Upgrading from radeon 6970. Edit got the Rog Swift!

[yhlee]

Hey guys,

I'm debating upgrading my fairly old MSI Radeon 6970 to the GTX970 (or something else?)

CPU: i7-3770k
Display: dell u2412m (24" 1920x1200 monitor) (planning on getting another or two).
Have a Corsair HX620W psu I bought a long time ago (I assume this is sufficient)?

Play: league, sc2, oblivion (end up installing 80 mods then never playing), fallout3, civ 4/5, dota2.
Future considerations: mordor (but if it's a crappy unoptimized port i'll be sad and probably get it for ps4), borderlands pre-seq, jagged alliance: flashback, farcry 4, dragon age: inq, skyrim (if I ever beat oblivion)

so as you can see I'm pretty behind on games, which is why the 6970 has been fine, but I am seriously considering getting a 27" 2560x1600 or 2560x1440 monitor as my 2nd monitor so I'm guessing the 6970 wouldn't do so well.

Given that the games that might need that extra oomph don't come out for a while, I could also wait for the next gen that I read on here might be 20nm (?) but the "lower power" GTX970 is good because I like quietish computers and my room not to be 9000 degrees in the summer without AC.

Also would you guys pick up the asus rog swift right now? A quick search seems to indicate that benq will release some 24" 1920x1080 monitors in the near future, but nothing about 27" or higher resolutions.

Thanks for any tips!

 

[RussianSensation]

Hey yhlee,

Based on what you have written in your post and given how long your 6970 lasted you (i.e., you have a backlog of games that you still want to play), I would say keep using the HD6970 until it becomes too slow in the games you play. In other words, since HD6970, there have been many times to upgrade (7950/7970/680/780/780Ti) but you still haven't upgraded. What if by the time you get to that next GPU demanding game, it'll be 6-8 months from now where something much better than a GTX970 is out or the 970 card becomes much cheaper? If that moment happens in 2 weeks, you can always buy the 970. Until then, keep using the 6970 as GPUs only get faster and/or cheaper over time for similar performance level.

On the issue of a monitor, only you can decide the priorities. For example, I like a 30"+ plus monitor so I would rather get the 2560x1440 BenQ 3200PT over the Asus ROG. If you want to experience GSync, then the ROG Swift would require an NV GPU upgrade, essentially locking you into using ONLY NV GPUs for the lifetime of that monitor. Only you can decide if you want to only buy NV GPUs for the next 7-8 years.

Also, you have the option of going Samsung 28" 4K but the GPU power required is steep (GTX970 SLI most likely).

Altenratively, if you are comfortable with a 24 inch size monitor, the Eizo FG2421 is considered one of the best in that size but it costs as much as those 28-32 monitors I linked.

Ultimately, your 6970 depreciated so much already that the trigger point for your upgrade should be a new monitor and/or a GPU demanding game that brings 6970 to its knees. Right now the MSI Gaming 970 is a solid value should you choose to upgrade soon.

 

[yhlee]

Thank you,

that was extremely informative! I'm surprised that the input lag and response time is so low for your monitor, despite the size and the fact it isn't TN. I'm curious, what video card do you use to drive your current monitor? 30" though, that seems kind of big, but maybe it could be okay. How far away do you sit from the monitor? What are your primary uses? Looks like VA is the way to go if you do a good mix of work and gaming.

Reading the amazon reviews on your monitor, I ran into this: "Also, this is a big con, but this model suffers from vertical bands showing up about 1.5" apart on solid colors. So you can see it on grey or white backgrounds. Forums, desktops, graphics, you will see vertical bands. Distracting, ugly and annoying. This is common to this particular panel (shared by Acer and Samsung) but some will be worse than others." Do you have this problem as well? That would be a deal killer, though I find it odd nobody else would mention this in the reviews.

That is a good point though about being locked into NV cards for the life of the monitor.

The Eizo looks pretty nice. I think there are a lot of good choices if I go with 24" and 1080p.

Thanks again!

 

[yhlee]

Picked up the Rog Swift. I couldn't resist, even though the 3200PT was on sale for $585 at amazon (now $611).

Just need to pick up a video card now. 970 seems to be out of stock everywhere, except the Zotac, which I've never heard of and will probably pass on. Should I just get the 980? The 980 seems to have similar power requirements as the 970 and generally better fans/quieter?

 

[BrightCandle]

The 980 is similar power consumption, faster, but a lot more expensive. Its a better card but I don't personally think its got the same price/performance qualities that the 970 does. You can nearly get 2x 970's for the price of a single 980 and in 99% of games that would be a faster setup.

 

[yhlee]

Thanks for the input. I have the asus p8z77-v-pro which I understand supports SLI in case I do go with two 970 (I read about some of the asus p8z77s only doing crossfire and not SLI)..

I went ahead and ordered the msi gaming from amazon for 359, the customer rep said it should become available in the next few days.

From what I read, this is marginally faster than the ASUS Strix, hotter than the gigabyte, and overclocks well? I ask because the rep also said the strix and g1 would also be in stock within a week (just asked this in the 970/980 owner's thread)

 

[Braxos]

p8z77-v pro supports SLI at x8 and tri xfire, since crossfire needs only x4 to work. AS for single vor SLI is up to you and your budget, OFC dont forget that SLI has to be supported in games and THW results arent same AS single card performance even the single and SLI would have the same performance on Benchmarks.