Currently I'm running a single GTX 780 on a 1440p monitor @110 Hz. I've been thinking about grabbing another 780 to sli, might be able to get an EVGA FTW for 275$, as I'm not getting the performance I'd like in the games I play. Would it be worth it to instead sell off my 780 and pick up two 970s instead? Any advice would be appreciated
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Second 780 or switch to a 970
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misterbobby
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I would sell the 780 and go 970 sli. It seems many new games are getting more optimized for Maxwell so Kepler is likely going to fall even farther behind over the next year or so. Plus you will have 4gb of vram instead of 3gb which will certainly be useful in some games going forward.
xLegendary
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if ur looking for performance, then for sure SLI 2 780 and would be packing serious performance
If you are not able to pick up a 780 really cheap used, I'd sell the 780 and go gtx 970(s). I thought this reddit comparison was worrying, although not surprising: http://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/2one66/discussion_has_nvidia_forsaken_kepler_cards_has/
KickAssCop
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I recently made the switch from a 780 GTX SLi to a 970 GTX SLi setup.
Was totally worth it for the following games where they stopped to have hitching due to running out of VRAM.
Shadow of Mordor
Farcry 4
Ass Creed Unity
COD AW
Even though SLi is not functioning properly in DA: I, moving to a 970 improved performance (as in less spikes) in DA: I as well.
I paid about 135 bucks for the "upgrade" and it was totally worth it.
Here are some of the results I observed without much tweaking and by not maxing out both cards, but rather running them on daily clocks that I use. Ignore firestrike since 780s were not in SLi mode lol. Also average frames do not tell the full picture since most games were showing no more hitching but averages were within 10-15%.
Was totally worth it for the following games where they stopped to have hitching due to running out of VRAM.
Shadow of Mordor
Farcry 4
Ass Creed Unity
COD AW
Even though SLi is not functioning properly in DA: I, moving to a 970 improved performance (as in less spikes) in DA: I as well.
I paid about 135 bucks for the "upgrade" and it was totally worth it.
Here are some of the results I observed without much tweaking and by not maxing out both cards, but rather running them on daily clocks that I use. Ignore firestrike since 780s were not in SLi mode lol. Also average frames do not tell the full picture since most games were showing no more hitching but averages were within 10-15%.
OP, if you have a reference 780, you'll clear around $225 after selling it (paypal fees, shipping, etc) Two 907' will cost your $660, so a $435 upgrade. Buying another 780 would run you $250 or so for reference, $275 for a good custom cooled card. Only you can decide if the money is an issue.
Personally, if funds aren't a problem, get the 970's. But, 780 SLI is a good solution, I run it on 1440p monitor and enjoy it so far.
Personally, if funds aren't a problem, get the 970's. But, 780 SLI is a good solution, I run it on 1440p monitor and enjoy it so far.
I recently made the switch from a 780 GTX SLi to a 970 GTX SLi setup.
Was totally worth it for the following games where they stopped to have hitching due to running out of VRAM.
Shadow of Mordor
Farcry 4
Ass Creed Unity
COD AW
Even though SLi is not functioning properly in DA: I, moving to a 970 improved performance (as in less spikes) in DA: I as well.
I paid about 135 bucks for the "upgrade" and it was totally worth it.
Here are some of the results I observed without much tweaking and by not maxing out both cards, but rather running them on daily clocks that I use. Ignore firestrike since 780s were not in SLi mode lol. Also average frames do not tell the full picture since most games were showing no more hitching but averages were within 10-15%.
That firestrike score for the 780s is not right. Mine was around 15K.
I agree that a cost benefit analysis is the best advice than can be submitted to the OP.
It is now up to the OP to make up is mind.
KickAssCop
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Read and all shall be revealed.
Thanks guys for all the advice. I did a rough estimate of how much it would cost + the time it would take to complete the set up. I ended up just picking up the second 780 for 275$ due to going for 970s would cost much more than my intended budget as well as take up time to sell off my card and buy two 970s. I'm not above dropping some graphics settings, especially AA as long as the IQ doesn't take a massive dip. Hopefully these two cards could last another year or so til a worthy single card upgrade comes along
Exactly what I did. I ended up staying with a 970. I could actually notice the increase in frames in the games I play.
KickAssCop
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This is a misconception. 780s are struggling with full eye candy in games. 970s like the Gigabyte G1 Gaming (out of box) already perform faster than a 980 stock.
misterbobby
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Unless that 970 is boosting to well over 1500 "out of the box" than no its not beating a stock 980.
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KickAssCop
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It is practically 1-2 fps difference as far as I have read. With overclocking a little bit it matches at around 1500.
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But you said out of box, thus no overclocking. There is no 970 that will run faster than a 980 out of box unless it is overclocked and even then that margin will widen once the 980 is OC'ed as well.
thats because you have hexa-core
KickAssCop
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Fine. Enjoy the 2 fps superiority lol.
i don't understand why its so difficult for you to admit that you misspoke. people make mistakes all the time. plus by simply repeating your '1-2 frame superiority' mantra isn't going to make it true, because it isn't. if you looked at the last reference gtx 980 [H] article and compare it to the msi gtx 970 gaming article, you'd see right away that the factory overclocked msi card trails the reference gtx 980 every single time; whether mins, maxes, or averages; more often than not the disparity is greater than a couple of ticks, sometimes its higher settings, too. that is unless you think [H] articles are bogus, which then begs the question what you're still doing here after 11+ years?
The rule of thumb or general performance margin that most people are getting based on results and whatnot is that a GTX 970 will perform around the range of or higher than a 780/Titan/290, may be on par with 290X (in selected games) and such. Mind you most of these cards released as "non-reference" meaning they were released with custom coolers with their own factory pre-oc so right from the box they're able to beat out previous gen flagship cards. The 980/780Ti range can be seen when the 970 is clocked in the 1500MHz, but thats not to say that the 980 and 780Ti can also be overclocked, and most 970s start topping off around 1550~ due to TDP/voltage restrictions, MSI variant seen topping at around 1580 w/ 1.25V/110% PL and Gigabyte at 1600~ w/ 1.26V/112% PL. Again not all cards can do those but thats where it starts to plateau for most.
The performance/price ratio is whats most talked about since for $320-$350 range you can get a GTX 970 where as a GTX 980 was around the $560-600 range, so most of the people who bought GTX 980s opted to return/sell them so they can buy two 970s paying off a lower difference but at the time having a higher performance yield w/ two cards.
There is no doubt that the GTX 970 for the price is a good for its value/performance, and overclocking it you get more performance. Even though the GTX 980 is costly, the performance is there and when overclocked, performs much higher than a GTX 970 overclocked, cant deny that as one has higher SP count. Out of the box a non-reference 970 will be around 10~ fps lower than the 980.