Should I Replace GTX 780Ti's (SLI) for Fury X (CF)/GTX 980Ti (SLI) for 5 Year Build

[JThorpe]

Hello All,

So last year I purchased 2 GTX 780Ti's for my long term build (5 Years). Right now my system is holding up fine, but I have noticed a huge jump in GPU tech and increase in VRAM usage on newer games over the last 6 months.

Most of the games that I have now are fine, but I have noticed a few games (i.e. Shadows of Mordor/Watch Dogs) that when the setting are turned up, will use a lot of VRAM (3GB+) even on 1080p.

I have watching a lot of E3 coverage and I know two games that were announced, Fallout 4 and Mass Effect 4, I will be getting day 1. Also, I am really interested in Star Citizen. I know with Fallout 4 there will be a lot of Mods and I love Mods (I have Skyrim with numerous Mods).

Right now I have a 1080p monitor, but I would like to eventually upgrade to a 1440p (144Hz) monitor, either FreeSync or GSync capable.

My current specs are: i7-4770K, Asus Maximus Hero, 16Gb Ram, 1000w SS PS.

My plan is still to have a 4-5 Year computer.

So should I invest in replacing my 780Ti's (SLI) with Fury X's in CF / 980Ti's in SLI (If Yes, which ones) or should I just keep my 780Ti's???

Thank You

 

[Squeetard]

I'm done with sli and CF (had both). Too many issues and piss poor support with either. Gonna get me a fast gpu and a freesync/gsync monitor.

 

[Headfoot]

Trying to make a "5 year build" and buying big now hoping to not upgrade later is a waste of time and money as you are finding out now. GPU tech is continuing to advance quickly enough that it's a fool's errand. You can however buy a CPU and expect at least 5 years out of it now.

That being said, don't make the same mistake twice. Either go into this knowing that your Fury X or 980 Ti SLI is going to be outdated in the same way when 16nm comes out (realizing that a 5 year build is unwise), or go into this knowing you're going to probably upgrade again when 16nm comes out so that you can have the best again.

This 5- year computer nonsense is never ending and you will face this exact issue again in 1.5 years on the GPU front.

Just be up front with yourself and know you'll want to replace whatever you buy now again in 1.5 years.

 

[exar333]

Maybe wait until we have some reviews next week and decide then? I would guess things will be a lot more clear then....

Anything out now will likely be obliterated by 14/16nm next year. Keep that in mind...

 

[ShintaiDK]

Stay with your 780ti sli until 14/16nm GPUs, then move to a single GPU.

 

[Subyman]

If pascal drops next year, you'll be in the same situation you are now. Use what you have until you hit a barrier and then upgrade. Or buy mid-high and upgrade often selling your old cards. Buying all out and thinking it will last 5 years isn't a good plan. You'd be on GTX 480's right now if that was the plan in 2010.

 

[Headfoot]

If pascal drops next year, you'll be in the same situation you are now. Use what you have until you hit a barrier and then upgrade. Or buy mid-high and upgrade often selling your old cards. Buying all out and thinking it will last 5 years isn't a good plan. You'd be on GTX 480's right now if that was the plan in 2010.

Exactly this.

"5 year plan" with GPUs is just a lie we tell ourselves to justify spending more money than we otherwise would right now...

 

[Gikaseixas]

If pascal drops next year, you'll be in the same situation you are now.

+1
Just keep your 780ti's till next year when 16nm AMD or Nvidia cards land

 

[RussianSensation]

Hello All,

So last year I purchased 2 GTX 780Ti's for my long term build (5 Years). Right now my system is holding up fine, but I have noticed a huge jump in GPU tech and increase in VRAM usage on newer games over the last 6 months.

Most of the games that I have now are fine, but I have noticed a few games (i.e. Shadows of Mordor/Watch Dogs) that when the setting are turned up, will use a lot of VRAM (3GB+) even on 1080p.

There is your answer - don't upgrade until you have to unless you can resell those 780Tis to offset the cost.

I have watching a lot of E3 coverage and I know two games that were announced, Fallout 4 and Mass Effect 4, I will be getting day 1. Also, I am really interested in Star Citizen. I know with Fallout 4 there will be a lot of Mods and I love Mods (I have Skyrim with numerous Mods).

It's not a good idea to upgrade your GPU for some future game many months out since games get delayed and we have no idea what hardware is necessary to max them out. What if all the games you listed run well on 780Ti or what if Star Citizen comes out when a $450 Pascal card is faster than a $700 980Ti? Prices of current cards drop, faster tech gets released, games get delayed, etc.

