Less or more for the CPU?

that's not true in the least, the gtx 960 stock is only 5% better then an EVGA SC 760 w/ acx cooling(cheaper then a STOCK gtx 760), and that difference is not only negligible, but the SC 760 can probably make it 0% or turn it the other way around with a little bit of overclocking

(the above info is based on currently known info of the 960)

 

And? The same was said about the 980s before launch. While the gain was still small it was waay better than what the rumor mill made out. Plus, the 960 will be launching with 4GB VRAM (a necessity these days, the reason my 760 already got sold for a 970) which the 4GB 760 brings us right back to the rumored launch price of the 960 (once again, the rumor mill for the flagship prices was more doom and gloom than it turned out to be). Additionally, let us not forget that GM204 overclocks like a baws, while you can only call GK104 average, or that GM204 has support for the newest APIs.

The only way I'd buy a 760 right now at the very end of its lifecycle would be through EVGA if their step-up program is still a thing. Always buy a graphics card right at the launch of your price tier, either buy the new one for the longest support or look for people offloading last gen's model at a steep discount in order to do the former.

 

that is the WORST advice ever, you'll always being paying way more then you should doing that

Also 4gb is NOT a necessity, 2gb of graphics ram is still plenty, only reason anyone would ever need more is if they GAME at 4K or on all 3 1080P monitors if they have that many

please stop giving advice, it's obvious you have no idea what your talking about

 

And by mid 2016 you'll have to replace your 970. That's how it works.

 

I had my 260 for five years, and it ran everything beautifully on high/ultra up until I replaced it. I wound up replacing it for the updated APIs and drivers as well as overheating issues rather than a direct lack of performance, unlike the 760. Right now is a period of heavy change in the whole industry, what with the launch of the new consoles and resolutions like 1440p and 4K becoming the norm, exactly like 720 and 1080 were coming into the spotlight several years ago. Buying a card now with GPU performance only slightly better than the next gen consoles and less effectively usable VRAM is not smart, especially when the consoles are even struggling with new releases at sub-1080p, mid-high setting equivalent, and in some cases sub-30FPS coughAC:UcoughDeadRising3cough.

 

Do you know the differences between the Windows operating systems?
The Ultimate version is only better due to it's compatibility with RAM up to 192GB, and some functions like drive encryption[1]. There is no reason for the average gamer to pick Ultimate over Home Premium.
Note that Windows 8 has been proven to utilize hardware resources slightly better than Windows 7, overall.

 

@op an EVGA gtx 760 SC w/ ACX Cooling for your gpu will do you fine for a few years, please ignore pulley as he has no idea what the hell he's talking about

 

I get it from the site go2keys.com and the price is only about £3 more than the pro or about £5 more than the home premium so I may as welle just go for the Ultimate.

And BTW I know this site is good because I am currently running on my previously Windows 8 Laptop that is now on Windows 7 Ultimate SP1. And it is just sort of nice saying that you have the "Ultimate edition" so what the heck!

And also the Windows 8 thing I hate windows 8 and think it should die in hell. Just my opinion but I would rather have Windows 7 than 8 even if it uses the hardware slightly better.

 

Alot more language packs which insisted on installing themselves and hogging both bandwidth as it updated them and hard disk space was only difference I had for ultimate vs pro on windows 7. Total waste of time.

 

Windows 7 Ultimate is just Enterprise for individual customers. AKA slow, broken piece of shit.

 

GPU RELATED WALL OF TEXT INCOMING

Do you know what you're talking about though? We all aren't as diligent about updating our signatures as we should be (still need to add the 970), but your signature indicates you're still waiting on the card, and BlueScreen has a slightly weaker R9 270. Keep in mind I've owned mine for a while, and felt the need to replace it for performance reasons far sooner than my old 260.

Consider one of the most recent AAA titles to come out on 360 and PC, Titanfall. What's the minimum requirement for it? An 8800GTX. Coincidentally, what was the 8800GTX? The first video card to match or exceed the XBox 360's GPU on all fronts. From that lineup, look at the 8600GTS, the 760's rough equivalent of the time. Why is that one not seen around any more? The GPU itself had about as much juice as the 360, but lagged behind on the RAM front, where the 8800 was slightly ahead.

If this holds true, then a GPU that meets or exceeds the consoles' specs in every regard (GPU polygon, texel, shader rates, VRAM read/write speeds, and VRAM amount) will be able to run games at at least low settings and console res/framerate for the whole generation. The 2GB 760 you're talking about passes by a moderate margin on the GPU front, but fails RAM.

Consider the two builds currently in my sig. Guess which one runs Titanfall better at 1080p? The cheaper AMD rig, because I made sure it matched or exceeded the X1's specs on every front, where the 2600k/760 rig was built before concrete specs on the consoles were announced and I used my best judgement, evidently putting far too much weight on CPU, though that makes me happy for Beam.

In order to get a 760 ready to ride through the entire next generation you'll have to fork out $40 US more for the extended VRAM variant, which puts you back up to the rumored launch price of the 960. Like I said, the only way I'd buy a 760 right now would be if I desperately needed a GPU and I'd go through EVGA so I could easily use their step up program to the 960 when it comes out sometime in the next three months. The R9 28X(x) subfamily is probably the best bet right now if targeting next gen consoles, though.

Additionally, I'm positive you didn't read my whole reasoning for buying a new video card right when your desired performance tier launches. You can either buy the latest and greatest yourself and have it last you the longest possible time, or you can get last gen's model on the cheap from someone looking to ditch it for upgrade funds themselves.

