Alternative to GTX 780?

[tomdabomb]

Hi everyone.
Recently I have been saving up for a GTX 780, except the prices of them are just going up and up. I live in Australia so the cheapest I can a 780 find would be about $770. When they first came out you could get them for around $720. I was just wondering if there is any alternative for around $700 that isn't pointless. SLi/CF are a possibility except i only have a 750w PSU.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[X79]

You could just get a GTX 770. Almost the same performance... Especially in SLI.

AMD will be releasing their new lineup soon. September I think. So you could wait for that.

 

[Madn3ss795]

Unless you're planning for a triple-monitor gaming setup then just get a GTX770 instead. About 10% slower than GTX780, but much cheaper, and still serves you well at 1080p/1440p resolutions.

@X79 : I think you meant "except in SLI"? Because in SLI, during situations that the 3rd gb VRAM on the 780 is used, a pair of GTX780 leads over a pair of GTX770 by a lot.

 

[balty]

any alternative for around $700 that isn't pointless

Hey, I have I also been considering buying a GTX 780 recently, and I also happen to live in Australia!

Firstly, why are you even considering purchasing the 780 - what specific requirements do you have that requires such power? Speaking for myself, I recently purchased a Dell u3014 monitor and am finding that my older AMD 6870 just isn't cutting it anymore to push the pixels at 2560x1600 (compared to the 1920x1200 system I had running previously).

At the moment, a GTX 770 would probably be enough to run current games well enough at 2560x1600, but seeing as it's simply a rebranded 680, and that games will continue to be developed to a higher level of graphical fidelity, I don't think it's worth it buying an ageing Kepler chipset.

As for AMD, their 7970 (GHz edition) is a tier below the 780 - they can't compete with Nvidia in the high end market at the moment. Even though they're under a lot of stress delivering the hardware for the new consoles, I hope their 9000 series will come out soon.

The way I see it, the 9000 series will jump the gap to a new level of performance specifically targeted at 2560x1600 gamers, as well as offering preliminary 4K support (that's the rage nowdays, isn't it just). As 4K technology is slowly developing from the 'innovator' stage of product maturity, to the 'early adopters' stage, graphics card manufacturers will have an incentive to significantly improve their technology to cater for the emerging 4K market. In the next 3-5 years we will most probably see (at least) 100-200% performance gains on current technology, and this figure will be even greater for us with 'inferior' 2560x1600 displays. Nvidia will be releasing its Maxwell architecture next year (GTX 8xx), and AMD countering with Volcanic Islands (AMD 9xxx).

In my opinion, we are heading towards a major turning point in the performance of graphic processing units in this next year, so if you can hold out, I would. There's no reasonable alternatives in the market at the moment, and prices will surely have to come down once we have some serious competition between the two manufacturers later this year.

 

[X79]

Unless you're planning for a triple-monitor gaming setup then just get a GTX770 instead. About 10% slower than GTX780, but much cheaper, and still serves you well at 1080p/1440p resolutions.

@X79 : I think you meant "except in SLI"? Because in SLI, during situations that the 3rd gb VRAM on the 780 is used, a pair of GTX780 leads over a pair of GTX770 by a lot.

I meant SLI GTX 770s over one GTX 780 (some people think you can't get wicked performance if you don't

have the most high-end card). Otherwise your first statement about the 770s being 10% slower was what I was

also hinting at. Thank you.

 

[Madn3ss795]

I thought you meant SLI770 vs SLI780, so I bet both of us didn't make it clear then

 

[kid-mid]

depending on the make and model of your 750-watt PSU it can run a CF-X set-up or SLi set-up just fine.

I have both the GTX 780 and GTX 770's and depending on playing resolution the 770 now and SLi later might be quite nice.
I prefer the 780 of course.

 

[tomdabomb]

I don't think getting a 770 would be too smart. From what ive seen its isn't much of an upgrade from a 7970 GHz which is what i had. I managed to get $350 for it, which i think is pretty good considering i got it for $470 and then sold the three bundled games between $30 and $40. I think i'll just save up slightly more then get a 780.

 

[Madn3ss795]

Hmm you didn't mention that you're already having a 7970ghz. If so then it'd be a waste to get a GTX770. You should definitely go for a GTX780 then.