Should I get a nVidia 770 or a 780?

[G.T.Ace]

Hey guys,

maybe you can help me out a bit with a pretty annoying first world problem.
I recently purchased a new rig, I bought it to have a "future proof" gaming PC (well, as future proof as possible for under 1800 bucks), but it lacks a proper graphics card so far. I'm planning to buy it after Christmas, until then, I have the Intel 4600HD from my Haswell to hold me over.

Anyway, I talked to some people about that already and now I am confused.
Should I purchase a 770 or a 780?
There's also a nice 770 from EVGA with 4 GB instead of just 2.

Is the 770 enough, if I want to downsample for example?

 

[Grayfox]

I dont really see a point.

You could get 2 680s for the price of a 780 and get the same performance if not better.

EVGA cards are like ferrari's.
Good but you pay extra just for the EVGA brand.

If it is nVidia refrence design get any major brand since they all have the exact same design it will perform the same.

 

[Bigbazz]

Get a Gigabyte GTX770 with the Windforce coolers, they run cool and they are amazingly quiet. The GTX780 is so much more expensive and the 770 will run pretty much anything flatout and do so for the next few years.

 

[Phoenix]

Get a Gigabyte GTX770 with the Windforce coolers, they run cool and they are amazingly quiet. The GTX780 is so much more expensive and the 770 will run pretty much anything flatout and do so for the next few years.

This, only 780.

If you can afford it, i'd go for the Gigabyte GTX780.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Get an AMD R9-290X if you're looking at a GTX780. The 290X will pretty much destroy the GTX780, and I'm guessing it will be launched at a similar price.

If you don't want to spend so much money, look at a GTX770 or the AMD R9-280X cards. The GTX770 is barely the better card over a 7970 Ghz Edition, and now that the 280X has just been released, I wouldn't be surprised on the possibility of $250 7970 Ghz Edition deals. You'd have to be a monumental fool not to grab a 7970 at that price.

My honest opinion? Wait until October 15th until the 290X releases and see at what price it will be launched. If that's too expensive, either get a GTX700 with 4Gb of VRAM or get a 280X/7970 if you're willing to trade in a few frames for $50 and at least 3 free games.

If you are looking to future proof your system in any way, not that it exists anyhow, you want at LEAST 3Gb of VRAM. nVidia's 2Gb card will not be enough if you want to run every game at their highest settings.

nVidia will launch their new Haswell cards in Q1 2014, and I expect them to completely obliterate the AMD camp. But until that time I honestly think AMD cannot possibly be beaten unless nVidia will decide to lower their prices with the arrival of the 280X and 290X.

Just get the 290X and you will be good for a loooong time.

 

[G.T.Ace]

I dont really see a point.

You could get 2 680s for the price of a 780 and get the same performance if not better.

EVGA cards are like ferrari's.
Good but you pay extra just for the EVGA brand.

If it is nVidia refrence design get any major brand since they all have the exact same design it will perform the same.

I don't want two cards though. No SLI for me.
The reason why I mentioned the EVGA is, that they're offering a 4GB 770 instad of just a 2GB model.

Get a Gigabyte GTX770 with the Windforce coolers, they run cool and they are amazingly quiet. The GTX780 is so much more expensive and the 770 will run pretty much anything flatout and do so for the next few years.

But is 2GB VRAM enough for the next few years?

Get an AMD R9-290X if you're looking at a GTX780. The 290X will pretty much destroy the GTX780, and I'm guessing it will be launched at a similar price.

If you don't want to spend so much money, look at a GTX770 or the AMD R9-280X cards. The GTX770 is barely the better card over a 7970 Ghz Edition, and now that the 280X has just been released, I wouldn't be surprised on the possibility of $250 7970 Ghz Edition deals. You'd have to be a monumental fool not to grab a 7970 at that price.

My honest opinion? Wait until October 15th until the 290X releases and see at what price it will be launched. If that's too expensive, either get a GTX700 with 4Gb of VRAM or get a 280X/7970 if you're willing to trade in a few frames for $50 and at least 3 free games.

If you are looking to future proof your system in any way, not that it exists anyhow, you want at LEAST 3Gb of VRAM. nVidia's 2Gb card will not be enough if you want to run every game at their highest settings.

nVidia will launch their new Haswell cards in Q1 2014, and I expect them to completely obliterate the AMD camp. But until that time I honestly think AMD cannot possibly be beaten unless nVidia will decide to lower their prices with the arrival of the 280X and 290X.

Just get the 290X and you will be good for a loooong time.

