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Upgrade GPU on a budget

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gregers05

Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
So looking to upgrade my GTX570. Not wanting to drop 300-400 for a new gpu as I dont have a ton of time to game anymore.

About all I would use it for is BF4, which is about all I play when I do have time to time, and editing gopro videos.

Was looking at the GTX750Ti for $120 or spend the extra $100 and get a 960? Is the 960 worth the extra 100 bucks? Will the 750 allow me to run BF4 on ultra? I hate spending so much on video cards because they will be out dated before you know it. I swear I just bought the 570 lol. It is old as dirt now.
 
Yeah that's probably worth the few extra bucks. Is 2GB enough for video cards these days, or should I be looking for 4gb?
 
no need to spend an extra $100....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487164
its a 4gb 1.3ghz GTX960@$189.... i knew it was going to go on sale agian, it has few times, the lowest was $179. i knew i should have picked it up then but didnt know how long i had, needed to get paid first. yea im kinda kicking my self, picked up a 2gb 960 in the classies for $150ish... still not to bad when the 2gb still go for around 189ish.
 
Yeah that's probably worth the few extra bucks. Is 2GB enough for video cards these days, or should I be looking for 4gb?

That depends upon what resolution you'll be playing at, and/or if you plan on upgrading to a larger resolution any time soon.

If you play at 1080p, 4GB wouldn't matter as much as most recent games seem to use 2GB or less (say up to 1GB-1.9GB in most games) at 1080p resolution. Not to say that there aren't some games that do use 3GB or more of VRAM at 1080p resolution.

It may depend on which games you play though.

http://www.tweaktown.com/tweakipedia/89/much-vram-need-1080p-1440p-4k/index.html

Although, personally I'd recommend getting a used GTX 680, 770, or 780. As the 770 and 780 outperform the GTX 750/750 Ti, GTX 950 and GTX 960, and the 680 outperforms the GTX 750/750Ti and GTX 950.
 
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The lowest graphics card I would buy right now is GTX960. GTX950 is much slower, not to mention GTX750/Ti. In this case it wouldn't be big upgrade from GTX570.
I'm playing everything on a GTX960 2GB. Card is probably the lowest clocked GTX960 on the market ( 1170 or something core ) and I don't really have to overclock it.

I was thinking to get one more card but market is really weird right now. There are many cards which are not much better than intergrated GPU in popular CPUs. Next is something like GTX950 which is still slow for many new games. Next step is GTX960 and later is big price gap for GTX970, not to mention higher cards.
AMD totally failed once again with their offer and prices so I'm not even mentioning them.
 
The lowest graphics card I would buy right now is GTX960. GTX950 is much slower, not to mention GTX750/Ti. In this case it wouldn't be big upgrade from GTX570.
I'm playing everything on a GTX960 2GB. Card is probably the lowest clocked GTX960 on the market ( 1170 or something core ) and I don't really have to overclock it.

I was thinking to get one more card but market is really weird right now. There are many cards which are not much better than intergrated GPU in popular CPUs. Next is something like GTX950 which is still slow for many new games. Next step is GTX960 and later is big price gap for GTX970, not to mention higher cards.
AMD totally failed once again with their offer and prices so I'm not even mentioning them.

Out of curiosity, what exactly makes a R9 380 a fail, compared to GTX960? This is a genuine question actually... not being a fanboy or anything. :)
The 380 beats the 960 pretty much in all reviews/roundups/benchmarks I've seen and both cards can currently be had for the same price on Newegg, which after rebate, is $159.99.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...21963&cm_re=R9_380_4Gb-_-14-121-963-_-Product
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127844&cm_re=gtx_960-_-14-127-844-_-Product
 
IMO AMD cards are good card. They just run hotter/pull more power than Nvidia.
Never used them because I do 3D work.
I think Nvidia drivers supports more softwares for content creators than AMD though.
 
Grab either one that is the best bang for the buck for you. We can explain til we're blue in the face about which card is better. In the end it will be your money and what card fits your budget/preference.
 
depends on res and the game, not all games will use more then 2gb. see post #5...
 
depends on res and the game, not all games will use more then 2gb. see post #5...

Thanks. You are right. I think 2GB would work okay, but I think ill hold out for a 4GB. Unfortunately didnt see many good deals out there today.
 
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