Two Questions

E

Eradan

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Apr 7, 2006
Messages
1,188
Just want to start off by saying I regret selling my GTX 670 last week. But I was helping a gamer in need and just assumed it would be relatively easy to upgrade. And I guess it would be if I had unlimited funds. But I do have two questions that I would like to hear what the [H] community thinks about...

1. The 970 memory "issue"...I don't think this question can be answered definitively but how far down the road (if ever) does it's memory configuration become an issue? I have read that there are already circumstances in which it can cause performance hiccups. One of those scenarios is with Shadow of Mordor super-duper textures. Not relevant for me. I think another was with a recent Total War title. We've got Witcher 3 and GTA 5 coming (and there was another thread specifically about GTA 5 and 4GB VRAM). But if I buy a 970, am I going to regret it at 1440p in 2016? Thoughts?

2. Let's say I just want to ride out 1080p for another year or so to give AMD and Nvidia time to release all the new stuff that's coming in a few months. I'm also interested in some of the new 1440p IPS displays that are just coming to market or about to. I can wait though. My question is this: what is the least expensive video card that will get me near 60fps at 1080 with high or ultra settings. My gaming tastes run from Wasteland 2 to Valkyria Chronicles to some FPS. I still have Crysis 2 in my backlog. The overall idea is to spend as little as possible today and keep my existing 1080p display until the dust settles in both the video card and display markets. I could buy a 970 today which would be great at 1080p and get me into 1440p, but see question 1.

Thanks for reading. :)
 
Just buy the 970 today for 1080 and when u finally go 1440 screen buy whatever then.

If that 1440 screen is just 60hz then grab a 980 now and be set then.
 
Trying to spend the absolute minimum now for 1080p rather than dumping $350ish into a 970 that I will want to replace in 2016.
 
Then buy your 670 back from your friend and call it a day :)

Or sell your pc and buy a ps4 and wait till 2016 To build a new pc.
 
If you want a GPU today at the 970 price point then it's still your best bet. You could get a 290x but even with the extra 512 ram it still puts up lower fps in most cases.

I would say hold onto the 670 and 1080 and wait for next gen cards to drop but it's too late now lol. Seems silly to buy a cheap downgrade card to get you by until next gens come. If you're ok with used you can get r9 290s with hair drier reference coolers pretty cheap.
 
eclypse said:
Then buy your 670 back from your friend and call it a day :)

Or sell your pc and buy a ps4 and wait till 2016 To build a new pc.
Click to expand...
I'm with this guy ;). Either that or at least pick up a used 670 or 680. If you want something new, the GTX 960 looks decent for 1080p at around $200 US. If the 970 segmented memory concerns you then you can't go wrong with an AMD R9 290X for 1440p. I run a pair of 970s, and Titanfall and Watch_Dogs are the only two games I've played that have stuttering from the VRAM issue at 1440p.

If you can wait, then I would do just that. AMD's new products are supposedly coming this summer, and given the ~18 month release cycle from NVIDIA we could see Pascal as early as Q1 2016. The 980 Ti should also be dropping soon, if your budget can go upward of $700 US.
 
eclypse said:
Then buy your 670 back from your friend and call it a day :)

Or sell your pc and buy a ps4 and wait till 2016 To build a new pc.
Click to expand...

I already own a PS4. Maybe I'll just stick with that because getting my 670 back ain't happening. :p
 
I looked at a bunch of 280x cards last night and am trying to find a 290 near $200.
 
Or you can get a used 780 for around $200, but a new r9-290 for $250 is good also ^^
 
What'd you sell the 670 for (did you sell it or give it away?)? Do you have a job? What's the real budget here?

These...these are the questions...

780 would be a great card to get if you can find one super cheap. Check craigslist even.
 
I sold it to family who was using as an upgrade to his GTX 560 in a six-year old PC. I actually have his 560 on my desk and could install it in my system as a hold-over. He's very happily moved onto to BF4 with his upgrade and I'm glad for him. I take full responsibility for not fully assessing the current video card market before going through with the sale.

