Upgrade from GTX 570?

[[L]imey]

Hey Guys,

with the holiday around the corner, the wife is asking what I'd like for xmas

I'm wondering if there are any substantial advancements over the 570 I've currently got with my setup.

Rest of the PC is: Kingston SSD Boot drive, 2500 (not k), Gigabyte mobo, 8gb DDR 1333, and I have 3tb of storage across a couple of drives.

My main games these days are GW2, LoL, and Diablo 3. I know none of these (except GW2) are super graphics intensives, but I like to have newer faster hardware for the occasional game I jump into. I'm expecting to play metro last light, and get back into heavily modded Skryim soon.

Anyone make a solid recommendation for a video card upgrade? probably looking at about 350 as a limit.

Is it worth buying anything? (in theory I could replace my mobo with an SLI capable one and buy another 570) or just get a single faster card.

Help a brother out.

Thanks.

 

[dremic]

Hey Guys,

with the holiday around the corner, the wife is asking what I'd like for xmas

I'm wondering if there are any substantial advancements over the 570 I've currently got with my setup.

Rest of the PC is: Kingston SSD Boot drive, 2500 (not k), Gigabyte mobo, 8gb DDR 1333, and I have 3tb of storage across a couple of drives.

My main games these days are GW2, LoL, and Diablo 3. I know none of these (except GW2) are super graphics intensives, but I like to have newer faster hardware for the occasional game I jump into. I'm expecting to play metro last light, and get back into heavily modded Skryim soon.

Anyone make a solid recommendation for a video card upgrade? probably looking at about 350 as a limit.

Is it worth buying anything? (in theory I could replace my mobo with an SLI capable one and buy another 570) or just get a single faster card.

Help a brother out.

Thanks.

at 350 i have seen some 7970s floating around

you can also get a 670 for around that price too

7970 is better though. just depends on your preference. both are good investments for next year when prices go down you can pick a second up for sli/xfire

 

[raghu78]

Get a HD 7950 boost. Even with 12.8 whql the HD 7950 was on par with GTX 670 when both cards were overclocked

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

With the latest 12.11 beta drivers HD 7950 boost is faster than GTX 670. In fact heavily modded skyrim is significantly faster on HD 7950 boost.

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2012/test-nvidia-geforce-gtx-660/23/

With the never settle game bundle its an easy choice. get the sapphire hd 7950 boost for 270 bucks after mail in rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006

 

[[L]imey]

Rag,

Is any 7950 I buy now going to be the boost variant?

From what I read it's just a bios update, so anything sold now should in theory have the new bios, right?

 

[raghu78]

Rag,

Is any 7950 I buy now going to be the boost variant?

From what I read it's just a bios update, so anything sold now should in theory have the new bios, right?

no. only a few are the boost version cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161420
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202003

the rest are HD 7950 or HD 7950 OC cards. But if you are manually overclocking it does not make a difference. the boost feature is disabled once you overclock beyond 925 Mhz manually.

 

[[L]imey]

How are you telling that from the specs?

 

[dandragonrage]

Upgrade your SSD if anything. No reason to upgrade from a 570 unless maybe you're gaming @ 2560x1440/1600. IMO you're better off waiting until you have a use for a new video card, because by then most likely you can get a better one (either Kepler v2, assuming that's going to happen before Maxwell, or otherwise Maxwell in 2014).

I don't care what the reviews say... I run Skyrim with the HD texture pack and every option on the highest except for a couple on second highest, 1080p, on a 768MB GTX 460 with absolutely no issue. I've seen review after review claiming you need a 1.5GB+ video card for Skyrim w/ HD texture pack, but their requirements for saying so are apparently unrealistic if it works fine on my machine.

A Kingston SSD, on the other hand? I wouldn't recommend one of those even for a regular casual PC user. I'd go for like a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro.

 

[dremic]

Upgrade your SSD if anything. No reason to upgrade from a 570 unless maybe you're gaming @ 2560x1440/1600. IMO you're better off waiting until you have a use for a new video card, because by then most likely you can get a better one (either Kepler v2, assuming that's going to happen before Maxwell, or otherwise Maxwell in 2014).

I don't care what the reviews say... I run Skyrim with the HD texture pack and every option on the highest except for a couple on second highest, 1080p, on a 768MB GTX 460 with absolutely no issue. I've seen review after review claiming you need a 1.5GB+ video card for Skyrim w/ HD texture pack, but their requirements for saying so are apparently unrealistic if it works fine on my machine.

A Kingston SSD, on the other hand? I wouldn't recommend one of those even for a regular casual PC user. I'd go for like a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro.

why are you using skyrim as a basis to give advice? the OP didnt even say he plays skyrim. not to mention its a terrible game to use as a basis for a GPU suggestion as it is a heavy CPU bound game and generally requires a small amount of GPU power to play the game on good settings and smooth frames.

 

[dandragonrage]

why are you using skyrim as a basis to give advice? the OP didnt even say he plays skyrim. not to mention its a terrible game to use as a basis for a GPU suggestion as it is a heavy CPU bound game and generally requires a small amount of GPU power to play the game on good settings and smooth frames.

