Gigabyte GTX 770 GDDR5-4GB 2xDVI/HDMI/DP OC WINDFORCE 3X Graphics Card (GV-N770OC-4GD)

Edit 2016 update: One of these went bad last July so I bought a 980ti to replace both of them. It's still not a bad card for older games if you can find one in good condition really cheap though the fans may need replacing (some of mine were starting to stall). I'm keeping the still working one for an emergency replacement (the x99 platform doesn't have built in graphics). The one that went bad actually shorted out when an insect got on it I found the burned out remains, a rare occurrence I'm sure, but argues for getting a new card with a backplate.These are my impressions so far as I've only had it installed about 12 hours.This was an upgrade from my old Gigabyte 560ti card. This card is about a half inch longer than the old card in my system built using an super micro server tower space is not an issue but heed the warnings this is a very big card make sure you have the room for it.Installation was quite easy:Computer off (my power supply has it's own off switch but if yours doesn't be sure and unplug the power cord).Unscrew, remove video cables, power cables, pull card.Push new card in (this should be easy these slots have gotten better over the years and the card should slide in with little to no force);screw it in;plug in the power cables (one 6pin and one 8pin the old card used two 6pin but my power supply has both, also the card comes with a 4pin molex to 6pin and a 4pin molex to 8pin which might help some people);and in my case run the new video cable to my monitor (my old card used a mini HDMI this card has a standard HDMI).If you don't have a good large power supply this would be a good time to put one in. These cards use a lot of power, you may get away with using too small a power supply but you are asking for trouble. If your supply is old or below the recommended size do yourself a favor and get a good quality large supply (gold or better, remember the 600watt recommended is for a pretty bare system, start plugging in lots of goodies and you can easily tip the balance)...too much capacity is far better than too little, feeding these cards with just a bit too little power can cause all sorts of problems. You want a lot of amp capacity on the 12V rail.Since I was updating from a GeForce card there was no point in uninstalling the old driver since it is the same version as the new driver, if you are going from an ATI card you may want to uninstall the old graphics driver before shutting down Windows (though Win 7is quite good as just detecting the change and you may not really need to do this it can't hurt). Note I'm using Win 7 the manual says it works with Win 8 as well Vista and XP.Update 9/11: I'm leaning more towards recommending you remove your old graphics card drivers if you can (if you are putting in a graphics card for the first time than you don't want to remove the motherboard graphics drivers you may still need them!)...see update in problems as to why.When Win 7 booted up it detected the card, spent a few seconds updating and I was good to go.I'd been having trouble with Civilization 5 since the last update just before Brave New World came out. My previous mid-range graphics settings had to be set down to much lower levels as the game kept crashing every few turns otherwise. Well I immediately ran Civ5 set all the graphics options to their highest levels exited and restarted (Civ5 has to be restarted for the new settings to be used). I just ran it for six hours and not one problem, no crashes and the graphics are at their best quality !!! (tomorrow Total War: Rome II comes). It runs nice and cool so far but I haven't given it much of stress yet but I expect it won't be a problem (the old one ran cool too...but my setup if very well cooled). If you've seen the benchmarks you know this is a fast card and you won't be sorry upgrading with this card. If your card is outdated like mine (yep I bought mine two years ago, but it wasn't the best kid on the block then), then you are in for a pleasant experience and your games are going to look/play better. If you have a recent but cheap card (or onboard graphics) and want more this is a good deal there are some faster cards but the price premium is pretty steep now for a fairly modest speed boost. One other nice thing in idle or just when browsing the internet this card uses several watts less than my old card--no it's not a low power "green" card but every bit helps.Minor problems.The OC Guru II won't install on my system either