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Rare GPU upgrader, is GTX 285 to GTX 680 the right move?

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BallaTheFeared said:
Wait for BigK, both AMD and Nvidia are selling mid ranged cards for a massive premium, 28nm perf/price is an absolute joke.
Click to expand...

In a parallel universe they may be midrange, but not here. Regardless of nvidia's vision for the card 2 years ago when design started, the card is top end now. There is no guarantee that BigK won't be 999 dollars to take command of the compute market.

IMO the OP needs a card now from the sound of it. A 680 would be a fantastic upgrade for the 285 and will provide high end gaming for quite some time.
 
I can't find a quality review like this one that still has the 285 in it, but this one does have a 460, which I believe is the same/a little faster than a 285 ?

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/...force-gtx-680/12/#abschnitt_leistung_mit_aaaf

A1qVe.jpg


The 680 is 250% the speed of a 460, so maybe 270% of your current card. It's a massive upgrade, almost triple the performance you have now, that is huuuuge.

If you're the type to be disappointed when you see something new, you could wait though. 680 just came out, don't expect to see the 780(gk110) until close to Christmas at the earliest.
 
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Subyman said:
In a parallel universe they may be midrange, but not here. Regardless of nvidia's vision for the card 2 years ago when design started, the card is top end now. There is no guarantee that BigK won't be 999 dollars to take command of the compute market.

IMO the OP needs a card now from the sound of it. A 680 would be a fantastic upgrade for the 285 and will provide high end gaming for quite some time.
Click to expand...

I agree for the most part. There hasn't been anything definitive that shows Nvidia is going to release a gaming version of 'big' Kepler.
They may have made a shift in their business model, making this fast small die gpu that is now already the fastest gpu, with 2 -6 pin power connectors. And can be pushed further, which is yet to come.
 
Subyman said:
In a parallel universe they may be midrange, but not here. Regardless of nvidia's vision for the card 2 years ago when design started, the card is top end now. There is no guarantee that BigK won't be 999 dollars to take command of the compute market.

IMO the OP needs a card now from the sound of it. A 680 would be a fantastic upgrade for the 285 and will provide high end gaming for quite some time.
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I guess...

@OP at least wait for some non reference cards that can actually overclock.

While the current 680's are a better option than the 7970, the 7970 wasn't impressive anyways.

680's have very little OC headroom because of the way Nvidia has overclocking setup around dynamic boost and their use of two 6 pins has limited the cards to a total max TDP of around 225w.

OC vs OC the 680 is probably less than 25% faster than the 580, pretty lackluster when you consider the 480 was 60-70% faster than the 285 overclocked.
 
BallaTheFeared said:
I guess...

@OP at least wait for some non reference cards that can actually overclock.

While the current 680's are a better option than the 7970, the 7970 wasn't impressive anyways.

680's have very little OC headroom because of the way Nvidia has overclocking setup around dynamic boost and their use of two 6 pins has limited the cards to a total max TDP of around 225w.

OC vs OC the 680 is probably less than 25% faster than the 580, pretty lackluster when you consider the 480 was 60-70% faster than the 285 overclocked.
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Yeah, but he isn't coming from a GTX 580 nor a GTX 480. Already as it is, he's looking at ~150% perf increase, even with the current OC headroom he can get into the ~200% perf difference at less power, less heat, and less noise.
 
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railven said:
Yeah, but he isn't coming from a GTX 580 nor a GTX 480. Already as it is, he's looking at ~250% perf increase, even with the current OC headroom he can get into the ~300% perf difference at less power, less heat, and less noise.
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250%? no way GTX680 is that much faster than GTX285. I would say it is 150% faster. 250% faster means that it provides 3.5 times higher performance, is that really what you meant?
 
Lepton87 said:
250%? no way GTX680 is that much faster than GTX285. I would say it is 150% faster. 250% faster means that it provides 3.5 times higher performance, is that really what you meant?
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It is the wording, if a GTX 285 == 1, than GTX 680 == 2.5, hopefully that makes it a little easier to understand (scroll up to see Groover's chart.)

