What NVidia card(s) for a 3930k system?

[Lil'John]

Title states it but for some details:
CPU : 3930k that will be water cooled and OC'd as far as it can go
MB : ASUS Rampage IV Extreme
RAM : 32 GB - 16 GB used as RAM drive for game installs
HDD/SDD : Intel 530 SSD 240GB, Travelstar 1TB HD
PSU : Cooler Master 1200W Silent Pro Gold
OS : Win 8.1 Pro
Resolution : three 1920x1080 vertical

Current Graphics card :
GigaByte 970 G1 in SLI being returned today (perf issue not spec return)

Temp card while waiting :
ASUS 560ti in SLI

Only restriction is the card(s) must be NVidia for CUDA programming.

I'm looking for options or opinions.

I could do two 980s. My usual store has two GigaByte 980 G1s available right now.

It looks like 780ti's but they appear to all be 3GB mem.

Is there something better on the horizon shortly?

This is the for giggle e-peen machine so the budget for cards is somewhat flexible... but no $1500usd cards in quad sli please

 

[SlowSpyder]

GTX980 is probably your best bet. Kepler support seems to have dwindled. Even three year old 7970GHz card is now nearly as fast as a GTX780. I wouldn't spend that much on a 3GB card that is getting less driver support. Rock those GTX980's.

 

[DooKey]

Those Gigabyte G1 980s will be just what you want.

 

[wilds]

16gb is pretty small for modern games to be played on a RAM Drive. It'll be plenty for older games.

 

[Lil'John]

Thanks for the input so far.

Is it worth getting a factory water cooling ready card such as the ASUS Poseidon or EVGA Hydro Copper?

It seems like it is hit and miss on whether a water cooled card would have the warranty honored.

Price on the above two seem close when not gouged... especially the ASUS one.

16gb is pretty small for modern games to be played on a RAM Drive. It'll be plenty for older games.

I create a ram drive per game. Each ram drive is backed/saved onto the 1TB hard drive.

So far, most of what I'm running is well under 8GB. I think the worst is Borderlands 2 at 13gb so far.

 

[RussianSensation]

If price is of little importance, 980 SLI EVGA Classified. Galaxy HOF 980 looks awesome too. Otherwise, MSI Gaming 970/Gigabyte G1 970 SLI are good stop-gaps until GM200 SLI for you.

 

[kasakka]

Why not get a 1 TB SSD? It would be in general far more convenient than messing with RAM drives.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Why not get a 1 TB SSD? It would be in general far more convenient than messing with RAM drives.

Exactly, and a good one like a Samsung EVO should only be $400-500.

 

[96Firebird]

If you get EVGA 980s, you have the step-up option which will let you upgrade your cards (while paying the difference) to GM200 if they are released within 90 days of your purchase. However, I am not sure when GM200 is expected.

 

[Lil'John]

If you get EVGA 980s, you have the step-up option which will let you upgrade your cards (while paying the difference) to GM200 if they are released within 90 days of your purchase. However, I am not sure when GM200 is expected.

Good point on EVGA step-up... I'll take a look into it. How good/bad is the customer support with EVGA?

Why not get a 1 TB SSD? It would be in general far more convenient than messing with RAM drives.

I haven't found the RAM drive to be too inconvenient so far... I've had it for ~3 years now with no issues. Load RAM drive file... save RAM drive file:|

I wouldn't want to pay for a 1TB SSD even now... I recently did a 480GB version and it was a bit much:hmm:

 

[Pneumothorax]

I've had 5 manufacturers of vid cards over the last decade and evga has the best customer service by far. Too bad the red team doesn't have anyone like that on their side.

If you have the money to burn I'd get evga 980 classy. The Poseidon is too overpriced now.

 

[DooKey]

I've dealt with EVGA CS in the past and it was a very pleasant experience. With that said I wouldn't go with the classified because it just isn't worth the premium price IMO.

 

[Lil'John]

Does the starting card "really" make a difference if the goal is to watercool and overclock?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

If I said the MSI GTX 970 Gaming and Gaming Golden were darn good cards, one wouldn't necessarily assume that the 980 line was great, but it seems like something to look into. Why wouldn't that be the case?

I have limited knowledge about all of this, and weak on graphics hardware -- or in some areas of it.

