GTX 880 or Second GTX 780ti

[southkrn]

I replaced my GTX670 with a GTX 780ti last December and I have been considering a second GTX 780ti however amidst the news of the GTX 880, I have been thinking about just selling my GTX 780ti and using a single GTX 880. In terms of performance only, although full benchmarks aren't available for the 880, do you guys think it will outperform two 780ti's?

 

[Rakehellion]

Using two cards in SLI will net you about a 70% performance boost. There's never been a GPU generation that's provided that kind of improvement over the last.

 

[TrulyUncouth]

I am personally a single GPU guy out of principle- you never have to worry about micro-stutter or non-support on a single GPU. But there is currently no news on 880. I would personally just make do with what you have and wait for more news.

 

[toyota]

lol until you can actually buy an 880 or at least get a release date then whats the point in worrying about it? its not an option now and there is no telling when it will come out or what its specs will be.

 

[southkrn]

lol until you can actually buy an 880 or at least get a release date then whats the point in worrying about it? its not an option now and there is no telling when it will come out or what its specs will be.

Well if I get a 2nd 780 than I wont be getting another GPU for at least another year and I don't want to wait another year if something better is coming out in the next two months.

I actually wanted to get a 4k monitor as well and the new GTX 800 series seem the right fit for 4k gaming.

 

[Bateluer]

Until a GTX 880 is officially unveiled and benched, hold you current cards and dollars. At this stage in the game, it'd most likely just be an OC'd 780Ti on 28nm anyway.

 

[blastingcap]

I avoid multi GPU at all costs. I temporarily had such a setup but that was more for other reasons, not gaming, and I promptly switched back. Not worth the hassle.

 

[RussianSensation]

Using two cards in SLI will net you about a 70% performance boost. There's never been a GPU generation that's provided that kind of improvement over the last.

Not even remotely true. There have been many GPU generations where the performance increase was 70-100%. 9700Pro vs. 8500, X850XT PE vs. 9800XT, 6800UE vs. 5950U in all DX9 games, 8800GTX vs. 7900GTX, In this case 880 will not outperform 780Ti SLi since it's slated to be a GM204 chip.

I wouldn't buy a 2nd 780Ti unless you need more performance. Otherwise you are just wasting money. Put it aside for the next generation upgrade. When next gen cards come out, you can always resell the 780Ti and use the savings from not buying a 2nd 780Ti to get something much faster.

I actually wanted to get a 4k monitor as well and the new GTX 800 series seem the right fit for 4k gaming.

If you are going to get a 4K monitor soon, sell the 780Ti and get dual R9 290s. That would provide the best bang-for-the-buck upgrade without needing to wait for 880. There have already been sales on R9 290s after-market for $370.

 

[NostaSeronx]

Wait for GTX 880 for support of DX12 optional features.

 

[southkrn]

Not even remotely true. There have been many GPU generations where the performance increase was 70-100%. 9700Pro vs. 8500, X850XT PE vs. 9800XT, 6800UE vs. 5950U in all DX9 games, 8800GTX vs. 7900GTX, In this case 880 will not outperform 780Ti SLi since it's slated to be a GM204 chip.

I wouldn't buy a 2nd 780Ti unless you need more performance. Otherwise you are just wasting money. Put it aside for the next generation upgrade. When next gen cards come out, you can always resell the 780Ti and use the savings from not buying a 2nd 780Ti to get something much faster.



If you are going to get a 4K monitor soon, sell the 780Ti and get dual R9 290s. That would provide the best bang-for-the-buck upgrade without needing to wait for 880. There have already been sales on R9 290s after-market for $370.

Why R9 290's? Some of the benchmarks were very poor vs GTX on most of the games I play.

 

[blastingcap]

Why R9 290's? Some of the benchmarks were very poor vs GTX on most of the games I play.

Please give examples of such benchmarks, and what GTX are you comparing to? GTX 780 Ti? Sure that card is faster, but it's also much more expensive.

 

[raghu78]

Not even remotely true. There have been many GPU generations where the performance increase was 70-100%. 9700Pro vs. 8500, X850XT PE vs. 9800XT, 6800UE vs. 5950U in all DX9 games, 8800GTX vs. 7900GTX, In this case 880 will not outperform 780Ti SLi since it's slated to be a GM204 chip.

