Worthwhile upgrade from GTX 760?

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MrHood22

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Aug 21, 2007
Messages
4,312
Currently I have...

2500k @ 4.4ghz
GTX 760, small overclock
2 x 4gb DDR3 1600

At any one time I have 4 monitors hooked up. 3 x 24" and 1 x 32" TV in my bedroom. Usually my TV is off so I don't think that's taking resources. My 3 x 24" are always on but I only use 1 for gaming. Usually I power off one and leave cpu/gpu temps on the other. The hardest game I play is BF4. I play on custom settings set by "Geforce Experience". They look to be close to Ultra. I notice my CPU is usually around 90%, sometimes spiking to 100%. My GPU is always maxed out. I'm usually able to stay around 55fps but there are times when it gets bogged down. Sure, I could drop from Ultra to High and enjoy a solid 80FPS but ideally I don't want to sacrifice a little eye candy.

So my question is, is there a logical upgrade from the GTX 760? One of the reasons I bought the GTX 760 was it is an excellent bang for the buck. Part of the problem when upgrading is it seems like if I want to do a worthwhile upgrade from my $250 card I'll have to look in the $500 range. Is there anything around $300-$400 that would give me a noticeable boost or should I just suck it up?
 
Not really. Jumping to a 780 would show a noticeable increase, but you'd be at about 400 for one. If you sold your 760... It wouldn't hurt the pocketbook too much.
 
Is it worth it to look for a R9 280x? Seems like they're around $180 in the FS section, $280 on Newegg.

I guess I could get around ~$140 for my card.
 
MrHood22 said:
Is it worth it to look for a R9 280x? Seems like they're around $180 in the FS section, $280 on Newegg.

I guess I could get around ~$140 for my card.
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A 280x isn't much of an upgrade at all. Less than 10% faster in most cases.
and you can get at least $200 for your gtx 760.
 
I would honestly just wait for the new cards.. You can probably run most games max anyway.. what's the point!!
 
MrHood22 said:
Is it worth it to look for a R9 280x? Seems like they're around $180 in the FS section, $280 on Newegg.

I guess I could get around ~$140 for my card.
Click to expand...

Absolutely not. Coming from someone who swaps cards on a normal basis, stick with nvidia right now. Too many driver issues, not to mention heat issues with some of the newer AMD cards. Budget minded people will praise AMD, but if you can afford a nice nvidia card I would stick with it.
 
i'ma sit on my 760 for awhile to almost maxes out everything at 1080p
 
MrHood22 said:
Sure, I could drop from Ultra to High and enjoy a solid 80FPS but ideally I don't want to sacrifice a little eye candy.
Click to expand...

Have you actually tried dropping settings and noticing a significant difference outside of the psychological aspect of having to drop settings during actual play? Especially as there is likely just some settings which you can drop 1 down without having to drop across the board as well.

I realize understandably without relying on a double blind test this would be hard to actually gauge without bias.

Regarding waiting for the next gen cards the flip side is the resale value will likely go down on the GTX 760 as well when they hit. But really it seems like if you were concerned about performance you should've bought a higher end card at the outset instead of doing a same gen to same gen upgrade. Alternatively just wait for a "deal" on a higher end card as well.

There is also the SLI option but I have a personal bias regarding multicard setups, so won't comment too much on it.

As for upgrading a 280x or GTX 770 would not be significant enough of a difference to warrant an upgrade.
 
limitedaccess said:
As for upgrading a 280x or GTX 770 would not be significant enough of a difference to warrant an upgrade.
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A heavily oc'd 280x would only beat a 770, I would suggest a 290 (non-X) with custom cooler.

As for the AMD driver woes : I haven't encountered any, but I only own one sample.
 
limitedaccess said:
Have you actually tried dropping settings and noticing a significant difference outside of the psychological aspect of having to drop settings during actual play? Especially as there is likely just some settings which you can drop 1 down without having to drop across the board as well.

I realize understandably without relying on a double blind test this would be hard to actually gauge without bias.

Regarding waiting for the next gen cards the flip side is the resale value will likely go down on the GTX 760 as well when they hit. But really it seems like if you were concerned about performance you should've bought a higher end card at the outset instead of doing a same gen to same gen upgrade. Alternatively just wait for a "deal" on a higher end card as well.

There is also the SLI option but I have a personal bias regarding multicard setups, so won't comment too much on it.

As for upgrading a 280x or GTX 770 would not be significant enough of a difference to warrant an upgrade.
Click to expand...


If I back off one setting at a time until there aren't any situations where it gets bogged down it's not too big of a difference but when I compare 'A' to 'B' it's more than I want to give up.

I have also considered SLI but I was never really a fan of the idea. I'd prefer one strong card over 2 pretty strong cards.

I was looking at the 280x's and as some of you have said they seem to run terribly hot.

On a somewhat related note, I was also looking at upgrading my CPU. It seems like most of the more expensive versions of my 2500k (3770k, etc) are so comparable that it's almost not worth buying the more expensive models, especially if you're OCing. So at that point I found I'd probably have to get a new Mobo and CPU which could easily put me around $600. To me that is not a lot of bang for buck considering what I'm coming from.

With all that being said, it seems like I'm in the same situation for my GPU. I have a $250 card and if I want anything noticeable I'll have to spend close to twice the value. I feel like if the car industry was the same I could buy a $35k STI or take the next step up to a $90k GTR, no valid middle choices.

For now I'll just hold out and next time around I'll spend the extra cheddar on the high end card. Thanks!
 
MrHood22 said:
With all that being said, it seems like I'm in the same situation for my GPU. I have a $250 card and if I want anything noticeable I'll have to spend close to twice the value. I feel like if the car industry was the same I could buy a $35k STI or take the next step up to a $90k GTR, no valid middle choices.
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Them's the breaks when it comes to this game, I'm afraid. You always have to ask yourself how much more are you willing to spend to be on the bleeding edge. :cool:

But I imagine going from 760 to 880 would totally blow your socks off when you do. :D
 
noobthegreat said:
Them's the breaks when it comes to this game, I'm afraid. You always have to ask yourself how much more are you willing to spend to be on the bleeding edge. :cool:

But I imagine going from 760 to 880 would totally blow your socks off when you do. :D
Click to expand...

That's true but I'd at least like to have the option to spend $65k on CTS-V or $50k on a Camaro or at least something in between 'fun commuter car' and 'supercar'.

It seems like that's the case for both CPU and GPU. You either buy an "I'm almost at max settings" product or the next step up is "I could play this game on max settings with 2 instances going".
 
Although there is a larger gap this generation (due to product spacing from Nvidia) there is the GTX 770 which slots between the GTX 760 and GTX 780. It just isn't really a worthwhile upgrade in the case when you already have the GTX 760. Also AMD has the r290 (as well as the 280x) which would slot in between price wise as well.

The performance gap is not as big as you are stating though. The GTX 780 won't be more than 2x the performance of the GTX 760. From a theoretical stand point only the shader count is 2x the GTX 760, all other aspects have a much lower delta.

Believe it or not the GTX 780 actually cannot flawlessly max every single game at 1080p either. For example the GFE recommended settings for Crysis 3 are not max with the GTX 780. Some people even complain about the 780ti especially if they really want that consistent 60 fps performance. So really even if you spend more you'll always be wanting if you really want not compromise.
 
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