Budget is as little as possible right now. Would like to be around $200. Whatever I end up with I plan to hang onto until I can afford a nice 1440p IPS display. If that's 2016 so be it. Having said that I wouldn't rule out a 970 but if I go that route, I'd want to hang onto it for a few more years and I wonder if it's going to be viable that far out. I do like the idea of going AMD this go around but I don't want to wait until June or whenever for their next batch of cards to drop.

I've been checking CL daily. Not much to choose from unless you want a GTX 260. I've also been trying to keep up with the FS/FT forum here but usually the good deal are gone very quickly.
 
Don't bother with the 960 if you possably want to try to keep it a few years. It takes 960 SLI just to reach the speed of a 970.

A 7970 is basicly a renamed 280x.

290 is nice but heat and noise may bother you.. 70+c on load and jet fans.. Yeah. You'll thank yourself everytime you use your system if ya bought a 970. Low power and cool and quiet.

Still say find a used 970.. Evga warranties through serial number so it would be your best bet used. The market has gota be flooded with them with everyone upgrading to 980s or Titans.

Sell some stuff is what we all do.. don't keep your card that long and upgrade when the newest comes out for max return on the resale and put it towards your new card.. wait a couple of years and it gets ruff to keep up slapping 3-500 on a new card.
 
http://gpushack.com

and it's legit

http://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrac...ware_pcmr_i_made_a_website_that_sells_deeply/

Also amazon has a 670 for $175, and 680s around that price also. Although in my opinion your best bet will be ebay. As a buyer you cannot go wrong with buying a evga card off ebay. I bought a broke evga 780 for $150 last year when they still sold for $400+ used and RMA'd it. Good luck

Here's the 670 I mentioned
http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Dual-Lin...e=UTF8&qid=1428006779&sr=1-1&keywords=Gtx+670
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Slap in the 560 and use it as a hold over. If you are ok with lower settings it should still play all titles @ 1080.
 
i think the r9 290 is a decent idea performance wise and so far at least there doing a bit better on the dx12 side of things....just avoid the stock cooler and it be ok noise wise
 
Two posts in this thread mention cooler noise on the AMD cards...one saying they're loud and another not. And that's not uncommon when reading discussion about these cards--seems to go both ways. I kinda want to find out for myself. Guess I'm going to continue to consider the 290 cards. Got a lead on one here in the FS/FT...Asus 290 for $235 shipped. Or I can get a new Sapphire Tri-X 290 for $270 after rebate. I should probably counter offer on the Asus but unfortunately most people delete their asking prices here when they sell something so it's hard to get a sense of a fair offer.
 
Ok well I've owned a xfx 290 so try thst one and bump this thread when u try it out and let me know what u think...

EDIT: Actually after checking my photos it was a MSI Gaming 290 Twin Foster card. A 290 card and it was hitting 79C!!! Yeah.. that card went back fast. Confused as I've gone threw a bunch of cards the past 2 months. XFX 280X, MSI 290, Asus 970 Strix, Gigabyte 970 and then finally Gigabyte 980 then another. Just kept working my way up the ladder! Haha.. I was waiting on Micro center to ban me from there store. I even exchanged 2 other 24" monitors before finally ending up with the 27".

That Gigabyte 970 G1 gaming card was the coolest and quietest of the bunch.
 
Last edited:
At this point, I'm going to install the 560 and try to stay busy with my PC games backlog and consoles. I've got some older PC games (like Dead Space, Bioshock 1) that should run fine on this 2GB GTX 560. When all the new stuff hits from red and green, I should have my disposable income fun-stuff credit card at zero balance and I might, for the very first time, go nuts and buy an expensive video card (390x, 980ti, whatever). I also need a 1440p display and there's some good stuff just coming to market from Asus and Acer.
 
