Choose a graphics card has made my head hurt.

[Jackkend76]

Hello,
I know there are a million benchmarks out there, but I seem to have a hard time finding graphics cards tested using the latest drivers. I have an old GTX 260 that's been doing very well until recently. (well, it still does ok, but i'm ready to upgrade). I've got a fairly new system I built myself. i7-3930k with 32 GB of ram.

I'm trying to decide if I should get a GTX 670 or an HD 7970 Ghz Ed. I know the latter tends to be faster, but costs substantially more. ($70 or so). I don't have tons of money, but I want to buy into the future as I'll probably use this card for 3-4 yrs.

So far the positives for AMD are a wider memory bus and RAM (even if games don't currently need it, the future ones may and it's faster in most things). For the 670, I already have a 260 that, as I understand it, can do physix. Do many games even use that? And the 670 would be much easier/better/cheaper to upgrade to SLI. Am I right so far?

So advice is great, and if anyone knows benchmarks tested with the latest drivers that'd be great. I play WoW a lot and Mists of Pandaland is making my 260 crawl. I also play FPS type games off and on frequently. Ahh, I also want to be able to play on 3 screens in the future.

 

[DarkSable]

Pandaria shouldn't be making your 260 crawl... my secondary rig will still max out WoW when my friend comes over, and it's only got a 9800GT.

If you want to play on three screens, I'd get the 7970, but not the GHz ed if you're willing to overclock at all.

If you aren't willing to overclock, get Nvidia, as AMD's advantage comes in having higher overclocking headroom. The 670 is also going to be smoother than the 7970, despite putting out fewer frames.

I'd honestly go for the 670, simply for the matter that it is smoother, cheaper, and that it runs cooler.

(Side note: There are only 18 (?) games that use PhysX, and it'll run just fine with only the 670 - no need to keep the 260 around.)

 

[dheeraj9933]

well,
it is nice to choose a new card but before we start a discussion,
i want to say that new generation of gpu's is right around the corner.
AMD will have the top lineup in Q1 and others by Q2.
and it will be better than the cards u buy now.
so if u r willing to wait 2-3 months u will get a "NEW GENERATION" card.
what do u say?

 

[Jackkend76]

Pandaria shouldn't be making your 260 crawl... my secondary rig will still max out WoW when my friend comes over, and it's only got a 9800GT.

If you want to play on three screens, I'd get the 7970, but not the GHz ed if you're willing to overclock at all.

If you aren't willing to overclock, get Nvidia, as AMD's advantage comes in having higher overclocking headroom. The 670 is also going to be smoother than the 7970, despite putting out fewer frames.

I'd honestly go for the 670, simply for the matter that it is smoother, cheaper, and that it runs cooler.

(Side note: There are only 18 (?) games that use PhysX, and it'll run just fine with only the 670 - no need to keep the 260 around.)

Well, my 260 does well in WoW except for in raids. I also have most of the graphics turned all the way up. It'd do fine if I turned those down I'm sure.

I'm not big into overclocking; doesn't it void your warranty? Are the 7970's essentially the same as they Ghz Ed just not factory OC'd? If so would a Ghz Ed be then be a warranted OC?

Lastly, if i buy another monitor in a year (I have two now) can I add a 670 and get excellent 5760x1080 performance? Also my second screen tends to lower performance just a bit on my 260 even tho there is no game on it. That make any difference on my graphics card decision?

Thanks

 

[Jackkend76]

well,
it is nice to choose a new card but before we start a discussion,
i want to say that new generation of gpu's is right around the corner.
AMD will have the top lineup in Q1 and others by Q2.
and it will be better than the cards u buy now.
so if u r willing to wait 2-3 months u will get a "NEW GENERATION" card.
what do u say?

That's certainly an idea. I didn't know that. Thanks for the info!

 

[timil]

what do you need 32gb of ram for

 

[DarkSable]

That is funny. I wonder if it's actually the card, or if the processor is holding you back?

EDIT: Never mind. Went back and looked at what CPU you have. XP

Overclocking voids some warranties and doesn't with some others. Lots of companies have aftermarket coolers just so you can overclock, and lots of those have their own official software FOR overclocking.

