Upgrade from GTX 680 to?

What would you do?

  • Total voters
    21
S

SpeedyVV

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Sep 14, 2007
Messages
4,210
Ok, so playing Tomb Raider and reading about Far Cry 3 and Crysis 3 restored my faith in PC Gaming.

Except my single GTX 680 is no longer making me happy with 1440p. And on top of that I would like to go 3x1440p in the summer.

So, what route should I go?

680 SLI, then maybe 680 Tri SLI for 3x1400p?

Or should I sell my 680 and get a Titan, then maybe a Titan SLI?
 
If you're not happy with a single 680 on a single 2560x1440 monitor, then I'd suggest replacing with a Titan and then getting Titan SLI.

I'd suggest just going 680 SLI ==> TRI 680, but you mention wanting to go 3x1440, in which case 3:3 GTX680:1440 probably will not satisfy you if you're already feeling dissatisfied with 1:1 GTX680:1440 (since you're not going to get 300% the performance of one card due to overhead, but you WILL be increasing pixel count to 300% its current amount).
 
Xinmosni said:
If you're not happy with a single 680 on a single 2560x1440 monitor, then I'd suggest replacing with a Titan and then getting Titan SLI.

I'd suggest just going 680 SLI ==> TRI 680, but you mention wanting to go 3x1440, in which case 3:3 GTX680:1440 probably will not satisfy you if you're already feeling dissatisfied with 1:1 GTX680:1440 (since you're not going to get 300% the performance of one card due to overhead, but you WILL be increasing pixel count to 300% its current amount).
Click to expand...

Damn, that is a good point! I am slow today.

I guess the fear of plopping £1800 on SLI is making me think twice about going the Titan route. But trust me, I would like to ;)
 
Haha, same here, as I too am planning on going 3x1440 this year.

But you should be less worried about the costs of 2+ Titans and more worried about keeping up with them once you buy 3x1440. The costs of maintaining "satisfying" framerates at such a big resolution will always be expensive, so if you're not willing to jump in headfirst with the Titans, you probably won't want to when the Titans get old and you have to buy equally expensive replacements. All of this is why I'm putting off the upgrade to 3x1440 and upgrading different things in my system first -_-
 
One thing I did not mention is that my main love for triple monitors is for racing games, and they then to be less demanding.

So a single Titan might just do it for me for a while, if I play non race sims in single monitor mode.

Also, just reading another thread,Titan Lite is real would be cool option.
 
I'm in a similar situation only I run 1080 x 3

A single 680 will run 5760x1080 very well on most games (especially Guild Wars 2 which is what I've been playing since August) and will even run more demanding games like BF3 with some IQ compromises.

I've decided that while going back to 680 SLI would be good, it would also leave me no other upgrade path so I've decided sell my card and go Titan and spend the rest of the year trying to scrape the funds together for a second Titan by the end of Summer.
 
I was just thinking dual 690's... would be faster than twin Titans, although a hell of a lot more power draw and heat with less VRAM.

That being said, I voted for 680->Titan->Titan SLI. Something tells me you would benefit greatly from all that VRAM at those resolutions with the latest games and future releases during it's usable life.
 
SpeedyVV said:
Ok, so playing Tomb Raider and reading about Far Cry 3 and Crysis 3 restored my faith in PC Gaming.

Except my single GTX 680 is no longer making me happy with 1440p. And on top of that I would like to go 3x1440p in the summer.

So, what route should I go?

680 SLI, then maybe 680 Tri SLI for 3x1400p?

Or should I sell my 680 and get a Titan, then maybe a Titan SLI?
Click to expand...

How committed are you to three monitors? Is this a done deal? I picked the 680 > 680 SLI > Tri SLI. I think maybe you should try a second 680 and see how much of a boost that gives you. Personally, I like framerates over resolution (hence my pitbull-like grip on my CRT), and I would probably just have 2 680's on the one 1440p monitor. Try this first. At worst, you could decide later on down the road to get two more monitors and sell the 680s and purchase two Titans.

I've been debating on moving up from my 560 that I just bought like two months ago, lol. Far Cry 3 at 1600x1200 with all eye candy pushed up (sans AA) is unplayable. However, I have decided that it's just not worth it. Besides Far Cry 3, the only games I play don't come near pushing my 560 to the brink with my resolution. I've dropped some settings (shadows to high, DX9) and now Far Cry 3 is usually at 40fps at 1600x1200, dipping into the 30s in the most crazy scenes. Yes, DX11 with everything maxed looks better, but not THAT much better. I notice the differences if I look for them. But usually, when I'm in a firefight and popping some heads, I don't notice it at all. By the time I can afford to make the jump up to the current generation of cards, I'll have beaten the game and will have stopped caring at that point. Is spending that kind of crazy money for two games worth it? Try out a second card on your current setup first, and then go from there. You could always sell your cards and get a pretty good return.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to give you my rationale for my vote. Cheers!
 
FRZ said:
If you are willing to go sli , why not a 690?
Click to expand...

690 SLI I read was nothing but grief. Cant remember where.

EDIT: Based on this article, I would not go 690 Quad SLI. Titan SLI kills it.
 
Last edited:
FRZ said:
If you are willing to go sli , why not a 690?
Click to expand...

1. Heat: These cards exhaust some air from the rear of the card which is not ideal with an FT03 case. Also, while 680SLI was fine in this mATX case, I think anything beyond dual Titans would be pushing it.

2. Quad SLI scaling is not known to be great.

3. Memory - not really an issue currently, but it could be at some point, especially for NV Surround users

I like the GTX690 a lot and I occasionally get the idea that I should try to make some tiny little super powerful mITX box with a 690 - but it passes eventually.

Running dual Titans in a FT03 (Titanium!) case just so obviously needs to be done.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top