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Dandynamite · ‎08-08-2013

So a while back I was discussing on here what graphics card to get and ended up settling on the MSI Lightning 7970. To cut a long story short some things came up and I never got round to buying it.

So now, with the launch of the 700s properly, I've got the 760, 770, and 780 to contend with (simply don't want a Titan) against the Lightning 7970.

Bit of an MSI fan-boy (at least I'll admit it) when it comes to graphics cards.

So was looking at either

The MSI Lightning 7970 (Original Choice £400)

The MSI Hawk 760 (two of them I can get for £540, but considerably lower spec I've heard)
The MSI Lightning 770 (again, probably going to try and get two if I go for these, one to start with and one when I have the funds, as there about £400 again)
The MSI Lightning 780 (about to be revealed, guessing going to hit the £700 mark)

or I just noticed AMD cutting the price of the 7990 by about £200, so its now avaliable at £635 for the MSI 7990 (not a Lightning so not sure what over-clocking options there would be if any)

Fancy trying a bit of over-clocking, hence why going for the Hawk and the Lightning series of the cards.

Playing on a 144hz 1ms 1080p monitor, looking to get the best performance I can ideally, possibly moving onto two 1090p displays. Unlikely that I will move up to 4k or 1200, but if the card can "future-proof" itself with that technology coming out, thats a bonus.

I have no problem with AMD's love of DisplayPort, so that's not a factor either, just looking for the best performance.

From my initial lookings into it, seems as though a dual-770 Lightning could be the best performance solution.

(Dual 7990s or Dual 780s are a bit out of my price range tbh)

If anybody has any thoughts or ideas they'd be welcomed greatly, and apologies for going through this again when I thought I'd settled it.

Running:
WIndows 8,
ROG Crosshair v-z Motherboard,
AMD FX850 Eight Core Bulldozer
8gb DDR3 1888mhz
750w PSU (I can upgrade this)
Bitfenix Collosus case (loads of room)

Zka17 · ‎08-08-2013

I would wait for the 780 Lightning... just to see what offers... - otherwise the 2x 770 Lightning option seems pretty nice...

Krindor · ‎08-08-2013

If the 770 is able to overclock as well as the 670 did, the 770 will be pretty much a tiny bit slower than a 780 and in that case much better than a 7970.

kkn · ‎08-09-2013

but all in all the 770 and down is the old keplar, and the 780 and titan is new keplar.
the 770 is a "boosted" version of the 680 card.

chrisnyc75 · ‎08-09-2013

The 780 is an impressive piece of hardware, but IMO the pricetag is a bit absurd. The smart money is waiting for the 800 series to jump on the new architecture. You'll get better bang for your buck right now from two 770s in SLI (2x SLI 770s outperform a single 780 by a wide margin).

Asus RIVBE • i7 4930K @ 4.7ghz • 8gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2133 CL8
2xSLI EVGA GTX 770 SC • Creative X-Fi Titanium • 2x 840 SSD + 1TB Seagate Hybrid
EVGA Supernova 1300W• Asus VG278H & nVidia 3d Vision
Phanteks Enthoo Primo w/ custom watercooling:
XSPC Raystorm (cpu & gpu), XSPC Photon 170, Swiftech D5 vario
Alphacool Monsta 360mm +6x NB e-loop, XT45 360mm +6x Corsair SP120

HiVizMan · ‎08-10-2013

If you can afford it the 780 lighting is a peach of a card. But are you going to be OC at any kind of extreme level, that is where the card comes into its own. I would suggest any of the reference 780 cards actually they rock.

To help us help you - please provide as much information about your system and the problem as possible.

Dandynamite · ‎08-10-2013

HiVizMan wrote:
If you can afford it the 780 lighting is a peach of a card. But are you going to be OC at any kind of extreme level, that is where the card comes into its own. I would suggest any of the reference 780 cards actually they rock.

Even over two OC MSI Lightning 770s? Very unlikely I'd get the cash to get 2 780 Lightnings SLIed...

HiVizMan · ‎08-11-2013

I do heaps of motherboard type support here on ROG and you will be surprised by the number of folks who have a nightmare with SLi. So based on my own experience as a bencher who does use multicards often, and here my advice each and every time is this. Single card over multi card every time.

To help us help you - please provide as much information about your system and the problem as possible.

chrisnyc75 · ‎08-11-2013

HiVizMan wrote:
I do heaps of motherboard type support here on ROG and you will be surprised by the number of folks who have a nightmare with SLi. So based on my own experience as a bencher who does use multicards often, and here my advice each and every time is this. Single card over multi card every time.

That may be, but as a user who has been on nvidia SLI for several generations and never had a problem, I would point out that the performance advantage of 770 SLI vs 780 isn't even close.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_770_sli_review,20.html

Sure, if the performance of a single gpu vs dual gpu's is comparable, the single gpu option is the better option every time. But when the performance advantage of dual gpu's is 50%+ ahead of the single gpu option, with both coming in at virtually the same exact price point, there's really no question which is the better choice.

Asus RIVBE • i7 4930K @ 4.7ghz • 8gb Corsair Dominator Platinum 2133 CL8
2xSLI EVGA GTX 770 SC • Creative X-Fi Titanium • 2x 840 SSD + 1TB Seagate Hybrid
EVGA Supernova 1300W• Asus VG278H & nVidia 3d Vision
Phanteks Enthoo Primo w/ custom watercooling:
XSPC Raystorm (cpu & gpu), XSPC Photon 170, Swiftech D5 vario
Alphacool Monsta 360mm +6x NB e-loop, XT45 360mm +6x Corsair SP120

HiVizMan · ‎08-11-2013

Yeah that is accurate sli 770 out performs a single 780 and it should, but as the OP is currently using a single 1080p monitor I struggle to see the benefit of going SLi. However looking at things from the screen size perspective, it seems that the 770 as a single card might actually be a better option from a cost and performance perspective.

To help us help you - please provide as much information about your system and the problem as possible.

Never got round to buying that graphics card....