Sold my GTX 560 TI looking for upgrade.....

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ritdawg13

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Oct 6, 2012
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So I had SLI GTX 560 TI thatI sold off and now looking for an upgrade I have a budget of around 600 so looking for the best card for my dollar. I was hoping to just get a single card for the time being, I'm done trying to deal with SLI cards and the amount of room and heat they put out. If anyone has suggestion, would be great!
I'm running: i7 2600k
8 GB 2133 RAM
1200 W Power Supply
Asus Extreme IV board
I do play games ie borderlands, old republic, diablo, wow, but at same time I do photoshop and video editing. Sometimes I run up to 3 different monitors 27 inch 1080.
 
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dscudella


Alright, I did a little searching and found a thread, here on Tom's pretty much asking the same question about Vram and multiple monitors HERE. To sum up the post (topic is 3 months old, Nvidia could have gotten better, IDK), the 7970 Ghz Edi 3gb is better for multiple monitors (EyeFinity) than the GTX 680's (Surround). Take into consideration that at that time there wasn't a 4gb 680 but the premise was still the same, Eyefinity over Surround unless you're running 3D setups, then Nvidia is better...
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ritdawg13

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I've done the research and think i'll pass on the 7970, and stick to the 680. Think i'll go with the Asus GTX 680 TOP. from what I can tell, one of the best speeds, good cooling, quiet and price isnt to bad.
 
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dscudella

dscudella

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It really depends on what you're playing. The GTX 680 is much better in Batman, Portal 2, VF3, Skyrim & Starcraft 2 (those games just plain run better on Nvidia) but a 7970 Ghz Edi beats it in every other benchmark. However the GTX 680 uses much less power, is quieter and on average runs cooler but the 7970 Ghz Edi is cheaper and OC's much better.

VisionTek 7970 Ghz Edi $360 shipped, the brand is meh, but a Ghz Edi for well under $400

Benchmark here

perfrel.gif


This was the only bench I could find of a 4gb 680

If you're absolutely set on Nvidia then by all means, the GTX 680 is most performance for under $1000. But you can see the 7970 Ghz Edi is on average 2% slower than the GTX 680 which costs >$100 more.
 
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dscudella

dscudella

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I also implore you to read this article, straight from Tom's HERE. You might be surprised that the GTX 680, while a good card is not worth it's price tag when it's on par with the 7970 Ghz Edi that costs $100 less.

Yet another review, this one from [/url=http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/AMD-Radeon-HD-7970-GHz-Edition-Video-Card-Review/1588/1]Hardware Secrets[/url] giving the nod to the 7970 Ghz Edi.
 
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2 gb rams of 680 may be a problem to run 3 monitors. And the 4gb version, it was not officially release by nvidia itself. Just tweaks from the card manufacturers.
 
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ritdawg13

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I use the 3 monitors from time to time, primarily for my photoshop work, as far as gaming goes, its nice to have but sometimes 3 27inch monitors get way to big, so for most games i stick to one monitor. So many choices to go with!
 
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ritdawg13

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From what I heard and understood that VRAM was something that was not necessary to consider. That speed was more important than Vram? I wasn't sure in my case if the Vram would trump the higher clock speed of the Asus TOP card
 
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dscudella

dscudella

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You need the Vram to display the picture across multiple screens but you need bandwidth to be able to access the Vram faster.

You can fix bandwidth by overclocking, you can't add more Vram without buying a new card.
 
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dscudella

dscudella

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Here's the list of GTX 680 4gb cards from Newegg

EVGA GTX 680 w/ Backplate 4GB $538 shipped $518 after MIR is the cheapest

Galaxy GTX 680 GC 4GB $573 shipped $563 after MIR has the highest factory overclock if that interests you

MSI Twin Frozr GTX 680 4gb $608 shipped $588 after MIR is the most expensive BUT has the best cooler and will run the coolest allowing more headroom for overclocking BUT MSI was caught factory overvolting their cards. Do research on this first if you decide to buy.
 
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ritdawg13

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Is the one that I have listed from Microcenter any good? its the Zotac card 4 GB for 539.99. I've always had Nvidia cards for as long as I can remember, is it worth it to go to the 7970 Card and lose out on the 1 GB of VRAM or would the final verdict be to stick to the 4GB 680?
 
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dscudella

dscudella

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Alright, I did a little searching and found a thread, here on Tom's pretty much asking the same question about Vram and multiple monitors HERE. To sum up the post (topic is 3 months old, Nvidia could have gotten better, IDK), the 7970 Ghz Edi 3gb is better for multiple monitors (EyeFinity) than the GTX 680's (Surround). Take into consideration that at that time there wasn't a 4gb 680 but the premise was still the same, Eyefinity over Surround unless you're running 3D setups, then Nvidia is better.

If you had $1000 I'd tell you to get yourself a shiny new GTX 690 and it would be the end of the conversation. Another option, albeit an extreme option would be to Cross Fire 2 Radeon 7970 Ghz Edi 3gb cards.

The thing you have to look at too is that there are some games that already use 2gb of VRAM on a single monitor (Skyrim & BF3) where as 1gb was the norm. Sapphire is the leading manufacturer in AMD video cards, the Vapor-X is the best cooler without going aftermarket and you're getting 6gb of GDDR5.

You kind of have to ask yourself "How much do I want to spend?"

7970 Ghz Edi 3gb $360
GTX 680 4gb $530
Vapor-X 7970 Ghz Edi 6gb $600
Dual 7970 Ghz Edi (Cross Fire) $720
GTX 690 $1000
 
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Solution
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ritdawg13

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I've decided to go with the MSI GTX 680 Lightning, while the 3 monitors are nice, figured for gaming 3 27 inch is a little bit of overkill and it seems like I can overclock the lightning the best, so for long term think thats the card i'm gonna stick with.
 
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Rockdpm

Rockdpm

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Hope you like running outta vram.. oh wait are you just gonna use 1 monitor? if so then 680 lightning would be fine
 
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Rockdpm

Rockdpm

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Oh so 2gb of from isn't enough for you with a core clock of 1200mhz.... yea try the classified it reached 2100mhz on the core
 
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dscudella

dscudella

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Do you have a link to that? It would be a most interesting read. I'm reading Anandtech's review of the 680 Classified 4gb and they hit 1287mhz on the core & 6.5ghz on the memory by over volting.

Hard OCP took a reference 7970 and got 1260mhz core & 6.9ghz on the memory by overvolting.
 
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ritdawg13

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Yeah doing some more research I figured for the cost and future proofing everything, (and i'm driving myself up a wall about this), going to get the 4gb of the 680 card, and go with the classified. Of course if someone can convince me 7970 better way to go for surround set up and graphic work. Primary games that i'll play are MoH, Battlefield 3, and SWTOR.
 
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dscudella

dscudella

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How many benchmarks do you want me to post showing that a $390 7970 is equivalent to a $560 680?

It's your wallet, congrats on your decision. Remember, the new Radeon line is set to come out in February.
 
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