He has a GTX 570. He doesn't need an upgrade unless he's using a very high res. Period. I used Skyrim - reread his post now - because "and get back into heavily modded Skryim soon." Point being that Skyrim with its HD texture pack has been called out as needing a LOT of VRAM in multiple reviews I've seen, yet what they say is not my experience, as the HD texture pack works VERY well with my 768MB GTX 460 (which is much worse than his 570).

Kingston SSDs, on the other hand, are unreliable junk, whether they are the HyperX (Sandforce) or regular JMicron versions.

 

[DejaWiz]

Get a HD 7950 boost. Even with 12.8 whql the HD 7950 was on par with GTX 670 when both cards were overclocked

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

With the latest 12.11 beta drivers HD 7950 boost is faster than GTX 670. In fact heavily modded skyrim is significantly faster on HD 7950 boost.

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2012/test-nvidia-geforce-gtx-660/23/

With the never settle game bundle its an easy choice. get the sapphire hd 7950 boost for 270 bucks after mail in rebate.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006

That's some fantastic cherry-picking and spotlighting you have going on there with that computerbase.de site that shows Skyrim as one of only a couple/few in which the 7950 is only slightly faster than the 670.

Be more honest about it: in a majority of games shown in that review, the 670 wins. And to be 100% fair, only by a miniscule amount. Every game tested shows both the 670 and the 7950 as more than capable cards for every game tested... neither is a slouch and they are so close in performance, that not a single one of us here would be able to discern which card was running under the hood while playing a game.

Between the two contenders, it comes down to price, really. And the 7950 kicks ass in this department. Even against the 660ti, the Radeon is still the same price or cheaper. And, like you said, with the Never Settle bundle, the choice is clear.

[L]imey, I vote that you lean towards the 7950, if not a 7970 if you stumble upon one that drops to the $350 mark.

 

[[L]imey]

I guess I must have the exception with my experience on Kingston SSD's. I've had 3 total over the years and they have all been great.

I'm not a power user in the copy to/from sense with drives like that.... they simply hold my OS, programs, and whatever 2 or 3 games I'm playing at the moment. The kingston drives I've had provide the fast access time I'm after, so they do me just fine.

While you're right that I don't NEED an upgraded card now, but I have a baby on the way in April, so this is probably my last shot at a PC upgrade for several years, and with the GPU being the most important part from a gaming perspective, it's time to dive in and get something. A 670 would be nice but I feel like it's slightly above my price range. I didn't know about the 7950, so that's looking really attractive. I have no problem OCing it myself, so I'll keep an eye out for a deal on one of those (or a 7970 as suggested)

Thanks for the feedback guys.

 

[dremic]

I guess I must have the exception with my experience on Kingston SSD's. I've had 3 total over the years and they have all been great.

I'm not a power user in the copy to/from sense with drives like that.... they simply hold my OS, programs, and whatever 2 or 3 games I'm playing at the moment. The kingston drives I've had provide the fast access time I'm after, so they do me just fine.

While you're right that I don't NEED an upgraded card now, but I have a baby on the way in April, so this is probably my last shot at a PC upgrade for several years, and with the GPU being the most important part from a gaming perspective, it's time to dive in and get something. A 670 would be nice but I feel like it's slightly above my price range. I didn't know about the 7950, so that's looking really attractive. I have no problem OCing it myself, so I'll keep an eye out for a deal on one of those (or a 7970 as suggested)

Thanks for the feedback guys.

ditch the baby and buy a 690

 

[[L]imey]

I'm not big on having my wife throw my pc out the office window on the 2nd floor of my house, so I think i'll neglect to mention that as an option

 

[psyside]

LOL@ people still recommending 670 over 7950, facepalm.jpg

 

[dandragonrage]

Man, it's always worth it to buy around the holidays. Black friday is coming up and wait until then for the good deals bro. Good luck you picked the best time to upgrade.]

Perhaps, but he still picked the wrong part to upgrade... And the reasoning is silly.. if you can afford it now, you can put it in a bank account and afford something actually worth it later.

 

[Woe]

buy a 690

I agree.

 

[[L]imey]

Perhaps, but he still picked the wrong part to upgrade... And the reasoning is silly.. if you can afford it now, you can put it in a bank account and afford something actually worth it later.

The reasoning is not silly. If I tell my wife "I'd like a 350 dollar video card, please buy that so I can have it to unwrap on xmas morning" she'll say "Ok!"

If I tell her "give me 350 dollars cash in an envelope so I can buy something with it" she'll tell me to piss off... she'd much rather I have something nice to open with the family, than just cash.

So giving her a solid "this is what I'd like now" is the best approach for me.

And if you think upgrading my 570 is the wrong part, then suggest something. (but don't say SSD, I've already refuted that)

 

[PRogers86]

The reasoning is not silly. If I tell my wife "I'd like a 350 dollar video card, please buy that so I can have it to unwrap on xmas morning" she'll say "Ok!"

If I tell her "give me 350 dollars cash in an envelope so I can buy something with it" she'll tell me to piss off... she'd much rather I have something nice to open with the family, than just cash.

So giving her a solid "this is what I'd like now" is the best approach for me.

And if you think upgrading my 570 is the wrong part, then suggest something. (but don't say SSD, I've already refuted that)

I think a 7950 is the way to go. Also, if you're still using onboard sound, you might want to get a dedicated sound card. It made a huge difference with my headphones going from onboard to a Xonar DG.