Different video card life expectancies?

[Goobley]

Looking to get my next card and I've been really torn, turning this over in my head for the past few weeks. I don't necessarily need as much power as I currently have, but what I'm looking for is longevity.

I previously had my heart set on one of the pre-overclocked 270s that beat the reference 270Xs. However, when spending the money for a new card I question whether I should through a bit more money at it as I probably won't be able to justify changing again for another 2.5-3 years. I'm a bit concerned that a 270 won't cut it.

Currently I'm only really playing indie games and old titles, the most demanding things I've played recently have been Tomb Raider (2013) and Bioshock Infinite - and I'm not overly worried if they're not completely maxed (I think I turned them down slightly to get a solid 60FPS anyway)

I don't know what I'll be playing in 2 years time - probably not the latest titles (I'm not a modern shooter person and this seems to be where most of the graphics innovation is happening), but I'd at least like the option to do so in 1080p medium settings. Should I stretch to a GTX760/R9 280/That 7970 that CAT posted (bit worried about the TDP)/An open box refurbished 7950 I've found on Dabs.

Obviously I know none of you can predict the future, but quite a few of you seem good at seeing trends. I also need it to be quiet at idle and not sound like a vacuum cleaner/hairdryer under load.
Cheers!

[jim]

I would be very surprised if there was ever a situation where the most economical option was to spend more on a graphics card at purchase, as opposed to waiting 3 years, selling the old one, and buying another. The gains are so minimal from say a 760 to a 770, compared to 2-3 years worth of development. Last year's high end can very quickly become this year's mid-range.

I'm still playing happily on a GTX 570, and can't see myself upgrading for at least another year.

[MrJim]

I think it's a bit of a false economy to buy a higher-end card than you really need, with a view to keeping it longer. IMO it's better to match a card to the games, resolution & image quality you want at a particular time. Then, if your needs change & you need a better card, sell the old one & put the money towards a new one. I tend to go for non-reference design cards, as they tend to have better quality components (especially in the power-delivery circuits), in addition to quieter & more efficient cooling.

[kalniel]

Agree with the two replies above - buying more than you need in a deflationary environment isn't sensible. The cost to get more performance isn't 1:1 (you pay more and more for lesser returns).

[herulach]

Agree with the two replies above - buying more than you need in a deflationary environment isn't sensible. The cost to get more performance isn't 1:1 (you pay more and more for lesser returns).

This, provided you're not upgrading every year. Also, I'd never buy a factory clocked card in preference to a stock clock from the model above. In longevity terms you'll do much better with better silicon you can overclock yourself if necessary.

[Goobley]

Thanks everyone - this was my initial feeling but I'd been led astray by other forums! Asking this question almost anywhere else seems to get you: "You need at least a 280X/770 to bother turning your computer on!".

WRT the factory clocked card. The only reason I'm suggesting it is just that the 270s with nice after market coolers (e.g. http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-m...ms-dp-dvi-hdmi ) are the same silicon as a 270X but cost less and are only slightly lower clocked (at least I believe they're the same chips just maybe not the same bins) as they use only a single six pin. Whilst i'm perfectly happy overclocking, when someone it comes overclocked out of the box just because of a nice cooler, I'm not going to complain

[MrJim]

This, provided you're not upgrading every year. Also, I'd never buy a factory clocked card in preference to a stock clock from the model above. In longevity terms you'll do much better with better silicon you can overclock yourself if necessary.

It really depends on the price though. If a factory overclocked model is available for just a small premium, I would go for it. At least you're guaranteed that overclock; with stock-clocked model, there is no guarantee that you'll be able to overclock it at all.

[herulach]

It really depends on the price though. If a factory overclocked model is available for just a small premium, I would go for it. At least you're guaranteed that overclock; with stock-clocked model, there is no guarantee that you'll be able to overclock it at all.

True, but all other things equal, and using OPs example, I'd rather have a 270X at stock than an OCed 270. it looks like its a bit more apparent in Nvidia cards, but just using a random example from Scan, the top end of the 2GB 760s come within £20 of the stock 770s. Even if you're not guaranteed a huge OC I'd still rather have the 770

[Goobley]

I would always agree with architecture over OC, but, correct me if I'm wrong here, they 270 and X are identical internally and the only difference is clock speed/power draw. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7503/t...-feat-asus-his Besides I can always adjust the BIOS to make the 270 suck more power from its 6-pin if it needs it (it's not like AMD themselves even care about those limitations given the 295X2).

