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Nvidia 670 GTX - Should I buy it?

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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This is my current system:
Win 7 64 bit. DX11.
Intel Core2Extreme CPU X9650 @ 3.00 GHz (4 CPUs).
4 GB of DDR2 RAM (Gskill)
Motherboard: Nvidia Nforce 780i SLI (pcie 2.00 slots)
Current GPU: ATI Radeon HD5880

Want to buy: Asus GTX670-DC2T-2GD5 (its the OC version of the 670GTX - and it's pcie 3.00 card)

Can I upgrade my card to 670 GTX- or will I be severly bottlenecked? How much of a performance boost will I gain?
Will the pcie 3.00 670GTX even work on the pcie 2.00 slots of my motherboard? will there be a bottleneck and performance drop on the pcie 2.00? I have heard some controversies about this..

I was hoping to upgrade my graphic card in order to enjoy high and smooth FPS and better visuals on new games, without the need to upgrade my entire system yet.

Please help! I'm eating myself over this.
Should I buy this card?????

More about : nvidia 670 gtx buy

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Graphics card Expert

Ilnez said:
As far as I know you need a PCI-E 3.00 slot to run a PCI-E 3.00 card. That might be just my understanding though.

You do not need a 3.0 slot to run a 3.0 card. Backwards compatible


As far as upgrades, you would be able to upgrade to a 670 but your CPU may bottleneck at higher resolutions and high AA.

What PSU do you have?
Graphics card Master

The current cards don't even fully utilize the 2.0 lanes, let alone the new 3.0. So, there's no problem regarding that.
The CPU will be a bottleneck, unless your overclock it.
Performance increase will be significant from a HD 5850/70(?).
What;s your monitor's native resolution?
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You will see a lot of performance gain, but like others have said, the cpu may bottleneck in some games such as bf3. However, I do not think it will bottleneck will be very significant. I believe the 670 would be a good option for an upgrade, or you may want to drop down a level to perhaps a 570, 7850, or 7870 to save a few bucks and get similar performance. If you are gaming on 1080p, then any of these options will suffice.

Hey guys, thanks so much for the support.
I play my games on 1920 X 1200 (the default res for my 24 inche Dell screen).
Will that be an issue?
My PSU: Thermaltake 750w atx 12v & eps 12v.
Current GC: ATI HD5870.

I don't know nothing about OC'in a CPU, don't want to fry it too, I only use the bios N/2 mode to make mine a 3.17...
I know my Core2extremeX9650 was a beast, and probably would still be if games would utilize it more. But that doesn't matter.

Btw, I also had an option to choose between EVGA 670GTX SC and the Asus 670GTX DCIIT (that "top") version.
I think of choosing Asus, only because that EVGA SC had a known recall issue with the same part number. And I'm from Israel, so returning is not an option. Both cards are on the same price!

Should I take Asus 670 GTX top?

Graphics card Master

Well, for the same price, go for the TOP edition.
The CPU won't be much of a bottleneck, but it will be at high resolutions.
Nonetheless, go for it. :) 

Lol yeah, it probably would.
Actually I thought that waiting for a new generation of CPU and hardware would be better.
Core i7 has been around.
What do you think about that?

Bottleneck at high resolutions? 1920 X 1200 is high? don't know if I ever enlarge my screen or resolution but I might.

Ransome said:
Lol yeah, it probably would.
Actually I thought that waiting for a new generation of CPU and hardware would be better.
Core i7 has been around.
What do you think about that?

Bottleneck at high resolutions? 1920 X 1200 is high? don't know if I ever enlarge my screen or resolution but I might.


The resolution actually wouldn't be a huge factor in terms of CPU bottleneck. CPU bottleneck will occur in games that have large online gameplay or things running in the background (not on screen): BF3, WOW, starcraft.

The gpu is more likely to cause a bottleneck with higher resolutions, more specifically the gpu's vram. Any of the gpus I suggested would work perfectly fine at your resolution.

If you are interested in upgrading your cpu, I would suggest an I5-2500k. One of the top cpus for gaming available without being overkill

Even with CPU bottleneck, you will see the most gain in fps from your graphics card to a certain extent especially in games where it is more gpu intensive. To use it more to its full potential, you will unfortunately have to upgrade your cpu, especially in CPU intensive games. But the GTX 670 is a killer card and has great performance for the money. Buy it now, upgrade the CPU later.

Wouldn't I need to upgrade my Mobo as well? (to get one of the Core i5/7 models?)
I heard the sockets have changed.
Again my mobo is EVGA Nforce 780i SLI. If I recall correctly.

Also I wanted to show you this: a friend shown me this topic today, this is exactly about my CPU!
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2404

Now I know nothing about OC a CPU, but on the 3rd page it clearly written that the QX9650 (3.00Ghz) can be safely clocked to 3.6 and even 4.0 with only 1.28 V.
This sounds great.
Do you think I should go for it? OC my CPU, buy the ASUS 670GTX DC2T card, and expect a decent performance?
Can anyone give me a quick guide how to safely OC my CPU from 3.00 to about 3.6 or 3.9 without destroying it?

Ransome said:
Wouldn't I need to upgrade my Mobo as well? (to get one of the Core i5/7 models?)
I heard the sockets have changed.
Again my mobo is EVGA Nforce 780i SLI. If I recall correctly.

Also I wanted to show you this: a friend shown me this topic today, this is exactly about my CPU!
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2404

Now I know nothing about OC a CPU, but on the 3rd page it clearly written that the QX9650 (3.00Ghz) can be safely clocked to 3.6 and even 4.0 with only 1.28 V.
This sounds great.
Do you think I should go for it? OC my CPU, buy the ASUS 670GTX DC2T card, and expect a decent performance?
Can anyone give me a quick guide how to safely OC my CPU from 3.00 to about 3.6 or 3.9 without destroying it?


