Ok guys, need your help again. I'm looking to upgrade my GPU and thought i was dead set on a GTX 970, but in the endless reviews and forums have come across statements that that is overkill when only gaming in 1080p, which I am. So my question to you all is, is it?
Reason I ask, is the budget is most certainly the issue here. I'm currently using a 2gb R7 260x, which has served me well for the most part. I don't obsess over FPS, don't even track it to be honest. The only title to slow down on my to where it's bothersome is a heavily modded Skyrim with ENB's.
So, in trying to find a happy medium between price and performance with what I currently have, do I -
A. trudge ahead with the 970 purchase
B. go with an R9 290 with a 650 PSU
C. look at 3gb R9 280x
D. run with a 3gb 770
E. stick with what i have
I'm to the point that no article makes sense to me anymore. It's so hard to come across an unbiased article anymore and just when I think I am comfortable with a card, i find something to make me second guess myself.
I'm not looking to go above 1080p any time soon, don't run an SLI setup and wont for a good while (next PC maybe), most graphically intensive games I plan to run is Skyrim and Witcher 3, and looking to keep the budget in line. I can spring for a $300 card, but if there is a better option for my needs and setup as just described and can spend less, well then, I'm all for it.
Many thanks in advance.
help me decide on a GPU please
Re: help me decide on a GPU please
Are there 3GB GTX770's? I think it is in 2GB and 4 GB, maybe I am wrong though, the GTX780 is 3GB.
The GTX970 is far more future proof because of its 4GB (3.5gb wall), more and more games are upping the size of textures, true at 1080P, unless you really start to go overboard with MSAA and HBAO you most likely won't notice a difference in performance, but eye candy today takes up a lot of power, if you like having that sort of stuff enabled, the GTX970 will serve you well, if you don't mine dropping some of those upper tier settings, something like the 280X will be fine for todays games, but it is using a chipset that came out in 2012.
It is really up to you, with graphics card, other than the odd exception here and there, you pay for performance. The more you spend, the better you get, you need to decide whats more important to you.
I would not look at the GTX970 as overkill, I would look at it as far more "future proof".
The GTX970 is far more future proof because of its 4GB (3.5gb wall), more and more games are upping the size of textures, true at 1080P, unless you really start to go overboard with MSAA and HBAO you most likely won't notice a difference in performance, but eye candy today takes up a lot of power, if you like having that sort of stuff enabled, the GTX970 will serve you well, if you don't mine dropping some of those upper tier settings, something like the 280X will be fine for todays games, but it is using a chipset that came out in 2012.
It is really up to you, with graphics card, other than the odd exception here and there, you pay for performance. The more you spend, the better you get, you need to decide whats more important to you.
I would not look at the GTX970 as overkill, I would look at it as far more "future proof".
Re: help me decide on a GPU please
Sure it may be overkill now, but eventually in another year or two it'll just be high end and not over kill. Why not go nuts now, then have it last you a lot longer where things will continue to run nice and look good.
I went nuts when I got this laptop, I went with the 980 with 8GB of ram on it instead of the 970 with 6. Mind you I said laptop, but also realize this generation Nvidia figured out how to make the laptop version of a GPU only 15%~ (avg) worse off than the desktop version so it falls in between the desktop 970 and 980...it's a monster. Short of a catastrophic failure I intend to be using this for like 5 years so I made good on it.
I went nuts when I got this laptop, I went with the 980 with 8GB of ram on it instead of the 970 with 6. Mind you I said laptop, but also realize this generation Nvidia figured out how to make the laptop version of a GPU only 15%~ (avg) worse off than the desktop version so it falls in between the desktop 970 and 980...it's a monster. Short of a catastrophic failure I intend to be using this for like 5 years so I made good on it.
Re: help me decide on a GPU please
I posted this before, but it really helped me out - it matches up hardware to price-points so everything's matched-up and the bottlenecks in the different bits of hardware aren't way off-skew.
http://www.logicalincrements.com/
I'm using a EVGA GTX 960 w/ 2GB - price wasn't too bad. I haven't found any games I play that really need that much except SotC on PCSX2, but even the developers can't make it play well with everything cranked... One thing I really like about it is I found a setting called GSR to render @ QuadHD - (3840x2160) and auto-scale down to 1080P. It does incredible things to old games and apps. I figure when I need a bit more power, I'll just buy another (they'll be cheaper), and SLI them.
http://www.logicalincrements.com/
I'm using a EVGA GTX 960 w/ 2GB - price wasn't too bad. I haven't found any games I play that really need that much except SotC on PCSX2, but even the developers can't make it play well with everything cranked... One thing I really like about it is I found a setting called GSR to render @ QuadHD - (3840x2160) and auto-scale down to 1080P. It does incredible things to old games and apps. I figure when I need a bit more power, I'll just buy another (they'll be cheaper), and SLI them.
Re: help me decide on a GPU please
What CPU do you have? If you're not already, you might encounter a bottleneck when you upgrade. As for the GTX 970 being overkill, I don't think it'd be too bad to splurge on it. I think it's better to overspend than to cheap out and deal with inferior performance. You also might need it for the Witcher 3 if this is anything to go by:
No, wait, I mean this.
No, wait, I mean this.
casterofdreams wrote:On PC I want MOAR FPS!!!|