Right now I have a 1080p monitor, but I would like to eventually upgrade to a 1440p (144Hz) monitor, either FreeSync or GSync capable.

It's probably better to first get a new monitor and then a new GPU. If your cards are fast enough for your current monitor, you'd be wasting $. The one exception of where I would upgrade is if you can resell your existing cards which absorbs the cost of the upgrade quicker. However, with your 1080P monitor, even a single 780Ti OC is going to be very fast in many games. In your case it sounds like there is no reason to upgrade until you actually do get a new monitor or some of the games you are interested in bring your cards to their knees.

 

[Grooveriding]

If the money is not a huge deal I would dump the cards and upgrade to the Fury or 980 cards. The driver support for Kepler based cards is awful and I experienced it first hand after they released maxwell cards.

It's only going to get worse and you won't see pascal nvidia cards until a year from now. That is a long while to watch nvidia's awful legacy driver support, and the performance you're getting because of it, continue to deteriorate.

 

[moonbogg]

If money is an issue, grab the Acer 1440p 144hz monitor. When I got mine I was still using GTX 670's and I played my game on medium. It was still badass and better than being stuck on 1080p. You got enough power to use 1440p. That's just what I would do. That's actually what I did.

 

[happy medium]

+1
Just keep your 780ti's till next year when 16nm AMD or Nvidia cards land

+2 I agree:thumbsup:

 

[jackstar7]

I'll join the chorus of: Upgrade your monitor first. Also, make sure you test out Free/Gsync before locking yourself into one or the other.

 

[boozzer]

no gpu setup can last more than 5 years. even quad setups. and every game that doesn't support multi gpus well will have you banging your head.

your 2 780 ti can probably sell for about 450-500$ together. 200$ more to get rid of cf or sli troubles. is that worth it? you should have sold your 780 ti's 9 months ago when the maxwell's were out.

1.5-2 years from now you will probably see another 50% jump. the first node shrink in 3 or 4 gpu generations, could be huge, bigger than 50% bump. this is actually a really bad time to try to future proof. 400 series or pascal might give you a better chance.

 

[Headfoot]

this is actually a really bad time to try to future proof. 400 series or pascal might give you a better chance.

Historically, there has never been a good time to future proof. Such a thing doesnt exist in graphics

 

[boozzer]

Historically, there has never been a good time to future proof. Such a thing doesnt exist in graphics

yea but node shrinks are getting slower by each node. 28nm has been around for how long? I am sure 14/16 nm is sticking around for the same or more gpu generations. that is why I wrote what I wrote. unless amd can pull a fury every year.

 

[NTMBK]

Next year will bring HBM2 and 14nm. I would hang on until then.

But seriously, "5 year build" is a mug's game.

 

[IEC]

Sell your 2x 780 Ti while you still can get a decent price for them and buy a Fury X or 980 Ti. Not much net cost to upgrade and no dual card headaches. If Fury X = 980 Ti or comes in +/- 5% it would certainly be the better value with CLC cooling vs air.

 

[Silverforce11]

A 5 year build for GPUs isn't going to cut it. They tend to show their age after 2 years and after 3 years, its downright obsolete. This is ofc if you play games on high/ultra settings. If you play medium/high, it will last longer.

 

[alcoholbob]

Shadow of Mordor doesn't even work properly with multi GPU. Yes in the future when games are fully DX12 compliant Multi-Adaptor aka Split Frame Rendering will be built-into the API and Multi-GPU will make sense. But if current games are performing poorly, SLI will "sometimes" work, and Crossfire even less often.

This is coming from someone running SLI Titan Xs. In the majority of the games I download from steam I'm running on a single card only. Probably 80% of the games on Steam don't actually have SLI support or if it works it's worse than single Card. Maybe 50% of AAA games actually have working SLI, and by working I mean "a few graphics options have anomalies". As far as Crossfire, just give up unless you want to play with shimmering textures and flickering shadows. Not saying SLI is much better.

At this point multi GPU is if you need extra power for select AAA games that have support for it.

 

[rcarlos243]

I would say just keep your current setup and wait for either a 4k 120hz IPS G-Sync / FreeSync monitor or a 21:9 1440P 144Hz IPS G-Sync / FreeSync monitor.

Your 780 Ti's in SLI is more than enough for your monitor setup so you should upgrade your monitor first.

Then get NVIDIA Pascal or AMD with HBM2.