Gtx 770 3-way SLI or Gtx 780 SLI, single monitor

theodor3101

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Jun 1, 2013
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Hey everyone!

Im building a new system and was just wondering what was best, Gtx 770 3-way SLI or Gtx 780 SLI, on a single monitor setup?
 

ryanrich83

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Jul 31, 2012
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Agree with 13thmonkey. But if you are going to add a monitor, or upgrade to a higher def display you should read this first:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-770-gk104-review,3519.html

From last page:

"Enthusiasts ready to go big with multiple GPUs should be looking to Nvidia’s cards until AMD can sort out the issues with its frame pacing that we saw affect Battlefield 3, BioShock Infinite, Crysis 3, Far Cry 3, and Tomb Raider. Now you’re looking at two GeForce GTX 770s for $800, one 690 for $1,000, two 780s for $1,300 or two Titans for $2,000. The 770s are comparatively a great deal for enthusiasts gaming at 2560x1440. Need a little more muscle? You can add a third 770 and still spend less than two GeForce GTX 780s."

Go for 770. Add more of them if needed later on.
 
For a single 1080p monitor, get a single card. Having multiple cards is just overkill for that resolution.
If your playing at 1440p that makes more sense, I would go for dual 780's personally. Less heat being dumped in the case, less room for Framerating issues and scales better than triple cards. As well as the 780's just having 3GB of VRAM and a wider memory bus, which will be important playing at 1440p.

I can understand the Price/Perfomance angle of going for triple 770's, but really if your willing to spend this much on a graphics solution then I would think Price/Performance isnt that big of a concern. Besides, I think the extra VRAM will make enough fo a difference, I'm playing Crysis 3 on a 1080p screen and seeing my VRAM usage go over 2GB.
 

phailer7

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Jan 24, 2013
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The 770 has a 4gb model which is more than the 780's 3gb... so 3-Way Sli 770's at 4gb Vram each, one of them designated to physX only, is a much better performer and costs around the same as 2-way Sli 780's.
 
Using a 770 as a dedicated PhysX card is a waste. A 560Ti would handle PhysX just fine, for the few games that use it.
More VRAM does not equal more performance, except in situations where you are already VRAM limited, which currently just wont happen with 3GB. Games are only just starting to use more than 2GB at 1080p, and thats at the top like Crysis 3.

That setup would perform far worse than dual 780's, as your effectively pitting two 770's against two 780's. The 780's just have an outright stronger GPU, GK110 vs GK104 will make a massive difference, not 1GB of VRAM or having a card for PhysX.
 

phailer7

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Jan 24, 2013
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You should not compare one card to another card in this fashion, saying that a 680 is basically a 770, they SCALE completely different in SLI and the 770 draws less power and is WAY quieter. Secondly, the Titan is MUCH more powerful than the 780. AND finally, the third card for Physx is actually better than straight 3-way SLi. Do some more research and then you can start trying to convince me. And it wasn't pulled out of my butt, I got this information from RESEARCH on NEWEGG and around in other threads. I looked at GTX 770s and 780s , not Titans and 680s; my information is thus automatically more accurate than yours.
 

phailer7

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Jan 24, 2013
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You are misunderstanding the meaning of my reply to you, I was simply informing you that there is a 4gb model available for the same price as the 2gb. I thought you should know since that defeats your whole 3gb argument.

On a last note, if he wants these to last another year or two after he buys them, he'd be smart to go with the 4gb whereas the next-gen consoles are unlocking the capability of game producers to stop limiting RAM usage. We WILL see an increase of VRam demand by at least a Gig. I was simply offering the suggestion to not buy what is the current "max" build, but to build for the next-Gen games as well and avoid another rebuild in 2 years.
 
Take a look at the specs between a 680 and 770.
GK104 GPU on both.
2GB of GDDR5 VRAM on both.
256bit Memory bus on both.
Exact same Kepler GPU architecture and die size.

The 770 is just an optimized and higher clocked 680.
Same goes for the 780 and Titan, the 780 just has half the VRAM and some CUDA cores cut out. Look at game benchmarks and you will see that the 780 and Titan perform about equal to each other in most cases.

Also so far you have provided no information to speak of, while BigMack has, he has more accurate information by virtue of having information to begin with. I'm extremely interested to see if you can prove that having a 770 as a dedicated PhysX actually makes more of a difference than just having it in SLI, because I seriously doubt you can.

I would say that a 770 or 780 wont last 2 years regardless of increasing VRAM requirements, by then their GPU's would be equivalent to mid/low end cards due to Moores law.
 

phailer7

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Jan 24, 2013
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Here is one of my sources on that 3-way build.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Khm9YTVcvI0
 

funghi44

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Sep 3, 2013
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At 1080p a single 780 is way more than enough for a single monitor