Upgrade GTX 680 to AMD HD 8000 or Dual 680?

Joined
Sep 10, 2005
Messages
764
AMD is releasing the HD8000 line in January. Nvidia is releasing the GTX 780 line in March. Should I upgrade my GTX 680 to the HD8000 in January, or should I go SLI?
 
Do we even know anything about the HD 8000 series yet? How could someone even make that recommendation?
 
I'd just get a 2nd GTX680. More than likely anything you could get from either the 8000 or GTX700 line that would be faster than your GTX680 would be well over $400 and for a little more than that you could get a 2nd GTX680 and have enough horsepower to crush any game at pretty much any resolution and more horsepower than any single card from the next generation.
 
I can get a second Galaxy GTX 680 for ~$375 from Amazon. Add on a Twin Turbo II to make it cool and quiet, and I'm sitting around $425. The new cards will cost about $530 shipped, if the last generation was any indicator.

Seems like I should just go SLI and upgrade the GPU in 2014.
 
I can get a second Galaxy GTX 680 for ~$375 from Amazon. Add on a Twin Turbo II to make it cool and quiet, and I'm sitting around $425. The new cards will cost about $530 shipped, if the last generation was any indicator.

Seems like I should just go SLI and upgrade the GPU in 2014.

Probably wont even need to upgrade then. A pair of GTX680's is a MONSTER amount of muscle and should probably still be plenty capable in '14.
 
AMD is releasing the HD8000 line in January. Nvidia is releasing the GTX 780 line in March. Should I upgrade my GTX 680 to the HD8000 in January, or should I go SLI?

How about waiting until its actually available?
 
How about waiting until its actually available?
Clearly I'd prefer not to wait :p Currently my fps drops to < 30 in Starcraft 2 when playing 4vs4 at 1080p on max settings. That's too much decrease in performance, and I'm not interested in changing the graphics settings just for when I play 4vs4.
 
I am pretty sure those drops are CPU related. Lately I play the 4v4 crapfest instead of the usual 1v1 goodness and have such drops even on low 1080p settings. 2500k @ 4.8 GHz.
 
Clearly I'd prefer not to wait :p Currently my fps drops to < 30 in Starcraft 2 when playing 4vs4 at 1080p on max settings. That's too much decrease in performance, and I'm not interested in changing the graphics settings just for when I play 4vs4.

Well you have to since you can't get a HD8800 yet
 
I am pretty sure those drops are CPU related. Lately I play the 4v4 crapfest instead of the usual 1v1 goodness and have such drops even on low 1080p settings. 2500k @ 4.8 GHz.
Same cpu OC as me - I take it you have a GTX 680? I was considering a cpu upgrade, but I'm not sure what's truly an 'upgrade' from a 4.7GHz i5.
 
The performance drop you're referring to is almost certainly CPU related. Unless you've somehow hacked MSAA or SSAA 16x into SC2, that game is a joke for a 680 at 1080p.

Turn off HT, make sure your CPU is not throttling, etc. You can't upgrade until Haswell.
 
I am pretty sure those drops are CPU related. Lately I play the 4v4 crapfest instead of the usual 1v1 goodness and have such drops even on low 1080p settings. 2500k @ 4.8 GHz.

Same cpu OC as me - I take it you have a GTX 680? I was considering a cpu upgrade, but I'm not sure what's truly an 'upgrade' from a 4.7GHz i5.

Same OC, yet I have 560 Ti. Before I got my 120 Hz monitor (real Quake experience :)) I used to play at 1280x1024, so back then I sorta knew it was a CPU issue. Your experience with 680 only confirms that. Spend that money on something else, dude.

SC2 uses HAVOK which runs on the CPU, but I doubt that has anything to do with the slowdowns. Can't prove it, though.
 
Probably wont even need to upgrade then. A pair of GTX680's is a MONSTER amount of muscle and should probably still be plenty capable in '14.

Far Cry 3 TODAY requires 680 SLI at 2560x1600 and you still cannot max it out ;)
 
The performance drop you're referring to is almost certainly CPU related. Unless you've somehow hacked MSAA or SSAA 16x into SC2, that game is a joke for a 680 at 1080p.

Turn off HT, make sure your CPU is not throttling, etc. You can't upgrade until Haswell.
It looks like Haswell releases in April 2013. I think I'll plan on upgrading cpu and video card around April-May of 2013. Will the new cpu work in the same socket as the i5 2500k, or will it require a new motherboard?
 
What do you have that the GTX680 won't run??? I am a fan of AMD but in your situation I would wait until AMD releases and then see what happens to the price of the GTX680. This is a "tock release" from both companies so the biggest thing will be lower power requirements and a small increase in speed. The AMD 9000 series and the GTX 800 series is where the significant speed advantages are suppose to occur. Also, what resolutions are you running?

About maxing out Farcry 3... IN the campaign I am running it maxed out with a pair of ATI/AMD 5870's. It is made more for stealth than run & gun. I do not play multiplayer so that may be a different story. Crysis 3 IS going to need mega horse power in both the GPU & CPU arena. However, that is not suppose to be released until the last part of Q1 or early Q2. If you are a Crysis player then that is what I would look at before making any final decisions.
 
What do you have that the GTX680 won't run??? I am a fan of AMD but in your situation I would wait until AMD releases and then see what happens to the price of the GTX680. This is a "tock release" from both companies so the biggest thing will be lower power requirements and a small increase in speed. The AMD 9000 series and the GTX 800 series is where the significant speed advantages are suppose to occur. Also, what resolutions are you running?

About maxing out Farcry 3... IN the campaign I am running it maxed out with a pair of ATI/AMD 5870's. It is made more for stealth than run & gun. I do not play multiplayer so that may be a different story. Crysis 3 IS going to need mega horse power in both the GPU & CPU arena. However, that is not suppose to be released until the last part of Q1 or early Q2. If you are a Crysis player then that is what I would look at before making any final decisions.
Just Starcraft 2, but I believe that is CPU bound. I will play Farcry 3 now that I just realized it has been released. lol

I run at only 1080p.
 
I am pretty sure those drops are CPU related. Lately I play the 4v4 crapfest instead of the usual 1v1 goodness and have such drops even on low 1080p settings. 2500k @ 4.8 GHz.

this
 
Far Cry 3 TODAY requires 680 SLI at 2560x1600 and you still cannot max it out ;)
Applying bloated AO hardly makes a game worth "maxing out." Reminds me of Bokeh in Just Cause 2 or Depth of Field in Metro 2033.

OP, sounds like you're CPU-limited. Unfortunately there's no real way to improve that unless you change to better cooling (phase-change?) and go for a higher overclock: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2010/08/18/how-many-cpu-cores-does-starcraft-2-use/2 . Starcraft 2 just isn't that well optimized for larger multiplayer matches.
 
Back
Top