SLI GTX 970 vs. Single GTX 980 for new build

[guy93]

I know this topic has been butchered but I've seen on forums online where certain games are pushing over 3.5GB of VRAM?(Issues with the 970s begin)

http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/Ttrft6 <-- My current build at the moment.

I will only ever play at 1920x1080 @ 120/144hz, not a fan of bigger screens. What do you guys recommend in terms of Video Card selection? I was leaning towards simply using a GTX 980 for a peace of mind, but if games don't even hit that high of VRAM usage @ my resolution then SLI would perhaps be a lot better.



Thank You

 

[3DVagabond]

Single card should be fine for 1920*1080. You can avoid multi GPU game/driver issues and likely be happier.

 

[Headfoot]

New cards are going to be coming out in the next few months. I'd wait

 

[SteveGrabowski]

The new cards are coming in June though, unless you're talking about the Titan X.

 

[Headfoot]

Yeah. I wouldn't buy a 980 now, not when its going to get price dropped as soon as there is competition which isn't that far off

 

[altairauditore]

I'd wait, see how the R300 series are and then decide. The NV cards will get a price cut too. You can then decide whether to buy a cheaper NV card or a faster(?) AMD.

 

[Ken g6]

A single 970 should be good enough in most cases at 1080P. If you don't wait for the new video cards, I'd say the next step up from that should be 2xR9 290 in Crossfire. Especially with a high-powered PSU like the one you've chosen.

Edit: Now that I look, though, they seem to be $100 more in Canada.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Get a single GTX 970. If this doesn't provide satisfactory performance, nab another one :thumbsup:

 

[guy93]

A single 970 should be good enough in most cases at 1080P. If you don't wait for the new video cards, I'd say the next step up from that should be 2xR9 290 in Crossfire. Especially with a high-powered PSU like the one you've chosen.

Edit: Now that I look, though, they seem to be $100 more in Canada.

I hear the produce ALOT of heat, power consumption isn't really a big deal to me. I originally wanted to crossfire the 290x but the heat was a turnoff, and figured if I went single GTX 980 or something I could add another one down the line if needed.

 

[raghu78]

wait till June for AMD R9 3xx series to launch. This should push the GTX 980 to USD 300 - 350. So you could go with a single flagship GPU from Nvidia or AMD for USD 650 - 700 or two GTX 980 or equivalent AMD option (say two R9 380X)

 

[playbot]

Looking at the conversation I thought that this article might be of some help to you

http://gamingcentral.in/my-gaming-journey-with-nvidias-gtx-970/

Cheers

 

[3DVagabond]

Looking at the conversation I thought that this article might be of some help to you

http://gamingcentral.in/my-gaming-journey-with-nvidias-gtx-970/

Cheers

Sorry, but how does that help? He contradicts himself throughout it.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I'm not a fan of SLI, and I don't trust the 970 to still work well a year or two from now.

If you need a card now, I'd pick the 980 over a single or SLI 970. If you can wait, then see what the new Radeons are like either to buy or to benefit from them pushing down the price of the 980.

 

[DownTheSky]

CFX > SLI. When supported. That's a fact.

Aftermarket radeons 290 with good coolers don't put out that much heat as people make you believe. I know this from mining. If you go CFX best is to underclock them to about 900mhz, and lower the voltage. Mine didn't go past 200W/card this way, when mining. Actually the core drew ~150 (220W at standard voltage and speeds for OC/aftermarket versions) and another 50 from the memory.

A slightly underclocked 290 draws about as much as a 980. They pushed these cards too high at release.

 

[Yuriman]

As I understand it, NV doesn't follow the same TDP rules as AMD. I realized this when I was looking into cards for a SFF computer.

GTX970 rated TDP is 145w. R290 doesn't have a rated TDP, but various sites have been guessing 250-300w.

In this chart, we can see that a 980 (165w) draws around the same power as a 770 (a 230w card) and ~60w less than a 290x (300w).

For what it's worth.

 

[RussianSensation]

I would order the Club 3D Royal Ace R9 290 for $299 CDN from Canada Computers. It looks like they have 1 left in the Waterloo store:
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=43_1200_557_558&item_id=069842

Then once GM200/R9 300 series drop, you can always resell this card with minimal loss in value in 6 months and evaluate your options. Personally, GTX970 doesn't seem worth it to me in Canada against a $300 R9 290 because it's going to be barely 5% faster at 1080P but it costs at least 30% more after taxes. A good after-market 970 is $420 after-rebates and that's before taxes.

