I've actually ordered from both Newegg and Tiger Direct. One nice thing about shopping online with Tiger Direct is that should there be a problem, I can carry it straight over to Orland Park's Tiger Direct outlet store and exchange it immediately. :Whistle:

After three hours discussing my options (or lack of) with Tiger Direct this morning it is probably best there was not a TD store near by.....hehe...I might have gone all postal. Kidding I always stay calm and polite but they were pushing me close.

 

I ordered the exact same product from a different vendor on Black Friday (a week post TD) and had it n three days. Odd. Unfortunately it was my first order with TD and my last.

 

But like I say it must be an isolated instance.

I'm another soon-to-be owner of a GTX770 4GB. Mine is on its way from NewEgg, and will be here tomorrow. It's replacing a GTX660Ti 2GB, which has been a good card for FSX, but which has hit the VRAM "wall" a couple of times in my new P3DV2 installation.

 

Use to use Newegg and Tiger for all my builds/addons. Now, only Amazon.

I think for the money, the OC 770 with 4GB is 'the call' for XP10 (and possibly Prepar3D).  It's less than $400 after rebate, and that's a lot more palatable than the Titan.  Yes, it would be 'ideal' to have 3 titans, but $3000 for 3 video cards is nudging the 'nutty' button just a tad.

 

I was lucky to obtain a Titan as an in-warranty replacement from EVGA for the second failed GTX690.  When I bought the 690, I was thinking "buy the best", never even dawned on me that VRAM was so important.  It is VERY important as simulation platforms evolve, and more of the 'rendering' work is pushed to the graphics card and off the CPU.

 

This means much nicer frames, more complex graphics, and a flight experience we've all been waiting for.  We all want max eye-candy, and the juggling between what's on screen and what the frames counter is telling us has taken a lot of the joy out of our hobby (at least for me it did).

 

That's why when I went to triple-screens, I didn't ask ONE video card to render three times the work in the same amount of time.  It simply stands to reason that frames would radically suffer.

 

So the pc-per-monitor solution, while costly, is the one that will ultimately reward your investment.  X-Plane can split the image across a gigabit network and render to 3 (or more) pc's all at the same time.  It's simply incredible what that looks like during flight.

 

+1 for AMAZON.  I buy only direct from them, and generally AVOID their 'trusted partners' so I can rely on a 'no quibble' return policy in the first 30 days.  That is GOLDEN.  So much so I have discontinued purchases from other online electronic vendors (e.g. "new egg" or "tiger direct").  New Egg will only replace a defective video card, they won't take it back for refund (as stated on their website).

 

The loyalty I have for Amazon has rewarded them with a significant number of purchases.  My main flight deck PC components almost exclusively came from the Jungle River website.

Thank you for reminding me about Amazon! For some reason I forgot about them. I buy a LOT of book from there, but tend to forget they also carry electronics.

 

I placed my order from them because of the return policy. Only $399.99 plus 2 day shipping $13.96.

 

  EVGA GeForce GTX 770 Superclocked with ACX Cooler 4 GB GDDR5 256-Bit Dual-Link DVI-I/DVI-D HDMI DP SLI Ready Graphics Card 04G-P4-3774-KR

 

I just got my new build, which includes a 660ti, but I also have a nice 770 4GB sitting in a box right next to it.  My intent is to try out the 660ti and if it does not perform like I want it to, I will install the 770/4gb.  The likely scenario is I will return the 660ti and keep the better card.

I just got my new build, which includes a 660ti, but I also have a nice 770 4GB sitting in a box right next to it.  My intent is to try out the 660ti and if it does not perform like I want it to, I will install the 770/4gb.  The likely scenario is I will return the 660ti and keep the better card.

 

[stepping up onto podium]

 

Get as much VRAM on your video card as you can afford - it will serve you well.  I regard the VRAM as more critical than the cores, or the clockspeed... for XPlane 10, it is of SUPREME importance. 

