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[Solved] Help me choose an nvidia card.. :)

2K views 31 replies 14 participants last post by  ngcarson 
#1 ·
Hi guys, New to Overclock.net. Thought I'd ask some opinions on what Graphics card I should get with my Z77 Intel Build. I ordered a 3770k, MSI Z77A-GD65, and will be ordering RAM soon.. But I'm still lost on which Nvidia card to get. I play COD Bo2 Zombies, League of Legends, BF3, and an assortment of other games like Saint's Row 3. I like to Max out my settings (who doesn't?) and turn up all the flashy/shiny features. I sometimes like to stream to Twitch.tv and like to have above 45-60fps while streaming with Maxxed settings. I've been looking at the MSI 660ti, EVGA 670, and a few others. I'm only open to running one card, one one monitor @1080p, and I'd like to stick to $300-ish as possible, but may be open to closer to $500. If I can invest a bit more into a card and it last another year, that would be okay. Thanks in advance.
 
#2 ·
buy the evga ftw 2tb gtx670 you will be set for quite a while. forget ati drivers and no physx. good luck with your build
 
#3 ·
The 660 Ti is solid at 1080p, but it sounds like you might be better off with the GTX 670 instead. Don't bother paying extra for the FTW card - just get a regular card and overclock it yourself.
 
#4 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Forceman View Post

The 660 Ti is solid at 1080p, but it sounds like you might be better off with the GTX 670 instead. Don't bother paying extra for the FTW card - just get a regular card and overclock it yourself.
I was really eyeing the EVGA 670 FTW+ with 4GB GDDR5 since it may help me futureproof since I like to run full textures and FFA and stuff.
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#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by K62-RIG View Post

Nice choice of card in the EVGA 670 FTW - go for it.
Thanks mate, I'm finally building a proper rig, and not going so budget. I'm upgrading from my last build that had a Sapphire AMD Radeon 6850 LOL. But yeah, I'm thinking one card with the 4GB of VRAM is better than an SLI setup, since some games seem to flip out when you try to run them with SLI.
 
#7 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ngcarson View Post

Thanks mate, I'm finally building a proper rig, and not going so budget. I'm upgrading from my last build that had a Sapphire AMD Radeon 6850 LOL. But yeah, I'm thinking one card with the 4GB of VRAM is better than an SLI setup, since some games seem to flip out when you try to run them with SLI.
If you want more vram than the average 2GB, then the EVGA GTX 670 FTW is an outstanding choice. IF you decide you are OK with running 2GB vram, then the EVGA reference GTX 670 is the choice I would go with (If you don't plan on upgrading when the 700 series cards come out, going with the FTW might be a decent call, as it will probably last longer since I imagine "some" games might push the 2GB to the limits by then even on single 1080p gaming). I know a lot of people know EVGA for their reference designs and their cooling, but I have been buying EVGA for over 10 years, never had a single issue with anything (GPU or Motherboards), and their customer service is second to none IF you do run into a problem. Just my
2cents.gif
, hope this helps!

Regards,
Addiction
 
#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Addiction View Post

If you want more vram than the average 2GB, then the EVGA GTX 670 FTW is an outstanding choice. IF you decide you are OK with running 2GB vram, then the EVGA reference GTX 670 is the choice I would go with (If you don't plan on upgrading when the 700 series cards come out, going with the FTW might be a decent call, as it will probably last longer since I imagine "some" games might push the 2GB to the limits by then even on single 1080p gaming). I know a lot of people know EVGA for their reference designs and their cooling, but I have been buying EVGA for over 10 years, never had a single issue with anything (GPU or Motherboards), and their customer service is second to none IF you do run into a problem. Just my
2cents.gif
, hope this helps!
Regards,
Addiction
That's pretty much what I was thinking. The only other card I'd get would be an MSI GTX 670, if they made one with 4GB of VRAM.. Oh well, the EVGA backplate is sexy, and I've heard nothing but good things about them as a company and their customer service. I'm hoping the card will last me 2-3 years.. But who knows, maybe next gen consoles will step up their game and push computer hardware further. xD Thanks Addiction!
 
#9 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ngcarson View Post

That's pretty much what I was thinking. The only other card I'd get would be an MSI GTX 670, if they made one with 4GB of VRAM.. Oh well, the EVGA backplate is sexy, and I've heard nothing but good things about them as a company and their customer service. I'm hoping the card will last me 2-3 years.. But who knows, maybe next gen consoles will step up their game and push computer hardware further. xD Thanks Addiction!
Not a problem bud, more than happy to have helped.
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#11 ·
Others have it pretty much spot on here, 670 over the 660ti for your wants/needs but I would advise you that if you do not plan to add a second card later on then the 4Gb 670 doesn't offer you anything that you would not be capable of doing on the 2Gb card. That said the extra VRAM is cheaper today than it used to be, I think you only pay $40-50 extra VRAM whereas last gen you had to pay an extra $100 for the double VRAM option. So basically I think it'd be really difficult for you to make a bad choice when picking your 670 as long as you like it.
 
#12 ·
Buy the best one you can afford. Why is this a question? When you already know you want one brand over the other the only question becomes, how much money do you want to spend?
 
#14 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by StayFrosty View Post

Why not get a 7950 which is faster than a 660 Ti, 670 and 680 overclocked a bit for the price of 660 Ti? The extra 1GB of VRAM would make your card more future proof as well. It's a no-brainer really.
Sticking to Intel + nvidia with this build. Not really caring about budget as much as performance with the games I play and the things I'd like to achieve. Unfortunately, most FPS games seem to run a few frames higher on nvidia cards, plus I've had issues with AMD drivers, and nvidia just likes to work better with Intel from what I hear. My last rig was "I'm a poor college student budget build". This one is my all-out dream machine with some future-proofing. Thanks for the suggestion though mate!
 