Now I've told you my full thought process and reasoning. What's yours on why I don't know what the hell I'm talking about?

NOW ON TO WINDOWS

Bought 7 Ultimate, and I agree with everyone here in that you'll likely never use all of its offerings above Home Premium or Pro. Kinda regret it.

Also regret Windows 8 for a lack of compatibility with older AAA titles and some indies, but it may be a worthwhile investment if you don't plan to use any old software/hardware. Cannot stand the OS's repeated attempts to get me to sign in to an MS account, especially after having to service a rash PCs where MS updated their password requirements and locked out the user, whose only device able to change their password was said PC. The direction MS is taking the new Windows versions is worrisome, to say the least.

 

will you get off on the vram stuff, 4k and 1440p screens are still far too expensive to become the norm anytime soon(and the chance of them becoming the norm is still very low, as 1080p screens are still not really the norm, most people are on 1440x900, or 1376x768 or something like that still), so 2gb is still plenty

seriously, just stop giving advice, getting something right as it comes out is literally the WORST thing you could possibly do, as you will be buying it at it's most expensive point in it's life

and the 760 is MILES ahead of consoles, no idea what your on about

 

My 270 is perfectly fine for 60 FPS on any game I play, I've had it for around 8 months now. I don't think I'll change it until 4k becomes more popular (and affordable) and 4k-capable single graphics cards (not dual GPU) are a thing. Then I should have enough money to buy a nice 4K monitor and a GPU good enough to get 60 FPS on 4K. Even then I won't be getting the latest state-of-the-art graphics card, but a mid-high end card that does what I need.

Also the "next gen" console graphics are as powerful as a GTX 650. You can't compare consoles to mid or high end PCs in terms of hardware, unless the PC is at least 5 years older. A C2E rig with a GTX 295 will still own a "next gen" PS4.

 

I'm trying to earn some extra money so I can get a 1080P monitor because I have some crappy 32" TV that's dying, I'm earning some extra money so a 1080P monitor could be possible in the near future...

 

No, I won't get of the VRAM stuff. Watching my usage, both Titanfall and Watch_Dogs were filling my 2GB VRAM limit at 1680x1050 with the supposed 2GB texture options and 4xAA and high settings everywhere else, resulting in stuttering as they overfilled the VRAM wrote to DDR3. Titanfall was far better than W_D in this respect, but both were still evident. I had to dial textures back to the supposedly 1GB supported medium option in both games. Here's the kicker: it will only get worse. Games are going to start including the 3GB texture options as fallbacks for the, as BlueScreen pointed out, laughably underpowered consoles while textures for the PC version will support up to 8GB or higher textures - it's in the reference spec for all of the known GM204 cards, and the number will only climb. In this ecosystem, 2GB will quickly become unsupported while the GPU it's attached to would still be capable of running the game, if only it had more high bandwidth memory right next to it to talk to, instead of travelling halfway across the motherboard and through the CPU to DDR3/4 and back.

Buying a 2GB 760 at RP right now would be incredibly short sighted. The only more short sighted decision would be a 2GB 770 at RP.

And you missed my point about waiting for the 960 to launch again. Not only can you check to see the numbers and if it is really worth the newest thing or if your doom&gloom 5% gain turns out to be true, if you decide the 760 or whatever old gen card fits your price tier is the right choice, eBay/craigslist/etc. will be flooded with people eager to dump their 760s/770s at high loss to move on to the next thing. Either way, you win. Doesn't matter if you chose to go with last year's model or the latest and greatest, you still win. What you're suggesting would be like suggesting someone buy a new car in late July. No. Wait till early August, see if you like the new model, and if not get the old model from someone (dealer, owner, etc.) at loss looking to make room for the new ones. I managed to get my brand-new R9 280 at a 30% markdown because Newegg was trying to clear out old stock before the new ~~Tahiti~~Tonga* 285s started rolling in. Speaking of which, the 3GB R9 280 is not only cheaper than a 2GB 760, but will give you better value over time (barring power consumption of course but it isn't like we're comparing to a Maxwell card, this is still relatively power hungry Kepler we're talking about.)

 

watch dogs is a horrible comparison, it's made by ubifail and has horrible optimization

and thats you, not everyone has the exact same setup as you, so not everyone will ever get close to 2gb, 4gb is useless for most people, and will be for a while (at least for the games that are actually optimized, using unoptimized games as an example of gpu usage just shows even more that you don't know what your talking about in the least)

 

Just get the card that you need right now, and it will be fine for the next 2-3 years.

 

*Kicks his feet up as he continues using his GTX460 with 1gb VRAM*

 

I would love to get this new PC in a couple of months but I need it now. Well, not so much need it as really want it to the point of exploding but I think you get the gist. I wanted to wait until my birthday (middle of June just as an FYI) because my old PC is ok in games, not great but it plays most games on medium-high... But recently it has taken a turn for the worst, the hard drive is giving all the signs of imminent failure e.g. clicking noises, making sounds when not writing and (very worryingly) scratching sounds. Also it has reached some very hot temperature recently and, although I haven't updated my signature, I have had to take one of my 2 sticks of 2GB ram out now leaving me with 2. I need this new computer because I feel like it is going to give out all the time. I'm always worried that it will just stop and wont come back on... It doesn't have any important files on it, except for some old school stuff that I can put on my USB stick. I was thinking about spending an awful lot less money and re-using my old 6670 but that is simply not good enough if I am planning to get 1080p monitor. And if I do upgrade to a 1080p monitor, I will need a decent GPU, such as the 770 or the R9 280X. But thanks anyways.

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I feel for you brother and so does my 6670.