from the included CD or from a download from gigabyte. I don't really do overclocking so I didn't care that much but I got the MSI Afterburner overclocking utility and it works just fine with this card, so I'm not going to spend time trying to figure this out (OC Guru I installed and ran fine).When Windows updated the driver it switched the sound output to my motherboard's sound connectors which I don't use: easily fixed just went into the sound setting and changed it back to my HDMI monitor (in control panel/sound).UPDATE 9/11: I found that every time my TV/monitor turned off when I turned it back on I would get no sound. The video came back but the sound would not, disconnecting and reconnecting the device did not help, the only way to get it back was to restart windows. I didn't look into this too hard as it was annoying but not a priority. Well, due to a problem not related to the video card I had to reinstall windows from scratch. This had the advantage of getting rid of some things that were lingering in the registry (uninstall often leaves things behind it shouldn't). To my interest the sound problem has gone, turning the monitor off/on leaves it working fine.2GB vs 4GB. The games will be making use of the extra RAM as new games get released and graphics engines get updated, this is the way it has always been. The more RAM you can get now the longer you will be happy with the card (unless you replace your card say once a year). Right now you can get the 4GB for 12.5% more in cost, this means the 2GB card makes little sense (it might make sense if you were building say hundreds of gaming rigs for resale, but for one computer spend the little extra for double the RAM). Even if what you do right now doesn't need the 4GB can you be sure you won't need 6months or a year from now, maybe you'll want the newest game but only if you can get the most visual out of it and dang for that you need at least 3GB but with your 2GB card you just aren't going to get the same experience and all because of $50! Another possibility, maybe something will change and that single 1080p monitor you have now will get replaced with a 4k monitor or maybe you'll need to or three 1080p monitors, if you spend the extra $50 you'll be ready for this. Worst case you decide to stop playing games next year and you might regret your $50...but is this very likely?Update 0/11: Total War Rome II can certainly use the 4GB some of the problems I've seen people having seem to be related to this (not all), my otherwise 2 year old system runs this game without problems with most graphics options on their highest setting and getting about 40fps (with occasional drops but not really noticeable)...don't believe people who say 4GB is a waste.Goodies: Well there were none it came with the box, a set of quick install instructions, the two power cables and a CD. I've never yet bought a graphics card with a bundle since they never seem to have anything I want, I'd rather the price be cheaper and I'll buy the games I want.UPDATE: Amazon sent me an email with a code for a free Batman game, so at least right now there is an extra goodie.My Windows gaming graphics experience went from 7.7 to 7.9 which means nothing ;). There are some good pro reviews of the 2GB version of this card with lots of gaming comparisons if you have a specific game you are trying to speed up take a look at these for your game or at least a similar one as things vary quite a bit. When you can go from the lowest settings to the highest you know you've got the right card whatever the price.Overall this was a good fast easy way to significantly upgrade my 2 year old system and I expect this card to keep me happy for another 2-3 years (at which time I'll probably be ready to build a whole new system and make this one an HTPC or something). I'll be connecting a second monitor and doing other tests and stuff over the next few days if there is anything of interest I'll update this.My PC: i7 3.4GHz, 16GB 1866 RAM, SSD primary drive, Gigabyte Gaz68xp-ud5, 40" HDMI 1080p monitor, old dual processor Super Micro server case with a zillion fans.Note when the my motherboard was new there some of us had a problem with it consonantly rebooting sometimes, it took a bit of time but eventually Gigabyte came up with a BIOS reversion that fixed the problem...over the years I've had my share of problems and Gigabyte has been one of the better companies at fixing these, I've never had to RMA with them though. The old Gigabyte video card still works fine despite quite a bit dust on it.

