Should I get a 780 Ti?

[Arachnotronic]

Been getting back into gaming recently and have been making due with a single GTX 770 driving a 2560x1440 display. The performance that I'm getting at high quality settings at this resolution is simply not enough and I am itching to upgrade.

Problem is, the best thing out there is what? A GTX 780 Ti or a Radeon R9 290X? These are about 50% faster than what I currently have, so the improvement is there, but I really do like to upgrade when I can get ~2x performance.

At this point there is no clarity into what's on the horizon, although at this point I expect 20nm GPUs in 2015. The only question is whether a refreshed GCN or a "big" Maxwell is on the horizon later this year at the high end.

Is it worth biting the bullet on the 780 Ti, or should I stick it out with the 770 until the next wave of GPUs?

 

[OCGuy]

50% faster.......seems generous.

I'd get a 2nd 770 until next gen.

 

[Arachnotronic]

50% faster.......seems generous.

I'd get a 2nd 770 until next gen.

Big issue I had recently was with Wolfenstein: The New Order, which would not let me play at maximum settings thanks to having "only" 2GB of VRAM. Not going to complain as I want to see games get more realistic and actually make use of more power, but this would be one of the major reasons why I would avoid sinking $ into another 2GB card.

Do note that I am selling an old GTX 680 currently and if I upgrade will unload this 770 on the FS/FT forums as well. This should make the cost of upgrading easy to stomach as long as I get a much better gaming experience.

I just worry that the minute I hit "buy" NV or AMD will announce something dramatically better...

 

[24601]

I'm betting on Big Maxwell release coinciding with ROG Swift, 4k G-Sync, Haswell-E release and Devil's Canyon release but no one really knows.

Nvidia is obviously waiting for AMD/ATi to make their move (Pirate Islands), as they can coast on their lineup so far.

I'd say upgrade if there's a game you care about that needs it.

If you go for a GTX 780 Ti I would go for a Classified/Kingpin or HOF.

 

[Arachnotronic]

I'm betting on Big Maxwell release coinciding with ROG Swift, 4k G-Sync, Haswell-E release and Devil's Canyon release but no one really knows.

Nvidia is obviously waiting for AMD/ATi to make their move (Pirate Islands), as they can coast on their lineup so far.

I'd say upgrade if there's a game you care about that needs it.

If you go for a GTX 780 Ti I would go for a Classified/Kingpin or HOF.

It would make a lot of sense for NV/AMD to take advantage of the HSW-E launch, particularly if Intel is selling a ~$400 hex-core.

I just finished Wolfenstein and probably won't play it through again for a while, but do plan on working through quite a backlog of games (Crysis 2/3, BioShock Infinite, etc.). I'll fire those up and see if I run into performance problems or if the issues were mostly isolated to Wolfenstein and its need for obscene VRAM

 

[24601]

It would make a lot of sense for NV/AMD to take advantage of the HSW-E launch, particularly if Intel is selling a ~$400 hex-core.

I just finished Wolfenstein and probably won't play it through again for a while, but do plan on working through quite a backlog of games (Crysis 2/3, BioShock Infinite, etc.). I'll fire those up and see if I run into performance problems or if the issues were mostly isolated to Wolfenstein and its need for obscene VRAM

The RAGE engine is just a stuttering mess.

Even when I forced 3GB vram usage and forced the V-SYNC off on RAGE, the game would still continuously stream textures when spinning in place in circles.

I hear that Wolfenstein hasn't even solved that problem with the RAGE engine so I wouldn't really use it as a benchmark for anything other than the DX9 feature level of the engine (I know it's opengl).

 

[Arachnotronic]

The RAGE engine is just a stuttering mess.

Even when I forced 3GB vram usage and forced the V-SYNC off on RAGE, the game would still continuously stream textures when spinning in place in circles.

I hear that Wolfenstein hasn't even solved that problem with the RAGE engine so I wouldn't really use it as a benchmark for anything other than the DX9 feature level of the engine (I know it's opengl).

