GTX 770 2GB or 4GB.

McSteamy

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Dec 3, 2013
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I'm looking to buy a GTX 770. I can't decide which one....2GB OR 4GB....Is it worth the extra money to get 4GB? I will be using one monitor 1920x1080. Future proofing? Is 4GB beneficial? Thanks
 
Solution


I think you should go for the R9 280X dude, that is what I did, I also had to make the same decision a week ago, but in many ways, i saw that the R9 280X was better, unless you're going for SLI. Take a look at this http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjE5ODEyOTU2.html
I don't know if you could watch that video or not, (I am in China, instead of YouTube they have this YouKu LOL)

If you were going for R9 280X too, make sure you don't get the reference, for it gets too hot, Toxic is the BEST! 😀

Update: Typo 😀
well if you plan on doing a 100 something mods for skyrim including all the very high textures and whatnot maybe it'll become useful...
other than that kind of stuff i have doubts 2gb could ever be insufficient for 1080p ... but if you ever switch to a 1440p/1600p monitor i guess it could be useful, i guess it depends on how big is the difference... if you can afford it i would probably get one just "because"

- i have a harder time justifying 4gb gtx760 because it approaches gtx770 price territory, but with 770 i guess it's not the case...
 
I think 4GB will surely do you good in the future. Because of the upcoming games would use more Vram. But as long as it's only 256-bit, I don't think it could use all the 4GBs.

As of a recommendation, I would go for the R9 280X which has more Vram (3GBs) and has a 384-bit bus width. Specifically, the Sapphire R9 280X Toxic will dominate the 4K Monitors, and at some points, It could even go with GTX 780.
 


Well, It's $419 for 2GB and $489 with 4GB, would you say it's worth it? Plus I just wanna game on ultra at 60fps. I wouldn't be modding. And I won't overclock.
 


I live in Aus and can't seem to find the toxic 280x, but I was also looking at that card. It's slightly lower than the 770.
 




I think you could find the R9 280X Toxic here... Achieva Technology
 
the 280 will not dominate anything in 4k ... even the 290 struggles at that resolution, altho it's supposedly made for it and has a 512bit bus...
it's just simply too much - we need to wait for next gen cards for 4k on high/ultra settings...
1600p is almost twice as many pixels as 1080p to render... even that gives you a huge fps decrease compared to 1080p...
the 384 bit bus theoretically should help with higher resolutions when compared to 256bit bus nvidia has, due to higher memory bandwidth - but the truth is the nvidia kepler architecutre is a bit more advanced and the bottleneck is not necessarily there...
 


i think here we can clearly see the benchmarks that at some points, it's even better than the GTX 780. http://www.anandtech.com/show/7406/the-sapphire-r9-280x-toxic-review/3
 


-it's a comparison between a highly overclocked card and reference models... overclock the 770 to the same level and let's talk -
still - it ain't no secret amd gives you more performance per dollar - it is just what they do and always have.
for people who only care about that they are great cards, and i also didn't disagree that it will have better performance on higher resolutions - i just stated it will suck completely at 4k.
 
go with either one suits you best, i'm an nvidia man but everytime i have had a radeon in my pc ive realised they are fast for the money..
just these ones will probably run quite hotter than the nvidia counterparts...
also there seems to be about $55 difference between 770 2gb and 4gb here in latvia... i guess i'm lucky like that
 


I think you should go for the R9 280X dude, that is what I did, I also had to make the same decision a week ago, but in many ways, i saw that the R9 280X was better, unless you're going for SLI. Take a look at this http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjE5ODEyOTU2.html
I don't know if you could watch that video or not, (I am in China, instead of YouTube they have this YouKu LOL)

If you were going for R9 280X too, make sure you don't get the reference, for it gets too hot, Toxic is the BEST! 😀

Update: Typo 😀
 
Solution
Go with the gtx 770. Nvidia has proven so many times that they are the leading Gpu compagny and they offer so much for their costumers like Geforce experience, Gpu boost 2.0, shadowplay and many other things + nvidia graphic cards has Evga precision x.
 


I agree with you saying that AMD gives you performance for money. Surly you wouldn't get performance for free. Actually also wasn't interested in AMD so much, but these cards are worth it dude. Besides, AMD r9 280x reference is 30 bucks cheaper than the GTX 770. 😀
 


I watched the video and am impressed. I will be getting the Toxic edition :) I found this really helpful! Thank you so much!
 


