Need some advice - return 970 GTX SLI for 980 or AMD R9 295? 4K gaming

Thank you both for your replies, that's really helpful.

Yes, from what I've been reading and the benchmarks I've been looking at the 295x2 seems to give 980SLI a run for it's money, virtually always keeping pace or occasionally beating it, quite amazing considering the price difference.

Irritating to think that they may have a new product out in a couple of months...who's to say that won't be much more expensive though, especially with the price of that card now if it's end of life.

Good to know that Nvidia don't have anything new planned for a while, that narrows down the decisions.

I always have AA turned off now, it's just not needed, quite amazing really. The PSU is an EVGA Supernova G2 1000W Gold rated, so no problems with PSU quality of supply of juice!

Do you think an AMD 295x2 would get me near the hallowed 60fps at full 4K? And is it having 8GB of VRAM a gimmick or actually useful? I've read a bit about it with Shadows of Mordor...is that the only game that can use more than 4GB VRAM at the moment or am I misunderstanding something?


Thanks, I think I'm getting nearer a decision!

Thank you both for your replies again.

Isn't it difficult with a new card, there just isn't the information available about it, just lots of people frothing at the mouth speculating and clogging up search engine results!

I think the most sensible course of action will be to return the GTX 970s, pop in the old 570 and wait and see what happens.

I know I'm reaching the limit of the 970s as it is at 4K and now the memory problem has emerged it does explain a few things. Games etc., will get more powerful but those cards won't...as we are at the end of a product cycle it makes sense to start with a new product cycle as long as they aren't released at massively higher prices than two 970s!

Hi everyone

I've read up so much on this lately my head is spinning so I could really use others opinions.

Before Christmas I upgraded my system (Intel 3770K, 32GB) with two Nvidia GTX 970s in SLI.

I specifically wanted the power of a 970 for two reasons:
4K gaming
Intensive video use in applications such as Adobe Premiere (not so much the SLI but the general GPU grunt)

I knew that the 970s wouldn't run at 4K at 60fps+ but I hoped for some decent results.

I did get some decent results, I also got a lot of slowdown, dips into 20fps range or lower, when playing Far Cry 4, Sniper Elite 3 etc. Even the original Crysis can cripple them at full 4K with everything at max.

I've read about the 3.5GB+ memory problems and I've also read a lot of people saying that for 97% of people it's not an issue as they are gaming at 1080p.

Well I think I'm in the 3% range, I use 4K all day for work so it makes sense to use it for gaming as well and I think I'm being hobbled by this memory issue.

What to do?

Thankfully I am able to return them until the end of the month for a full refund or exchange for something new so I am starting again with my GPU requirements, but I don't have long to do it in.

Should I keep them for a performance vs price reason...but then I suppose I can't game at 4K and as newer games come out the problems will only get worse.

Or

Do I send them back and go for a 980? I can get one with money to spare but buying another one is very much a stretch though the performance graphs I have seen look very good.

Or

Do I look at the AMD R9 295? It's only £70 more than the cards I have bought now and the performance benchmarks on most things seem to be up with 980SLI for a much cheaper price.

I have read a lot of people criticising it though and saying that though it has 8GB of memory, the amount of memory isn't as good or fed as quickly as it should be so it's a meaningless number.

Or

Do I send the cards back, make use of my old GTX 570 and see what new cards come out? But I have no idea when that will be and in the meantime I'm crippled with a slow card.


Sorry...big post...any suggestions would be most welcomed!

Thanks.

tl;dr - problems at 4K with 970SLI x2. Return them? Get a 980? Get a R9 295? Return them and wait for next generation of cards?

For most high end games a single 980 won't cut it at 4k. The 295X2 will run most high end games fairly well. The next generation of AMD cards is due out in Q2 or early Q3 probably April. The next gen for Nvidia isn't due until 2016. If you have the patience it might be beneficial to wait for AMDs next generation though it's anyone's guess on the exact release date. Also running the system on a 570 for 2+ months might not be so hot. If you trade the cards in now I would get the 295X2. Also while gaming if you can handle it you could turn off anti-aliasing. The difference is not so bad but still noticeable, however it can gain quite a bit of performance in some games.