SOLVED Need help picking a 670 or 680

[Proxish]

Right, I'll keep it simple. What do you suggest?

£350
EVGA GeForce GTX 680 Superclocked 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Core: 1058MHz, Memory: 2048MB 6208MHz GDDR5, Stream Processors: 1536, Shader Clock: 2116MHz, SLI Ready, PhysX/CUDA Enabled, 3 Years Warranty.

or

£338
MSI GeForce GTX 670 TwinFrozr IV PE/OC 2GB GDDR5
1019MHz Core, 1079MHz Boost, 1344 CUDA Cores, 2 x DVI, HDMI, DPort, PCIe 3.0, 3 Year Warranty.

or

£300
KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Core: 1006MHz, Memory: 2048MB 6008MHz GDDR5, Stream Processors: 1344, Shader Clock: 2012MHz, SLI Ready, PhysX/CUDA Enabled, 2 Years Warranty.

or

£270
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 670 OC 2GB GDDR5
954MHz Core, 1033MHz Boost, 1344 CUDA Cores, 2 x DVI, HDMI, DPort, PCIe 3.0, 2 Year Warranty, Overclocked


Or should I just go for a 660 and Overclock it to a 660ti...

 

[Soulcatcher668]

What is your monitor set up? I would be looking at 4 gig cards at this point.

 

[Proxish]

1920x1080 on a 46" 3DTV.
I'm getting rid of the MSI AMD Radeon HD 7950 Twin Frozr III OC BE 3GB GDDR5 and replacing it with one of the above.
I've been told that the 670 is just so much better and not that much more money. Seeing as I paid £260 for it -_-

My main problem with this is just the frame rate, I'm only getting 30-40fps on most games. Tried Max Payne 3 maxed out and it was only playing at 20-25fps... Just awful... I thought this card was so much better than I was told...

I'm looking for a comfortable 60fps.

 

[Soulcatcher668]

The 670 and 7950 trade blows as far as performance goes. You will not see the gains you are looking for.

Do you have the latest drivers installed?

 

[Proxish]

Really?... Damn it... What about trading for a 680?

As far as I know, yes, I used catalyst control center to install them.

Would overclocking my CPU to 4.5ghz help with the frame rate? And what about over locking the card?

I just don't understand why I'm sitting at 30-50fps in games, I thought I'd be up around 55-63fps...

 

[Soulcatcher668]

Overclock both.
There is no point in spending the money on K series CPUs if you don't.

Make sure on the drivers. There is a massive difference between old and new drivers on AMD cards.

On a single 1080 monitor, you should be getting very playable FPS with that card.

 

[anhikilator]

Leave HW Monitor logging for the time you run the game and then, open the CSV file generated in excel. Sort higher to lower the CPU usage and GPU usage columns, then see if one of the 2 hits %100 usage so you can be sure if you are suffering from slow CPU or not enough GPU power.

 

[EarthDog]

What is your monitor set up? I would be looking at 4 gig cards at this point.

I wouldnt... especially because...

1920x1080 on a 46" 3DTV.
I'm getting rid of the MSI AMD Radeon HD 7950 Twin Frozr III OC BE 3GB GDDR5 and replacing it with one of the above.
I've been told that the 670 is just so much better and not that much more money. Seeing as I paid £260 for it -_-

My main problem with this is just the frame rate, I'm only getting 30-40fps on most games. Tried Max Payne 3 maxed out and it was only playing at 20-25fps... Just awful... I thought this card was so much better than I was told...

I'm looking for a comfortable 60fps.

...he's on 1080p.

 

[Proxish]

I was planning on overclocking both. I'm just waiting on help deciding on a cooler for the CPU, as I'm still running stock.
I was previously told to go with the 212 Evo, but then was told by others that it can't maintain an i7 OC'd to 4.5Ghz~

Ok, I know there was a beta driver, should I upgrade to that?
I know nothing about AMD, I've always been with NVidia... How I wish I still was, if only their prices weren't set at such a stupid high price...

I mean, 30-50 fps is playable. I'm hitting 50-70 in PlanetSide 2. But some games it just can't get above 40. Ghost Recon Future Soldier sits between 30-40 :/

Anhikilator, I'll do that when I get home and see what I get then. Should have the results in 5 hours.

 

[EarthDog]

Any drivers past 12.11beta are the 'performance' drivers on AMD note.

 

[Proxish]

Hey EarthDog

What does that mean exactly?

 

[Xeon_KI]

make sure your driver version is at that or higher

 

[Proxish]

Ok, will do.

 

[EarthDog]

Hey EarthDog

What does that mean exactly?

That means from the 12.11 drivers forward, are the performance drivers you were talking about earlier.

 

[Proxish]

Right, well I'll make sure I have the newest beta installed and then try out a few games and see how it scores.

While I have your attention. I was thinking about this. I calculated that it would cost £50 to get the Evo and two new quieter fans for it. Should I just get this instead?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-001-NX&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2347

I really am lost for a CPU cooler...

 

[Xeon_KI]

The EVO stock is excellent and for the price, it's hard to beat. I was able to push my 8120 to 4.2 no problem
Once you start adding custom fans, it's loses it's appeal.. price/performance and you enter high end air pricing or all in one liquid cooling.
So you might as well just get a Noctua NH-D14 or Phanteks PH-TC14PE or H80i, etc
If you don't care, just get what's on sale

 

[Proxish]

My only problem with the Evo is the noise.
I have it in my bedroom on 24/7, and my other Evo 212 sounded like a pack of dinosaurs mating...

 

[EarthDog]

That is because of the fans, not the cooler. Get different fans.

 

[Xeon_KI]

yea, if you already have an evo, just get different fans.

 

[Soulcatcher668]

My only problem with the Evo is the noise.
I have it in my bedroom on 24/7, and my other Evo 212 sounded like a pack of dinosaurs mating...

That made me chuckle.....


I was looking up some Max Payne 3 benchmarks and you should be getting better FPS. There is something wrong here.

LINK

According to this graph you should be averaging about 69 FPS with the new drivers.