Upgrading from GTX 670

[996GT2]

I currently have an Asus GTX 670 DC II 2GB. It's a pretty good overclocker and will run games at ~1275 MHz boost clock and about 6500 MHz memory clock. My resolution is 2560x1440.

I am planning to upgrade and have a few questions:

1) Are there any other cards that I should be looking at besides the R9 290 or GTX 780?

2) Between the 290 and 780, which one would AT recommend? AMD's drivers weren't so great back when I used to have a 7970; have they gotten better?

 

[Attic]

At your res I don't think I'd want to go the SLI route with 2gb vram, otherwise that would be ideal option IMO.

That boost clock on your 670 is pretty damn high from what I know of the card. Are you not getting frames you want on the card?, specfic game?

If you plan on going dual gpu down the road I'd reccomend 290 which is better at dual GPU and has more vram. Otherwise for single GPU I'd say stick with your same brand and go 780.

 

[lehtv]

GTX 780 is only about 40% faster. I say only, because usually I'd want a bit more from a GPU upgrade. It's still a sizeable increase, but it's hard to justify spending all that money on a new card for "only" 40% more performance.

Let's say you managed get $200 for the GTX 670, and paid $480 for a new GTX 780. Result: $7 per 1% improvement.

If you spent $800 on GTX 770 4GB SLI, however, you'd get around +110% improvement, or $5.5 per every 1%.

It all really depends on how much you can spend and what your requirements are.

EDIT: On a side note, while 2GB VRAM is a bit limited, 670 SLI could still work. You could try to find a used 670 for $200 ish and increase performance by about 80%. Only $2.5 per every 1%. Compared to the GTX 780, you'd obviously have more noise, heat and electricity costs to worry about, and you'd still be limited to 2GB VRAM, but it's hard to argue against the value, especially if your motive is to improve framerate and keep it locked to 60, rather than improve image quality.

 

[ithehappy]

Smart, everyone should calculate like that. I do that before buying every product but in the end it's something like $10 for 1% or less

 

[spinejam]

$399 -- open box: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814121779R


Mine arrived in a white box - looked new, been running rock solid @1200 core 6800 memory.

 

[KaRLiToS]

The best choices for 2560x1440 would be
-GTX 780 SLI
-R9 290 CrossFire

You would need two cards to max out every games with full Anti-Aliasing.

I would personally opt for the AMD R9 290 Sapphire Tri-X

 

[996GT2]

The best choices for 2560x1440 would be
-GTX 780 SLI
-R9 290 CrossFire

You would need two cards to max out every games with full Anti-Aliasing.

I would personally opt for the R9 290 Sapphire Tri-X

I don't mind not being able to max every game. At 2560x1440 I don't' feel that anti-aliasing is all that important to me. My current card can handle most games at 1440p with AA off and high settings otherwise, but sometimes it dips a bit.

 

[Fastx]

$399 -- open box: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16814121779R


Mine arrived in a white box - looked new, been running rock solid @1200 core 6800 memory.

Man this is tempting I have in my cart now! I thinking 290 or GTX 780 6GB but this tempting at this price!

 

[996GT2]

Man this is tempting I have in my cart now! I thinking 290 or GTX 780 6GB but this tempting at this price!

Great price indeed. The only thing holding me back is that $400 was the MSRP of a R9 290 before this mining craze hit, and the 290 technically is faster than a 780.

 

[RaistlinZ]

OOS now.

 

[Fastx]

Great price indeed. The only thing holding me back is that $400 was the MSRP of a R9 290 before this mining craze hit, and the 290 technically is faster than a 780.

I went with it at this price, I'll give it a good testing and any problems I will just return it. I just checked some BM's online to refresh my memory on the 780 in my two main games BF4 and Crysis 3 I play, looks decent enough in looking at those reference 780 clock BM's and I will be over clocking. I got a great deal on sale & w/promo on my GTX 770 Gaming $279.00 shipped and then sold the games for $35.00 and looks like I should be able to e-bay this GTX 770 for around $275.00 used. So all and all not a bad deal/upgrade. I do like the 290 Tri- X and that 290 Vapor X looks nice too but will see how I like this 780 now.

@Spinejam

Thanks for posting this deal!

 

[Fastx]

If anyone is interested in the above Asus 780 at Newegg I decided to cancel the order after giving it more thought. So it might be back up on Newegg tonight, I keep thinking about those other cards per above post and or just keep my GTX 770 and holding out for Maxwell.

 

[Muyoso]

I game at 1440p with a pair of 670s in SLI and I couldn't be happier. The 2gb limitation with regards to video ram hasn't been a major issue yet and I don't really expect it to be for quite a while. Whatever framerate drop I experience from lack of RAM isnt noticed and I can maintain at least 60fps with settings maxed on any game I try. Newer games like Thief also have an option specifically to help with limited video RAM as well and hopefully more games include a similar option. Should last me for at least a couple of years.

 

[Attic]

That SLI option may work best to alleviate dips, 670 OC SLI is going to be faster than any single GPU if VRAM doesn't hit a wall. The 4770k@5ghz will defiantly feed it enough.

Personally I hate not maxing textures and that'd be my only holdback from a 670sli, but that being said the 2gb debate is somewhat unsettled. If you don't want AA at 1440p then 2gb is perhaps much less of a concern?

 

[loccothan]

Drivers like drivers OK for me o-0
Pick AMD becouse of Mantle and Next-Gen DX11.1 11.2 and 12

 

[tweakboy]

You have a powerful card. If you buy a 780, your gonna feel not good when the 880 GTX comes out. Save out for the 880 GTX series. You can survive with what you got a bit longer. gl

 

[Techhog]

Drivers like drivers OK for me o-0
Pick AMD becouse of Mantle and Next-Gen DX11.1 11.2 and 12

Nvidia GPUs support all of those too...