Is it worth upgrading the GPU from two GTX 680 in SLI?

[MrAceXPS]

I have a two year old Maingear system, it's been a great system.

F131 Superclock Model

Motherboard: Asus Maximus V Gene
CPU: i7 3770K
RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengenace DDR3-1866
GPU: 2x EVGA GTX 680 4GB Total (each card is 2GB) GDDR5 in SLI
Power Supply: Corsair AX850

I am trying to determine whether it's worth pulling out video cards and dropping a single GTX 970 or GTX 980 into the system.

My son plays games in 1080p, all the current first person shooter stuff.

It it worth upgrading the GPU?

Thanks!

 

[railven]

Went from SLI 660 TI's to GTX 780 so side grade, getting rid of the SLI headaches made it worth it.

I had CFX 7970's into SLI 660 Ti's into singular GTX 780. I have no intentions to go back to multiple GPU any time soon. But that's just me.

And it seems I play a lot of games both AMD and Nvidia ignore for profiles.

 

[MrAceXPS]

Went from SLI 660 TI's to GTX 780 so side grade, getting rid of the SLI headaches made it worth it.

I had CFX 7970's into SLI 660 Ti's into singular GTX 780. I have no intentions to go back to multiple GPU any time soon. But that's just me.

And it seems I play a lot of games both AMD and Nvidia ignore for profiles.

Would you suggest the GTX 970 or 980 for an upgrade?

Seems like the GTX 980 isn't that much of a bump over the 970, but maybe I am wrong on that?

 

[railven]

Would you suggest the GTX 970 or 980 for an upgrade?

Seems like the GTX 980 isn't that much of a bump over the 970, but maybe I am wrong on that?

I'd personally aim for the 970 due to the price difference and performance difference. But, I'm also getting older and spending 20-30% more for 5-10% more performance doesn't seem like what it use to be haha.

End of it, it's your rig and you do what makes you happy. I'm already feeling the limits of my GTX 780 @ 1440p, but no way in hell will I spend money to get from 50FPS back to 60FPS. I'll just wait for their new big die product.

EDIT:
Just keep in mind, in games with great scaling you aren't getting much from SLI 680 to GTX 970. It's those games with broken profiles or terrible microstutter than the one card solution shines. As someone who finds himself playing too many Korean "free" MMOs, SLI/CFX wasn't cutting it.

 

[cmdrdredd]

970 overclocked heavily is not a bad choice unless you are willing to sli again.

 

[MrAceXPS]

Am I going to have any power supply issues going to a GTX 980?

I have an 850 Watt Corsair PSU.

I would think if I am going from two GPUs to one GPU there shouldn't be a problem?

 

[railven]

Am I going to have any power supply issues going to a GTX 980?

I have an 850 Watt Corsair PSU.

I would think if I am going from two GPUs to one GPU there shouldn't be a problem?

Nah you're golden. I ran two power hungry 7970's at like 1050 core clocks on a Corsair TX750W.

 

[cmdrdredd]

The GTX 980 uses less power than a GTX 680 anyhow, especially SLI.

 

[2is]

I'd say no, especially since you have 4GB models of the 680. It's a side grade at best. Some games that don't scale well with SLI will perform better or about the same, while others that do scale well, will perform worse.

 

[bystander36]

I'd recommend waiting for the next big upgrade on a smaller process. It would give you time to see what is going to happen with the G-sync/Freesync movement. You have plenty of power, and with 4Gb cards, you aren't being restricted there.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'd say no, especially since you have 4GB models of the 680. It's a side grade at best. Some games that don't scale well with SLI will perform better or about the same, while others that do scale well, will perform worse.

The way I read those specs, with the VRAM mentioned as "4GB total in SLI", was that they were individually 2GB cards. So I would say, yes, an upgrade would be worth it.

 

[MrAceXPS]

I'd say no, especially since you have 4GB models of the 680. It's a side grade at best. Some games that don't scale well with SLI will perform better or about the same, while others that do scale well, will perform worse.

I actually have 4GB total. The cards are 2GB each. Should have called that out better...

 

[MrAceXPS]

Well I ordered the GTX 980. We will see how it does. More pricey than the 970, but I don't plan on opening the system for another year (hopefully).

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[2is]

Gotcha, but you don't add up vram like that in SLI. If you have 2 2GB cards you still only have 2GB of VRAM.