Bro, just did a double check and found that GTX 780 Ti has like 1344 more cores compared to GTX 770 (1536 cores). So really, as you mentioned, it indeed has a bigger memory bus, superior memory bandwidth and GPU processing horsepower.

GK110 based products
GTX Titan Black / 780 Ti - 2880 cores
GTX Titan - 2688 cores
GTX 780 - 2304 cores

GK104 based products
GTX 770 / 680 - 1536 cores
GTX 670 - 1344 cores
GTX 760 - 1152 cores

What was your last tested stable version? The latest WHQL didn't work for you?

Goodness, that was bad. Since you have nothing to lose, why don't you try the latest WHQL first?

That is a very old driver. Try the latest one and see.

337.50, if you don't mind Beta drivers. There is a nice boost to a lot of games, apparently Tomb Raider being one of them. Else just go with the last WHQL version before 337.50 (can't remember).

WHQL - Windows Hardware Quality Labs testing. In a nutshell, it's the "official" signed driver, having been tested rigorously by Microsoft and is certified as safe to use a Windows based platform.

Actually for Nvidia drivers, you don't have to uninstall the old one. You can do what rc2x mentioned above and just tick "clean install" and install the latest version over the old one.

You're right. Basically, this is my list of usually recommend graphic cards from RM500 - RM800 range.

~ RM540 - GTX 750 Ti (Palit StormX OC)
~ RM580 - R7 265 (Sapphire Dual-X)
~ RM700 - R9 270 (Asus DCUII OC) --> roughly 5% faster than HD 7870
~ RM760 - R9 270X (Sapphire Dual-X OC)
~ RM 800 - GTX 760 (Zotac/Leadtek reference)

~ RM450 --> GTX 750
~ RM550 --> GTX 750 Ti

How much is your budget? Nvidia typically don't have very strong cards in the lower price range. You might need to go with AMD. R7 250 is a good choice, around RM300.

I suggest you top up another RM50 and get R7 250.

Lower end cards have no such issues. Well, if you want to go Nvidia, then consider at least GT 640.

Go for the Gainward GDDR5 version at RM259.

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/802109

If new can go for AMD's R7 250, around RM300.

Used, try looking for used HD 6850 / 7770 / GTX 460 1GB.

I remember 8800GT fondly, aka 8800GTX / Ultra killer and best-bang-for-buck card back then. It was the one card that I badly wanted to have, but couldn't afford it. I was in Singapore for work at that time and was so tempted to grab one of the shelfs in Sim Lim, but well..it will completely break my bank. It was expensive for me though, nearly $400 - 450 if memory serves me right. So I ended up getting a cheaper HD 3850 instead.

Your Alpha dogs were with any game bundles? I remembered Asus' ones were paired with Company of Heroes? Or was it Stalker?

Gainward GeForce® GTX 750 2GB - Yes, extra VRAM (2GB), but slower clock speed: 1020 MHz (base) / 1085 MHz (boost), memory speed 5010 MHz

PALIT GTX 750 StormX OC GDDR5 1GB - Faster clock speed: 1085MHz (Base) / 1163MHz (Boost), memory speed 5100MHz

Between the two, the Palit card will run slightly faster (out of box), but shouldn't be much. Also, since the difference is just so small, wouldn't matter going for 2GB version anyway, but do bear in mind that the extra 1GB is likely redundant, as weaker GPUs will not be able to utilize such huge memory bus.

Just a little add-on to what marfccy has already explained above. GTX 780 and GTX 780 Ti are both different cards. GTX 780 Ti has a full fledged GK110 core, 2880 CUDA cores, while the GTX 780 only has 2304 cores. More cores, better performance. However, manufacturer sometimes tend to heavily overclock their cards which will push the default performance closer to cards of higher rank (e.g Titan / 780 Ti).

The AMP! Edition is one such case where Zotac has overclocked the base clock speed of 863 MHz to a whopping 1006 MHz, pushing the performance level significantly higher. I am personally using the 780 AMP! Edition now and it is indeed rock solid.

Does cards previously purchased under the 2 years local warranty be eligible for the upgrade to 3 years local warranty?

This is excellent news! Thanks.

Yes, this is true. If you watched the Nvidia promotional video on the GTX 980, towards the end where they did an exploded view of the 980 piece by piece, you can see the triple heatpipe design. It is significantly cheaper going with the standard copper heatpipe design rather than going for the vapor champer baseplate, which is expensive to produce. And also the GM204 core aren't as hot running as the earlier GK110 anyway. Smart Nvidia did this so that they can keep the costs as low as possible for the GTX 980. :p

The problem with most reference based cards (assuming the base level Zotac 970 is based on that similarly, if such reference design for 970 ever exists) is that they tend to somehow exhibit some certain level of coil whine when under load (usually when running benchmarks). And what SSJBen says is true, my personal experience with Asus and MSI cards is that they really do not have any such issues. I believe it's because they've used superior quality chokes (SAP for Asus) and (SFC for MSI). However, my reference based 780 AMP! Edition does not have any coil whine, fortunately. But most reference based cards I've tested sadly have this problem plaguing it.

Yes, that was what I encountered. Not necessarily limited to reference cards though, my R9 280X Vapor-X was having coil whine as well.