Oh, is it that bad? OK...maybe I won't hastily jump to upgrade my graphics card based on one poorly coded engine. I had always assumed id Tech was an efficient engine (Carmack is well respected for this) and RAGE seemed to run fine on a single 680 back in the day, but seeing my FPS drop substantially whenever I tried to push beyond "High" manually on Wolfenstein, even just enabling screen space reflections, was pretty jarring.

Thank you for your input (along w/ OCGuy).

I'm going to be installing Far Cry 3 today and giving that a whirl, so I'll report back with my performance impressions there. I have heard it is an extremely demanding game, but that it is also a visual treat.

 

[24601]

Oh, is it that bad? OK...maybe I won't hastily jump to upgrade my graphics card based on one poorly coded engine. I had always assumed id Tech was an efficient engine (Carmack is well respected for this) and RAGE seemed to run fine on a single 680 back in the day, but seeing my FPS drop substantially whenever I tried to push beyond "High" manually on Wolfenstein, even just enabling screen space reflections, was pretty jarring.

Thank you for your input (along w/ OCGuy).

I'm going to be installing Far Cry 3 today and giving that a whirl, so I'll report back with my performance impressions there. I have heard it is an extremely demanding game, but that it is also a visual treat.

RAGE "ran fine" in that it would load muddy as crap textures to keep the locked 60 fps.

When you forced it to use all 3GB and forced V-Sync off, the game stuttered like crazy (from the constant streaming) while looking very very sharp (when the texture wasn't blurry from not having been streamed in yet)

With the RAGE engine you have manually edit all the values to what you want in the console just like the bad old days because its an engine designed for for one purpose in mind, and that purpose is to stream textures for the RAM starved PS3/XB360.

 

[OCGuy]

Wolfenstein didnt exceed 2GB VRAM. It was an arbitrary limitation that even Kyle at H called out.

 

[NTMBK]

Stick it out. None of the upgrades are really worth it. Hang on until cards come out with either 20/16nm transistors or High Bandwidth Memory.

 

[KaRLiToS]

I played many games with a Zotac GTX 680 (aka GTX 770) and played the same games with a Reference GTX 780 watercooled and I can say that the GTX 680 (GK104) is by far the worst GPU chip I have used the past 2-3 years.

The GTX 780 was just plain awsome at 1440p especially when overclocked.

If I were you, I would whether get a GTX 780 ti or a R9 290x. New tech are so slow to release lately and anyway, there will always be something new in the future so there's no point in waiting because you will end up waiting forever.

Just wait for the good deals.

 

[KaRLiToS]

SAPPHIRE TRI-X OC 100362-2SR Radeon R9 290 4GB 512-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Video Card

Free 3 Games w/ purchase, limited offer

$409.99
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Save: $45.00 (11%)
$354.99 after $10.00 rebate card

 

[nurturedhate]

I would jump all over that 290 KaRLiToS posted. I really wished I stayed with my old 580 for a couple more months and went with two 290s instead of the 780ti I picked up.

 

[Attic]

780ti or 290/x

Plenty of good options on both, I like the EVGA classified reccomended earlier, but also like the MSI offerings. The 290/x you've got the Tri-x listed above or the PCS+ from powercolor. The PCS+ 290x is going for $470 at the egg. Generally unless very close in price the 290 is going to be fine and a better value than 290x.

AMD is currently a better value, the prices on the 290 and 290x have dropped drasitically over the past few months while prices on nvida high end has not.

or wait.

But the waiting thing is overrated. I'd sell the 770 2gb while it still has some value and grab an upgrade to 780ti/290/290x

 

[blastingcap]

You may want to look at the HardOCP review saying 3GB VRAM wasn't enough for Watch Dogs w/ Ultra + Ultra settings. http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/05/27/watch_dogs_amd_nvidia_gpu_performance_preview

 

[Galatian]

I still can't believe you "upgraded" from a 680 to a 770...