[Ttaskmaster]

I'd always advise the economical approach described above, having followed it myself and ended up with a comparatively high-end gaming rig of slightly older 2nd hand parts that can play any game out there on High (occasionally Very High or even Ultra) settings, yet still overclock to up the performance if needs be....

However, I just had my bike insurance payout and blew a load on a GTX 780 Lightning, so perhaps am a bit of a hypocrite!!

[Goobley]

I'll go with a 270 then. Anyone have experience of this card? I can't find any reviews online but the HSF looks pretty well designed and I ideally want a card that come sin quite a small box, not one of those monsters that Gigabyte and MSI seem to use these days. (I know it seems strange but I'm going to be transporting the card in its box a couple of times a year so a smaller box would be great). That leaves Sapphire and XFX, the sapphire 270 seems quite expensive for what it is (although it does have very good thermals and noise).

[ajones]

Full of cold so I may have missed something here; but your sig has a GTX 670 which is no slouch of a card. Is it struggling with what you are playing today?

I'd have thought you could continue with that one.

I see what people are saying above, but why not just pocket your money for a good while and then get a more formidable upgrade in the future?

[MrJim]

I'll go with a 270 then. Anyone have experience of this card? I can't find any reviews online but the HSF looks pretty well designed and I ideally want a card that come sin quite a small box, not one of those monsters that Gigabyte and MSI seem to use these days. (I know it seems strange but I'm going to be transporting the card in its box a couple of times a year so a smaller box would be great). That leaves Sapphire and XFX, the sapphire 270 seems quite expensive for what it is (although it does have very good thermals and noise).

I found a review of the 270X version of the XFX card:

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/5003...pphire-and-xfx

It seems to share the same cooler & fans as the 270X, and the review says that it's quite noisy. XFX don't have the best UK warranty either (look here); MSI & Gigabyte have longer warranties and have better after-sale support.

[Goobley]

Thanks a lot for finding the review. I just somehow wasn't convinced it was going to be a very good card. Given the current price and performance of the MSI 270 (£127 at scan) it seems like a good choice. Whilst I just saw cheap 760s on amazon (£170) looking at this review http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/4976...d-noise-levels shows that it's not worth that cost difference (to me) for less than 10% improvement on average. The 270 is also within spitting distance of a 270X whilst being £25 cheaper.

The reason I'm not sticking with the 670 (and actually downgrading) is that the reference cooler doesn't work for me. I have a very open case that sits right next to me on the desk and I often run GPGPU simulations. It's fine when I'm gaming with headphones on, or if it was in my old Fractal Define. I am, however quite a quiet freak. The money saved by not buying the 760 will instead go to a Noctua L9i, as I'm not very happy with the stock performance. Thanks again for everyone's help.

[herulach]

Thanks a lot for finding the review. I just somehow wasn't convinced it was going to be a very good card. Given the current price and performance of the MSI 270 (£127 at scan) it seems like a good choice. Whilst I just saw cheap 760s on amazon (£170) looking at this review http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/4976...d-noise-levels shows that it's not worth that cost difference (to me) for less than 10% improvement on average. The 270 is also within spitting distance of a 270X whilst being £25 cheaper.

The reason I'm not sticking with the 670 (and actually downgrading) is that the reference cooler doesn't work for me. I have a very open case that sits right next to me on the desk and I often run GPGPU simulations. It's fine when I'm gaming with headphones on, or if it was in my old Fractal Define. I am, however quite a quiet freak. The money saved by not buying the 760 will instead go to a Noctua L9i, as I'm not very happy with the stock performance. Thanks again for everyone's help.

Two things then, does your gpgpu stuff rely on cuda? And secondly, why don't you jsut get an aftermarket cooler for your 670?

[Goobley]

Two things then, does your gpgpu stuff rely on cuda? And secondly, why don't you jsut get an aftermarket cooler for your 670?

My GPGPU stuff is entirely OpenCL and is actually about 20% more efficient on AMD than nVidia (although it's hopelessly optimised anyway, but still a couple of orders of magnitude faster than doing it on CPU).

I've been discussing this 670 and aftermarket coolers on Hexus for a couple of months now. I love the performance of this card (I went from a 6850 to a 6750M (!) and then to a 670), but there are no aftermarket coolers that are two slot (needed for my CM elite 120) that can handle the heat output. I've been mulling this one over for over two months now, but I put my order in today, new card should be coming tomorrow and the old one is being sold to george1979 here on Hexus. Yeah I screwed up on my research when I bought a reference 670 for my usage :/ I just kinda got excited when I saw it on sale (and I thought blowers were in general quieter).