 

As XP develops, the 'burden' of rendering the overall image (airplane, terrain mesh, textures, roads, cars, boats, clouds, etc) 30 or more times a second becomes harder and harder.

 

If you have increased your graphics slider settings, you'll desperately NEED as much VRAM as you can get... especially as you pile ever more-demanding tasks on your sim.

 

I particularly like the Msi "Twin Frozr" cooling pipes with twin cooling fans.  Whisper-quiet, and extremely effective.  I also like EVGA, for their USA-based aftercare.  As I previously wrote, consider buying a warranty on the video card.  The EVGA GTX690 I purchased less than 2 years ago had 'issues' and was replaced twice in two years.  I am gratified that EVGA took it upon themselves to 'do the right thing' and did an in-warranty swap to the TITAN in lieu of the 690.  

 

I can't help noticing that the '690' card did not regenerate in the 7-series product lineup.  It's either too hot (temp wise) or some other issue suggests that nVidia is de-emphasing the card.

 

Currently, none of the major sim platforms support SLI-technology, so the on-card SLI on the 690 was useless.   Worse, the "4GB VRAM" they advertise is split in half (2GB per GPU), so only 2GB of VRAM was available at any given time.

 

In my mind, 6GB is 'just right' for XPlane, but if that's not doable or realistic (and let's face it, paying so much more for 2 more than a 4GB card is just crazy), then I think 4GB is 'the sweet spot', for now.

 

I highly recommend you keep the 4GB 770.  You will NOT regret doing so!  Also, be sure you have a good quality and sufficient watt rated power supply.  They are reasonable- I recommend Corsair.

The 4GB card you really only see the value of a lot of VRAM when you get into higher resolution multi-display sort of setups. Even with 2 monitors at high resolution, 2 GB will likely be enough.

The 4GB card you really only see the value of a lot of VRAM when you get into higher resolution multi-display sort of setups. Even with 2 monitors at high resolution, 2 GB will likely be enough.

 

Hi Mo, It's my understanding that while 2gb may be enough for FSX, as that is the amount of Vram that is allocated for FSX, where P3Dv2 and XP are concerned, additional Vram is of huge benefit.

That EVGA ACX 770 is the way to go.

It has 1GB of VRAM more and just as good of clock speeds as my ACX 780.

 

As far as a single 1080P display needing more than 3GB I don't know any sim/game that takes full advantage. Until you dabble in things like 3DVision.

Hi Mo, It's my understanding that while 2gb may be enough for FSX, as that is the amount of Vram that is allocated for FSX, where P3Dv2 and XP are concerned, additional Vram is of huge benefit.

 

Hi Howard

Not sure about P3D.

 

Best Regards,

The 4GB card you really only see the value of a lot of VRAM when you get into higher resolution multi-display sort of setups. Even with 2 monitors at high resolution, 2 GB will likely be enough.

 

If you are flying in XPlane 10.25 and you want to push the eye candy sliders to their highest, 2GB is NOT enough. Then if you add the donation-ware HD Mesh V2 or other very-complex scenery, you can encounter momentary freezes or hard-stutters caused by scenery tiles overloading the buffers in the VRAM!  Yes, it can and has happened to me.  Now in FSX, 2GB is fine, because more VRAM doesn't directly benefit you due to the way FSX is programmed.

Hi Howard

Not sure about P3D.

 

Best Regards,

 

P3Dv2 has been recoded for the engine to take more advantage of the GPU by reducing the strain on the CPU, thus meaning that in P3Dv2 a card with additional Vram is useful. I think a lot of the issues some users are having with P3Dv2 is that they simply have not upgraded their cards to take advantage of the newly coded sim. This is my understanding of things...

P3Dv2 has been recoded for the engine to take more advantage of the GPU by reducing the strain on the CPU, thus meaning that in P3Dv2 a card with additional Vram is useful. I think a lot of the issues some users are having with P3Dv2 is that they simply have not upgraded their cards to take advantage of the newly coded sim. This is my understanding of things...

 

Many thanks for the info Howard.

 

Regards,

Mo