Is a vanilla 750Ti a worthwhile 5.1 / 5770 upgrade?

[js2704]

The question's in the title really - I've been reading the various threads about graphics cards options for my 5.1 8 core and am now coming round to the notion of something more cost-effective than the latest and greatest. I can pick up a PC 750Ti for around 100 GBP and it looks like it would be a comfortable upgrade from the stock 5770. I don't need a boot screen, use Parallels rather than boot camp if I really need to and play occasional games (Diablo 3 most often).

Has anyone else done this? Anything to be aware of before I go ahead - any pitfalls, are there specific 750 TIs I should go for / avoid, any obvious options at the same sort of price point? macupgrades.co.uk have a flashed R9 270x for 240GBP but I'm just not convinced I need that sort of horsepower.

Thanks in advance

 

[Fl0r!an]

The 750Ti is definitely (quite a lot) faster than your HD 5770.
Personally however I wouldn't go for a entry-level Maxwell card as long as it isn't supported OOB. You'll find fully supported Kepler-based Nvidia or HD 7xxx cards for the same prices on ebay (not new however). In my opinion only the high-end Maxwell cards (GTX 970 and above) are worth the WebDriver trouble.

My suggestion would be a used 7870 (it's literally the same as the mentioned R9 270) from eBay. It will outperform the 750ti and can be flashed without to much trouble, but since you don't care about the bootscreen you might go for a Kepler card as well.

 

[JoSch]

Well, I have added a 750Ti to my HD5770.
My 750Ti (not a OC edition) does not need a power cable, so you don't have to worry about the power supply.
With that I have a boot screen and can fall back to the HD5770, if the web driver fails.
I'm very happy with the combo.

 

[TheStork]

Well, I have added a 750Ti to my HD5770.
My 750Ti (not a OC edition) does not need a power cable, so you don't have to worry about the power supply.
With that I have a boot screen and can fall back to the HD5770, if the web driver fails.
I'm very happy with the combo.

I have a Gigabyte GTX 750 Ti in my Hackintosh, and it works like a champ with the nVidia Web drivers. (It's kinda a pain to get set up because the nVidia 750 & 900 series cards don't work OOB - they need the nVida Web drivers and Yosemite to work.)

To get a feel for how "powerful" a graphics card will be compared with other cards, I recommend the Tom's Hardware Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart which is updated monthly in the middle of the month.

However, I agree with Fl0r!an's advice on looking for a used 7870 (or R9 270).