Too me that's the only option that makes sense for what you want to do. There is literally no game it wont play. Sure it's a downgrade but it seems silly to spend the money you made on a side grade only to still have to shell out $400 for a decent card a year from now.

I own 3 reference 290s btw. Mine are on water and the woman's is the stock reference. It's hot and loud, but it's made to be that way and works fine. A reference 290 should be well under $200. I paid $180ish for it used 6+ months ago.
 
Most single cards are not going to give a 60FPS experience at 1440p, period. Your most cost effective move at this point is a 290 or 290X in the $200-300 range. They can run a number of the current games at a reasonable level of eye candy at 1440p, but we'll see what the next generation of games ends up doing to them....

Eradan said:
Two posts in this thread mention cooler noise on the AMD cards...one saying they're loud and another not. And that's not uncommon when reading discussion about these cards--seems to go both ways. I kinda want to find out for myself. Guess I'm going to continue to consider the 290 cards. Got a lead on one here in the FS/FT...Asus 290 for $235 shipped. Or I can get a new Sapphire Tri-X 290 for $270 after rebate. I should probably counter offer on the Asus but unfortunately most people delete their asking prices here when they sell something so it's hard to get a sense of a fair offer.
Click to expand...

The non-reference cooled cards aren't all that bad with regards to noise. Sure, heat can get up there, but they will work within spec. Though, I also don't find the reference noise to be all that bad (and I've got a pair of reference 290X's in my daily driver).
 
Eradan said:
Two posts in this thread mention cooler noise on the AMD cards...one saying they're loud and another not. And that's not uncommon when reading discussion about these cards--seems to go both ways. I kinda want to find out for myself. Guess I'm going to continue to consider the 290 cards. Got a lead on one here in the FS/FT...Asus 290 for $235 shipped. Or I can get a new Sapphire Tri-X 290 for $270 after rebate. I should probably counter offer on the Asus but unfortunately most people delete their asking prices here when they sell something so it's hard to get a sense of a fair offer.
Click to expand...

Reference R9 290s and 290Xs were loud. The cooler left a fair bit to be desired. The after-market coolers were another story. I have a Gigabyte R9 290 Windforce 3x and it is pretty quiet. I have seen temps while gaming for an extended period of time hit 74C and the fans are audible, but certainly not loud. Of course this is entirely subjective.

I would recommend that you go for a custom-cooled design if you do settle on a 290/290X.
 
Eradan said:
Two posts in this thread mention cooler noise on the AMD cards...one saying they're loud and another not. And that's not uncommon when reading discussion about these cards--seems to go both ways. I kinda want to find out for myself. Guess I'm going to continue to consider the 290 cards. Got a lead on one here in the FS/FT...Asus 290 for $235 shipped. Or I can get a new Sapphire Tri-X 290 for $270 after rebate. I should probably counter offer on the Asus but unfortunately most people delete their asking prices here when they sell something so it's hard to get a sense of a fair offer.
Click to expand...

The lowest I've seen a used R9 290 and 290x here were $170 and $230 USD respectively. They were probably reference cards though.
 
I played Dead Space Friday evening on the 560 I've got in there right now and it was fine with everything maxed in game and v-sync and triple buffering enabled in driver so I wasn't locked at 30fps. Bloodborne has made it easy to deal with the lesser video card as well.

I have been keeping an eye on Craigslist but haven't found much. One guy had a 6GB 7970 that he wanted to trade for a 290x or 970. I can't imagine anyone with those cards wanting to trade for 7970. I emailed the guy and asked he if wanted to sell it outright. He said yes, for $350. LOL. Good luck with that, buddy. I also found a 290x MSI Lightning for $300. It's in a neighboring state but I'm driving there for work later this week. Tempting. I've been all over the map on this decision. Yesterday I was tempted to buy an Asus or MSI Gaming 970 at Micro Center. I'm a mess. :)
 
If you're sticking with your current PSU, I would recommend a 970 so you could SLI later, CF290(x) is iffy at best on 750w, especially with an overclocked processor.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top