[winterhell]

Hez, on 16 January 2013 - 07:11 PM, said:

I was considering buying two GeForce GTX 680's. Right now I have two GeForce GTX 560's in my computer. Would it be wiser to just buy one and SLI it to one of my 560's?

First you can't SLI different models. Both cards need to be GTX 680, but could be different brands.
Second, I'd wait another couple of months and get GTX 780. Its going to have a better performance per watt & $ and it may be a better solution than 2x680.

[Ultima]

Hez, on 17 January 2013 - 12:24 PM, said:

Ultima, on 17 January 2013 - 10:52 AM, said:

Hez, on 16 January 2013 - 07:11 PM, said:

I'm terrible with video cards, but I am debating on replacing mine. Money isn't an issue, but I don't want to waste any.

I was considering buying two GeForce GTX 680's. Right now I have two GeForce GTX 560's in my computer. Would it be wiser to just buy one and SLI it to one of my 560's? Or would the 560 drop it down in performance. Also, I have room for three video cards. Would it be even wiser to buy two 680's and then sli one of the 560's with that? I really am not one to talk about video cards...

Unless you're running at some ridiculous resolutions or 3d or something, one 560 should be enough for most of today's games at absolute max. 2 is definitely enough - you won't see much (if any) of a performance difference in upgrading to two 680's. If you are having problems with performance in games, it's very likely that your GPUs are NOT your bottleneck.

My video cards are the only thing I haven't upgraded, so I'm assuming they're the problem. Have an 8 core with 16 gigs of ram that I just bought 2 or 3 months ago.

EDIT: Also, I have three monitors. Wouldn't I require two cards with Nvidia?

Ah, fair enough. Triple monitors changes things - do you play games across all three as well? I imagine that is pretty fucking sweet!

What games do you have trouble running, out of pure curiosity? And I agree- wait for the 780s.

[Hez]

Ultima, on 17 January 2013 - 07:59 PM, said:

Hez, on 17 January 2013 - 12:24 PM, said:

Ultima, on 17 January 2013 - 10:52 AM, said:

Hez, on 16 January 2013 - 07:11 PM, said:

I'm terrible with video cards, but I am debating on replacing mine. Money isn't an issue, but I don't want to waste any.

I was considering buying two GeForce GTX 680's. Right now I have two GeForce GTX 560's in my computer. Would it be wiser to just buy one and SLI it to one of my 560's? Or would the 560 drop it down in performance. Also, I have room for three video cards. Would it be even wiser to buy two 680's and then sli one of the 560's with that? I really am not one to talk about video cards...

Unless you're running at some ridiculous resolutions or 3d or something, one 560 should be enough for most of today's games at absolute max. 2 is definitely enough - you won't see much (if any) of a performance difference in upgrading to two 680's. If you are having problems with performance in games, it's very likely that your GPUs are NOT your bottleneck.

My video cards are the only thing I haven't upgraded, so I'm assuming they're the problem. Have an 8 core with 16 gigs of ram that I just bought 2 or 3 months ago.

EDIT: Also, I have three monitors. Wouldn't I require two cards with Nvidia?

Ah, fair enough. Triple monitors changes things - do you play games across all three as well? I imagine that is pretty fucking sweet!

What games do you have trouble running, out of pure curiosity? And I agree- wait for the 780s.

The only thing that doesn't run well is Skyrim. But then again, it wasn't designed to run on three screens.

[Meat Miracle]

iirc the geforce 6xx series can drive 3 monitors on a single card. I might be wrong though. I recall that they actually mentioned it as a feature when the series came out.
Radeons though, they can definitely drive fuck tons of monitors on one card, ever since the 6xxx series. 5xxx could only run max 3 of them except for that special eyefinity card. 6xxx and above can run 6 of them. However, you'll likely need Displayport adapters (which are pretty expensive, but still not as expensive as an entire new card), or if your monitors all can do displayport 1.2, you can daisy chain them.

Quote

an absolute disaster running anything except catalyst 11.5).

Is it onboard (or mobile)?

[Midway the Echidna]

Personally, I'm very happy with my Radeon HD 7770. Its power consumption is very low, I can still run Sonic Generations in 1080p at 60fps, and I only paid $135 for it back in August. I wouldn't recommend spending more than $200, though given the rate at which GPU technology grows. It's better to be 2 years behind the cutting edge of technology than to break the back to be the baddest motherfucker in the neighborhood for 2 years. SG's not a demanding game anyway. Maybe investigate the GTX 660Ti if you're clamoring for badass at less than $250

My Graphics Card

Enough Badass for 1 Monitor

[Ell678]

I run my 3 monitors on my Nvidia GTX590. The reason Skyrim runs badly is because, well, the engine is shit. I can play Crysis 2, Max Payne 3, and many more triple A titles in Surround mode (a couple with 3D to boot!) at a very steady framerate but Skyrim has always played badly on one monitor when modded, and barely works on three when unmodded. Skyrim is not, and never will be a good benchmark. I recorded this video of me playing Generations, you can see how well it plays - the one Skyrim doesn't like.



