worth going from 680gtx to 970 or 980?

X

XBarbarian

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 29, 2006
Messages
1,370
Hi,

considering upgrading my GPU currently running a MSI 680 GTX. displays are 1440p main Dell, and a 1080p side display

games generally are WOW, HotS, some Rift

not really lumbering, maybe a tad now, still running the 2600k OC to 4.2 in specs.. just thinking 3 generations may be time? ( upgrade itis? )

thoughts? significant enough yet to spend the money? or wait for the next gen?

thank you
 
XBarbarian said:
games generally are WOW, HotS, some Rift
Click to expand...

WoW in particular hits the CPU hard. It isn't particularly well multi-threaded, but it benefits from a processor with as much per-core performance as possible for the threads that it does have. WoW can hit the GPUs hard if you are flying up in the air and looking out into the distance or something, but where it matters (raids, battlegrounds, etc) it's ALL about the CPU. My 2500k @ 5Ghz will be pegged while my 2x GTX680's in SLI sit at ~20% utilization each. If that is your main game, i'd go for a new CPU first. It's the reason I'm going to Skylake before upgrading my GPUs.

XBarbarian said:
just thinking 3 generations may be time?
Click to expand...

Don't succumb to marketing BS. The 600 series became the 700 series, to where the 680 is basically the equivalent of the 770, and there was no 800 series... 680 is not "3 generations old" though i'm sure nvidia crys tears of joy every time their obnoxious branding schemes fool people into thinking so :(
 
GTX 980 its a massive upgrade to your GTX 680 and it will be a major difference in RIFT. however the big issue with that game it's gona be always the poor CPU performance. and at 4.2ghz still your CPU will be bottlenecking that game. (specially in high vegetation areas) my brother it's kinda attached to that game so bad that he have a exclusive gaming machine for that game which also play at 2560x1440 with a GTX 770 (rebranded 680) he used a i7 [email protected] HT OFF but ended changing it to a i5 [email protected] with one core disabled. so he is able to avoid as much Single threaded CPU bottleneck as possible, also updated his GPU to one of my old 980 so now its able to run maxed out with high AA (supler sampling) and full physics for cloak which was a major performance hit.

speaking about other games.. a GTX 980 will be also a major upgrade about 50-60% faster at stock settings, specially in newer games.
 
Upgrading to a GTX 980 would be a very noticeable upgrade. Considering you can get used ones for around 400 makes it seem worthwhile. A 980Ti would be a huge upgrade. I went from SLI 680's to a 980Ti and couldn't be happier.
 
I would say see if you could goose the 680gtx a little through oc if you can hold out the next die shrink should be a pretty significant boost
 
I'd only recommend going from a 680 to a 980Ti. That would be a serious upgrade and you'd be set for quite a while.
 
Heyyo,

The GTX 980 or an AMD R9 390X would be an awesome upgrade for you tbh.

I currently run a 2GB GTX 680 Two-Way SLI setup and it works awesome... except for when I run out of VRAM lol. It's essentially the same as the GTX 690, which is barely faster than a stock GTX 980.

With that in mind? Technically if you overclocked a GTX 980 or R9 390X? You would achieve double the potential performance of your GTX 680 while still maintaining a single GPU. :)
 
With those games, i'd wait to see what the next series brings us. If however you want to spend money now, i'd go with either a 970 or a 980Ti.
 
I went from SLI 680s to a 970 and never looked back. A lot less noise, heat, power consumption, and clutter in my case. Plus frame rates went up in most of my games. I sold one of the 680s and put the other one in my wife's build. So all in all, I am happy.
 
Any of those cards would be noticeable. 970/290x the slowest at around 60% faster.

Go Fury and throw AMD a bone. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top