Selecting The Right Graphics Card: R9 295x2 vs Nvidia 970 vs 980

slayercookie · Sep 25, 2014

Im in the process of putting together a computer, I was originally going to go with the R9 295x2 because of the nice specs plus the price drop however with the recent release of the 970/980 cards im not sure what to go with, I was down to the R9 or SLI 970 or SLI 980 (trying to keep it around $1000)

sla70r · Sep 25, 2014

sli 970 , buy 1440p monitor with left over.

rockie_ · Sep 25, 2014

one GTX 970 is enough !

sla70r · Sep 25, 2014

No such thing as enough in the PC business !

Jonathan Cave · Sep 25, 2014

Remember SLI solutions require driver support and many games don't utilise both cards to 100% load. Therefore i'd say 295x2.

One card is always better than 2 if you can afford a single PCB with 2 GPU's

sla70r · Sep 25, 2014

Almost every single modern game now offers great SLI support and its only getting better. I would not worry one bit about it.

17seconds · Sep 25, 2014

Jonathan Cave :

Of course, the 295x2 is two GPUs in Crossfire, fully dependent on Crossfire driver support. Crossfire has significantly worse driver support than SLI, so I'm not sure this is a all that great of a suggestion. Particularly, as is shown in the chart on this page, GTX 970s in SLI cost a full $340 less and outperform a 295x2.

Jonathan Cave · Sep 25, 2014

I was of the assumption that dual GPU PCB's dont need crossfire support - only when you add a 2nd 295x2 crossfire support would be needed?
I may have learnt something here, so if a card has 2 x GPU - whether that be SLI or Xfirex , the PC and it's drivers still acts as though it's 2 separate cards ?

So the only benefits of a dual GPU solution is less space, less heat and less power draw?

If that is the case i stand corrected, and go with 17seconds recommendation.

sla70r · Sep 25, 2014

Hey I said it first !

Alex Kelly · Sep 25, 2014

I'd get a single GTX 970, then SLI if you need more performance.
2 970's perform better than a R95X2.

alex1993 · Sep 25, 2014

I'm in the same situation as the original poster. I'm at the end of my "ultimate enthusiasts 4k build" and idk to go with my original r9 295x2 or 2 or possibly 3 way sli gtx 980 over locked.

Specs:
Asus x99 V extreme
Intel i7 5730k
Corsair ddr4 vengence pro 2800mhz
Corsair 760t case
Cooler master 1000w psu
7 corsair af led fans and a corsair 100i(I believe) duel liquid cooler.
Samsung 850 pro duel raid o 256gbx2.

NONE4YOUU · Sep 25, 2014

3 970's will dominate, and are still cheaper. Go with Nvidia, always. AMD always sucks up a lot of energy and heats up a lot, let it be cpu's or gpu's. Intel cpu + Nvidia GPU all the way, get a 980 sli if you can afford it, if not a 970 will do fine also.

RobCrezz · Sep 25, 2014

Jonathan Cave :

Yup, you assumed incorrectly. Dual GPU cards require the same Crossfire or SLI support - They are treated like a normal SLI or crossfire setup, except they use a PLX chip to connect the two, rather than over the PCI-E bus.

alex1993 · Sep 25, 2014

@NONEFORYOUU
I have began to lean towards 2 or possibly 3 way sli EVGA SC GTX 980 over AMD R9 295x2. Since soon enough they will push out improved drivers for the new 980's and the OC potential is superior, especially watercooled.

Gathorisx · Oct 4, 2014

NONE4YOUU :

That sounds awfully biased, need we remind you of fermi?

I would get the 970 OP

RobCrezz · Oct 4, 2014

Gathorisx :

Fermi wasn't great at power consumption, but it wasn't much different from Barts/Cayman from AMD at the time - currently Nvidia are considerably better at power efficiency.

Genova84 · Oct 21, 2014

sla70r :

False. Shadow of Mordor and The Evil Within both don't support Sli. A lot of games also don't utilize it well.

sla70r · Oct 22, 2014

Genova84 :

1. I did not say every, I said almost.

2. Shadow of Mordor can have SLI activated in the Nvidia control panel, along with many other games.

3. Companies release their own SLI profiles for games after they release them.

monkinsane · Nov 18, 2014

rockie_ :

Exactly!

See: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

NGTO1 · Jan 29, 2015

Jonathan Cave :

Isn't the 295 x2 technically still Crossfire even though it is in a single housing?

Jonathan Cave · Jan 30, 2015

Yes it is.

Selecting The Right Graphics Card: R9 295x2 vs Nvidia 970 vs 980

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