A 1.04Ghz R9 290 is faster than a reference R9 290X:
http://www.computerbase.de/2014-05/amd-radeon-r9-290-290x-roundup-test/2/

Just set a custom fan curve for load temperatures. R9 290 is rated to run at 95C and with after-market cards you have a lot of headroom before you reach those temperatures. Alternatively, get a single GTX970 for now. I wouldn't buy a 980 as it's ludicrously overpriced in Canada with after-market cards close to $700-750 CDN after tax.

NV should start bundling The Witcher 3 with GTX900 cards soon. So if you are leaning towards a 970, maybe wait a bit for that promotion.

As I understand it, NV doesn't follow the same TDP rules as AMD. I realized this when I was looking into cards for a SFF computer.
For what it's worth.

NV's TDP hasn't been a reliable indicator of the power usage of NV GPUs. Sometimes it's reasonable, other times it's way off. After-market 970 peaks at 190W+. 145W power usage for a 970 is just wishful thinking unless talking about averages. Average power load has its own limitations because some games can be CPU limited or a section of the game can become CPU limited at which point GPU load drops well below 99%. At that point it's natural the card will not approach its maximum power consumption limit since it's not being utilized to its full ability.

 

[Headfoot]

I hear the produce ALOT of heat, power consumption isn't really a big deal to me. I originally wanted to crossfire the 290x but the heat was a turnoff, and figured if I went single GTX 980 or something I could add another one down the line if needed.

Completely overblown. The aftermarket models don't run hot at all. The Tri-X runs incredibly cool. In terms of total power consumption, a 290x in real usage uses 40-60w more than a 980. It's really not much.

Even if it was, why exactly (and be specific) do you care so much about heat? How will that affect you in any way?

 

[guy93]

Completely overblown. The aftermarket models don't run hot at all. The Tri-X runs incredibly cool. In terms of total power consumption, a 290x in real usage uses 40-60w more than a 980. It's really not much.

Even if it was, why exactly (and be specific) do you care so much about heat? How will that affect you in any way?

Just always had the "the cooler the better" mindset, but if heat isn't that crazy high with the 290x's then perhaps I will stick with those. Also have the option to wait it out.

Sometimes I really do hate technology.. too many choices haha.

 

[Termie]

So no one in this thread has actually addressed your particular usage pattern, which is 1080p gaming at 120Hz. It's not the same as 1440p gaming or regular 1080p gaming.

First of all, you don't need a lot of VRAM, unless you want to use Nvidia's DSR, in which case you probably need 4GB cards to get the most out of it.

Second, you're going to find yourself bottlenecking a lot even with a 4790K, because CPU usage goes up proportionally with framerate. I've used 780 Ti SLI extensively at 120Hz on a 4770K@4.5, and I promise you that you'll almost never get above 50% scaling.

And as for two open-air 290X cards - well, just because one works great doesn't mean that two is easy to handle. You'll find your top card getting very hot, even if you go with a Tri-X.

So, in short, for your needs, I'd got with a 980. I just wouldn't bother with 970 SLI - it's not a great solution given the unusual VRAM arrangement. And dual 290 or 290X cards will have scaling issues at 120Hz and produce an incredible amount of heat. And that actually does matter when you're running two. What some of the posts above don't distinguish between is GPU temperature and heat output. They aren't the same. Just because my 290 Tri-X runs at 70C doesn't mean it's not blowing a heck of a lot of hot air into my case, far more than a 970 or 980 would when running a 70C.

As an aside, I find it pretty humorous that so many people are telling you to wait it out. The only viable alternative to the cards you're looking at are coming in June at the earliest. Three months is a long time to wait if you're looking to upgrade now. And we have no idea what those cards will bring in terms of price or performance.

 

[guy93]

So no one in this thread has actually addressed your particular usage pattern, which is 1080p gaming at 120Hz. It's not the same as 1440p gaming or regular 1080p gaming.

First of all, you don't need a lot of VRAM, unless you want to use Nvidia's DSR, in which case you probably need 4GB cards to get the most out of it.

Second, you're going to find yourself bottlenecking a lot even with a 4790K, because CPU usage goes up proportionally with framerate. I've used 780 Ti SLI extensively at 120Hz on a 4770K@4.5, and I promise you that you'll almost never get above 50% scaling.