Epic face palm.

You do realize they are almost the same card? In fact you can flash the bios on a 680 to make it a 770?

That being said those cards you mention are like 20% faster at best. If you ask me: not worth it. Especially the Nvidia cards are lot more expensive for their performance compared to the AMD card. The sweet spot seems to be the 290, which is on sale here in Germany for as low as 280€. Even the 780 is almost 500€ still.

 

[jimhsu]

Probably more sense to go shopping for bargain basement 290s from ebay at this point: I've seen reference cards go for around $200+shipping and some aftermarkets go for $250 (no Tri-x though). Those probably still have an effective warranty that you can utilize in case of fan death or something (most likely consequence of buying a used card).

Prices are so distorted now that you can buy TWO 290s from ebay, and a simple CLC, for LESS than a 780Ti, which would beat the freaking pants out of it.

 

[RussianSensation]

50% faster.......seems generous.

I'd get a 2nd 770 until next gen.

Sell his 770 and 680 2GB while they still have any value before mainstream customer finds out that 2GB of VRAM will become a major limiting factor. He can probably sell both of those cards for $480-500. Then as a temporary solution, he can upgrade to 2x R9 290s that KaRLiToS linked. Those 2 cards will crush a 780Ti and give him 4GB of VRAM; and enough time to wait for 20nm cards.

Once overclocked, a single R9 290 approaches 50% faster than a stock 770 at his resolution. I realize that 770 can also be overclocked but it simply won't scale as well at 1440P due to lack of ROPs, texture fill-rate, and VRAM.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...1-xfx-r9-290-double-dissipation-review-8.html

 

[Arachnotronic]

I still can't believe you "upgraded" from a 680 to a 770...

Epic face palm.

You do realize they are almost the same card? In fact you can flash the bios on a 680 to make it a 770?

That being said those cards you mention are like 20% faster at best. If you ask me: not worth it. Especially the Nvidia cards are lot more expensive for their performance compared to the AMD card. The sweet spot seems to be the 290, which is on sale here in Germany for as low as 280€. Even the 780 is almost 500€ still.

One of my 680's died and EVGA sent me a 770 in its place. My other 680 is for sale, but I'm thinking the resale value on that sucker isn't all that much, so instead probably going to keep it in my 2nd gaming PC.

I also don't really like SLI/Xfire, as I've run into compatibility problems in the past.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I also don't really like SLI/Xfire, as I've run into compatibility problems in the past.

I run two 270's in crossfire, and for the most part, I haven't experienced huge issues. Of course, single card is a simpler and more elegant solution, but I don't mind fiddling a bit and waiting for the right drivers :biggrin:

Two 290's in crossfire are going to be baaaad. And you can always turn off crossfire and make the 2nd card long idle when its not working correctly, and thus save electricity.

 

[moonbogg]

780ti just became a bad option, like really bad. The only option is the R9 series unless you want to spend a grand on a Titan or spend more for a 6gb 780ti. 3gb Vram just became midrange with the release of a single game. Not because the game is good, but because its a sign of what is to come. This gen is totally DEAD right now and stagnant. The only reasonable stop gap is the R9 series with its decent price/perf and adequate Vram.

 

[toyota]

there is no 6gb version of the 780 ti though. lol I might just sell my 780 and get a 770 4 gb. or maybe not...

 

[spinejam]

I'd get that Sapphire Tri-X OC (and I did) - great card for the price --- heck, get two of 'em if your spending Ti $!

...or if you don't mind OB cards: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121840R

 

[KaRLiToS]

there is no 6gb version of the 780 ti though. lol I might just sell my 780 and get a 770 4 gb. or maybe not...

Can't believe you are serious?

 

[Arachnotronic]

Thanks all. I think for now, I'm going to stick to the 770 and wait for 20nm parts next year. I can still get a pretty good experience by turning down settings in games that don't like being maxed out, and there will be a reason to replay them once an upgrade becomes available.