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nathanpinard

Advice on GPU update?

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Ok, so I have a PNY nVidia GTX 680 with 3GB

 

I'm looking to maybe update for future games and P3D.

 

But my budget is not $500. Not at this time.

 

What is a good card that has significant performance that costs oh...$250 at most? Or is the 780 just a massive jump compared to anything else?

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IMO, unless you can afford to buy the GTX780/780Ti, keep the 680. It is superior to any other 770/760 card out there. Why would you go from a gpu with a 384 bit pipe to a 256 bit? That's a backwards move. if you want the increased clock/memory speed, just OC the GTX 680.

 

 Jazz

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Why would you go from a gpu with a 384 bit pipe to a 256 bit?

 

Very good point Jazz!

 

Most people don't realize the impact of this specific fact.


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It's my opinion, that the bus width is the single most important spec to look at, when it comes to gpu's. On lower end cards, clock and memory speed can easily be bumped up to match their bigger brothers. The bus width will always be the compromise, of price vs performance.

 

 Jazz

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I have an EVGA GTX 680 4GB that is factory OCed and it runs P3d 2.3 pretty well. My frame rates are CPU bound, because of one core being maxed out all the time.

 

The first higher end nVidia Maxwell cards based on the GM204 chip will be out next month. The GTX 870 will have equivalent performance to a GTX 780 and the GTX 880 will match a GTX 780 TI. The rumors about price are that they will be substantially less expensive than the GTX 780 series ($400-$550 US).

 

Or you can wait for the vaporware GTX 880 TI or the Titan 2 some time next year.

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We'll see. Leaked 3DMark scores showing the GTX 870 matching a GTX 780, so it ain't a rebadged GTX 770. No one would buy it if it was. The GTX 880 has more CUDA cores than the GTX 870. The other thing that you have to consider is the lower power consumption of the Maxwell GPUs. That is a consideration if you want to run SLI.

 

The video card market has taken a dive, mostly because of high prices. Besides, the GTX 880 is definitely not the top of the line card as it is based on the GM204, not the GM200. But until nVidia can secure a fab that will turn out 20 nm GPUs in quantity, the GM200 will be well off into 2015.

 

If the GTX 880 sells for under $500, it will be a winner for P3d. 

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Heh, I still keeping my GTX 480 (in SLI though) and you want to trade in your GTX 680... ;) As other people say, just keep your money and wait a little. :)

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I agree with the power savings being a plus; lower power = less heat = cheaper, custom cooling solution, which is definitely a good thing. I question the reasoning of putting more cuda cores on a card with only a 256 bit bus. It's this reason why I don't see the 880 surpassing the 780ti.I am curious to see how the actual rtm reference 880 gpu will perform. I'll probably pass for the time being. I need a complete pc re-build before I can think about a new gtx880. I'm waiting for a solid 8 core i7 cpu.

 

  Jazz

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Can your board do SLI?  Keep your 680 and get a duplicate.

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Was thinking about that as well Denali.

 

I think I'm going to wait. It runs P3D ok now, and the new drivers should help too (after they fix the tessalation bug)

 

However, we'll have to wait for SLI support as well.

 

I was wondering why the 680 is still fairly pricey compared to the early 700 models. Makes sense why now.

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How about a refurbished 4GB GTX 680 for future SLI? Here's one from NewEgg just as an example:

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125506&cm_re=gtx_680-_-14-125-506-_-Product

 

I've not considered buying another GTX 680, because even the upcoming mid-range GTX 870 (if the specs are correct) should be as fast as 2 GTX 680 in SLI. And that's assuming that LM figures out how to get nVidia to support SLI for P3d2.

 

There are reasons why sales of high end video cards have hit a wall. Most people that buy these cards are traditional gamers, not flight sim enthusiasts. Most of them run at 1080p with one monitor and don't need the horsepower that we here do for P3d. And even if they could use a new flagship card, they may not get any benefit if their system is CPU-bound. And worse, their power supply might not be able to handle a high end card's requirements. All that combined with weak PC sales worldwide has led the online technology press to believe that nVidia will be dropping prices on their 800 series, which also will be more energy efficient than previous nVidia offerings. 

 

 

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