Upgrade from 2 R9 290s in CF to 1 GTX 1080?

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guskline

guskline

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2006
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My goal has been to run single high end cards vs running 2 in SLI/CF. I also like to custom watercool.

You can see my 2 rigs below. I liked the idea of Nvidia AND AMD but the release of GTX 1080 reviews has made me think.

Should I wait for BIG Vega to drop late this year or early next year or should I replace the 2 R9-290s in CrossFire with a GTX 1080 much sooner?

First, no matter which route I take I will have to buy a new waterblock so that is a wash. I toyed with maybe a Fury X but I don't want the AIO cooler and I don't think it is double the performance of 2 R9 290s. The GTX 980TI SC I have in my 5960x rig is close to matching the performance of the 2 r9-290s without the constant problem of hoping for CF profiles.

From all of the reviews I could decipher today of the GTX 1080 (a ton!) it surely appears it equals if not exceeds the performance of the 2 R9 290s.

Your thoughts????
 
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Bacon1

Diamond Member
Feb 14, 2016
3,430
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Wait for Vega or cheaper 1080 at least.

In Rise of the Tomb Raider 2x390x are faster than 1080.

The founder's edition price tag makes it ridiculously priced.
 
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Lepton87

Platinum Member
Jul 28, 2009
2,544
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perf_oc.png

perf_oc.png


is 1080 really worth it? 980Ti are going for very low prices now, I just bought one in place of my burned one.
 
thesmokingman

thesmokingman

Platinum Member
May 6, 2010
2,302
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guskline said:
Your thoughts????
Click to expand...


Ultimately when overclocked, 1080 vs 980ti, the difference is not as great as the price difference between the two cards. Performance in a small slice of games was well under 15%. There's also the fact that there are no "great" aircooled or custom examples out yet.

Even if you have set your mind on a 1080, I'd wait till the customs are out before jumping.
 
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SimianR

Senior member
Mar 10, 2011
609
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Some of the 1080 OC benchmarks I was seeing appeared to be around 2x R9 390. So you would probably get similar performance where crossfire works with the 1080 with much lower power use. But I'm the type that actually likes to gain performance when I upgrade and it looks like you would only be gaining performance in titles that don't support crossfire (which admittedly there are quite a few). I would wait.
 
wilds

wilds

Platinum Member
Oct 26, 2012
2,059
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I would hate to spend $700 for the 1080 FE.
It has 1x8 pin power and has a rather poor cooler for its price.

I would wait for the real 1080 cards to come.
 
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digitaldurandal

Golden Member
Dec 3, 2009
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I would only do it if I was playing a lot of games that CF did not agree with and where my performance on one card bothered me. I would also take into consideration approximately how much money I could get for the cards.

Personally I think with the performance you currently have, you should wait for 1080 ti and Vega. I think Vega will release and Nvidia will respond with a competitively priced card. I have to think Vega performance will be better than the 1080 but at this point we don't really know.

It is a six month wait. You could sell your cards now, purchase the 1080, sell the 1080 purchase one of the big die cards. Hard to say the total extra cost there vs waiting and selling your cards in Novemberish.
 
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Kenmitch

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
8,505
2,250
136
Wait it out is best.

What your currently feeling is the dreaded enthusiasts primal urge to upgrade when something new and shiny hits the market.
 
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Headfoot

Diamond Member
Feb 28, 2008
4,444
641
126
Hey guskline. I'm in the same spot as you. I've decided to sell one of my 290s, run on a single until I see what Polaris and Vega bring. Ethereum mining is keeping the price of used 290s higher than it otherwise would be right now so if there is a time to sell its now
 
guskline

guskline

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2006
5,338
476
126
Headfoot said:
Hey guskline. I'm in the same spot as you. I've decided to sell one of my 290s, run on a single until I see what Polaris and Vega bring. Ethereum mining is keeping the price of used 290s higher than it otherwise would be right now so if there is a time to sell its now
Click to expand...

Fortunately, for me I'm in no rush because I have two rigs, If I got GTX 1080 I will watercool it also and run it in my 5960x rig and move the GTX 980TI to my 4790k rig. I think I want to see what kind of aftermarket GTX 1080s come out.

Finally, I received a nice chunk of Newegg gift cards for my birthday in April so the cost of a new card will be very little if any out of pocket money.
 
RussianSensation

RussianSensation

Elite Member
Sep 5, 2003
19,458
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Headfoot said:
Hey guskline. I'm in the same spot as you. I've decided to sell one of my 290s, run on a single until I see what Polaris and Vega bring. Ethereum mining is keeping the price of used 290s higher than it otherwise would be right now so if there is a time to sell its now
Click to expand...

For the exact reason you outlined, I would not sell 290s now. Ethereum prices keep rising. The current earnings for 2 overclocked 290s are $150 USD a month after electricity costs.
https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/sapphire/radeon-r9-295x2-ethereum-mining/

If this continues, in 6 months, that's $900 of pure profits. He can sell the 290s for $100 each, walking out with $1000-1100 of profits by the time Vega launches. That's going to be almost enough to buy 2x 1080s! Even if difficulty increased 2X, and Ether didn't go up in value to compensate, it would be $75 a month X 6 months = $450 US + $200 for both 290s resale = a free Vega/1080.

I suppose if both systems are used for gaming, then this option wouldn't work that well. I am planning to build even more mining rigs in June. I remember during the early days of Bitcoin prices were low and my 4890 was making 1 coin a day, then 0.5 coin a day. Yaaaa. If Ether goes up to $25, those monthly Ether mined in June, July, August doubles in value overnight. If Ether goes to $0, 290 can still be resold for $130-140 by August 2016. There will be plenty of after-market 1070/1080 cards and water blocks to choose from. The risk is close to non-existent.

If not mining, then I would sell 290s ASAP. 1080 OC is 50%-60% faster than a stock 980Ti ~ 290 CF. That means a 1080 @ 2.1Ghz will be a solid upgrade and I doubt Vega OC will be even this good.
 
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raghu78

Diamond Member
Aug 23, 2012
4,093
1,475
136
OP you should wait to see how does Polaris perform ? Once you have a good comparison of the products from both camps then you can decide on a purchase. I think Polaris 10 is most probably going to launch in June. You are better off waiting and seeing how things turn out.
 
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SPBHM

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2012
5,066
418
126
considering the ebay price for a 290, when CF works it's probably not worth upgrading, but, if you consider the games where CF doesn't work the difference is huge... also a single 290 will already use a lot more power than a 1080...

I think if you just want the 1080... go for it, it's a decent product at $599 I guess, it's no Titan or anything absurd, but, which games are not running well with the 290 CF?
 
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