I was in the market for an upgrade to my EVGA GTX 570. Some of my games were taking hits on the highest settings and the card was almost 3 years old. I tend to upgrade every other generation and then even draw that out until I see a good deal.I was on the fence and reading a lot of comments on which version brand to get, so I thought I would explain why I made my purchasing decision, the results so far, and pros and cons of the card to this point. The choices were fairly simple. EVGA GTX 770 with 2 Mb, Gigabyte GTX 770 with 2 Gb, or Gigabyte GTX 770 with 4gb. Had EVGA had a model that is currently out besides the limited edition (Listing here at $509.00) in the price range of the Gigabyte card, I most likely would have gone with that. The main decision process here was that I wanted to have 4 Gb in case I upgrade my monitor in the next year and push resolutions higher than 1920X1200, while there is still uncertainty of how the market is going to veer with this next generation of console games and how much Vram will be dedicated from the pool of RAM on the PS4 or Xbone. Being that some games are already pushing 1.5gb+, I didn't think it was that far out of reach. Combine the above 2 (The main factor being I may upgrade my display) with the price difference being about $30 bucks between the two on the Gigabyte brand, I sprung for the 4gb GTX 770.Installation was fairly straight forward. I uninstalled all my previous drivers from my system (I didn't use driver sweeper) just the NVIDIA uninstall tool, and it worked fine. Installation was a bit cumbersome from a physical stand point because the card is rather long. 11.5". Luckily, my case was able to hold this (Barely) but it was a close call. I had to disconnect some cabling and tilt the card, and tilt it back up, and then seed it properly. Luckily the power inputs (1 6 pin and 1 8 pin) are located on the left of the card pointed up towards your slide case - so that was easy to access once I had the card in. I have an older 700 Watt Antec supply, so I only have native 6 pin connectors. The box includes two adapters so you do not have to worry about that, however, each cable takes two 4 pin standard power connects, so keep that in mind. I only had to use one of those for the 8 pin power. (A lot of people are making mistakes in installation with this. So when installing, make sure you are doing this correctly) I also heard rumors that you don't want to use the adapter and purchase a new power supply. I have not had any problems with performance or hits on power using the adapters, Personally I think it is just a rumor mill to get you to go out and purchase a new power supply. Use what you have until it doesn't perform any longer or isn't meeting specs. Anyway, I re-connected existing cabling and I was off and running. I had already downloaded the drivers I needed from NVNDIA, and install of those were a snap. I was up and running.Performance:Immediately I loaded up some games that I had to scale back on a tad. Far Cry 3, Bioshock Infinte, Crysis 2 with high textures (Never bought 3), Shogun 2, Grand Theft Auto 4 with mods, and Skyrim with mods, Witcher 2, and an FF14 Benchmark. All were working beautifully with everything maxed out as much as possible. I didn't have any hiccups. I also had some temperature software to watch the GPU. After working intensively on these games, I checked my GPU which, somehow, never went above 60c. I found this completely remarkable and I am not sure it lines up with other reviews to this point - I am not overclocking but may try my hand at it, even though right now, I do not need to. Factory overclock settings seem to work just fine. The cooling architecture is working very well for them. Also, the card was very quiet. I could barely make out the fan sounds at the peak of it's workload.Pros:* Great Performance* Fantastic cooling* Factory overclocking does the job for regular gamers who do not want to mess around with it* Quiet* 4gb - depending on your situation, is nice to have in case you upgrade displays to higher resolution* Best price point when compared to other manufacturers.Cons:* The card is VERY long. Before purchasing, make sure you have referenced your case to make sure it can hold this card. I feel extremely lucky I didn't have to purchase a new case and redeploy my system.* While it is still a new card, it really is just an enhanced 680. If you own a 500 (Excluding 590's) series or a VERY low end 600, this will be a good upgrade for you. If you own something around a GTX 670, 680, or even a 660 TI, I would advise holding off for the 800 series. But keep in mind this is also coming from someone that upgrades every other generation at about a 2.5-3 year pace.System Specs:i2500k 3.3 Ghz OC'd to 4.5Ghz Air Cooling8 Gb RAMGTX 770 4gbOverall the best bang for the buck right now if you are spending around 400 dollars is this version. I admit, I was hesitant using any other brand but EVGA just because those have always worked well for me. Honestly, the only reason why I didn't was due to the fact that the price point difference was about 60 bucks and I didn't find that reasonable. I think EVGA is coming out with a 4gb card in the same price range as this, so at that point it will be a toss up to personal preference. Overall, I am very happy with this card and am happy with my decision.