Looking for an honest opinion/helping hand.

[Rmk5]

Hey everyone!

I'm sure this has been asked before and has some of it covered in reviews. I thought I would try to get a more direct answer as I'm still not able to figure out what I want to do in the end 🙁

I'm wanting to upgrade the GPU's for two different computers. With the new 700's from Nvidia and the 7000's from AMD dropping in price.. I just get lost.
I'm not sure if I should just aim for two 760's (in each) to run SLi, a single 7970 Ghz or wait a little longer and buy a 770/780. My budget is a little tight so I would have to save a bit to buy the bigger card or I could buy the cheaper ones in a spread out option.

Currently I have:
PC #1
i7-930
6GB G.skill Triple channel
EVGA 560 (super clocked, if it matters)
Asus Rampage III Gene

PC #2
i5-650
8GB Corsair vengance low profile
EVGA 460 (also super clocked..)
EVGA P55 132-LF-E655-KR

Both are mostly used for gaming. Primarily MMO's. It wouldn't be uncommon to have Borderlands 2, Saints Row and Dark souls going, too.

Any questions are welcome, if there's more information I could provide to help!
Thanks in advance for any replies!

 

[Andreas414]

To be honest, I'd recommend just getting one 760 for each system. If you decide you need more graphics power down the road you could always SLI, but once you get to around that level you're probably going to start seeing bottlenecking from your CPUs (especially the i5) anyway. Anything more expensive is probably overkill for MMOs unless you're using ultra-high res display(s,) since my 7870 has no trouble maxing SWTOR and similar games at 1080p.

 

[sam_p_lay]

Although I'm not sure I agree about the bottlenecking, I definitely agree on a single GTX760 and adding a second only if needed. You'd be surprised how capable the GTX760 is - better than you'd expect from the price.

 

[Rmk5]

Yea, I'm sure I'm going to really like the difference I see from the cards I'm using at the moment. I'm more concerned with longevity and running at higher fps. I can already run SWTOR at max with no issues. I'm currently going into FF14 (again) and looking to get it as smooth as I can. I'll be buying a new monitor along with the cards, too. That's a whole different issue at the moment though 😀 FF14 will be supporting SLi at launch which is why I was considering the 2 760's.

 

[sam_p_lay]

Well I'm not sure how that game performs or what hardware it requires, but if the second card will turn 60fps into 100fps, it's not really helping you! I'd be very surprised if a single GTX760 doesn't handle it.

 

[coozie7]

Games of that type tend to be CPU intensive, so I think Andreas414 makes a valid point about the dual core i5 650 in PC#2.
With money being tight (when's it not? 🙁 ) I suggest you get a single GTX760 for PC#1 and test run it in PC#2 to see if it's a viable upgrade, you could also move the GTX560 from #1 to #2, to see if it's a useful improvement.
Both those CPUs', particularly the i7, respond well to a little coaxing with the overclocking stick BTW.

 

[sam_p_lay]

Excellent advice there as I've come to expect from coozie.

 

[Rmk5]

On that note.. would it be a worth while investment to upgrade the i5-650 to a 750/760? They're under a $100 at some places. I was planning to just upgrade the GPU's now as it would bring in an improvement and next year upgrade the actual CPU/MoBo.

 

[sam_p_lay]

It could be helpful to get some quad core muscle in there if it's not too expensive.

 

[coozie7]

If PC#2 is meeting your needs, then no, it's doing its job well enough if not, well the i5 should be a direct swap and you'll be hard pressed to get a better $100 CPU upgrade.

 

[Rmk5]

Thanks for all the answers everyone! I ended up ordering two 760's last night (one for each machine). At some point I think I will still end up doing SLi with the cards, just for fun. Now I need to try to find the best Heatsink option that will still allow for good airflow for the tower and cooling for the CPU's. I was going to make a post and read around on the other forums but if you guys have any suggestions I would love to hear them! 😀

The i7 is in a Corsair Carbide 300R
The i5 is in a Cooler Master HAF 922

The i7 is using a Zalman CNPS9500 (http://goo.gl/IvNzF)
The i5 is still using the stock heatsink =\

 

[coozie7]

Probably be better off starting a new thread in the Overclocking Forum, you can pick up additional pointers on how to proceed with the OC as well.
Like many going for a moderate overclock I've settled on the Coolermaster Hyper 212: It's inexpensive and quiet as long as the OC is moderate (3.6GHZ in my case) but it's not really adequate for higher aspirations.
Both cases have large cutouts behind the CPU, so installing a upgraded cooler will be fairly easy.