The socket you would need is 1155, so yes you would have to upgrade.

I would go for the 670. I personally own the evga 670 ftw and enjoy it a lot. The only reason i didn't get the asus is because i wasn't sure if it would fit in my case, and there more reviews of defects on newegg than there were with the evga version.

As far is OCing goes. I would up it by .2 ghz at a time and run prime 95 for a few hours to make sure it is stable. Don't go beyond what people recommend as a max even if you think it may handle it
Graphics card Expert

Your current CPU won't hold the 670 back very much, if at all. Even at stock speeds, you CPU is roughly equivalent to an I5-750 or 975BE, and is just as overclockable.

Enjoy!
Graphics card Master

bigcyco1 said:
overkill is awesome! :lol: 

That's kind of the goal of a new GPU purchase. Get the best you can afford and worry about potential bottlenecks later. If you find out you don't have a bottleneck, then victory is yours! If you do have a bottleneck, then there are things you can do with settings and overclocks, short of investing in new parts.

Wow thanks!
You guys just gave this good gamer some peace of mind!
I will go for it. Just waiting for the shop to get it in stock, should be a few days.

And it's great to hear my CPU can keep up, I think I will look into OC it a bit, say to 3.6, its not bad at all. But right now I have no clue how to do that, and with what program.
Any advice?

Ransome said:
Wow thanks!
You guys just gave this good gamer some peace of mind!
I will go for it. Just waiting for the shop to get it in stock, should be a few days.

And it's great to hear my CPU can keep up, I think I will look into OC it a bit, say to 3.6, its not bad at all. But right now I have no clue how to do that, and with what program.
Any advice?


You just have to increase the frequency multiplier within the bios. Shouldn't have to use a third party program.

redeemer said:
Grab a 7950 instead its better an cheaper than the 670, sure clueless posters will flame me but those in the know, know what I am talking about.


I know that the radeon line has gotten significantly more powerful after the recent driver updates, but have not seen any benchmarks for the 7950 with the new drivers. Can you post a link? Don't want to start a flame war either....
Graphics card Master

matto17secs said:
That's kind of the goal of a new GPU purchase. Get the best you can afford and worry about potential bottlenecks later. If you find out you don't have a bottleneck, then victory is yours! If you do have a bottleneck, then there are things you can do with settings and overclocks, short of investing in new parts.
Very true
Graphics card Expert

http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/powercolor_pcs_hd_...
http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/nvidia_gtx670_revi...

compare them



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the 600 series is good but when you start to overclock the 7000 series it pulls away regardless. The 7000 series scales better in overclocking. Most of the time a stock 7950 or a stock 7970 is benched against Kepler and its autoboost in a lot of reviews. My 7970's are @ 1300 core stable all day. I like my 680's a lot since they provide awesome 3D gaming.

roadkill922 said:
You just have to increase the frequency multiplier within the bios. Shouldn't have to use a third party program.


Yes but I need to adjust other things as welll right? like voltage? how do I know how much is needed?
I would like to go from 3.00 to 3.8 Ghz.

--
Oh and now 7950 is a factor eh? I love ATI but I thought Nvidia got a lead over them.
Graphics card Master

Ransome said:
Yes but I need to adjust other things as welll right? like voltage? how do I know how much is needed?
I would like to go from 3.00 to 3.8 Ghz.

--
Oh and now 7950 is a factor eh? I love ATI but I thought Nvidia got a lead over them.

I wouldn't get too carried away with the 7950. Even a factory overclocked one using the latest 12.7 drivers is still well behind a stock GTX 670 and even further behind a top-end factory overclocked Asus GTX 670 DirectCU II TOP. In addition to performance, you would lose out on lower power consumption and the Nvidia ecosystem: PhysX, Adaptive VSync, FXAA, better game compatibility, etc.


http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_7950_Fle...
Graphics card Master

matto17secs said:
I wouldn't get too carried away with the 7950. Even a factory overclocked one using the latest 12.7 drivers is still well behind a stock GTX 670 and even further behind a top-end factory overclocked Asus GTX 670 DirectCU II TOP. In addition to performance, you would lose out on lower power consumption and the Nvidia ecosystem: PhysX, Adaptive VSync, FXAA, better game compatibility, etc.

http://tpucdn.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_7950_Flex/images/perfrel_1920.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Sapphire/HD_7950_Fle...
+1 the GTX 670 murders the R7950 no doubt about that :D 
Graphics card Expert

bigcyco1 said:
I am not going to get into a flame war a GTX 670 is better than a R7950 period



you realize that a 1200 OC on a 7950 destroys anything a 670 can dish out? Head on over to overclock.net it will make you a believer Period.
Graphics card Master

redeemer said:
you realize that a 1200 OC on a 7950 destroys anything a 670 can dish out? Head on over to overclock.net it will make you a believer Period.
:lol:  i am going to check it out last i checked a GTX 670 is better than a R7950 but i have not kept up to date on it
Graphics card Expert

bigcyco1 said:
:lol:  i am going to check it out last i checked a GTX 670 is better than a R7950 but i have not kept up to date on it



I know we have been back on forth on this and I do agree that some games favor either one or the other. GTX 670 is a heck of a card, but best bang for the $ goes to the 7950 right now. The 7970 beats the gtx 680 most of the time yet the 680 price remains higher its the same thing here. No fanboy here i like 3D gaming so I have chosen my setup accordingly
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