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Thread: Need Advice

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    Need Advice

    Hello, ive had a quick look through the forums and havent found anything near to my problem but if ive missed a thread please link it for me thanks.

    I am looking to upgrade my twin Zotac 1Mb GTX 550 TI Amp cards and my monitor to a 1080p. There is nothing wrong with my current setup but i want to improve my gaming experience. I play mostly BF3 and Call of duty etc.

    I have found a monitor i am happy with for my budget £250 27" Iiyama Prolite E2773HDS-B1 LED Monitor Full HD HDMI/DVI/VGA 1920x1080 5000000:1 300cd/m2 1ms any comments welcome

    but i am stuck what to do GFX wise.

    I have about £400 max to spend on the GFX and want to be future proof 3 years or more so should i be looking at
    twin 2Gb GTX660's in SLI
    A 2gb GTX 670 and buy a second one in 6 to 12 months to SLI
    A 4gb GTX 670 and buy a second one in 6 to 12 months to SLI
    A 2gb GTX 680 and buy a second one in 6 to 12 months to SLI
    Save more money A 4gb GTX 680 and buy a second one in 6 to 12 months to SLI

    thanks

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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Re: Need Advice

    Wow, that's a healthy budget for an upgrade!

    For now, a 2gb 670 is already more than enough to play BF3 on max. Then I would put the remaining money into savings and roll over the budget to upgrade (replace) again in 2-3 years time, if needed.

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    Re: Need Advice

    Will you be upgrading your monitor again in the next three years? If no, thenforget SLI. In fact, since you've got a large enough budget to buy any current single GPU card, forget SLI altogether. In 12 months you'll not suddenly find a GTX680 can't power a single 1080p screen. There won't be some massive sea-change in graphics technology that means game engines are making your £300 graphics card weep.

    Here's what you do: buy your choice of GTX670, GTX680, HD7950 or HD7970. They're all excellent cards for gaming at 1080p. It sounds like you're set on over the top performance, so probably best go for a GTX680 or HD79790. They'll both give you around 60fps in most modern games at 1080p. Don't bother with the 4GB version of the 680, running at 1080p you won't see any difference at all.

    Then, in 12 - 18 months time, sell your current card and buy the fastest card from that generation that you afford. That way you don't have to worry about lack of support or questionable scaling in any games, you'll get a better feature set, probably lower power draw. Chasing "SLI later" is always a bit of a dead end - by the time you've got your second card for SLI there's a reasonable chance there's a single card out there that's faster. You're better off spending your money getting the best experience you can now, then worrying about what upgrades you can afford when you actually need to upgrade. There's no such thing as future-proof in computing: may as well focus on the best experience you can get right now

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    Re: Need Advice

    I would say the cheapest option would be an HD7950 3GB,especially when overclocked and with the new improvements in drivers,otherwise a GTX670 or HD7970. Then use the rest of the budget towards your next upgrade in 18 to 24 months time.
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 16-11-2012 at 02:03 PM.

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    Re: Need Advice

    You certainly don't need to go for the more expensive options.

    The most I would spend would be £300 on something like this:
    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/3gb-g...dmi-2x-mini-dp

    That's a bargain really.

    Otherwise a nice cheap 670, e.g.
    http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-p...2x-dl-dvi-dp-h

    Or there is the 7950:
    http://www.dabs.com/products/gigabyt...m_content=Q200

    Great card, good price, free games, although it might dip below 60fps occasionally.

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    Re: Need Advice

    Those are some great deals there!! Its nice to see the one but top of the range AMD and Nvidia cards falling,to under £270!!

    Hopefully, the GTX660 and HD7870 will also drop closer to £150(the GTX660 is probably going to reach there sooner I suspect).

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    Re: Need Advice

    This one looks good too, but sadly no mention of the free games bundle which is a big downside:
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0091MFBZ...SIN=B0091MFBZC

    Sadly I think we have a while to wait before the 660/7870 drop to £150, after all there are still many 7850s selling above that price.
    Although there is that 660 selling for £160.80, makes buying a similarly priced 2GB 7850 kinda pointless imo.

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    Re: Need Advice

    I think if you are an overclocker the HD7850 2GB does make sense,as this has been its main selling point for a long time anyway. OTH,if you are not that bothered doing that,a GTX660 does look better overall.

    Edit!!

    Having said the MSI HD7850 2GB is around £150,which is probably the most I would want to pay TBH for an HD7850. I would still prefer a GTX660 or an HD7870 for that price though!!

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    Re: Need Advice

    It's not like the 660 is bad at overclocking, techpowerup got a 15.5% increase on this one and that model is only £166.
    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/M...zr_III/30.html
    Last edited by Willzzz; 16-11-2012 at 05:01 PM. Reason: forgot URL!

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    Re: Need Advice

    Quote Originally Posted by Willzzz View Post
    It's not like the 660 is bad at overclocking, techpowerup got a 15.5% increase on this one and that model is only £166.
    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/M...zr_III/30.html
    The issue is that Nvidia is starting to enforce very stringent limitations on voltage tweaking,etc on their cards now which is a shame. Some AMD OEMs are doing it too,but it is far less widespread ATM. Even Terbinator was not happy,that he and other GTX680 users are starting to notice that Turbo is getting less and less agressive with newer driver revisions.