However, Dead End Thrills (who takes them bitching screenshots, his Skyrim ones are stunning) said once the 690 made a massive improvement on his Skyrim performance.

[Hez]

Midway the Echidna, on 04 March 2013 - 04:29 PM, said:

Personally, I'm very happy with my Radeon HD 7770. Its power consumption is very low, I can still run Sonic Generations in 1080p at 60fps, and I only paid $135 for it back in August. I wouldn't recommend spending more than $200, though given the rate at which GPU technology grows. It's better to be 2 years behind the cutting edge of technology than to break the back to be the baddest motherfucker in the neighborhood for 2 years. SG's not a demanding game anyway. Maybe investigate the GTX 660Ti if you're clamoring for badass at less than $250

My Graphics Card

Enough Badass for 1 Monitor

I just picked up two of those. I can't wait.

[Jay T.]

Sorry for bumping this topic after so long. I still haven't gotten the parts yet due to, well, distractions and all that, but I think it's time I go ahead and get it over with. Money shouldn't be an issue, and I think it's time I just get the parts. Plus, I got a bit of a PC related issue. I'll explain in a little.

I changed up a bit. I'm still getting the Corsair GS 600 PSU, but I'm thinking of switching up to the GTX 650. It might be just me, but it seems like the GeForce brand is usually considered the better one of the two (Radeon 7770) when it comes to gamers. Or at least, the more used. I could be wrong, or maybe it all varies from person to person. I did talk to a friend of mine recently and he's been having no trouble with his GTX 660. So...maybe? Though, looking at the price difference, I'll probably order the card from Amazon and the PSU from NewEgg. I have some money on Amazon, and it can cover the price of the video card alone, so it'll be a bit cheaper for me.

I don't think I'm getting the Hyper 212 Evo fan. My CPU's temperature is usually okay, and I have no plans of overclocking at the moment, so there's not much of a point of getting one, right? Plus my CPU did come with a cooler, and AMD fans are usually pretty good, aren't they?

I do however need a 120mm rear case fan. For whatever reason just now, when I turn on the computer or take it out of Sleep mode, the fan in the back may make some kind of loud, virbrating, whirring noise. I have to turn off the computer then turn it back on to stop it. Dunno why it's doing that. Anyone got any recommendations?

This post has been edited by Jay T.: 28 October 2013 - 09:27 AM

[winterhell]

GTX 650 and up would be a wise choice right now, considering how nVidia released today Shadow Play, their game recording software. It uses the hardware h264(or is is more appropriate to say x264?) encoder. They claim you can record 1080p 60fps with 5-10% performance impact, and it wont kill your hard drive as it records at up to 50mbps (7 MB/sec).

[Oerg866]

The GTX 650 is shit, don't get it. Grab a 7790 instead (~$105) or the 7850.

[Ell678]

winterhell, on 28 October 2013 - 09:33 AM, said:

GTX 650 and up would be a wise choice right now, considering how nVidia released today Shadow Play, their game recording software. It uses the hardware h264(or is is more appropriate to say x264?) encoder. They claim you can record 1080p 60fps with 5-10% performance impact, and it wont kill your hard drive as it records at up to 50mbps (7 MB/sec).

For somebody that lives in an area with a slow as fuck connection, I can confirm this feature is awesome. I managed to upload a video to Youtube without fucking around with low quality capture / shit audio settings, which seems to be a first for me.

I only uploaded a small video of my own project, but I couldn't notice a big loss in performance. I might test it on something more intensive sometime.

[Jay T.]

winterhell, on 28 October 2013 - 09:33 AM, said:

GTX 650 and up would be a wise choice right now, considering how nVidia released today Shadow Play, their game recording software. It uses the hardware h264(or is is more appropriate to say x264?) encoder. They claim you can record 1080p 60fps with 5-10% performance impact, and it wont kill your hard drive as it records at up to 50mbps (7 MB/sec).

That does sound pretty awesome. I dunno how much recording I'll do, but I'm sure it'll definitely come in handy.

Oerg866, on 28 October 2013 - 05:43 PM, said:

The GTX 650 is shit, don't get it. Grab a 7790 instead (~$105) or the 7850.

What's so bad about the GTX 650 exactly?

I guess I should mention the price limit too. Since I'm thinking of getting the graphics card (and maybe the case fan, depending on which version is considered good) on Amazon only, I can spend a bit. I believe I got a $140 minimum (preferably), but if I need to add a few extra dollars, I probably could. I guess the maximum could be somewhere around $150 maybe. I did see a pretty good fan called the Antec Tricool 120mm, and some on other sites said the Cougar Vortex is another good one. Any suggestions?

This post has been edited by Jay T.: 28 October 2013 - 07:09 PM

[Oerg866]

Quote

What's so bad about the GTX 650 exactly?

It's not worth its price tag.

[Covarr]

NVIDIA cards are always overpriced unless you're buying upper-mid-range or better. GTX 650 is just below that threshold.

[Oerg866]

Quote

upper-mid-range or better.

nope, especially those are overpriced. see R9 290X beating titan at half the price tag...