#15 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ngcarson View Post

Thanks mate, I'm finally building a proper rig, and not going so budget. I'm upgrading from my last build that had a Sapphire AMD Radeon 6850 LOL. But yeah, I'm thinking one card with the 4GB of VRAM is better than an SLI setup, since some games seem to flip out when you try to run them with SLI.
So far so good with mine. I play MW3,BF3 and Black Ops 2 and not a single issue with SLI.
 
#16 ·
UPDATE:
Having a hard time deciding between these two cards

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130824

and

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121659

With the Asus card obs it will run cooler because it's more open and has more fans to pull the heat away from the gpu immediately, but the downside is that it will raise the ambient temp of my case by doing so...
Obvs with the EVGA I get a card with a cooling system that will expell heat out of the back of the case and not inside..

When it comes to the other differences I see, it seems I'll get a better out of box clock + boost out of the EVGA, and I hear their customer service is faster/better than Asus when it comes to cards.

Any thoughts gentlemen?
 
#17 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ngcarson View Post

UPDATE:
Having a hard time deciding between these two cards
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130824
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121659
With the Asus card obs it will run cooler because it's more open and has more fans to pull the heat away from the gpu immediately, but the downside is that it will raise the ambient temp of my case by doing so...
Obvs with the EVGA I get a card with a cooling system that will expell heat out of the back of the case and not inside..
When it comes to the other differences I see, it seems I'll get a better out of box clock + boost out of the EVGA, and I hear their customer service is faster/better than Asus when it comes to cards.
Any thoughts gentlemen?
where are you from? if you live in the United States, pick an EVGA card because they have a superior customer support from what I heard so far....different from ASUS, their customer support is terrible from what I've seen, However, IF you look at their cooling, ASUS have a very superior (the quietest GTX 670) compared to EVGA.
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sharchaster View Post

where are you from? if you live in the United States, pick an EVGA card because they have a superior customer support from what I heard so far....different from ASUS, their customer support is terrible from what I've seen, However, IF you look at their cooling, ASUS have a very superior (the quietest GTX 670) compared to EVGA.
Yeah I live in Seattle, WA. Noise isn't a big pet-peave of mine, as I'm running like 7 case fans on max settings, and I'll be running a Corsair H100i push/pull, so the rest of the case won't be quite in the least. Also, I NEVER hear anything outside of my Logitech G930 headet, my roommates always try talking to me and I never hear them. Sheesh, even the fire alarms were going off, screaching in my apt, and I didn't realize it until someone in game said my mic had a screaching noise in the background. LOL

Perhaps the EVGA is the best option then, unless anyone else posts up here in the next few days with more insight..
Thanks mate!
 
#19 ·
Thread cleaned.

Guys, I've mentioned this countless times ... this is a post on the NVIDIA board. If a user is asking about nV options on the nV board, please do not chime in with 'why don't you buy AMD?'.

This is how flame-wars start.

Thanks.

@OP: the only sound reason to get a 4GB version of these cards is if you're going to run SLI, AND run at 'surround' resolutions. Otherwise, 99% of the time (as in, there's a couple games that if you deploy hi-res texture mods, you might see a difference in perf between the two) it's money down the toilet, as there's no (literally zero) actual, practical benefit to the extra vram. Thus, 99% of the time, getting a higher vram card is nowhere near as effective as getting a SLI setup ... of course it's also much cheaper cause it's only one card, but ... 99% of the time the 2GB card is going to perform identically to the 4GB card unless you're running Surround resolutions ... and in that scenario you're going to likely need 2 of 'em to have a high enough framerate.

Also, there's really no such thing as games 'not liking SLI' (games don't even know about SLI, nor do they care), nor do intel chips 'like' nVidia cards 'better'. Just letting ya know
wink.gif
 
#20 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by brettjv View Post

Thread cleaned.
Guys, I've mentioned this countless times ... this is a post on the NVIDIA board. If a user is asking about nV options on the nV board, please do not chime in with 'why don't you buy AMD?'.
This is how flame-wars start.
Thanks.
@OP: the only sound reason to get a 4GB version of these cards is if you're going to run SLI, AND run at 'surround' resolutions. Otherwise, 99% of the time (as in, there's a couple games that if you deploy hi-res texture mods, you might see a difference in perf between the two) it's money down the toilet, as there's no (literally zero) actual, practical benefit to the extra vram. Thus, 99% of the time, getting a higher vram card is nowhere near as effective as getting a SLI setup ... of course it's also much cheaper cause it's only one card, but ... 99% of the time the 2GB card is going to perform identically to the 4GB card unless you're running Surround resolutions ... and in that scenario you're going to likely need 2 of 'em to have a high enough framerate.
Also, there's really no such thing as games 'not liking SLI' (games don't even know about SLI, nor do they care), nor do intel chips 'like' nVidia cards 'better'. Just letting ya know
wink.gif
Is that to say though, that in 1-2 years, the games out won't utilize more than 2GB of VRAM? Or that 4GB would run a second or even 2 more monitors fine for most games?
 
#23 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ngcarson View Post

Perhaps, but in ONE year?
Crysis 3 destroys single 680's & 7970. Something to think about (based on alpha).

Theres a thread somewhere about how much Vram it uses.

Id say 670 also.
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#25 ·
Yup, go for the EVGA 670
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