But -- that said -- I cannot understand how someone would see a need to water-cool the 970s, unless your computer-case choices and strategies left a reserve of stale air in your box.

I've only overclocked mine to 1,440/3,750(7,500). There is just now way those cards go over 70C under anything -- nor more than that with sustained stress-testing. You CAN actually let them run with the fans off and the temperatures closer to 50C, but my own fans stay running at a minimum 35% duty cycle.

There is definitely some performance premium between the 970's gimped design and the 980, but people who bought certain makes and models of the GTX 970 seem pretty happy. I say that as a statistical observation -- there's a distribution of user experiences with the cards, some folks were merely turned off by the RAM controversy. There would even be outliers in that distribution.

Depends on how much you want to spend, your intentions and likely usage.

Otherwise -- I'm good to go . . .

 

[Pneumothorax]

I thought about it for a bit and the classified is only worth it if you're going under water as full EK blocks are available for it.

If you're going to stay with stock air cooling then:
1. Gigabyte G1 Gaming - arguably the best cooler, but also the loudest
-also has a robust power system which allows the gpu to draw much more power than stock, but silicon lottery seems to be a big factor with Maxwell.
2. MSI gaming/Asus Strix - the best for quiet running.

 

[Headfoot]

Rumor has it new AMD and nVidia cards come out this spring -- so depending on how patient you are you might be able to wait for the real high end Maxwell before taking the plunge. Prices on existing cards will likely take a hit once the new cards come out, particularly the 980. I could see the 980 hitting $450 or $400 when Big Maxwell is out

 

[Lil'John]

Thanks all for the input.

If I said the MSI GTX 970 Gaming and Gaming Golden were darn good cards, one wouldn't necessarily assume that the 980 line was great, but it seems like something to look into. Why wouldn't that be the case?<snip 970 stuff>
Depends on how much you want to spend, your intentions and likely usage.

I HAD a pair of the 970s that ran into the ram issue They weren't too bad until I ran into it. It was also kind of cool to have consecutive serial numbers:hmm:

I am doing full water cooling just for giggles. What e-peen machine isn't water cooled?:awe:

I thought about it for a bit and the classified is only worth it if you're going under water as full EK blocks are available for it.

If you're going to stay with stock air cooling then:
1. Gigabyte G1 Gaming - arguably the best cooler, but also the loudest
-also has a robust power system which allows the gpu to draw much more power than stock, but silicon lottery seems to be a big factor with Maxwell.
2. MSI gaming/Asus Strix - the best for quiet running.

The reason the Gigabyte G1 is very tempting is I know my retailer will have a pair ready to go.

The reason for an EVGA one is they have specifically called out that water cooling will not void the warranty.

Is the reason to go with some of the aftermarket cards because they start with a guaranteed overclock and have more robust power system?

Rumor has it new AMD and nVidia cards come out this spring -- so depending on how patient you are you might be able to wait for the real high end Maxwell before taking the plunge. Prices on existing cards will likely take a hit once the new cards come out, particularly the 980. I could see the 980 hitting $450 or $400 when Big Maxwell is out

This is probably the one thing that concerns me. It is exactly what happened when I bought my 560ti's... within 2 months, the 670 and 680 popped up

I'm still stuck waiting for my refund (~1-2 weeks) and I'm back on my 560s so they could do their duty for a little longer.

 

[guskline]

2 Sapphire Tri-X OC R9 290s in CF watercooled with EK blocks see sig below. I apologize for mentioning an AMD card BUT they run well especially watercooled.

 

[garagisti]

Don't know whatever happened to my last post, so here it is.

If you want to use CUDA specific features, then wait till GM200 comes, as GM204 is tailored much towards gaming. It will be silly (to be polite) to spend close to $1400on GM204 if compute is a consideration. Plus, Gm200 will known down prices of 980 possibly, so even if you still have to buy the same, you could do at cheaper prices.

If you want to have water cooled cards for gaming, merely buy 2 290s from Visiontek and they have a year's warranty
https://www.visiontek.com/graphics-cards/visiontek-cryovenom-liquidcooled-series-r9-290-detail.html
$340 each with water blocks factory fitted, and tested for 1175mhz clocks. 290x is for $100 more.

By the way, you will have enough left after buying 2 290s to consider buying a separate quadro card proper(well, good deals can be had on fleabay), which may help you with CUDA tasks and so on.

