What Graphics card should i get? GTX Titan or GTX 780?

[tom_taylor97]

I AM CONSIDERING GETTING A NEW GRAPHICS CARD BECAUSE MY 7970 ISN'T ENOUGH POWER FOR ME? I WAS ORIGINALLY GOING TO AIM TO BUY THE GTX TITAN BUT AFTER MORE RESEARCHING THE 780 SEEMS TO BE CLOSE TO THE TITAN FOR PERFORMANCE BUT COSTS £300 LESS. THE £300 DIFFERENCE WOULD MEAN THAT FOR JUST £200 EXTRA IN THE FUTURE I COULD EASILY OUTPERFORM THE TITAN BY GETTING ANOTHER 780 AND USING SLI. SHOULD I GET THE 780 OR THE TITAN? IF YOU THINK THERE IS A DIFFERENT CARD THAT I SHOULD GET THEN PLEASE TELL ME
THANKS TOM

 

[sam_p_lay]

You know GTX780 is only 15% faster than GTX770 at 1080p? I'd recommend the GTX770.

 

[tom_taylor97]

You know GTX780 is only 15% faster than GTX770 at 1080p? I'd recommend the GTX770.

I didn't realise that, would you advise 2x GTX 770 SLI then? i dont think i would be likely to get just the GTX 770 on its own.

 

[sam_p_lay]

My best advice would be a single GTX770 and then add a second if you're not getting enough performance. Keep in mind the GTX770 will run Crysis 3 at ultra settings at 1080p and 2x SMAA so there isn't really any game that make a GTX770 laggy. If you add a second GTX770 when a more demanding game than Crysis 3 is released, the GTX770 will have dropped in price for your 2nd one.

 

[tom_taylor97]

My best advice would be a single GTX770 and then add a second if you're not getting enough performance. Keep in mind the GTX770 will run Crysis 3 at ultra settings at 1080p and 2x SMAA so there isn't really any game that make a GTX770 laggy. If you add a second GTX770 when a more demanding game than Crysis 3 is released, the GTX770 will have dropped in price for your 2nd one.

I was originally going to get a second 7970 but i heard that there are lots of problems with crossfire. What is sli like, is it reliable or does it also cause problems on some games?

 

[sam_p_lay]

Nah SLI gets much better results. Still some games that won't benefit from it, but that's not gonna change for years (it's down to the developers - not nVIDIA).

 

[tom_taylor97]

Nah SLI gets much better results. Still some games that won't benefit from it, but that's not gonna change for years (it's down to the developers - not nVIDIA).

For cooling would you advise reference card cooling design or any particular cooling design from any brand of card?
Will the 770 SLI take up a lot more power consumption than the 780 or titan because i am only 16 and living with grandparents so i don't want to run up a massive electricity bill.

 

[sam_p_lay]

I'd go with an EVGA with ACX cooler or Gigabyte with Windforce cooler. 2x GTX770s in SLI will use more power than one GTX780, but obviously it'll use less than the 2x GTX780s in SLI you were planning 🙂 As for how much it would cost, it'll obviously depend how many hours per week/month/year you spend gaming and on how much your energy is costing.

 

[tom_taylor97]

I'd go with an EVGA with ACX cooler or Gigabyte with Windforce cooler. 2x GTX770s in SLI will use more power than one GTX780, but obviously it'll use less than the 2x GTX780s in SLI you were planning 🙂 As for how much it would cost, it'll obviously depend how many hours per week/month/year you spend gaming and on how much your energy is costing.

ok thanks, i am unsure because of how much more powerful the 770's are in sli but i think i might just go for the single card because of power consumption and reliability. i just need to decide between titan and 780 because i am performance crazy when it comes to pc and i don't think the 770 will be enough for me. Thanks a lot for the help.

 

[sam_p_lay]

No worries. Performance:

GTX Titan > ~7% > GTX780 > ~15% > GTX770

7% would turn 30fps into 32fps. 15% would turn it into 34fps. Hope that helps.

 

[tom_taylor97]

No worries. Performance:

GTX Titan > ~7% > GTX780 > ~15% > GTX770

7% would turn 30fps into 32fps. 15% would turn it into 34fps. Hope that helps.

Thanks so much that really helps me now. You have been one of the most helpful people on here, thanks

 

[sam_p_lay]

You're welcome. Glad I could help 🙂

 

[tom_taylor97]

You're welcome. Glad I could help 🙂

Just one last quick question. I was told that the GTX 690 two GPU's on one card whether it is 2 GTX 670's or GTX 680's i don't know but i know it out performs the gtx titan. Does the GTX 690 act as a single card or is it like sli? it may sound like a stupid question but i am unsure whether you would encounter the problems that sli does or whether it would be perfectly fine all of the time like the titan would.

 

[sam_p_lay]

Good question actually and the answer is yes - you'll get the exact same scaling problems as with two separate cards. Far as the system is concerned, it's dealing with SLI. Performance is actually inbetween dual GTX670s and dual GTX680s (which are already extremely close in performance). Overall, it is faster than the Titan but will fall short in games that don't scale well.

 

[tom_taylor97]

Good question actually and the answer is yes - you'll get the exact same scaling problems as with two separate cards. Far as the system is concerned, it's dealing with SLI. Performance is actually inbetween dual GTX670s and dual GTX680s (which are already extremely close in performance). Overall, it is faster than the Titan but will fall short in games that don't scale well.

Ok thanks, i think i will probably go all out and get the titan then because it will last longer in the future, thank you so much for the help

 

[sam_p_lay]

Pleasure 🙂

 

[abdbgames]

NO!
How could you do this Tom's Hardware!? The 780 > Titan for gaming!
Next issue, crossfire is not as bad as it used to be! Two 7970's will outperform a titan on the latest drivers, where many issues such as micro stuttering have been addressed!
Its disappointing that you guys have been such blatant fanboy's when people have come for legitimate advice, really, this is some of the worst advice I have seen in a long time...
Sorry OP, but if you now have a Titan, don't feel too bad, they are decent cards although you have been mislead, and now have to suffer the consequences of this terrible "assistance".

 

[sam_p_lay]

Pointless necroposting is pointless.

The question was about performance. Show me a GTX780 outperforming a Titan (without resorting to a heavily overclocked GTX780 vs a stock Titan).

Don't call people fanboys when you're resurrecting old threads to argue the case for your beloved Radeons. That just makes it very apparent who the real 'fanboy' is. Also, there's no apostrophe in the word. Learn to write.

 

[inzone]

here is no posting of benchmarks to support claims, necro posting and rude behavior calls for this thread to be closed. Insulting members is against this forums RoC.