Should I upgrage my EVGA 770 GTX?

Okay, I'm playing the Witcher 3 and it looks fine after just loading it up and running it. I didn't tweak anything graphically and I haven't even looked at how to do so. I know that Nvidia released a W3 specific driver, and I haven't even grabbed that. I have the micro-stutter issue, so I will need to grab that fix.

However, I really don't have any type of monetary restraints, so do you think that upgrading to a 970 or 980 would be worth it? I only play crpgs, so this game is my biggest graphical test and probably will be for awhile. Titans just seem like overpriced toys at this point, so those are out.

If someone less lazy than I would look at my system specs, can I even install it in my rig?


B2G Intel i5 Special

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1 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 - 4GB - EVGA Superclocked - Single CardFree Stuff

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Just buy a GTX 970 and everything is fine.

I would upgrade to a beQuiet 750W Power Supply, too.

Impossible to answer really. I'm sure you can complete and enjoy Witcher with the 770. The only question is whether running at higher effects is worth a few hundred now. I probably would wait until you know you need upgrade because better cards are on the way. Titans are just an opportunity to shake the pockets of people with more money than sense.

nVidia has a GTX 980Ti in the pipeline and AMD has an all new (not really... some rebrands) 3xx lineup coming up in a month or so but that's it for the rest of this year most likely.
So you can either wait for AMD's 3xx lineup to settle into the market which means you will probably have to wait until July/August for that.
Or buy now and, sure, there is nothing wrong at all with a GTX 970 or 980. Your CPU is still more than adequate. Power supply is sufficient. Why not?
Be aware that the GTX 970 only has 3.5GB "usable" VRAM. If a game goes above that then there could be performance issues. So far there is a small number of (unoptimized) games that can cause issues at very VRAM consuming ultra quality settings like Assassin's Creed Unity, FarCry 4 and Shadow of Mordor.
The vast majority of games do not come close to consuming more than 2GB to 3GB VRAM, however (in full HD or 1440p ... 4K is a different story but against what the GPU makers would like us to believe, 4K is simply not really ready for prime time just yet... we need to give it another GPU gen or two).

Ah, I should have pointed out that I only play on a 1680X1050 22" monitor. That may have made a difference to folks responses. I would buy a bigger monitor, but I love my desk and 22" is about the max…..I do have a 1900X1200 monitor too, but it sits off to the side.

In that case GTX 960 or 970. GTX 980 would be overkill .

I read on reddit that there is apparently an issue with the 770 that Nvidia is investigating in relation to The Witcher 3, but not everyone seems to be affected (I'm not, the game is a slideshow for some players with 770 even on the lowest setting).

I run everything on high/ultra outside of shadow on medium and with hairworks on (this is more than the default settings) and I don't have framerate issues outside of the micro-stutter on my 770 GTX (same resolution as you crpgnut). Everyone suggest to turn off hairworks, I'll try that tonight (and some people claim this is a the cause of the micro-stutter too, despite there being another fix for it).

The real question is do you require the game to run at 60FPS (without hairworks) or is 40FPS enough?

Moriendor said:

In that case GTX 960 or 970. GTX 980 would be overkill .

Click to expand...

I have read about GTX 960 that "Performance is good then, but not earth shattering in the same way as the GTX 970 was. It is a tad faster than the outgoing GTX 760, while using far less power, but it's not an essential upgrade for 760 owners, especially because you don't get any extra VRAM and take a hit on memory bandwidth. But, if you're running an older 660 or 560, it's a worthwhile upgrade."
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/review-nvidia-s-gtx-960-is-a-good-not-great-1080p-/1100-6425427/
So, if it's not much of an upgrade for GTX 760 isn't it even less so for 770? It's not an opinion though but more of a question.

The 960 is not a significant upgrade to the 770.
The 970 has a very good price/power ratio.
The 980 is only needed for very big monitors.

I'm waiting for something to surpass the Titan in performance before I consider upgrading again - and I only have a 670gtx. For the past ~5-10 years, leaps in gpu technoogy have been more of stutter steps and I routinely find myself disappointed with just how marginal any upgrade ends up being.

My advice is to simply wait - a 770 is plenty good, especially at 22" resolutions.

Okay, I've decided to wait for now, but will revisit the idea in July/August. Sounds like my 770 is good enuf.

Thanks everyone!!!

crpgnut said:

I really don't have any type of monetary restraints...Titans just seem like overpriced toys at this point, so those are out.

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I thought the top-end overpriced toys were the whole point of having unrestrained money?

It is for some people but I'm a miserly curmudgeon and Abe squeals before I let him go

.

I've got a Gigabyte Windforce 770 GTX, and I'm perfectly happy with it. TW3 runs great on High settings and looks fantastic. I'm waiting for the 980 Ti to be released before upgrading.

crpgnut said:

Okay, I've decided to wait for now, but will revisit the idea in July/August. Sounds like my 770 is good enuf.

Thanks everyone!!!

Click to expand...

Just saw the thread and wanted to agree that this is a good decision to not upgrade at the moment.

While there is a boost, it really isn't worth upgrading imho. The increase is just not worth the costs.
For reference I can recommend the following page:
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
I also gathered a couple of 3D-Mark Benchmarks from people I know. And these completely reflect the numbers on that page (the comparison between the benchmarks of 660<->970 is exactly = the comaprison of the scores on that page).
So the increase of your performance would be just 30%, which is really nothing considering it costs ~390€

What might actually make a bigger differece is to add another 770 into SLI. Just beware that it consumes up to 195W. Not sure if your power supply can handle that.

According to NVIDIA the next generaton called Pascal will be a big leap forward
http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2015/03/17/pascal/
So if you want to get a big upgrade (and currently a big upgrade would only be 2 X 970 or more), I would probably wait till the first cards of the new series are released which will not be before 2016 though.

Darn, I'll once again be out of sync with the latest GPU leaps. I get a new laptop in November.

@Thrasher
Doublecheck the requirements for the oculus rift shortly before release, so you don't completely exclude yourself from even having even the option of using one.
https://www.oculus.com/blog/powering-the-rift/

The last bullet point is tricky: many discrete GPU laptops have their external video output connected to the integrated GPU and drive the external output via hardware and software mechanisms that can’t support the Rift. Since this isn’t something that can be determined by reading the specs of a laptop, we are working on how to identify the right systems. Note that almost no current laptops have the GPU performance for the recommended spec, though upcoming mobile GPUs may be able to support this level of performance.

Click to expand...

If you don't have any monetary restrictions then wait for the 980ti.

Nothing out right now would make sense IMO. If you drop $400 on a 980 you will just end up with buyers remorse in a few months when the 980 ti trounces it.

Your right about Titan x being way overpriced but trust me it's no toy it's all business.

If you don't have any monetary restrictions it is easy just buy Titan X in SLI, like the rich guy above me