 

[Lil'John]

2 Sapphire Tri-X OC R9 290s in CF watercooled with EK blocks see sig below. I apologize for mentioning an AMD card BUT they run well especially watercooled.

Don't know whatever happened to my last post, so here it is.

If you want to use CUDA specific features, then wait till GM200 comes, as GM204 is tailored much towards gaming. It will be silly (to be polite) to spend lose to $1400 if compute is a consideration. Plus, Gm200 will known down prices of 980 possibly, so even if you still have to buy the same, you could do at cheaper prices.

If you want to water cooled cards for gaming, merely buy 2 290s from Visiontek and they have a year's warranty
https://www.visiontek.com/graphics-cards/visiontek-cryovenom-liquidcooled-series-r9-290-detail.html
$340 each with water blocks factory fitted, and tested for 1175mhz clocks. 290x is for $100 more.

By the way, you will have enough left after buying 2 290s to consider buying a separate quadro card proper(well, good deals can be had on fleabay), which may help you with CUDA tasks and so on.

No worries on mentioning the AMD cards. I'm fairly brand agnostic except that I want to code in CUDA. I'm not doing anything professional or productive with CUDA.

I am partially concerned over mix/match AMD cards with Nvidia. I'm never convinced they will act nicely together.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Thanks all for the input.



I HAD a pair of the 970s that ran into the ram issue They weren't too bad until I ran into it. It was also kind of cool to have consecutive serial numbers:hmm:

I am doing full water cooling just for giggles. What e-peen machine isn't water cooled?:awe:
. . . .

Not criticizing your assessment. But curious. For the moment, I'm running my own 970s for 1920x1080. Can't see the need for 4K at the moment. I can tell how the cards behave with different AA and other settings. Am I guessing correctly that this "RAM problem" surfaces because you're rigged-up with > 1440? And how does the problem manifest itself?

For the water-cooling, that's again an issue of want versus need, and I think I only addressed the personal "want" part of it for getting two cards. We ALL do this stuff, in various ways . . .

Also -- pardon me for being (possibly) naïve, but how would 2x 970 be a problem with the higher resolutions if they provide 7GB of video RAM instead of 8 (the way folks say they wanted it)? "Curious minds want to know."

This may not address the OP's needs, and he should probably get 980's or the 290s someone recommended if he wants to spend the money. But we all have our questions . . .

Also -- just in passing -- I updated to the 347.52 driver after (I thought!) I saw some post somewhere suggesting that it "resolved" some issues related to the RAM controversy. Did you get a chance to test your problem with that driver?

 

[garagisti]

No worries on mentioning the AMD cards. I'm fairly brand agnostic except that I want to code in CUDA. I'm not doing anything professional or productive with CUDA.

I am partially concerned over mix/match AMD cards with Nvidia. I'm never convinced they will act nicely together.

Hey, the cards i mentioned come with factory fitted water cooling which is tested for minimum clocks. You could have 2 290s watercooled for approximately the price of 1 980 under water. So it is very one sided when it comes to performance per dollar

Yes, i don't know how they will exist in a single system myself either... they once used to though, with Nvidia card being used for Physx.
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1651932/build-rig-nvidia-amd-gpu.html

 

[Lil'John]

<snip of Q's about how RAM issue manifests>
Also -- pardon me for being (possibly) naïve, but how would 2x 970 be a problem with the higher resolutions if they provide 7GB of video RAM instead of 8 (the way folks say they wanted it)? "Curious minds want to know."
<snip driver>

I won't go through full RAM issue description. It is usually related to res higher than 1080. My res isn't 1080 like you are running.

On SLI question, I won't go into full SLI details as I'm not an expert BUT the RAM isn't additive. It is more processing power but not more ram. So effectively, you get 4GB ram. As far as I know, AMD has the same behavior for x-fire.

I did not test another driver. From the reading I did of the RAM issue, it does not seem like a software patch will fix the issue.

 

[DooKey]

It makes no sense to go AMD/NV setup if you are going to need Cuda. Just grab a couple of 980s and be happy. If Cuda isn't really important then jump on the 290s. I see no reason to do one AMD card and one NV card. I certainly don't see a reason to go 2x AMD and 1x NV just for Cuda.

 

[loccothan]

Hmm Best for You is Wait for Radeon R390X HBM WC 4096 Bit