Considering GPU upgrade... opinions?

[little P]

My Gigabyte 650 Ti Boost has opened up a new world of graphics for me since I built my PC over a year ago.

http://fragtard.net/forum/showthread.php/1608-Miracles-can-happen-(Pics)

I'm trying hard to resist the urge to upgrade but you know what it's like, once the thought enters your head it's hard to shake it...

I'm looking at the Gigabyte GTX 970 or GTX 980.

The reviews look good across the board,

eg. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-970-maxwell,3941-16.html

My question to you is do you think it's worth the extra money to go for the 980? Or do you think the 970 should last for a couple of years at least...

The Gigabyte 650 Ti Boost I have has served me well, but it's unable to play a few games on Ultra at the fps I like (60fps+) and I am fully intending to pick up the Oculus Rift when it is released, which Nvidia have said they had at the forefront of their minds when designing the 9 series cards. There are a few features aimed specifically at the Oculus Rift compatibility. I've also been dabbling in downsampling (3200x1800) and I love the way it looks, but the 650 Boost doesn't like it at all obviously.

Any thoughts?

On Scan.co.uk I can get the Gigabyte 970 for £280, the 980 is £500. Is it really £220 better though?!

Most people seem to think it's not worth the extra and the 970 is where it's at.

Long term I'm thinking ahead to SLI for 4k gaming when I can stretch to a 4k monitor, but that won't be for a while yet.

Any thoughts appreciated

 

[JohnnyK]

You playing at 1080p/60 FPS atm? Then the 970 is enough to get a consistent 60FPS on probably 95% of the games.

I would not plan for SLI - you are most likely better off getting a new rig when you switch to 4k anyway.

 

[mondo]

I'd ignore 4K right now. The monitors aren't really there yet and the graphics cards less so. Even in SLI it's problematic because the individual cards themselves don't have enough VRAM. It's the same problem when games started supported 1440p, the graphics cards with 1GB of RAM couldn't cope. In the next year or so 4, 6 and 8GB will become more common to deal with the texture sizes for 4K.

If you're using 1080p then you don't need much grunt but a 970 will last you a long time.

 

[Kenadian]

I can tell you first hand from experience to forget SLI as there is no ROI in it whatsoever, I'm sure kitty will back me up on this one as well.

You will end up saving money (as well as time and frustration) by getting the best single graphics card solution you can afford.

Game dependent, I've witnessed anywhere from a 2% advantage to a 20% advantage (20% being exceptionally rare, 5%-10% being the norm) but never higher than that. The only thing SLI has helped do is minimize some stuttering in heavy rendering areas but it's not nearly as smooth as I was expecting.

Not only is the performance gains lacking but it also increases the heat inside of your case dramatically.

Honestly, after having SLI I don't see myself ever getting it again. SLI is for those with more dollars than sense who want the absolute peak in performance when the newest cards come out so they can SLI them for a few frames/sec more.

The only reason I would ever recommend SLI is because your budget doesn't allow for a new $400 - $600 card and your existing card can pair up nicely with another budget solution to satisfy your short term needs.

 

[Kitlope]

SLI is an improvement but not much... I think these days it's more important when running 3 monitors/higher resolutions but for typical 60 frames at around 1920X1080 it's not needed. I'm not an expert though...

Go for the bang for your buck. Get the 970, save the 220 bones and take the kids to London Bridge or something.

 

[little P]

Thanks guys, I ordered this one;

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-gigabyte-gtx-970-g1-gaming-7010mhz-gddr5-gpu-1178mhz-boost-1329mhz-1664-cores-3x-dp-1x-hdmi-1x-d

Just waiting for it to come into stock now. Got some more ram while I was at it too.

Looking forward to seeing what this card can do, I really like the sound of the DSR feature (Dynamic Super Resolution) which is basically rendering a 4k image (3840x2160) then downscaling it to 1080p and applying a 13 tap Gaussian filter. In other words, makes stuff look really, really good. The review sites say this card can handle 4k gaming but only at 30 fps on the higher settings. Realistically I won't worry about 4k monitors for a couple of years yet I think, I'm more interested in the Rift and VR in general.

When the card and ram arrive I'll take the oppurtunity to give the case a good clean out and I'll post some pics once it's up and running

 

[little P]

Just had a text to let me know the G1 will be delivered tomorrow Feel like a kid on christmas eve lol

Tomorrow I'll be setting up the new monitor, giving the case a good clean out then installing the extra 8gb of RAM and the new GPU.

Awesomesauce