Have CFX R9 290, want to switch back to Nvidia - a few question

Neon01

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I've got a pair of R9 290s watercooled and I'm tired of fiddling with them to get optimal performance. My sli 680s were never this way, so I'd like to go back to Nvidia. However, I don't want to give up performance. Do I need 780ti sli or will 780 sli be as fast as the 290 setup?

Noise is the other big concern. I like my setup very quiet (thus the watercooling). Ideally I could find some good Nvidia cards that are water cooled from the factory, but I only see the evga 780 (no ti) option and they're pretty pricey. So should I go with those? Or get something with a better pcb and watercool myself? Or are they just not that loud aircooled? The 680 (ref) sli setup wasn't bad but it's not water. I like the evga classy, but it looks like it no longer has a blower style cooler to really get rid of heat.

Budget is maybe 1500 total. Less is obviously better and I don't want to blow through diminishing return. Advice is really appreciated. Thanks
 
From what I have read the EVGA watercooled cards are not the best quality, better off doing it yourself. As for the 780 Ti with the reference blower cooler: They are quiet until you start overclocking, then the fan noise starts to get noticeable. Performance wise the regular 780 will trade blows with the 290. The 780 Ti will beat the 290 easily though, especially when both cards get overclocked, the 780 and 780 Ti benefits more from overclocking than the 290 does. Stay away from the EVGA ACX cooled cards, heard more than a hand few of people having issues with the fan making a rattling noise, plus they aren't the best for SLi.

As far as SLI and tinkering goes: It's been smooth sailing here, drivers have been rock solid, not a single crash or blue-screen from the nvidia drivers. Been pretty much cranking the settings in games to max and enjoying the game.
 
If you can get them, the EVGA classy 780 non Ti and do the blocks yourself, that's the sweetspot right now, AFAIK. People running 1300+ core on those and that's extremely competitive with the 780 Ti's. I'm running 2 blower style EVGA Superclocks at 1175MHz with a PCI slot between them and they are usually about the same temperature no matter what's going on. Pushing 120Hz with AA or framelimiter off they do get wooshy but not as bad as anything I've ever maxed out before, even at 100% fan speed. SLi is pretty straight forward and easy to use. I like how even if an old game architecture doesn't support SLi you can always get Nvidia CP to use the second card for AA... so SLi pretty much works on everything. I went from 280x/7950 crossfire, which blew my mind, but this is like a first-class version.
 
I have two GTX 780 reference cards, Heatkiller blocks.

I have also two R9290X watercooled as well.

The two setups trade blows pretty much, depending on the game you choose.

I think you'd do well with two plain 780s....but if you really want to dazzle people, get the Ti models.
 
With a pair of 780s on water (OC'ed) you will basically stay about the same as to performance, leaning towards a bit more capability overall. With the 780Ti's on water (OC'ed) you would see an appreciable gain in performance. The Ti's tend to overclock a bit better (higher) and the extra shader hardware also helps. Either choice will get you there, but the 780's will cost you a good $500 less.
 
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I might just go for the 780 Hydro Copper from EVGA. They are factory overclocked at basically the same level as the EVGA 780 FTW version, which, as I understand it, is just below the Classy. I like the simplicity of not having to apply the block myself. Though a relatively easy job, I like knowing with absolute certainty my warranty is intact. It's about the same price as the non-ref 780 with a full cover block anyway and they come with backplates (I think).

My only slight concern is resale. I'm not sure how easy it will be to sell a card that no one but watercoolers could buy. At least with my current 290s, I can put the stock coolers back on and sell them separate.

Decisions...

btw, thanks for the assistance. I'm definitely not going to spring for the ti versions. In fact I might just try a single Hydro Copper and see if that gets me where I want to be. If not, I can always add one.
 
Personally, if I were you, I'd skip the Hydro Copper and just get a regular 780 FTW version (or pick whichever one you like) and grab an EK block. Seriously.

If you go EVGA, they honor their card's warranty so long as you leave the serial # sticker intact on the backside of the board and return the card with its original cooler installed. (I.E. They let you slap whatever cooler you want on their cards, waterblocks or otherwise, and will honor their warranty so long as you reconfigure the card back to stock before sending it in to them.)

The Hydro Copper simply is not that great a block - yes, you are paying for not having to mount one, but you are getting a sub-par block. Here's an in-depth review examining the Titan Hydro Copper to get an idea of what you are getting (the 780 version is very similar): http://www.xtremerigs.net/2013/09/07/evga-hydrocopper/

Of particular note is the performance differences between VRAM temps when the Hydo Copper block is pitted against the EK block....
 
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Personally, if I were you, I'd skip the Hydro Copper and just get a regular 780 FTW version (or pick whichever one you like) and grab an EK block. Seriously.

If you go EVGA, they honors their card's warranty so long as you leave the serial # sticker intact on the backside of the board and return the card with its original cooler installed. (I.E. They let you slap whatever cooler you want on their cards, waterblocks or otherwise, and will honor their warranty so long as you reconfigure the card back to stock before sending it in to them.)

