Another 2560 x 1440 gpu question

[zealious]

Hello,

I have a delicious 1440p monitor!

as you can imagine gaming at this resolution is asking alot of a gpu.

I honestly do not play that many video games these days and I find my self using computers to do adult things. never the lesss I still find my self enjoying guild wars 2 and planet side.. maybe a few other games here and there.

my budget is around 300..

i Know you are probly thinking IM asking a lot for such a low budget and high res.. but I find my usal ablility to find a older high end card for cheap probly wont suite this situation...

to make maters more dificult I run os x mountain lion.. mostly . even game in os x ..

its important to me to find a compatible solution..

my mb does support xfire... but the second pcie slot (decievingly just found out) is only 4x... did not realize this as gigabyte lists it as PCIEX16 at 4x ... very misleading.

anyway back to the topic..

I find it difficult to find benchmarks for the cards im considering at this resolution.. any recomendations and valid benchmarks would hlep me out greatly!

options
7950
7970
7870
6870x2
5970x2

gtx 560tix2
gtx 650x2
gtx 660ti
gtx 670

I am leaning toward amd due to price/performance ESPECIALY at high resolution...

note: IM NOT A BIG AA guy... especialy at this resolution I dont even see it necessary. everything is so vibrant and beuatiful i dont even care.. i do like high textures and tessilation.

note: 7xxx series are not native to os x . tho tahiti support has been added to the recent 10.8.3 developer preview of os x HINTING at the new mac pros to sport something like a 7950

im about 60% sure the 7xxx will finaly be supported by os x..

gtx 6xx is highly native to osx.. open cl works

os x does not support sli or xfire but will recognize 1 card. and then i can just game in windows.. however is pcie 4x limiting? i do not know the exact numbers.. maybe if i stick to a midrange card in x fire the 4x speed will not bottle neck?

 

[zealious]

sorry my specs are pretty mid to high end...

its a new build. z77 3570k oc 4.2 16gb ram vertex 4 120gb wd black sata3.0 1tb

psu is a limiting factor.. its a thermal take 650w it does have 2 12v rails.. and the amps are pretty decent.. it was a good buy a while ago... after burning through 4+ antecs in less than 5 years this termaltake has lasted 2 builds and 3years.

i dont think my psu could handle higher end gpus in sli or xfire.. but probly mid end

I would really like to go with 6870x2 but im sure the vram is too limited. so 7950 and gtx 670 are my main choices at the moment. I just cant find any good benchmarks for high res

 

[Sumukh_Bhagat]

The Best there is GTX 670. Its very good for that resolution.

 

[mohit9206]

forget nvidia get the 7970 for your delicious 1440p monitor . it deserves it !!

 

[unksol]

7970 is certainly a better choice than a 670 for that res, but of you can't afford it the 7950 will do.

We need to know the specific model PSU. Example, thermaltake TR2 is absolute garbage and should be replaced immediately. BUT a TR2 BRONZE is actually pretty decent and at 650W should drive any single card. completely different manufactures and quality. Even though they both say thermaltake, and thermaltake is known to be bad in general.

 

[simmons33]

670 or 7970. I sit in the Green Camp but either will do IMO

I do hear AMD is great for 2560X1440 tho

Ahem. Let the GPU wars BEGIN!

 

[zealious]

lol thanks guys.

just found this..

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/08/23/galaxy_gtx_660_ti_gc_oc_vs_670_hd_7950/2

makes the 670 look silly .. but i realize in the long run the 670 will probly be better

7950 beating out the 670 makes that look like a very budget friendly choice

like my money.. even a gtx 680 wont net me 60fps game play sooo why even try.. maybe the less money I can pay to achieve playabale high settings without aa would work...

660ti 7950?

 

[zealious]

I just saw 7870 has 2gb vram 256bit gdr5.. this seems like a good choice for cross fire.. might just get one for now and wait for 8xxx release to bring prices down..

man I dont know why this is such a hard decision. I wish I could just have a magical box filled with gpu's I could try before I buy.

 

[mohit9206]

single 7970 is a better buy than 2 7850's

 

[zealious]

yea man I am looking at 7970 prices.. im shocked its close to the 670.

ref 7970 can be made to ghz ed speeds right?

 

[hytecgowthaman]

Wait for 1month the price will drop in 7xxx series and also 6xx series.reason the 8xxx series is outed so pirce drop is possible.
for high resolution games use amd gpus.after 1month u can buy 7990 at 7950cost.

 

[unksol]

yea man I am looking at 7970 prices.. im shocked its close to the 670.

ref 7970 can be made to ghz ed speeds right?

straight reference? Probably, but not guaranteed. The normal ones generally do as good or better than the "GHz" ones.

This would be my choice.
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202008

One of the cheepest on newegg and It already boosts to 1 GHz, sure you can get more out of it. Sapphire makes great cards, is an AMD partner, and I had no problems getting a free replacement of a rare card under warranty, a year after production ceased.

No fault of theirs, a cat was involved, and I expected to be billed for repairs, but they didn't even ask and had very quick turnaround. I think 2 weeks after I sent mine in. Great service.

EDIT: don't forget the free games! And good ones. Can always sell the codes to a buddy if they aren't your style

 

[blackjackedy]

but the second pcie slot (decievingly just found out) is only 4x

Because you have an intel cpu, the pcie lanes for the gpu are supplied by the on-die controller, while the 4 for the 4x port are extra supplied by the motherboard itself (assuming it's the same as _67 chipsets). Because you have a z77 chipset, the 16 gpu lanes can be split between the 2 pcie x16 ports allowing both to run at x8, which is virtually no slower than x16 for gaming.

If that didn't make sense because I need to sleep, basically crossfire/sli won't be slowed by the x4 slot because it doesn't run at x4 in cf/sli mode, it runs at x8 due to your cpu.

 

[unksol]

Because you have an intel cpu, the pcie lanes for the gpu are supplied by the on-die controller, while the 4 for the 4x port are extra supplied by the motherboard itself (assuming it's the same as _67 chipsets). Because you have a z77 chipset, the 16 gpu lanes can be split between the 2 pcie x16 ports allowing both to run at x8, which is virtually no slower than x16 for gaming.

If that didn't make sense because I need to sleep, basically crossfire/sli won't be slowed by the x4 slot because it doesn't run at x4 in cf/sli mode, it runs at x8 due to your cpu.

Lots of boards don't do that. It depends on the model. If it says only x4 its only x4