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Graphics Cards.
So here is an interesting topic that I've been trying to learn more and more about since I built my first gaming PC a few months ago. Graphics cards, apparently the most important piece of your PC when it comes to gaming. I have a GTX 560, it gets the job done but after buying a lot of the "newer" game releases with the Steam sale, testing out what it can handle and stuff, I think it's time for an upgrade.
I made a post here before, maybe 2 or so months ago, bouncing around ideas on what card I should get. The Titan was like brand new, couldn't buy it anywhere. Now there must be some hands on reviews with this card, what has everybody been saying about it?
I'm hoping to get a top end graphics card so I can put these problems of not being at 60 FPS on ultra settings behind me, at least for a year or so I hope. Another fairly big concern is being able to record footage while I'm gaming, as far as I know that is very intense on a graphics card, so I do need something better than this 560. Anyways, I'm just rambling. What are your guys thoughts? What would be your choice of a top end card, while still getting a good bang for your buck.
You guys are great and always helpful. Thanks again.
Comments
The 560 was basically one step up from a budget entry level card - it isn't bad, but there's a lot better.
When you say "60FPS on Ultra for a year" -- I'm assuming that's your benchmark more or less?
The answer to that depends greatly on how many pixels your driving. One monitor at 1080p won't take a lot to meet that metric, a 770GTX or something like a 7950/7970 would do it for a lot less than a Titan.
If your trying to run 3 monitors wide at 5760x1200, a Titan will get you 60FPS or Max settings, but probably not both (depending on the title).
Recording footage is more stressful on your hard drive than anything.
Hi, yeah, the only reason I used the GTX 560 was because I got it for free a year or so ago, and figured I'd spend the money on the rest of the PC, and upgrade the graphics card later.
I will only be running 1 monitor, don't see a reason to do more than that. And yeah, preferably I'd like to run new releases at max settings at 60+ FPS for at least a good amount of time. I was thinking of the 770 too.
The 770 would be a good choice IMO. A titan is way expensive and overkill for a single monitor setup.
A GeForce GTX 770 for $400 would better than double your current performance. If you want to go higher end than that, then Nvidia also offers a GTX 780 for $650 and Titan for $1000, but those have price way out of line with their performance. (Titan is maybe 40% faster than a GTX 770, while costing 150% more.)
If you're inclined to go higher end, you might want to consider waiting a bit, as AMD is rumored to launch a new high end card in about two months. I don't see much chance that AMD's card catches Titan in performance, but a $500-$550 card that is competitive with the GTX 780 could collapse Nvidia's top end prices, or at least be a good alternative if Nvidia isn't willing to cut prices to compete.
I agree with the 770.. I have a 670 and it still is amazing. The 770 price is awesome and it kicks my cards ass. 770 ftw..
"You are all going to poop yourselves." BillMurphy
"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone."
Well, the 770 is pretty much a 680 with better Boost control (read as: better automatic overclocking).
The 780 is a cut-down Titan card.
They are very close with relation to how much gaming power they provide.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/829?vs=827
Take these benchmarks with a grain of salt - Yes, a 780 is faster, but the real question is, is it ~$150 faster? Will it let you crank up settings past what a 770 could at 1080p resolution in a meaningful way?
With a single monitor at 1080p, I doubt very much that you could tell the difference between the two in current-day games. There will be cases where you can crank up enough meaningless settings (such as MSAAx16 rather than x8, which is visually indistinguishable) to get them to drop from 60FPS, but it would probably bring down both cards. I don't think there will be many titles where one card will give you a huge and meaningful gaming advantage.
The 780 will have better CUDA/OpenCL performance, since it has better double-precision (inherent from it coming from the Titan chip). That will hardly matter in gaming though - only if you want to do something like Folding@Home.
I would say, if you are cranking a game to ULTRA/MAX-MAX settings and not getting 60FPS with a 770 - a 780 may get you there, but only barely. You'd be better served by just knocking down one or two settings off ultra that won't be visually meaningful anyway (FSAA level is a good one), than by spending a lot of money to get just a bit more performance just so you can teeter over the edge for maybe one more generation of games, and look at upgrading it around the same time anyway.
Then again, if you have the money such that $400 vs $650 isn't significant, then why not? A 780 ~will~ perform better, it is a faster card. You just pay a premium to get that. If you can afford it, then there are no other good reasons to not buy it.
*edit*
As for waiting for a couple of months: it's an option; I wouldn't really recommend it. It may just be around the corner, but we aren't seeing the leaked benchmarks, the spy pictures, or any of the other typical propoganda that indicates that a new hardware release is imminent. It could be a couple months away, or it could be a lot longer than that. If all the signs pointed to something coming out soon - sure, wait. It will force price drops, that part is certain. It's similar to where we were back in late 2011/early 2012, when AMD released the 7970 - nVidia couldn't touch it performance-wise, and AMD charged premium prices all the way until well past the March release of the 680 (nVidia was forced to release early and had huge supply issues for several months). Kepler had been "just around the corner" for a long long time from nVidia.
So if you were shopping for a card in late 2011/early 2012 - you would have been waiting for several months for that new release to actually be available and have a meaningful impact on prices.