    If you look at most cards of this generation,they use the same 28NM process. As long as the PCB and cooler is good,1100MHZ is achievable on a lot of cards(unless voltage locked which means closer to 1GHZ),with better cards hitting 1100MHZ to 1250MHZ.

    The HD7850 is very underclocked running at a base clock of 860MHZ with no Turbo,so its is quite possible to hit 25% to 30% overclocks with the HD7850.

    Still,I do think GTX660 or HD7870 stock performance is the level I want at £150.

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    Re: Need Advice

    Yeah but even with 25%+ overclocks on clock and memory real world improvements aren't necessarily great:
    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/P...S_Plus/31.html

    Only 10.6% here.

    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/M...dition/31.html

    18.6% (even though they only managed a modest 18% core increase) on this one, but that isn't much different to the 660 improvement and the Power Edition card is actually more expensive than the 660.

    There were a lot of great deals on 7850s just around the 660 launch, but prices seem to have risen back up since then, while the 660 prices have dropped.

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    Re: Need Advice

    Quote Originally Posted by Willzzz View Post
    Yeah but even with 25%+ overclocks on clock and memory real world improvements aren't necessarily great:
    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/P...S_Plus/31.html

    Only 10.6% here.

    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/M...dition/31.html

    18.6% (even though they only managed a modest 18% core increase) on this one, but that isn't much different to the 660 improvement and the Power Edition card is actually more expensive than the 660.

    There were a lot of great deals on 7850s just around the 660 launch, but prices seem to have risen back up since then, while the 660 prices have dropped.
    Something is wrong with the TPU results. Look at these two they tested:

    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/M...dition/31.html

    http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/C...lQueen/31.html

    That shows a 19% improvement with a 19% overclock and a 30% improvement on a 38% OC with a 1GB model(probably VRAM limited for BF3). Moreover,I have been following loads of threads on people overclocking these cards(both AMD and Nvidia),and the realworld improvements are there and that has been for the last six months on forums such as OcUK.

    Moreover,I know a lot of Nvidia users who are starting to get pissed off with what Nvidia is starting to enforce regarding overclocking. The locking down of cards now means,reviews will need to revisit these numbers I suspect. If what Terbinator is saying is true though,it is also worrying in the context of reviews too at stock performance. It seems his GTX680 lost over 150MHZ alone in boost over time with newer driver revisions.

    Even the boost mechanism seems to be inconsistent:

    http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...xy-msi-21.html

    So even with the Nvidia cards,you need to more careful with the specific models you buy. At least Gigbyte and MSI seemed to do what is said on the tin!
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 16-11-2012 at 07:11 PM.

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    Re: Need Advice

    Yes I know, I did link that one.

    And they have said that MSI cards are particularly good over-clockers usually.

    All I am saying is that there is not a huge difference between 7850 overclocking and 660 overclocking, yes the 7850 might have slightly higher gains, but nothing game changing.

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    Re: Need Advice

    Quote Originally Posted by kalniel View Post
    Wow, that's a healthy budget for an upgrade!

    For now, a 2gb 670 is already more than enough to play BF3 on max. Then I would put the remaining money into savings and roll over the budget to upgrade (replace) again in 2-3 years time, if needed.
    Without a doubt, a most sensible answer! Why go sli or crossfire, always pain somewhere! Get the best card you can get, and they will do you for a few years. But if the next generation is on the horizon, just be patient and see what it brings, nothing worse then getting an older when a better one turns up next week, or you miss out on the prices going down!

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    Re: Need Advice

    Thank you everyone for your advice you have all been very helpful.

    Quote Originally Posted by kalniel View Post
    Wow, that's a healthy budget for an upgrade!

    For now, a 2gb 670 is already more than enough to play BF3 on max. Then I would put the remaining money into savings and roll over the budget to upgrade (replace) again in 2-3 years time, if needed.
    I was thinking a minimum of the 670 but didnt really know the score with SLI and 2 x 660 but the post below is what made my mind up.


    scaryjim
    Re: Need Advice

    Will you be upgrading your monitor again in the next three years? If no, thenforget SLI. In fact, since you've got a large enough budget to buy any current single GPU card, forget SLI altogether. In 12 months you'll not suddenly find a GTX680 can't power a single 1080p screen. There won't be some massive sea-change in graphics technology that means game engines are making your £300 graphics card weep.

    Here's what you do: buy your choice of GTX670, GTX680, HD7950 or HD7970. They're all excellent cards for gaming at 1080p. It sounds like you're set on over the top performance, so probably best go for a GTX680 or HD79790. They'll both give you around 60fps in most modern games at 1080p. Don't bother with the 4GB version of the 680, running at 1080p you won't see any difference at all.

    Then, in 12 - 18 months time, sell your current card and buy the fastest card from that generation that you afford. That way you don't have to worry about lack of support or questionable scaling in any games, you'll get a better feature set, probably lower power draw. Chasing "SLI later" is always a bit of a dead end - by the time you've got your second card for SLI there's a reasonable chance there's a single card out there that's faster. You're better off spending your money getting the best experience you can now, then worrying about what upgrades you can afford when you actually need to upgrade. There's no such thing as future-proof in computing: may as well focus on the best experience you can get right now
    Probably not changing monitors after new purchase for next 3 to 5 years so Ive gone with a single EVGA 2Gb GTX680 Superclocked and still had some budget left over. Thanks Scaryjim

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