget to get it...

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    Va Va Voom Lowe's Avatar
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    Re: GTX 295 replacement

    That's pretty much what I guessed. I'm just missing out the DX11 nice bits and the lack of memory is a minor issue on BF3 since I do get some pauses now and then. That said is it worth 400 nicker? Not really. I was hoping a new mid range card would be the same or quicker but that doesn't look the case. This 285 has been good value when all's said!

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    Re: GTX 295 replacement

    What frame rates do you get in the games you play ? And what sort of temps does it reach during gameplay ?
    Regarding the future, I'd say just save the £400 and in 1 year, buy the 790 or whatever it will be called. That will be a true successor

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    Re: GTX 295 replacement

    Looking at these accounts of people who have actually done it, the difference is colossal.

    http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/...x680-smackdown 82 -> 141 FPS

    http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=1519228&mpage=1 26 -> 63 FPS

    According to them, something half the FPS of the 680 would be a like-for-like replacement

    So if you look at a review of the GTX680 that includes some slower cards, like this one http://www.anandtech.com/show/5699/n...-680-review/13 the implication is that a 560TI would be a direct, swap-in replacement.

    That's a very lazy comparison, I know, but I think it's far more accurate than the HWCompare website that just does a load of maths (and we all know SLI doesn't scale the way it ought to).

    Opinions here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/...5-tomshardware and here: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1568488 roughly back that up. Something around a 560/570/580 should be equivalent or faster, although you're still talking about £200 for something that may not show any performance improvement, depending on how SLI friendly the game in question is.

    If you're keen to upgrade it's probably worth seeing what happens with the 660 and 670 - you should certainly get noticeably better performance with a lot less heat, power and noise.
    Last edited by jim; 09-04-2012 at 02:10 PM.

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    Re: GTX 295 replacement

    I couldn't tell you what frame rates I'm getting in BF3 (my primary game at the moment, I don't really play anything else other than TF2 which runs on virtually anything). It's enough to be smooth at 1080P, with only the odd stutter on the big maps which I guess is just a memory issue.

    The other benchmarks are interesting, shows that it would need to be something serious in order to see a big improvement. I don't really feel the need to spend 200 quid to save a few bob on the electricity bill. I also tend to play with VSync on since I prefer a solid stable framerate rather than one that fluctuates a lot, so even though the 680 can blitz big numbers, I'm not so sure it's really necessary for me...

    I think you're right Snooty, the 660 and 670 when they're released will be the cards worth looking at, bang for buck will be the telling factor for me.

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    Re: GTX 295 replacement

    Don't forget Lowe... the 295 will achieve fair money on Ebay too.

    I'm seeing them sell for around £60 if you start at 99p and keep postage sensible.. ie at cost---- not mad money.

    Ebay is 10% commission and paypal a few more quid.. but I think you'll clear £45-£50 with good photos.

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    Re: GTX 295 replacement

    The only thing on that comparison that means anything is the Power usage chart. As you can see the 680 uses massively less power than the 295. The rest of the charts are all theoretical - in real life, the life that we currently exist in the 680 will totally spank the 295 in every game whilst using far less power.

    So the question is do you want to pay £400 odd in order to possibly double your frame rates and half your electricity usage, or are you kinda happy with what you got?

    If your not sure I would consider waiting for the newer lower end 600 series cards to come out. If they do something like a 670 or 660 then that will probably be the one to go for as it should give you a slight - moderate FPS boost in your games, DX11 compatibility and use a bucket less electricity, bucket less heat and bucket less noise.

    Or if your happy with your current FPS stick with what you got and save a bucket load of moolah!

    Butuz

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