In the Market for a new GPU?

[Garrett]

I've just recently spent a significant amount on upgrading my Desktop (not the GPU) & my 670 has done a pretty good job so far, but I must admit I'm sorely tempted by what I'm hearing of Nvidia's new 970.. the reviews I've seen so far are all saying it renders pretty much all other high end cards out at the moment obsolete, even Nvidia's own..

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-nvidia-geforce-gtx-970-review

https://www.youtube.com/embed/OYNA78wYt4o?feature=oembed

Anyone else?

 

[Asmo]

Yep, this card has all the prospective Oculus buyers abuzz too. Looks like there's no reason to look elsewhere for the forseeable future.

 

[Wally]

What's wrong with the 670?

I wouldn't bother until theres games you can't run.

 

[ekianjo]

970 should be perfect for Linux gaming in particular, even when using Wine.

 

[Garrett]

What's wrong with the 670?

I wouldn't bother until theres games you can't run.

Who said there's anything wrong with it..  I'm afraid common sense is in short supply when I'm exposed to new tech, you know the saying.. a fool and his money etc.

That being said I've recently acquired a 2560x1600 monitor & cranking out top settings at that resolution in the newer games does seem to be putting a strain on things.

 

[Foxgod]

Actually, i am saving up for a new computer, next year my I7 920 will be 6 years old, its still working fine, but i tend to get a bit worried when hardware ages

So next year i am planning to get a skylake, and il jam two 980ies in there.

I am into VR gaming, and since the 9 series has support for VR in sli (older cards have latency issues in sli) i am hoping to have a VR monster next year when the oculus CV1 is out.

I am getting the 980ies, because the more fps in VR, the  merrier, and i have a whole year to save up anyway, il even push my vacation bonus to it.

 

[levi]

People I know are either sticking with their old cards if they upgraded recently enough or waiting for the Ti version to come out.  I've seen the performance of this card described as 'not revolutionary' although I've only seen one benchmark where it came out worse than an older card.  The big revolution, comparatively, is power draw - if you're building a small form factor machine for gaming, these cards should be quite interesting, but if you have the cooling to run an older 200W+ card there's less reason to splash your cash.

 

[fusion_power]

What a monster card, does it need an nuclear reactor to run under full load? And I'm sure you could heat your entire House with that thing, look at these 3 huge fans, the card must produce enormous heat.

I hope there will be cheaper and more economical solutions to fire up an Occulus Rift in the future. ^^"

 

[elwing]

I'm tired of articles that claim "revolutionary" performances for, at best a marginal 10% increase in real life...

 

[ElPoco]

During the early days of the Arab Spring, one French internet provider was suing another one for its usage of "revolution" in their ad campaign, since they had earlier on released an internet box called "Revolution".

Meanwhile, the newspaper were refusing to call what was happening in the Arab countries "a revolution"...

 

[levi]

What a monster card, does it need an nuclear reactor to run under full load? And I'm sure you could heat your entire House with that thing, look at these 3 huge fans, the card must produce enormous heat.

I'm afraid at 145W (i.e. just over an amp at US voltages) it's not as good at heating your house as older top-end cards which run about twice as hot. Not sure why they need those massive fans, unless it's so they can run them slower and quieter and still keep the thing cool enough.

 

[Granitehead]

Probably it's just because people think a high end card need lots of fans...

 

[fusion_power]

What a monster card, does it need an nuclear reactor to run under full load? And I'm sure you could heat your entire House with that thing, look at these 3 huge fans, the card must produce enormous heat.

I'm afraid at 145W (i.e. just over an amp at US voltages) it's not as good at heating your house as older top-end cards which run about twice as hot. Not sure why they need those massive fans, unless it's so they can run them slower and quieter and still keep the thing cool enough.

Are these 145W really under full load? If yes then it may be not a bad card at all.  I mean, in idle, most GFX Cards are pretty efficient and low power consumpting, the difference is the load.

Besides that, the prices for both top NVidia Cards are also a factor that may keep me away from buying. However, I want an Occulus Rift one day and I doubt my GTX460 Card is enough for that.

 

[levi]

No, I later read that EG review posted and under load they burn almost double that. But the older high-end cards still seem to use an extra 100W or so under such circumstances.


Edit: And reading it a third time, I note the wattages posted by EG are system wattages, so actually the 145W TDPs NVidia posted might be pretty close to the loaded wattages.

 

[comradekingu]

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTc5ODA or http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTc5ODE

to have that aspect covered

 

[Night]

I've seen articles like this one floating around, but tbh i think my GTX 460 can still squeze out enough performance for most of what i usually play. Though i wouldn't rush into buying a new GPU, i would say both the GTX 970 and GTX 980 do look like a good option for anyone who's conciders a serious upgrade in the near future.