Sorry, but no AMD cards for me anymore. Too many bad experiences and no PhysX. Like I mentioned, I'll buy the card around, or most likely after Christmas, so I'll have to wait a bit anyway. About the RAM, that's why I mentioned the EVGA card.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[dan0543]

At a low-ish budget I would be tempted to look for an msi 680 power edition, basically the same as the lightning which was arguably the all round best 680 before the titan and 780 came along. Overclocks like a monster if you're up for that. Looking at one on overclockers store now and it's £260, which could beat out a 770 without breaking much of a sweat.
As for the memory issue, I think with a single card you will run out of pure gpu grunt before you run out of memory.

 

[ShaZZa]

I don't want two cards though. No SLI for me.

Well you could just do what I did an go 690 (then later sli ), or you could grab 1 of the ones you have suggested.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Why would anyone get a 690 at this point? That card makes no sense to me. You could get a 7990 which is only $600 at this point, and which still completely decimates any single GPU card.

Since GT Ace is so desperate on getting a nVidia card, I'd just say wait for the 290X to be released and nVidia to drop the prices on the GTX780. I'm pretty sure nVidia will drop prices on all their cards.

 

[G.T.Ace]

Sorry Bram, it's just that the ATi drivers gave me too much headache in the past and I'm reading from too many people, who have the same issues. I really liked the AMD cards in the past, but not anymore.

I hope that nVidia drops their prices, but even then: Is the 780 worth the price, compared to a 770?

 

[Luminis]

Why would anyone get a 690 at this point? That card makes no sense to me. You could get a 7990 which is only $600 at this point, and which still completely decimates any single GPU card.

Well, the 690 is faster than a Titan, and thereby the fastest card money can buy. If that's what one is after, it'd be the way to go.

Since GT Ace is so desperate on getting a nVidia card, I'd just say wait for the 290X to be released and nVidia to drop the prices on the GTX780. I'm pretty sure nVidia will drop prices on all their cards.

I'd wait for NVIDIA's response to the new AMD cards, either way. I'd consider that the best course of action, especially since I fully expect another price drop for christmas. It seems that, right now's not the best time to buy a GPU. AMD's new cards aren't fully released yet, NVIDIA will react to that soon, christmas is near and NVIDIA's new set of cards as well...

 

[G.T.Ace]

Really hoping for a nice surprise.
Holy craparoni at the 690 by the way. Definitely not in my price range.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Well, the 690 is faster than a Titan, and thereby the fastest card money can buy. If that's what one is after, it'd be the way to go.

You might want to check some benchmarks on the HD7990 then. $600 and it's in a totally different league than the GTX690. Hell, you could still go 660Ti SLI and poop all over the Titan. That's easy to do with a dual GPU.

Ace, wait for the 290X to release, and then buy a 4Gb GTX780 at a pricecut. The GTX770 is nothing compared to a GTX780.

 

[Pako]

Seems if the price is right and if you are looking to buy now, the 770 with 4gb of vram sounds nice. My experience with EVGA has been AWESOME! I have never had any issues with their products, customer services is great, and the warranty is super. They seem to still be a company that has their main focus on the gaming industry with a small company feel. I like to support companies like that.

A buddy of mine just order a 280x. He is the only one in our group running ATI video cards. Like you, I have had my share of bad experiences with ATI. Once I made the switch to Nvidia, I have never looked back.

One thing not discussed is what resolution will you be running at?

 

[G.T.Ace]

I guess it will depend on the game. Without downsampling I'll run at 1920x1080, but I'm targeting more. Thanks for your input regarding EVGA, it's good to read something like that and you're not the first mentioning this, which is great.

The GTX770 is nothing compared to a GTX780.

This is some kind of statement I wanted to see.
I just need to know if the 780 is worth the extra cash.

 

[kikie]

Well, if you want a gaming pc for the next few years, the extra cash doesn't really matter. If you were looking for a temporary card you better get a cheaper card. But that is not your intention so yes, I my opinion the extra cash is probably worth it.

 

[Luminis]

Personally, I prefer to spend the extra cash to get the bigger model... Just my personal point of view, but from my past experience, running a single GPU NVIDIA system is the least hassle. I've had ATI cards in the past and an SLI system with "lesser" NVIDIA cards back in the day (when I still lived with my parents). I do suppose that both are easier to work with now than they were a few years ago, but stuffing a big single GPU into my rig that doesn't run into any driver issues (or any other issue, really) is quite nice.

 

[G.T.Ace]

Yup, that's what I thought as well. I want a stable system without much trouble.
Well, looks like I'll get a 780, depending on pricecuts or what their new cards offer.

I can live with the Intel chip for now, it's quick enough to run pCARS on low to medium setting (just tested it) and much quicker than the ATi 4830HD I had before. So I'll be able to wait till early next year.