Thanks for choosing as the best answer.

glad to have been able to help ... :)
 


to me the amd card might be worthless... the two radeons i tried weren't able to overclock my monitor, 4 differend nvidia cards - no problem... to me there's a big difference between 60 and 75hz...
just my 5 cents on why i like nvidia... their control panel is just much better organized and everything just works, always tinkering around with the amd and can't get something to work properly, took me a while to figure out that to get all resolutions to use "gpu scaling" you have to select each one on the desktop and save the settings again and again... on nvidia prettymuch one click... stuff like this with their drivers just bothers me.. i am also looking forward to nvidia gsync when i will upgrade my monitor in maybe a year or so...

also 30 dollar difference is nothing on a 400 dollar ... in that kind of range i just pick my favorite,
when it comes to intel vs amd cpu's it's a whole different story -
i bought a fx-6350 because it's half the price of a i5 and performs just a few % slower in games,
in some cases can even outperform them by a little... now that's what i call a deal.
 

+1 from me :)

 


I surely agree with what you say but I would like to add that tastes are different. Perhaps this guy never faces a problem with drivers. Besides, a favorite card is the one who performs better in games than his rivals in the arena.

Also about the processor that you said, I totally agree with you because you were smart. But that CPU wouldn't be so different with my current AMD Phenom 9950 BE, although I've been happy with it, but it's still not in any way comparable to any other intel with the same specs, specifically with video encoding and working with programs like Adobe series.

And PPS, both of us offered what we had, he was going to make the decision. I just told him what I thought was good. :)
 
the reality is - it depends on the game... if a game is optimized more for amd on launch you probably have to wait for some time while nvidia will release updated drivers that increase the game's performance on their cards and vice versa... just nvidia is known to usually update the drivers quicker... they literally often just drop something in a few days time.. still - when far cry 3 launched it had pretty bad performance on nvidia cards and took them a few weeks to update it fully and solve it,
from what i see on all the charts is that these cards really trade blows, on some games one is better, on some the other so you won't go wrong with either one... and actual power consumption and heat output is just a little better on the nvidia,
also keep in mind that the 280x is actually a updated hd7970 with some tweaks and features, and gtx770 is a updated gxt680 with some tweaks, new features and faster (7gbps) ram on it... - still if you compare the memory bandwidth the amd is a bit ahead because of the wider bit bus...

to me - there is just one thing that would make me take the radeon - AMD's mantle is coming, - it is a very good concept and if it will deliver what it should - it will increase performance nicely on supported game titles...
well nvidia has physix too ... but that is supported by a very few games
also the gsync won't mean nothing to you unless you buy a supported monitor when they start coming out - and they will probably be a bit pricey,
so this is a pretty tough one, good news - whichever one you choose you won't be losing much, they are really that close

my final thoughts - if i had to make the same choice (which i might soon) i would also be torn between to 2gb and 4gb on nvidia... so i almost feel like recommending the 3gb amd myself... i just have individual preferences for nvidia and their control panel and less heat... - especially since i have a real hot cpu when it's overclocked so keeping case heat to a minimum is a must otherwise i have to waste more money on a better cpu cooler...
but don't let that discourage you - especially if you're just looking for performance per dollar,
i just don't like when "fanboys" push you towards one or the other - i rather state all the advantages and disadvantages i can think of so you can choose the best for yourself... this is not a situation where you will regret either choice..
 


Thank you for the detailed reply. I think I said I don't want to overclock because I don't want to shorten my PC's life. Ahhhhh which one which one!!! 4GB isn't worth it because most games don't even use more than 2. That's why the 280x is good. It's in between and gives good performance. I think I'll buy that, and when the 780 comes to 500ish in Aus, I'll buy that. Or whatever has good performance in the future with a good price tag.
 
enjoy the new card! also don't think it's worth upgrading until atleast the new gen cards come out next year...
and don't be afraid of overclocking either... these new cards overclock themselves according to temperatures.. you can just push it a bit further if you
have good cooling... effectively i rather buy a card with better aftermarket cooler on it than a highly overclocked one... since these will boost themselves higher with more temperature headroom...
 


I will enjoy it :) Thanks for the advice and help!