A bit of trouble thinking of my GPU

MaxB94 · Nov 27, 2013

Hey guys, just signed up to ask this question because I'm building a computer soon but I'm not sure what graphics card I should go for.

My system without a gpu would be:

Intel Core i5 4670k
MSI Z87-G43 Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB RAM
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200rpm
Corsair CXM600 psu
Phantom 410 case
Asus DVD/RW.

My main game that I want to play will be Battlefield 4, but the cards I've been looking at are:

EVGA Nvidia GTX 760 2GB & 4GB (about £50/60 price difference in the UK between 2GB and 4GB 760's)

EVGA Nvidia GTX 770 2GB which is about £270/300 as I write this.

I'm looking at running the game in High, maybe Ultra.

Also please note I don't wish to get an AMD card, cheers.

Rammy · Nov 27, 2013

It really depends on your budget, obviously a GTX770 is better, but costs more.
There isn't much point in getting a 4GB version of either card, it is unlikely to be a significant performance bottleneck.

The kind of performance you'll get from either card is dependant on your display resolution and which settings you have enabled, but the framerate difference between the two cards is likely to be 10fps or less and both should be perfectly sufficient for 1080P.

MaxB94 · Nov 27, 2013

Rammy :

Well, when looking at Battlefield 4, they recommend a 3GB+ card, any reason for this?

Rammy · Nov 27, 2013

MaxB94 :

Yes and no. BF4 is one of the few games that actually can use much over 2Gb of Vram, so theoretically having more is beneficial.
Problem is, all the benchmarks show that 2Gb cards keep up fine at 1080P, and seem to scale similarly to 3Gb/4Gb cards at higher resolutions too. If you want to play it with the very fancy settings turned on - like resolution scaling, or 2560*1600 with 4xMSAA, then yeah, using a 3Gb+ card is advisable for sure, but those settings cripple most mainstream graphics cards anyway (regardless of their memory buffer). Based on the data I have seen, I don't see a scenario where a GTX760 (or even a GTX770) would benefit from having 4Gb of Vram, by the time it hits a level of detail that is high enough to exploit it, the game will be unplayable.

MaxB94 · Nov 27, 2013

Rammy :

MaxB94 :

Yes and no. BF4 is one of the few games that actually can use much over 2Gb of Vram, so theoretically having more is beneficial.
Problem is, all the benchmarks show that 2Gb cards keep up fine at 1080P, and seem to scale similarly to 3Gb/4Gb cards at higher resolutions too. If you want to play it with the very fancy settings turned on - like resolution scaling, or 2560*1600 with 4xMSAA, then yeah, using a 3Gb+ card is advisable for sure, but those settings cripple most mainstream graphics cards anyway (regardless of their memory buffer). Based on the data I have seen, I don't see a scenario where a GTX760 (or even a GTX770) would benefit from having 4Gb of Vram, by the time it hits a level of detail that is high enough to exploit it, the game will be unplayable.

So I could get a GTX 760 (£206) and be fine?

Rammy · Nov 27, 2013

Yeah, pretty much.
I'm happy for someone to come into this thread and disagree with me, if they can back it up, but everything I've seen suggests it's a total waste of money.

A selection of benchmarks, all a bit different for various reasons, but all support the fact that at lower detail levels, a GX770 is very close to a HD7970, and at very high levels, a GTX770 is very close to a HD7970, meaning that having 1Gb less vram isn't really holding it back.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/battlefield-4-graphics-card-performance,review-32798.html
http://www.bf4blog.com/battlefield-4-retail-gpu-cpu-benchmarks/
http://www.techspot.com/review/734-battlefield-4-benchmarks/
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/battlefield_4_vga_graphics_performance_benchmark,1.html

If you are happy with a GTX760, then there is a lot of choice around the £200 mark.
http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#c=142&sort=a6

MaxB94 · Nov 27, 2013

Rammy :

Just had a look at those benchmarks.

Past ten minutes I've been looking at these:

http://www.dabs.com/products/evga-geforce-gtx-770-1046mhz-2gb-pci-express-3-0-hdmi-8Y0T.html?q=770&src=16

http://www.dabs.com/products/evga-geforce-gtx-760-1085mhz-2gb-pci-express-3-0-hdmi-superclocked-8SY4.html?q=760&src=16

Also would that extra £60 go a bit when it comes to let's say, next battlefield or just generally newer games in the future.

Rammy · Nov 27, 2013

Personally I'd go for an axial fan cooler (EVGA do have one if you want to stick with them) as your case is big and well ventilated, rather than a "blower" style one, but that's me.

It's hard to tell how useful it is going to be in the future, memory demands will certainly increase. Problem is, by the time you are running games at the kind of detail/resolution levels that are going to warrant the extra memory, you are going to run out of GPU power. It's all guesswork of course, but it's kinda akin to buying a 2Gb entry level card today, it's of near to zero benefit as you can't use all of it (which is why there is for example, a 1GB HD7850).
What I would say is that spending an extra £50 on a card that is exactly the same speed is never going to be economical. I know you said you don't want to consider AMD options, but if you really want to get a good return on your investment and want a card with more than 2Gb of memory, then a 3Gb HD7950/7970/280X makes a lot of sense.

MaxB94 · Nov 27, 2013

Rammy :

Personally I'd go for an axial fan cooler (EVGA do have one if you want to stick with them) as your case is big and well ventilated, rather than a "blower" style one, but that's me.

It's hard to tell how useful it is going to be in the future, memory demands will certainly increase. Problem is, by the time you are running games at the kind of detail/resolution levels that are going to warrant the extra memory, you are going to run out of GPU power. It's all guesswork of course, but it's kinda akin to buying a 2Gb entry level card today, it's of near to zero benefit as you can't use all of it (which is why there is for example, a 1GB HD7850).
What I would say is that spending an extra £50 on a card that is exactly the same speed is never going to be economical. I know you said you don't want to consider AMD options, but if you really want to get a good return on your investment and want a card with more than 2Gb of memory, then a 3Gb HD7950/7970/280X makes a lot of sense.

Is this the axial one?

http://www.dabs.com/products/evga-geforce-gtx-770-1111mhz-2gb-pci-e-3-0-hdmi-superclocked-8QLS.html?q=770&src=16

Rammy · Nov 27, 2013

Yeah, they do a version of the 760 with a similar cooler too.
For my money it'd be a toss up between that, the Asus, Gigabye and MSI Lightning versions, all between £265 and £270
There's a decent group test here
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7392/the-geforce-gtx-770-roundup-evga-gigabyte-and-msi-compared
Basically, they are all pretty damn good.

MaxB94 · Nov 27, 2013

Rammy :

Cheers for all your help man, really appreciate it, I'm going to order the EVGA ACX GTX770 for £270 from Dabs, then I get the bundle they're doing with Nvidia cards atm. Once again, cheers for everything, been a huge help.

Search

A bit of trouble thinking of my GPU

MaxB94

Honorable

Rammy

Honorable

MaxB94

Honorable

Rammy

Honorable

MaxB94

Honorable

Rammy

Honorable

MaxB94

Honorable

Rammy

Honorable

MaxB94

Honorable

Rammy

Honorable

MaxB94

Honorable

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page