Best gpu for i7 930?

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MasterShakeJD

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I need some advice with regards to a new video card as I haven't kept up with all of this. I'm running a stock i7 930 and my gtx 295 is dying. I had purchased it second hand for a great price and had been surprisingly happy with it even after getting a 2560x1440 monitor (other than it not being DX11 and the noise).

From what I've found, these days cpu bottlenecks are less of an issue; is that mostly accurate? I'm more incline to stick with Nvidia but am not set on them. I haven't had a Radeon since the 9800 days and AMD's drivers became a mess but I assume they've improved.

I'm assuming I should get a 4 GB card for 1440p. Am I right in that people don't seem to see think 770s are a good value and to stick with a 760 or move up to a 780? Just doing some early browsing I'm looking at the EVGA 760 Superclocked 4GB for about $300. Is it worth getting a more powerful card than that with my current CPU?

I was surprised the GTX 295 ran stuff as well as it did at 1440p. I'm almost tempted to just grab a used one since they are only about $100. I know power consumption vs performance is much improved and DX11 is finally becoming required. However, ignoring those two factors am I going to get that much more performance from a newer card costing over $200 more?

I appreciate any thoughts and advice.
 
Your 295 is pretty much at the same level as a 570. I would personally skip the 4gb 770 and go for a standard 770 2gb card because a 770 really isn't going to use 4gb of memory. I had the 570 2.5gb cards and the performance was pretty much the same as the 1.2 gb card.

You need to get your CPU over 4ghz or use that 200bucks difference between a 770 and 780 towards cpu/mobo/ram combo.
 
noteworthy said:
Your 295 is pretty much at the same level as a 570. I would personally skip the 4gb 770 and go for a standard 770 2gb card because a 770 really isn't going to use 4gb of memory. I had the 570 2.5gb cards and the performance was pretty much the same as the 1.2 gb card.

You need to get your CPU over 4ghz or use that 200bucks difference between a 770 and 780 towards cpu/mobo/ram combo.
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Why would the 770 not use the extra 2gb memory at 1440p? But for the 760 would I want the 4gb version? Is the 770 worth the $100 difference over a 760?

I meant the minimum of $200 more compared to just getting another used gtx 295 for $100 or at least a 760 (starting at about $300).

schmuckley said:
Y U no clock your Bloomfield?
6970-660,760,770, oh..7950,7970,280x
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I'm running a fancy cooler and that. I had just never bothered playing around with overclocking that much since it was already so powerful at the time I figured I'd rather have it perfectly stable. So, overclocking is still an option.
 
MasterShakeJD said:
I'm running a fancy cooler and that. I had just never bothered playing around with overclocking that much since it was already so powerful at the time I figured I'd rather have it perfectly stable. So, overclocking is still an option.
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You should definitely do it. I've had my 920 C0 at 3.8 for over three years now. Rock solid stable and a huge difference from stock clocks.
 
Yeah, I think at the time I couldn't find a decent guide for getting it stable at 4ghz and just figured heck with it and intended to try again down the line.
 
MasterShakeJD said:
Why would the 770 not use the extra 2gb memory at 1440p? But for the 760 would I want the 4gb version? Is the 770 worth the $100 difference over a 760?
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I think it's been fairly well established that the cards which typically come loaded with 2GB don't benefit much from having 4GB on-board. It can argued that 4GB configurations can be somewhat beneficial at higher resolutions, particular in SLI, but the cost/performance ratio isn't generally favorable.

*Here's a direct comparison of 2GB vs 4GB versions of the 680 (the 770 is effectively just a faster 680)

TL;DR: More RAM generally doesn't help performance very much since the architecture of the card constitutes a bandwidth bottleneck that stands between the GPU and its framebuffer. It may be worth it, but YMMV ;)
 
cortexodus said:
I think it's been fairly well established that the cards which typically come loaded with 2GB don't benefit much from having 4GB on-board. It can argued that 4GB configurations can be somewhat beneficial at higher resolutions, particular in SLI, but the cost/performance ratio isn't generally favorable.

TL;DR: More RAM generally doesn't help performance very much since the architecture of the card constitutes a bandwidth bottleneck that stands between the GPU and its framebuffer. It may be worth it, but YMMV ;)
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Thanks, I just found a good comparison of 2GB vs 4GB cards. I think I will go with the EVGA GTX 770 2GB Superclocked ACX
 
No worries about bottlenecks, I'm running SLI 780s on my i7 930 @ 4.1GHz and it works great.
 
Would there also be some optimization for games to use 2GB versus 4GB?

I've got a 4GB card back in september, works for me at everything Ultra on BF4.
 
First question is what do you think you are missing right now in games AND what you want the new card to be able to do? Therefore it depends on the bells & whistles you are looking for in a video card. Also what level of FPS do you want in what games. Single monitor or multiple monitors. Is there a 4K monitor in your future.

HOWEVER,

Do not forget that the new cards will be coming out this fall probably they will be produced on 20-22nm process so a bit faster with less heat.

If I were you, at this point I would grab another 295 and rough it out for the next few months and save for an equivalent of the current 290/290X or 780/780ti card offerings. (preferably the 290/780 for better price performance ratio) Whatever you get then, get at launch date if the mining craze continues to push up the price of the cards.

I still am using 5870's in Crossfire. I also have a R9 290 and have been waiting for 2 R9 290X's thatI ordered at a good price to arrive(4 weeks delivery time). I personally waver between canceling the order and waiting for the new cards(R9 390) and accepting the order and flipping them for some profit and waiting for the new R9 cards to become available. The R9 290 can do everything the 5870's in Crossfire can do and more.

just my $.01-.02 cents worth
 
I have a 290x and 780 Ti, on a 930 they both work great and the drivers on amd aren't to bad so far.
 
greens said:
You should definitely do it. I've had my 920 C0 at 3.8 for over three years now. Rock solid stable and a huge difference from stock clocks.
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Seconded! My 920 is only at 3.4 but it's been running there constantly since the middle of 2009 without a hitch.
 
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