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560 GTX vs 7870 XT
Hello all,
I am thinking about upgrading my graphics card to a 7870 XT (aka 7870 LE, based on the 79XX Tahiti chips and not the Pitcairn) and I am currently running a GTX 560 (non-ti). I am wondering if this is worth an upgrade, current prices are around $250 for the 7870 which is something I can afford but I don't feel a pressing need to. There isn't anything my 560 GTX can't handle, but I can't play every game maxed out. I am only really thinking about upgrading if there will be a significant upgrade.
I would also like to note that the 7870 comes with Bioshock Infinite (I'm very interested in this game) and Tomb Raider (not so much) so that would even out the price a bit.
Anyways, let me know your thoughts, I am curious as to whether this would be a worthy upgrade.
Thanks!
Comments
Here is a link that shows it up against a regular 7870.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/543?vs=548
The new 7870 should do a little better. Its up to you if its worth it. For me I would probably buy the 7870. The 2 free games are a nice bonus. TR is actually not a bad game at all and bioshock should be excellent.
Personally, I wouldn't do it.
You can regard the two games as rebates if you wish, but bottom line is that your paying $250 to upgrade something that already works well enough.
Or, putting it another way, your paying $250 for a copy of TR and BI.
Going from mid-tier one generation to (upper) mid-tier of the next generation gets very expensive fast. If your worried about not being able to "Max Max" out titles, then you need to look past the 7870LE, because it's not going to be able to do that either - TR will already bring it down and even top-tier cards are having problems running that game on "Max Max".
If it were me, I would make due with the 560 until either the nVidia 700 series or AMD 8000 series peeks out (which could be by the end of the year), and along with that there could be some other nifty technologies out as well that may alter your purchasing decisions (Haswell, DDR4, SSD capacities, etc.)
All of that, however, is my personal opinion, and it's your money. I don't mean to say "Wait for something faster" because you can always get stuck waiting - but I do mean to say "Wait until the bang for the buck" is there.
I agree with bang for the buck, thats what I'm going for, from what I understand, the 700 and 8000's won't be a huge improvement over the current gen. I also see it as I am 100% getting bioshock infinite, the question is...is it worth the upgrade over the 560. Its a tough question, I agree that it works "good enough" but I also see the 7870XT as bang for the buck. You're right though, I should save my money and just buy bioshock, especially since I have not too much interest in tomb raider.
If you're going to wait for something better, then expect to wait about a year. We'll probably see minor price drops in that time, but nothing all that huge until everyone can move to a 20 nm process node next year.
It's really a question of how much you're willing to spend. If you're willing to spend what it takes to get a Radeon HD 7970 (~$400) or a GeForce GTX Titan ($1000), then that's faster by enough to justify the upgrade. But if not, then I wouldn't, especially when there's nothing flagrantly wrong with the old card except that it doesn't let you max settings here and there.
I had a gtx 560 ti 1gb fermi card. The 1gb absolutely kills the FPS depending on settings and resolution. I got a 7870 for a new PC and was blown away at running BF3 on ultra settings and getting 90 fps and then turning ultra on WoW and getting 130fps.
My gtx 560 ti fermi doesn't get anywhere near the 7870 card I am about to link. I would absolutley hands down recommend getting a 7870. I didn't even worrya bout the XT or LTE version that are floating around because it's constantly out of stock. I paid 199$ after rebates and such from newegg.
HIS IceQ H787Q2G2M Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
Looks like the sale just ended on it however as it's back up to 249$
I should add the resolution matters completely as at 1680x1050 the gtx is ok. If I move over to the monitor with 1080p and 23.6" though it grudgingly pushes 30 fps on medium settings.
If a Radeon HD 7870 offers at least double the graphical performance of a GeForce GTX 560 Ti in some particular game, then the latter running out of video memory is almost certainly the problem. That depends mostly on how high of resolution of textures a game uses, and the GeForce GTX 560 Ti would probably be fine at lower resolution textures.