The Hydro Copper simply is not that great a block - yes, you are paying for not having to mount one, but you are getting a sub-par block. Here's an in-depth review examining the Titan Hydro Copper to get an idea of what you are getting (the 780 version is very similar): http://www.xtremerigs.net/2013/09/07/evga-hydrocopper/

Of particular note is the performance differences between VRAM temps when the Hydo Copper block is pitted against the EK block....

Wow, good article, thanks. OK, I think I'm convinced going my own way with the watercooling block is the way to go, but if like to get the best cards I can to cool. I realize that most blocks are going to require the reference pcb, but which of those is the best one to get (factory oc and what not)?
 
I'm partial to EK blocks, but there are other good options out there. My bad on recommending the "FTW" edition - just recalled that it is a non-reference design PCB layout for which no one has come up with a water block design for yet that I am aware of.

The reference PCB boards and the classified line from EVGA all have aftermarket waterblock options.

EK has a pretty nice site for checking block availability (their product line of course) here:
http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/

I also wouldn't be so concerned with "factory" overclocks. Once on water and properly cooled, you can use Precision X (EVGA utility) or MSI Afterburner to easily set your own overclock up and goose the cards. If you really want to overclock on water, I'd recommend EVGA's Classified line - it does very well with water and is geared more towards overclocking. (Better power circuitry, dual BIOS - lets you keep one BIOS stock and play with/flash the other, etc.)
 
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I'm partial to EK blocks, but there are other good options out there. My bad on recommending the "FTW" edition - just recalled that it is a non-reference design PCB layout for which no one has come up with a water block design for yet that I am aware of.

The reference PCB boards and the classified line from EVGA all have aftermarket waterblock options.

EK has a pretty nice site for checking block availability (their product line of course) here:
http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/

I also wouldn't be so concerned with "factory" overclocks. Once on water and properly cooled, you can use Precision X (EVGA utility) or MSI Afterburner to easily set your own overclock up and goose the cards. If you really want to overclock on water, I'd recommend EVGA's Classified line - it does very well with water and is geared more towards overclocking. (Better power circuitry, dual BIOS - lets you keep one BIOS stock and play with/flash the other, etc.)

I have EK on my 290s, and they did seem nice (keep the cards very cool too). Thanks for all the help. I guess I'll look for some 780 Classy blocks. From what I can tell though EK seems to be the only company making blocks for non-ref boards. True?

I see Amazon has the 780 Classys for $550 after rebate (hopefully that applies to more than one). Decent deal?

Edit: apparently this is one per household. Might go for the vanilla (SC version) 780. That one I can get for $500-510, meaning a good $120 cheaper for two cards, vice the classys. I really just want to max everything on my 1600p monitor, so that should be good enough I think.

Thanks again for all the help, this is great stuff.
 
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If you want to overclock, the classified would be worth it IMO. The reference PCB card will not overclock nearly as well as the classified will, the classified has a lot of software tools floating about for software voltage control.

Generally speaking, on the AMD side - aftermarket boards and custom PCBs generally don't overclock appreciably more than reference from my experience and from what i've read in reviews. My reference 7970s didn't overclock worse than a ton of aftermarket 7970s. Nvidia is different in this respect - custom PCB cards overclock better than reference due to GPU boost 2.0, and custom PCB nvidia cards generally have slightly higher voltage options. Not that reference is bad at overclocking, tons of ref boards are hitting 1200-1300 boosts. But with a custom PCB classified, it really is a better choice for water cooling IMO.

In the end it'll cost a bit more but if you want unlocked voltage and super high overclocks (silicon lottery still applies of course, a lot is still luck based) I think a classy + EK block would be better. Does amazon limit 1 per household? Perhaps you could grab 1 from amazon and 1 from newegg? Both offer free 2 day shipping through prime and shoprunner, respectively.

You can't go wrong either way, but I think the classified might please you more if you really want to push some overclocks. Like I said though, both will overclock well and you should be happy either way.
 
I usually prefer EVGA, but I'm eyeing the Gigabyte GTX 780 GHZ Windforce. It's only $520 from amazon, and the benchmarks are phenomenal. On par with the Classy.

Only problem is that I can't seem to find a water block for it. The EK configurator lists a block, but it's not available yet I guess. Though what's strange is that EK's announcement page says multiple non-ref blocks are compatible? Here:

http://www.ekwb.com/news/451/19/New...igabyte-GTX-780-Ti-Windforce-3X-in-the-works/

"This water block will align perfectly with EK-FC Titan (SE), EK-FC780 GTX Jetstream, EK-FC780 GTX HOF and EK-FC780 GTX Ti in order to even further simplify the vendor mix-matched water cooled NVIDIA® SLI setups."

:confused::confused: Is this just for the bridge to have the water cooling inlet/outlets line up?
 
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