The GTX 680 is almost 2 times faster than a GTX 560 ti, which is faster than a GTX 460, and a GTX 460 is comparable to a GTX 285 (if not faster.)
 
railven said:
It is the wording, if a GTX 285 == 1, than GTX 680 == 2.5, hopefully that makes it a little easier to understand (scroll up to see Groover's chart.)

The GTX 680 is almost 2 times faster than a GTX 560 ti, which is faster than a GTX 460, and a GTX 460 is comparable to a GTX 285 (if not faster.)
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Just to clear up.
if you say that something is 100% faster than something else it means that it is 2X times faster or achieves 200% of its performance.
 
Lepton87 said:
Just to clear up.
if you say that something is 100% faster than something else it means that it is 2X times faster or achieves 200% of its performance.
Click to expand...

Pwned by Lepton! Kudos guy! Fixing my original post to not mislead.
 
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railven said:
Yeah, but he isn't coming from a GTX 580 nor a GTX 480. Already as it is, he's looking at ~250% perf increase, even with the current OC headroom he can get into the ~300% perf difference at less power, less heat, and less noise.
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Yeah but he's waited this long, why not wait for a better card this generation? From the sound of it he's doing fine with current games, but knows his card is already stretched to the limits. Rare upgrader means you probably want to get the best you can out of a gen because it's going to be another three years before you upgrade again...

At least wait for non reference 8+6, that's all I'm saying.

It's not like GK100, we know the non reference cards are coming soon. I'd hold out a bit longer for a more "enthusiast" friendly card with greater OC potential.

25qsxue.jpg
 
railven said:
Yes, I know it was my wordering, why I clarified, but I never said "faster" I said perf increase.

1 increased by 250% is 2.5.

"250% perf increase."

You read it wrong.
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actually it is 3.5. According to your version if I said that card 1 gives 100% performance increase over card 2 it would mean that they perform the same. Doesn't make any sense.

1+250%=3.5
1 multiplied by 250% = 2.5
 
Lepton87 said:
actually it is 3.5. According to your version if I said that card 1 gives 100% performance increase over card 2 it would mean that they perform the same. Doesn't make any sense.

1+250%=3.5
1 multiplied by 250% = 2.5
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You're 100% right, and I realized that as I was switching computers to edit it.

Haha. I need more sleep 🙂
 
CNelsonPSU said:
Ah, good point. Core system specs:

Core-i7 920 quad-core 2.66 GHz on Asus P6T motherboard (intel x58)
12 GB [2 GB X6] DDR3-1333 RAM
Intel 320 120GB SSD

Thanks!
Click to expand...

The GTX 680 will be an incredible upgrade.

Leave your CPU alone its just fine.

I upgraded from a 295 to a 580 last April and I have the same processor as you, the single 580 was a massive improvement.

It can handle anything I throw at it just fine, don't be talked into messing around overclocking or upgrading your CPU if you don't want to. Obviously there will be a slight improvement but it is also just fine as it is.
 
I'm in a similar situation and have decided to pick up a 680. I'm going to give it a couple more weeks until I hopefully see some reviews of overclocked versions of cards to decide which one I want.

I figure if there is something 40% plus better out at the end of the year that I'm drooling over I can just sell my 680 on ebay for 80% of what I payed for it and use that toward a new card. Graphics cards seem to retain their value really well. Just take good care of the card and everything it came with.
 
I'm in a similar situation, trying to make up my mind.

Running a q9550@3.4 with a gtx280. 1920x1200. As a gamer, I plan on holding off a full upgrade until the new consoles hit so I'm going to just try a new card. I can't decide if I should go with something like a 7850/7870, gtx580, or wait for the 670'ish cards to show up. Depending on what I read, I may or may not be cpu limited with something really high end. Plus the consoles probably won't hit for a year or so. Decisions, decisions...
 
Regarding longevity, I'm counting on my HD4870 and all other GPUs in the same range to be "enough" until the next-gen consoles come
 
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