And you have what to host your new card?
You may have to think bottlenecks before you spend.
We dont need casuals in our games!!! Errm... Well we DO need casuals to fund and populate our games - But the games should be all about "hardcore" because: We dont need casuals in our games!!!
(repeat ad infinitum)
My specs are:
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus Direct Touch 4 Heatpipe Heatsink
Corsair Carbide Series 300R Black Gaming Case
Antec HCG-620M 620W ATX12V Modular SINGLE-RAIL 48A 80PLUS Bronze 135mm Fan Active PFC Power Supply
MSI Z77A-GD65 ATX LGA1155 Z77 DDR3 3PCI-E16 4PCI-E1 SATA3 DVI HDMI VGA DX11 USB3.0 Motherboard
Intel Core i5 3570K Unlocked Quad Core Processor LGA1155 3.4GHZ Ivy Bridge 6MB Retail
Mushkin Enhanced Blackline Frostbyte 16GB 2X8GB PC3-12800 DDR3-1600 CL10 Dual Channel Memory Kit
Edit: If there's something here that's going to bottleneck something let me know.
This brings up a good point. Before the OP spends money on a GPU, we should know what CPU they are using. The OP might be under the misconception that a CPU isn't important at all.
It is true the GPU handles most graphical effects processing. However, the CPU plays an important role in games, and is heavily used in most games. I'm no programmer, so I can only guess the exact functions of the CPU when gaming. Instead of worrying about what the CPU does, it is important to know that it is just as important to have a good CPU as it is to have a good GPU. For some games, you might be fine with an AMD FX series CPU, while in others that will be your framerate-limiter.
So, what processor are you using?
Except for this rather sorry (specwise, never tried/heard it IRL based on specs) PSU you seem to have a nice system. I am guessing some massive 1-2 TB single disk storage or did you go RAID0 or SSD?
Anyway: Very capable system - MB/CPU will not bottleneck your card of choice.
We dont need casuals in our games!!! Errm... Well we DO need casuals to fund and populate our games - But the games should be all about "hardcore" because: We dont need casuals in our games!!!
(repeat ad infinitum)
The powersupply is no good?
I have a 250gb Corsair SSD, and I had a 1tb HDD which was buggy the day I got it. I'm thinking of buying another one, if you guys have any suggestions for a 1-2 tb HDD that has good reviews.
And yeah, the PC seems to be really good so far. The only possible complaint I could have with it is the fact that apparently recording games is very hard for a PC to do without lag. Not sure if it's because of my graphics card, or because I'm stuck with an almost full SSD and nothing else.
But other than that, it's great.
Yep everything was brand new, except for the HDD, which never worked right in the first place, I just never got around to returning it.
As a replacement for your PSU, not that you NEED to (rather a suggestion), I'd recommend the following:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=rosewill+capstone+650&N=-1&isNodeId=1
The only real difference between the two is one is modular while the other is not. They is Newegg's brand name but the OEM for the PSU is one of the best in the world, Superflower. Otherwise I'd suggest looking into some of Seasonic's PSU around the same wattage and PLUS certification, though they will most likely be more expensive.
Your PSU is probably fine for whar you aim to do - My preference is just different after 2-3 bad Antec experiences. (A solid midrange choice is a Seasonic platinum PSU within your power req: Anything over 550W will do just fine )
By all means keep the Corsair for system, swap-space and your current favourite game. Dont buy one extra disk in this day and age - Buy two for either speed (RAID0) or safety (RAID1). (Or just go all in RAID10 with 4 disks: Your MB supports it
)
(And dont worry about the HDD's - Regular 3,5" 7.2k drives are 10-12W max.)
We dont need casuals in our games!!! Errm... Well we DO need casuals to fund and populate our games - But the games should be all about "hardcore" because: We dont need casuals in our games!!!
(repeat ad infinitum)
That is of course your choice but the reality is since your current PSU is modular should you decide to pick up the modular version of the Rosewill Capstone you could literally unplug the current cables and just reattach the new cables without needing to have the new PSU installed. Once all cables are reattached you could remove the old PSU from the case and replace it with the new PSU and just route the cables to it. Extremely easy process.
Don't worry about us geeks ranting.
Basically you are fine and a vid card upgrade will definately be noticeable. Good luck
We dont need casuals in our games!!! Errm... Well we DO need casuals to fund and populate our games - But the games should be all about "hardcore" because: We dont need casuals in our games!!!
(repeat ad infinitum)
If you're leaving things at stock speeds, the power supply will be fine with any single GPU card you want--including Titan, or even a GTX 480, which is actually much worse than Titan about heat and power use. If you want to give the processor a moderate overclock while leaving the video card at stock speeds, the power supply would be able to handle any modern single GPU card. It's only if you want multiple GPUs, want to overclock the video card, or want to go for an unreasonably large overclock of the CPU that the power supply would be problematic.
For what it's worth, the power supply is a rebranded Seasonic M12II, which is, itself, the modular version of a Seasonic S12II. While hardly high end, it's a decent quality power supply, and I wouldn't worry much about if upgrading to a system that could conceivably peak around 500 W under an artificial stress test.