And as for two open-air 290X cards - well, just because one works great doesn't mean that two is easy to handle. You'll find your top card getting very hot, even if you go with a Tri-X.

So, in short, for your needs, I'd got with a 980. I just wouldn't bother with 970 SLI - it's not a great solution given the unusual VRAM arrangement. And dual 290 or 290X cards will have scaling issues at 120Hz and produce an incredible amount of heat. And that actually does matter when you're running two. What some of the posts above don't distinguish between is GPU temperature and heat output. They aren't the same. Just because my 290 Tri-X runs at 70C doesn't mean it's not blowing a heck of a lot of hot air into my case, far more than a 970 or 980 would when running a 70C.

As an aside, I find it pretty humorous that so many people are telling you to wait it out. The only viable alternative to the cards you're looking at are coming in June at the earliest. Three months is a long time to wait if you're looking to upgrade now. And we have no idea what those cards will bring in terms of price or performance.

Well put. Single card allows me to have breathing room for SLI in the future when/if needed. Deep down I would probably be sad if I went with a Radeon/AMD card, I've always loved Nvidia haha. I stopped following new CPU/GPU releases after I built my current build back in 2009, so nowadays I rely a lot on forums. A lot has truly changed. I was the cool kid on the block with an i7 920 and an 8800GTX!

That being said, I have decided to go with a single GTX 980. In Canada, everything is more expensive. Even a 970 costs around $450ish with taxes. Thank you everyone for your help, Anandtech forums never fails. If there are any issues with my current build, feel free to comment/criticize before I place orders.

 

[Headfoot]

As an aside, I find it pretty humorous that so many people are telling you to wait it out. The only viable alternative to the cards you're looking at are coming in June at the earliest. Three months is a long time to wait if you're looking to upgrade now. And we have no idea what those cards will bring in terms of price or performance.

I find it humorous you don't want him to wait an ever-so-long 3 months when the last flagship GPU architecture from nVidia (read, big version not midrange version of an arch) came out February 2013, e.g. Titan. What's 3 more months after already waiting 2 years...

If you're going max performance single card, it's ridiculous to buy a 980 right now when the next flagships which will undoubtedly surpass the 980 for fastest-single-chip-card are coming out in 3 months when a video card cycle now lasts 3 years.

3 months is nothing in 2015's market.

 

[Headfoot]

Don't go with a 980 unless you absolutely can't wait. nVidia's flagship will land in 3 months or less. AMD's flagship will land 1-3 months thereafter. There's a decent chance the 980 gets a price drop when the GeForce version of Big Maxwell drops and a even better chance of price drops when AMD's 390x/390/380x/380 comes out.

Also you can find a 295x2 for $600. Only $50 more than the 980, and it's a lot faster. Dumps hardly any hot air in your case, vents it all out. The 980 is just really poor perf/$. Not sure on the 295x2 price in Canada though

If you can't wait, then at least try and get a card from a vendor with a Step-Up program so you can keep an upgrade option open should you decide to. But there are no guarantees which cards get included in these programs. EVGA has a program like this but if I recall correctly it did not include the last Titan as a possible upgrade card. Im not sure that these programs are available in Canada either, definitely check the terms and conditions before you buy for gotchas.

 

[96Firebird]

Get the 980.

I may have missed it, but is this a completely new build?

Edit - Duurrr, its right in the title. Nevermind!

 

[Arachnotronic]

That being said, I have decided to go with a single GTX 980. In Canada, everything is more expensive. Even a 970 costs around $450ish with taxes. Thank you everyone for your help, Anandtech forums never fails. If there are any issues with my current build, feel free to comment/criticize before I place orders.

Enjoy!

 

[Termie]

I find it humorous you don't want him to wait an ever-so-long 3 months when the last flagship GPU architecture from nVidia (read, big version not midrange version of an arch) came out February 2013, e.g. Titan. What's 3 more months after already waiting 2 years...

If you're going max performance single card, it's ridiculous to buy a 980 right now when the next flagships which will undoubtedly surpass the 980 for fastest-single-chip-card are coming out in 3 months when a video card cycle now lasts 3 years.

3 months is nothing in 2015's market.

What card are you referring to exactly? A low-priced version of the Titan-X? No such card has been announced.

He's not shopping for a $1500 card.

Anyway, he'll be more than happy with a 980 at 1080p/120Hz.