15 replies to this topic

[King Mustard]

I have a 560 (1 GB) (with an i5-750) and I'm deciding whether it's worth upgrading.

I play the latest games (e.g. Far Cry 3, Crysis 3), at 1680x1050.

I have drawn up a chart below of all the modern video cards, the data coming from Ebuyer and Tom's Hardware.

Text with a strikethrough are no longer available.

[hckngrtfakt]

when you say "latest" .. which games in particular ?

i was playing some of the "not so latest" (guild wars 2, sleeping dogs, hitman)
and my 560ti could barely touch the high settings (had to play at mid res on 1080p for constant 60fps)

upgraded to 7970 and the difference was beyond obvious (plus didnt break the bank compared to a 680/690)

[King Mustard]

hckngrtfakt, on 31 January 2013 - 18:00, said:

when you say "latest" .. which games in particular ?

i was playing some of the "not so latest" (guild wars 2, sleeping dogs, hitman)
and my 560ti could barely touch the high settings (had to play at mid res on 1080p for constant 60fps)

upgraded to 7970 and the difference was beyond obvious (plus didnt break the bank compared to a 680/690)

I'm not sure I can justify £318, since I wouldn't even be getting double the performance of this card.

I'm frustrated at how expensive NVIDIA cards are, because I love their unique technologies (PhysX etc.).

[hckngrtfakt]

King Mustard, on 31 January 2013 - 18:02, said:

I'm not sure I can justify £318, since I wouldn't even be getting double the performance of this card.

I'm frustrated at how expensive NVIDIA cards are, because I love their unique technologies (PhysX etc.).

Yeah, is not double the performance but leaves some headroom for futureproofing with crossfire
and if your system has a good motherboard you can always run both cards AMD+nVidia (leaving the 560 for your PhysX processing)

but remember "Titan" is also coming, may be worth waiting for that one.

[King Mustard]

hckngrtfakt, on 31 January 2013 - 18:06, said:

Yeah, is not double the performance but leaves some headroom for futureproofing with crossfire
and if your system has a good motherboard you can always run both cards AMD+nVidia (leaving the 560 for your PhysX processing)

but remember "Titan" is also coming, may be worth waiting for that one.

There are no new LGA1156 motherboards any more, even second-hand. So I can't ever run SLI/CFX with this set up.

And I won't wait for the new cards, it takes ages before older cards drop in price.

[Blackhearted]

King Mustard, on 31 January 2013 - 18:02, said:

I'm not sure I can justify £318, since I wouldn't even be getting double the performance of this card.

I'm frustrated at how expensive NVIDIA cards are, because I love their unique technologies (PhysX etc.).

Things like physx aren't used in remotely enough games to make it worth having any say in your purchasing choice.

[hckngrtfakt]

Blackhearted, on 31 January 2013 - 18:10, said:

Things like physx aren't used in remotely enough games to make it worth having any say in your purchasing choice.

Unless he plays borderlands or batman (which rely heavily on nVidia cards due to physx)
plus Bioshock is coming as well as grid and crysis and a 560 would fall short of making these games "visually enjoyable"

[King Mustard]

I guess my main realistic (i.e. not very expensive) options to replace my GeForce 560 (1 GB) (May 2011) are:

Quicker: 660 Ti (2 GB) (Aug 2012) (£215) / HD 7870 (2 GB) (Mar 2012) (£170)
Quickerer: HD 7950 (3 GB) (Jan 2012) (£210)

EDIT: I didn't realize 560's seem to go for at least £75 on eBay UK. That helps pay for the new card

[hckngrtfakt]

King Mustard, on 31 January 2013 - 18:17, said:

I guess my main realistic (i.e. not very expensive) options to replace my GeForce 560 (1 GB) (May 2011) are:

Quicker: 660 Ti (2 GB) (Aug 2012) (£215) / HD 7870 (2 GB) (Mar 2012) (£170)
Quickerer: HD 7950 (3 GB) (Jan 2012) (£210)

EDIT: I didn't realize 560's seem to go for at least £75 on eBay UK. That helps pay for the new card

i'd personally go for the Quickerer: HD 7950 (3 GB) (Jan 2012) (£210)
and as you say, sell the 560 to subsidize the purchase

[King Mustard]

hckngrtfakt, on 31 January 2013 - 18:25, said:

i'd personally go for the Quickerer: HD 7950 (3 GB) (Jan 2012) (£210)
and as you say, sell the 560 to subsidize the purchase

As far as I can tell, 7950 it is

[mattmatik]

Just to throw out some info if it will help you: I'm running 660 Ti in SLI and in Crysis 3 I'm barely maintaining 60fps, everything maxed. I play on the same resolution as you. I am not sure what the 7950 can do but I can say that a single 660 Ti will get you about medium, maybe medium high settings. Now, this is a beta game for sure and drivers and such can probably be optimized more (I'm hoping!). In FarCry 3 I have no issues using frame limiter @ 60fps, everything maxed w/ 4xMSAA-4xSGSSAA 16xAF.

Hope this helps a little bit, man. Interested to see what you end up doing so post back and I'd like to see what results in your games you get with whatever card you go with.

[+Tempus]

... I just want to know how everybody seems to already be playing Crysis 3 when it doesn't release for another 18 days...

[threetonesun]

Tempus, on 01 February 2013 - 13:59, said:

... I just want to know how everybody seems to already be playing Crysis 3 when it doesn't release for another 18 days...

Beta.

[King Mustard]

Tempus, on 01 February 2013 - 13:59, said:

... I just want to know how everybody seems to already be playing Crysis 3 when it doesn't release for another 18 days...

The MP beta, don't assume.

[Ulpian]

There will be Radeon 8xxxx/GF7xx in few months...