I wouldn't buy a 2nd 780Ti unless you need more performance. Otherwise you are just wasting money. Put it aside for the next generation upgrade. When next gen cards come out, you can always resell the 780Ti and use the savings from not buying a 2nd 780Ti to get something much faster.

If you are going to get a 4K monitor soon, sell the 780Ti and get dual R9 290s. That would provide the best bang-for-the-buck upgrade without needing to wait for 880. There have already been sales on R9 290s after-market for $370.

well said :thumbsup: aftermarket R9 290s like the XFX R9 290 DD are selling for $370 at newegg. two of these are perfect for 4k gaming. at the same clocks R9 290 is 5% slower than R9 290X.

R9 295X2 which is basically R9 290X CF (1018 Mhz) is significantly faster than GTX 780 Ti SLI (1019 Mhz) at 4k. So its suffice to say that R9 290 CF is faster than GTX 780 Ti SLI at 4k.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/04/08/amd_radeon_r9_295x2_video_card_review/3

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/919-19/recapitulatif-performances.html

http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/AMD-Radeon-R9-295X2-8GB-Graphics-Card-Review/Crysis-3

 

[Rakehellion]

Not even remotely true. There have been many GPU generations where the performance increase was 70-100%. 9700Pro vs. 8500, X850XT PE vs. 9800XT, 6800UE vs. 5950U in all DX9 games, 8800GTX vs. 7900GTX, In this case 880 will not outperform 780Ti SLi since it's slated to be a GM204 chip.

You're comparing flagship cards to second-tier.

 

[SimsReaper]

Ok, so here is the actual answer to your question OP but with some backup and another thing to think about.

A GTX 880 will NOT outperform two 780ti's in SLI in games where multi-gpu configurations are utilized. However, not all games are coded for multi-gpu setups. This is one thing many people do not realize. SLI/ crossfire does not provide a performance boost for all games. Many games do support this feature, however, as evidenced by some recent headline AAA games, this isn't always a ready at release feature. Example: Titanfall, T.E.S.O.

Your 780ti will likely be within 10% of the performance of the stock 880, so I wouldn't worry about upgrading this generation (I say 10% because it is a reasonable assumption to give the 880 a 15-205% advantage over the 780, and the 780ti is 5-10% faster than a 780) . If 780ti prices go down with the release of the 880, an sli option would be more viable in terms of a performance boost, but you should do research and ensure that multi-gpu setups are supported by your favorite games before taking this step.

Some people will tell you that multi-gpu systems are a headache and not worth it, however, if you read up on them, they are not that difficult. I currently run 2 GTX 780's in SLI with no problems and get a significant performance boost in MOST games I play, but not all.

 

[Denithor]

Um, sales at newegg on R9's are not likely too relevant as this guy is apparently in Korea...

That said, I would personally suggest you simply use the 780 Ti you have until you actually need more power. If you don't have a 4k screen already, postpone the purchase until the GTX 880 is launched and see how it stacks up against 780 Ti SLI (or even just a single 780 Ti).

 

[tulx]

I actually wanted to get a 4k monitor as well and the new GTX 800 series seem the right fit for 4k gaming.

You should really consider buying R9 290 or 290x cards for 4k - they significantly outperform their Nvidia counterparts at such high resolutions due to the wider memory bus and generally larger VRAM. Nvidia cards seem intentionally crippled for those cases.

 

[RussianSensation]

You're comparing flagship cards to second-tier.

Nope. Look at it again. I have been following GPUs for a long time. In the past, new generation of GPUs was easily 70-100% faster.

old flagship = Radeon 8500
New flagship = 9700Pro

old flagship = 9800XT (fastest of 9 series)
new flagship = X850XT Platinum Edition (fastest of the next generation). Even if you compare X800XT to 9800Pro, it blows it out of the water.

old flagship = 7900GTX
new flagship = 8800GTX
Heck, 8800GTX is 3x faster than 7900GTX, in 1 generation!

old flagship = 5950 Ultra
new flagship = 6800 Ultra Extreme

And of course recently, HD6970 to 7970 series. Huge performance increase. My overclocked 7970 destroyed my unlocked and overclocked 6950 (which is essentially a 6970) by 75%+.