The 670, and (GUESSING!) upcoming 770 will do decently on three monitors, but their lack of VRAM will prevent, say, Skyrim from being turned to full blast. You could get the 4GB cards to avoid that, or you could go with Radeon. But Like dheeraj said, it's worth waiting to see what the next gen has. (Woulda remembered that if I weren't so tired, sorry.)

 

[Herr_Koos]

I would tend to agree with the waiting game. The next generation of GPU's is right around the corner, so if you do want some future-proofing, hold out a little longer. At worst it will make the current generation cheaper, at best you get a better card for the same price.

 

[timil]

wait for 8xxx and buy a 7970 for 250 $

 

[Jackkend76]

what do you need 32gb of ram for

Ha, well, that's kind of funny. My last system was an i7 920 with 6 GB of ram and I was thinking about learning some ray tracing software which is very ram intensive. I downloaded a trial and totally killed my 6 GB. I originally bought 16 but ended up with 2 of the 4 sticks being bad. I RMA'd it back to Newegg and just at that moment, 32 GB went on sale for $30 or $40 off making it something like a $50 upgrade so I popped for it. Funny story: I never got into the ray tracing and the most I've ever used is ~30%.

Edited for terrible grammar.

 

[dheeraj9933]

Ha, well, that's kind of funny. My last system was an i7 920 with 6 GB of ram and I was thinking about learning some ray tracing software which is very ram intensive. I downloaded a trial and totally killed my 6 GB. I originally bought 16 but ended up with 2 of the 4 sticks being bad. I RMA'd it back to Newegg and just at that moment, 32 GB went on sale for $30 or $40 off making it something like a $50 upgrade so I popped for it. Funny story: I never got into the ray tracing and the most I've ever used is ~30%.

Edited for terrible grammar.

it IS funny!! :lol: :lol: :lol:
and for the orignal question,
the new gen always brings a few surprises,
who knows what this one would bring, but it will bring 1 thing for sure, "low prices"
wait for 2-3 months and if u are not happy with price or performance,
the current gen 7970 will be cheaper too! and 4gb of vram is definitely better for triple monitor HD gaming!!
bcoz at the start of this gen consoles 512mb was widely used and by the end of it 1GB is sometimes not enough for 1080p!!
so 2GB might be enough for gaming now but who knows what will happen at the end of the next gen consoles which are about to come this year!!
and considering u have 3 monitors 4 GB is the way to go and AMD has a larger bus which is great for high res AA.
Nvidia sometimes suffers from high AA in games.
This was just for games but if u want to use it in apps,
u might want to see if it supports CUDA or opencl or which is better for each app. and decide accordingly.
anyway..... my last point is to wait for the next gen and start a new thread naming "hd8970 or gtx770"

 

[Jannick1102]

well,
it is nice to choose a new card but before we start a discussion,
i want to say that new generation of gpu's is right around the corner.
AMD will have the top lineup in Q1 and others by Q2.
and it will be better than the cards u buy now.
so if u r willing to wait 2-3 months u will get a "NEW GENERATION" card.
what do u say?

I'm new here and i do not have a computer that can play games at all, and now i have decided to bye one and build it myself. I'm gowing with the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 670 - Grafikkort - 4 GB GDDR5, and i really want to buy it right now... But should i wait for the next generation of Graphiccard?

Sorry for asking

 

[dheeraj9933]

if u really want it right now then u should get a 670, it is a great card.
not everyone waits bcoz not everyone is patient and given your current gpu,
no doubt u want a new one so badly and play the latest games in ultra!!
a 670 is one of the best nvidia cards this gen and if 7970 is a bit expensive to u,
a 670 is the way to go, without a doubt!

 

[Herr_Koos]

I'm new here and i do not have a computer that can play games at all, and now i have decided to bye one and build it myself. I'm gowing with the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 670 - Grafikkort - 4 GB GDDR5, and i really want to buy it right now... But should i wait for the next generation of Graphiccard?

Sorry for asking

Hello and welcome. If you need to ask a question, start your own thread, then you won't have to apologise.

 

[Jackkend76]

Best answer selected by Jackkend76.

 

[Jannick1102]

Hello and welcome. If you need to ask a question, start your own thread, then you won't have to apologise.

Tanks I keep that in minde