Looking to upgrade my gpu and need some input...

Ghstops6

Ghstops6

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Hey Guys,

So here's the skinny, While at home sick, I have been shopping around a bit and want to know what would be a decent upgrade from my current card which is an AMD 6990. I am tempted to go over to Nvidia (read: dark side) for the performance increase.

Was looking at the 770 4GB or doing tw0 770 2GB in SLi. Currently playing on a 27' Monitor. Any thoughts would greatly be appreciated.
 
The 4gb model would do you better if you plan to keep the card for a while. But, if you upgrade regularly, I'd skip it and get the 2GB version.

Edit: forget SLI with battlefield-it's poorly coded for crossfire or sli.

If you want consistent performance at a high level, just get a good single GPU like the 770 or higher.
 
I have the 2GB and it works great for everything right now. No issues at all. 4GB doesn't cost much more, so I would consider that. I honestly wasn't even paying attention when I bought mine, I didn't know there were 4GB cards, but I probably would have sprung for the extra cash for future proofing.
 
Sounds like I'm looking in the right spot for Nivida. Only things I am somewhat planning for is Star Citizen which I know will take some horsepower. Only thing not pulling me away from AMD is Mantle, but I don't think it's going to be worth it.

Plus it would be nice to go back to one card for a change. After all the headaches in BF4 with crossfire, this seems like the way to go. Any thoughts on Brand? eVGA has been my go to from builds 4 years ago, but now I'm not so sure...
 
4gb SC 770 is wonderful i got the gigabyte windforce it only runs at 17 % fan speed underload
 
I love the EVGA cards, have one now, due to the warranty and customer service. They stand behind their products and you can reach them any time via phone, forums, or email. I haven't bought anything else besides EVGA for about 7 years now.
 
Well , since you have the cash to buy two 770's....why not go for the best..A GTX 780TI. There are tons of new games that are coming out with more graphical details and effects that will demand more horse power under the GPU hood.

Im sure also, that if you dont have a 120hz/144hz monitor..you will in the future. the 780 Ti will give you the best and smoothest performance if and when you make that jump.
 
you could get an R9 and heat your room with it/have a great time with games if you like!
 
@PapiDrag0n - I have thought of it. Just a matter of getting procurement (my loving wife) to sign off on it. A 780 TI is tempting, plus i might even offset the cost if I can unload the 6990 for say $200. A know a few who would want to use it for bitcoin mining or whatever the coin rage is these days...

@LovermanOwens - I would, but with the R9 and bitcoin mining, the prices are skewed by 20 - 30%, plus if I remember correctly, the custom cooled ones (that don't sound like you're taking off in an old 707) cost easily around 700 dollars. Plus did they fix the throttling issue?
 
Ghstops6 said:
@PapiDrag0n - I have thought of it. Just a matter of getting procurement (my loving wife) to sign off on it. A 780 TI is tempting, plus i might even offset the cost if I can unload the 6990 for say $200. A know a few who would want to use it for bitcoin mining or whatever the coin rage is these days...
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Click to expand...

Yeah, that works best. My wife doesn't mind that I swap pc parts regularly as long as I sell what I'm replacing to offset the cost a little.

Average price I'm seeing for the 6990 at ebay is $400. Put it up there with buy it now for $350-375 and I'm sure it would go quick
 
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No real point in SLI 770s when you can by a 780 Ti. I hope my card is able to handle Star Citizen when it comes out...guess we'll find out.
 
So gents, it has been decided.

Just ordered the eVGA 780 TI from amazon. Should be here tomorrow. Gonna swap it out, assuming I'm feeling well enough to do so, then clean up and sell my AMD 6990. Hopefully get about 400 but we'll see.

Thanks for all your input!
 
Let me know if you like it more then the AMD beast you have replaced. I am interested in hearing about the differences.
 
Ghstops6 said:
So gents, it has been decided.

Just ordered the eVGA 780 TI from amazon. Should be here tomorrow. Gonna swap it out, assuming I'm feeling well enough to do so, then clean up and sell my AMD 6990. Hopefully get about 400 but we'll see.

Thanks for all your input!
Click to expand...

Wow..Nice. Did you get the one with the ACX Dual fan cooler? Just like Loverman above.. hope to see an update soon
 
So after about 5 days of testing, tweaking and more testing, I have to say I'm impressed, both in quality and in the performance. Just a few images to post:

Pre-Bios Mod:
780 TI default settings.JPG


Post Bios Mod:
780TiBiosMod.JPG


Keep in mind, I have the stock version of the 780 Ti, so I know this modded Bios will allow me to hit the speeds without any issues. One thing to note: they do cap you at 85% fan speed which is a bit strange compared to giving you the full 100%, so in the included BIOS Mod, it rectified that along with matching the base clock with the boost settings. Here's the breakdown from the 3DMark Demo Bench:

3dmark results.JPG


3dmark results pt2.JPG


To compare, here's the results of a similar build with the AMD HD6990:

3dmark 6990 results.JPG


I have to say I'm impressed. My 6990 would definitely scream uncle if I ran this benchmark. Would put up decent numbers, but nothing close to what the 780 Ti can do.

@LovermanOwens - The 2 biggest things was driver stability (as BF4 is horribly coded with SLi and Crossfire) and noise. I can honestly tell you at the Modded settings, i don't go higher than say 60% fan speed and my temps stay at a nice 55 ~ 60c. Less noise means I can play games without a headset (and not conveniently hear the wife).

@PapiDrag0n - I purchased the stock version because as much as I hate to admit it, I do like the design of the reference cooler. I had the option of using the modded BIOS from the SC ACX version, but for now I am playing it safe with the modded stock BIOS. Plus until I can do more testing, I don't want to risk overheating the voltage regulators on the card itself. Seen some folks use flash their reference card to the Hydro Cooper version and add a third party water block for a bit less than purchasing one from eVGA, but I'm not that crazy. Still, with some careful tweaking of the voltage, I've seen some results along the lines of 1.15GHz to 1.2GHz on the gpu. But as always, you're mileage may very.
 
nice upgrade! I have one of those on the way, ready to finish my build so I can test and stress it so I can actually play BF4!
 
Very nice! The 6990's a beast but with DICE's crappy coding it goes to waste, which is sad.
 
yea my gpu in this machine cant really hack BF4 too well. lacks the intestinal fortitude to play it consistantly! 780ti will help me out!
 
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