Replacing my GTX480

[Fatalmasterpiece]

I currently have a GTX480 1536mb GDDR5. Yes, I know it's very old but it has been a pretty good card for years in my EVGA ftw3 x58 mobo

 

It's struggling badly though and I need an upgrade. Unfortunately I don't have much money so I'm trying to figure something out for under $150

So I'm kind of going by this chart for replacements...

http://oi63.tinypic.com/2a013qv.jpg

 

Can anyone see anything wrong with this GTX770?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-NVID-GeForce-GTX-770-3GB-198Bit-GDDR5-PCI-Expres-Graphics-Card-VGA-DVI-HDMI-/191849281510?hash=item2cab1bb7e6:g:6QsAAOSw~oFXERUJ

Seems like it would be a big improvement.

 

Maybe if these don't get too much more expensive...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVGA-ACX-Cooler-GeForce-GTX-780-Superclocked-3GB-384-Bit-GDDR5-PCI-Express-3-0-/141962014987?hash=item210d98710b:g:5n0AAOSwV-RXEtmW

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MSI-Gaming-N780-TF-3GD5-OC-G-SYNC-Support-GeForce-GTX-780-3GB-384-Bit-GDDR5-PCI-/301931721791?hash=item464c88743f:g:Qa0AAOSw1DtXErMV

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EVGA-GEFORCE-GTX-780-Super-clocked-3GB-GDDR5-P-N-03G-P4-2784-KR-/322078430068?hash=item4afd5ed374:g:qeAAAOSw1DtXFA40

[iXenite]

Other than the GTX 770 being older than the 900 series cards, and thus getting a bit of the short end in terms of driver support, the GTX 770 should be a great upgrade. Although, if you can get the GTX 780 I would do that.

[Fatalmasterpiece]

Yeah I would love to get a 900 series but they are out of my budget. I'm keeping an eye out for a 780 but that 770 for $118 is hard to beat...

[obobski]

GTX 770 would be a fine upgrade. Some others to consider, assuming your PSU is up to the task:

- GTX 580 and 590.

- GTX 670/680 (the 770 is the same base GPU as the 680, but with slightly different clocks and the 770 can, in some configurations, have more memory), and 690 (if you can find one at a low enough price, that is)

- GTX 760

 

And from AMD:

- Higher-end Radeon HD 7000 series, like the 7800/7900 models, and the "rebadged" Rx 200 variants, like the 280 and 280X.

 

That first 770 that you linked looks very suspect, however - the board doesn't look right for a 770. The other three look good though.

Edited April 23, 2016 by obobski

[Fatalmasterpiece]

 

That first 770 that you linked looks very suspect, however - the board doesn't look right for a 770. The other three look good though.

 

Thanks, something does seem odd, like why the single outputs for DVI, VGA, and HDMI... But the seller has excellent ratings. It says "NVID", so is China making counterfeit Nvidia boards?

 

 

It does appear they are Chinese knock offs, here's a similar card with the same configuration that admits to being "not original" http://www.aliexpress.com/item/free-shipping-OEM-copy-2GB-2048MB-GTX770-GDDR3-384bit-GTX-Geforce-Video-Card-GTX-770-Graphic/32213304083.html?spm=2114.01010208.3.42.eh7nZR&ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_9,searchweb201602_5_10017_10005_10006_10034_10021_507_10022_10009_10020_10008_10018_10019,searchweb201603_7&btsid=399c5b98-eda4-44f1-823e-1f08beeede35

An admin on Tom's Hardware just told me "That's a counterfeit card. The 770 was only available in 2Gb and 4Gb and will require more than a single 6-pin power connector most are a 6 and an 8 others are 2 8s."

[obobski]

Yes it is most likely counterfeit/knock-off goods (and "excellent ratings" doesn't mean much in the era of botnets, sadly) - I've seen similar stuff in the past and who knows what you're actually getting - most likely its some lesser card that's been "flashed" to a GTX 770 (which, of course, is impossible; the card may not even work as a result, or it may just identify itself incorrectly, which will still cause driver problems), but who knows. I'd vote "pass" on it.

 

Something else I thought of: isn't the GTX 960 right around that $150-200 mark brand new?

[ClockworkBlack]

I wouldn't buy that 770... I currently have 2 770s that I'm about to put for sale on Ebay and when I first looked at that "770" I got a little worried haha. The price was way too low.

If you want to get the best bang for your buck and don't mind buying a used card, I would suggest wait until Pascal is supposed to come out in June. After Pascal's release, Ebay is going to be flooded with videocards as people try to sell for their upgrade. You may be able to snag a 900 series card for under $200. I've done that every release since my GTX 460 until now. With my new job and a lot more disposable income I am able to be current generation. But being one generation behind isn't bad either.

Edited April 24, 2016 by ClockworkBlack

[Fatalmasterpiece]

Something else I thought of: isn't the GTX 960 right around that $150-200 mark brand new?

Yeah I am finding 960s for $180 in 2g, $200 for 4g, not too bad at all.

 

If you want to get the best bang for your buck and don't mind buying a used card, I would suggest wait until Pascal is supposed to come out in June. After Pascal's release, Ebay is going to be flooded with videocards as people try to sell for their upgrade. You may be able to snag a 900 series card for under $200. I've done that every release since my GTX 460 until now. With my new job and a lot more disposable income I am able to be current generation. But being one generation behind isn't bad either.

Oh cool I didn't know this. So will they start a new generation, err GTX 10xx? What's the story with that? If they are indeed coming out with a new gen in June then I may wait.

[ClockworkBlack]

 

Oh cool I didn't know this. So will they start a new generation, err GTX 10xx? What's the story with that? If they are indeed coming out with a new gen in June then I may wait.

 

We assume its gonna be called GTX 1000 or X80. But those are just rumors. But yes, it is a new generation. The new GPU is going to have 14nm FinFET 3D Transistors which means they can put a lot more of them on one board (more performance). They are also stacking memory. The rumor is that Pascal is going to start with 6gb of VRAM on the lowest-end card in the series and end somewhere around 12gb. That's huge considering that the most Maxwell has for a single GPU is 6gb.

 

If all of that is true, the new generation Nvidia GPU's will be the biggest upgrade we've seen in a while between generations. With the increased amount of Vram it will make 4k gaming viable (which will also bring down the price of 4k monitors as more will flood the market).

 

The reason why I think this is because Nvidia originally wanted to do for the 800 and 900 series the same that they did for 600 and 700. The 700 series of graphics cards are basically just refreshed versions of the 600. And they wanted to release Maxwell as 800 and then just refresh it for 900. Instead they just skipped 800 all together because Pascal was coming. Basically they skipped a generation of GPU's to stay competitive with AMD who is much more transparent about what they are developing. Nvidia is also doing a big push for Virtual Reality currently, so I wouldn't be surprised if the new video cards have features for VR.

 

All this is supposed to be announced at Computex between May 31st and June 4th and if the past is any indication, they will be available for sale sometimes from the middle of June to the beginning of July.

[Fatalmasterpiece]

Thanks for the info Clockwork.

 

Awesome news, unfortunately I won't be getting one of those for a long time if ever but it will be nice to see prices on 900s drop. How much of a difference does 4gb to 6gb make since I've heard that 2gb on 4gb on the same card isn't that significant?

 

Unfortunately there are a lot of complaints over support for the 700 series drivers and this will only make things worse for them. I wonder if we will start hearing the same complaints for the 900 series after these 1000s drop.