Upgrade or keep GTX 470?

[supertoast92]

Man, I'm having way too much fun upgrading my rig

I have a quick and relatively simple, opinionated question. I've currently an EVGA GTX 470 SC. It was absolutely perfect with a single 19" monitor, but when I added a 27" 1080p LED I began to notice the card was being pushed to its limits. Any time I'm running a game, my GPU is pretty much under full load. My idle temps are ~80C, and I hit around 93C when gaming...this thing's essentially a floor heater!

I run BF3 on Auto settings; MXAA lags quite a bit for me. Also, I'm running a Sabertooth Z77 board running LucidLogic's Virtual MVP software, which claims to utilize the iGPU in conjunction with my GTX470 for increased performance (There's a side question -- is anyone else using this software and noticing any difference?).

So, in my never-ending search for upgrades (unfortunately...), I've been eying up this beauty: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130797&Tpk=02G-P4-2687-KR

With this card, I would get cooler temps, and of course, better performance.

The thing is, I can't decide if I should just hold off for the next generation of cards (Does anyone know when we could expect Nvidia's new series?)...

Upgrade, keep, or is there a better card for a better price out there, what do you guys think?

Thanks!

 

[nafoni]

In your situation, the best card for your money will be a GTX 670. They offer almost the same performance as the GTX 680s, and will save you 100$.

 

[renz496]

80c of idle temp is too much even for GTX470. have you check your case air flow? did the heat sink clogged with dust? if both are good then try to replace the thermal paste and re-seat the heat sink properly. with good fan profile maybe you can keep your gpu core around 70c-80c under full load.

Does anyone know when we could expect Nvidia's new series?

maybe around next year and i'm sure it will be still based on kepler architecture.

 

[panwala95]

hey i tried lucid mvp and its a load of s**t.it doesnt increse performance at all!

 

[Temile]

670 or 680 now would be a nice upgrade that will keep you happy for quite awhile. These cards are relatively new and can handle pretty much any games at any single monitor resolution currently available.

 

[supertoast92]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I've started a ticket with EVGA to see what I can do about the temps with my 470. Maybe I can work out a replacement upgrade

As for the 6xx series, I think I'll be heading down that road...so the single fan design (reference card?) seems to have higher temps than the dual fan configuration...does anyone have better experience with one over the other?

And Virtual MVP...yeah I'm going to get rid of that. Lol. iControl screwed over my network traffic and I ended up grtting rid of that also.

 

[evan1715]

take off lucid virtump. if ur satisfied with ur fps/graphics on ur card now, i'd say wait. but if ur pushing 15fps on all high settings and u want like 50fps on all high settings then go ahead. if not u can get 40fps on medium settings or something.

 

[rio747]

Toast, I have a 470 also. I came across the same issue. The high idle temps happen when you plug in a second monitor. Having more than one monitor prevents the card from entering the idle low power state. You will notice if you watch the clocks, with one monitor idle will run clocks down to 50Mhz, plug in a second and it jumps to 405Mhz. For me this was about a 30 degree difference. Like you said, literally 80 degrees on desktop unless the fan was blowing at nearly full. The only recommendation seems to be to buy a cheap card to run the other monitor(s) with.

 

[supertoast92]

I removed VirtuMVP, and I can't really notice a difference in performance. Guess it was a waste of my time to install it in the first place...

@Rio747, yeah I read up on this before, my idle temps were in the 40s when I had a single monitor plugged in. My idle nearly doubled when I connected the second monitor. 80C idle and 93C load are pretty hot for a card I've left at factory settings :\ I'm still waiting to hear back from EVGA a second time; they had me test my system memory and reinstall the driver and such.

If I do upgrade, I think I'll reach for the 680 since it's Nvidia's current flagship card, and it would last me a very long time.

 

[renz496]

Toast, I have a 470 also. I came across the same issue. The high idle temps happen when you plug in a second monitor. Having more than one monitor prevents the card from entering the idle low power state. You will notice if you watch the clocks, with one monitor idle will run clocks down to 50Mhz, plug in a second and it jumps to 405Mhz. For me this was about a 30 degree difference. Like you said, literally 80 degrees on desktop unless the fan was blowing at nearly full. The only recommendation seems to be to buy a cheap card to run the other monitor(s) with.

if i'm not mistaken this thing was quite normal. it also happens to radeons. they say if you want the card go into proper idle clock you need to use two identical monitor with some minor adjustment. however i can't confirm this because i did not owned two identical monitor

 

[stanistheman]

Depends mate. do you have money to burn? sure if you do. honstely just turn it to high settings and youill be fine. or you can be like me a guy who isnt satified with playing game unless its on full ultra max. i had a 5970 playing bf3 without mssa. it hurt my ego. went and bought a 590.
so to sum it up. go the money? sure go get a 670. but probally better spend your money on a hooker or somthin

 

[nafoni]

The 680 is a waste of money, as the 670 provides almost equal performance (and will provide equal performance once overclocked) for 100$ less.

I'd say go for the ASUS or Gigabyte version. My EVGA 670 uses the reference design, and while it is absolutely fine, the non-reference design will give you less heat and noise.

 

[supertoast92]

Thought I would share that I ended up going with the card I found in the 1st post...might have been more expensive, but it'll last me a long time. Runs everything like a dream! Thanks for the thoughts everyone!

 

[supertoast92]

Best answer selected by supertoast92.