One can even make the argument that GTX680 was not a true successor to the 580. In that case moving from 580 to 780Ti is 2x faster again. But we don't even need to use this argument since the move from 7900GTX to 8800GTX is enough to disprove the theory.

 

[janii]

Well if I get a 2nd 780 than I wont be getting another GPU for at least another year and I don't want to wait another year if something better is coming out in the next two months.

I actually wanted to get a 4k monitor as well and the new GTX 800 series seem the right fit for 4k gaming.

If youre going 2x780ti then you should prepare yourself to live with it for several years, even with only 1 780ti.

I still have no need to upgrade my gtx 580. Running all games fine after dropping AA 1 tier lower on newer games.

Edit: Didnt see the 4k. Perhaps if you go 4k resolution you might upgrade

@Russian the funny thing is, the 8800GTX is still a viable card even for today

 

[SimsReaper]

... they significantly outperform their Nvidia counterparts at such high resolutions due to the wider memory bus and generally larger VRAM. Nvidia cards seem intentionally crippled for those cases.

I have been wondering about that myself. I wouldn't be surprised if the GTX 880, or rather the next generation in general came out better equipped for 4K performance, and gave a real incentive to upgrade cards just one generation apart. I'm not saying I would like that, but it wouldn't surprise me, and would kinda make sense as to why NVidia seems to have almost intentionally "ignored" 4K performance factors in this generation.

 

[TreVader]

Should you buy a graphics card that doesn't exist or one that does? Tough question that.

 

[toughtrasher]

Should you buy a graphics card that doesn't exist or one that does? Tough question that.

Definitely the one that doesn't exist as long as it's better right

 

[Mand]

I have been wondering about that myself. I wouldn't be surprised if the GTX 880, or rather the next generation in general came out better equipped for 4K performance, and gave a real incentive to upgrade cards just one generation apart. I'm not saying I would like that, but it wouldn't surprise me, and would kinda make sense as to why NVidia seems to have almost intentionally "ignored" 4K performance factors in this generation.

They have also mentioned 4k quite heavily when they've talked about Maxwell. They've been vewwy, vewwy quiet on Maxwell recently, in particular its rather glaring absence from their GTC keynote in March. To me, that indicates that it's soon - not immediate, but soon, soon enough that talking about it would only kill off the remaining 700-series sales but far enough that people would still feel bummed about waiting.

This fall is still looking likely, in my opinion.

 

[RussianSensation]

Why R9 290's? Some of the benchmarks were very poor vs GTX on most of the games I play.

You didn't specify what games you play. If you intend to go 4K, R9 290s in Tri-fire would cost similar to dual GTX780Tis and outperform them easily.

"AMD Radeon R9X TriFire proves to be the winner in terms of best value and performance for Eyefinity and especially 4K resolutions." ~ HardOCP's May 14, 2014 Review

Since you already have a single 780Ti, I wouldn't do anything until you get a 4K display. For 4K, the goal is more GPUs, in which case 2x 290s > 780Ti or 3x 290s/3x 780s > 2x 780Ti SLI. Since we don't have any pricing or specs for the 880, everything is just a conjecture about that card, perhaps other than the GM204 codename. If it does end up as GM204, it'll be a successor to GK104, which means it's doubtful that card will target 4K specifically but I imagine it'll end up at least 10-20% faster than R9 290X/780Ti series.

 

[Sohaltang]

lol until you can actually buy an 880 or at least get a release date then whats the point in worrying about it? its not an option now and there is no telling when it will come out or what its specs will be.

Should consider the GTX 280 TI too :sneaky:

 

[Mand]

A GTX 880 will NOT outperform two 780ti's in SLI in games where multi-gpu configurations are utilized. However, not all games are coded for multi-gpu setups. This is one thing many people do not realize. SLI/ crossfire does not provide a performance boost for all games. Many games do support this feature, however, as evidenced by some recent headline AAA games, this isn't always a ready at release feature. Example: Titanfall, T.E.S.O.

I remember a recent Nvidia driver update where one of the notes said they added a SLI profile for Hearthstone.

I was all...uhh....