My Video Card Just Died - Recommendations on a Replacement

[flyinghaggis]

After several system crashes over the last few weeks my PC is now displaying odd graphical glitches at the BIOS screen and won't boot to windows with my GTX470 video card fitted. It's looking like it's finally shuffled off this mortal coil and ascended to silicon heaven (

!) after 4 years of service.

 

The question is what card should I buy to replace it? I currently have a stock i7-920 and, being a bit of an Nvidia fanboy, was contemplating either a new GTX 770 (£230) or pushing the boat out and going for a GTX 780 (£360).

 

Is it worth going for the 780 or would it be bottlenecked by my CPU? Any other cards worth considering for that price? Price-wise I definitely don't want to spend more than the cost of the 780 and would prefer not to think about changing my mobo/CPU unless it's seriously going to hold back the video card!

 

Would be especially interested to hear feedback from other first gen i7 folks who have upgraded to more recent video cards?

 

Edit: Just to update after googling a few reviews I'm thinking that the 780 isn't really worth an extra £130 over the 770 so I'll probably go for that unless any one has any other options?

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-780-ti-review-benchmarks,3663-4.html

Edited January 26, 2014 by flyinghaggis

[featured_spectre]

770 can have firmware updates which will push the card a bit more. 780 is massively too expensive for what you get in comparison to 770.

[mac_shinobi]

Where are you looking at getting the GTX 770 from for £230?

[flyinghaggis]

Scan or Overclockers seem to be selling them for that just now.

 

ScanFX GeForce GTX 770 OC 2GB Overclocked PCI Express Nvidia Graphics Card - FAMOUS BRAND - SFX/GTX770/2GB/OC - Scan.co.uk

 

It says overclocked but the reviews suggest it's an MSI unit fitted with a stock Nvidia spec fan/cooling. Comes bundled with Assassins Creed 4 too.

[3s-gtech]

The GTX 770 is a great card, and makes much more sense cost wise than a GTX 780. The 780 is capable at resolutions beyond 1080P - if you're gaming at that or below the 770 will do you well.

 

It's worth checking out the AMD competition in this price bracket, even as a fan of the greens. There are some great cards available for similar cost too.

 

Your CPU will not be a particular issue, some games will show a difference but the 920's performance is equivalent to a modern low end i5 and they cope fine.

[flyinghaggis]

Thanks for the input everyone. Just placed the order for a GTX 770 so it should be here in a couple of days time. Most of the reviews indicate it's over twice as fast as the GTX470 I had previously so it should make for a decent boost in performance.

 

It's definitely going to be better than the Geforce 210 that I'm using as a stop-gap I fired up a couple of games for a laugh and I'm getting frame rates in single figures!

Edited January 26, 2014 by flyinghaggis