GTX 670 SLI or single R9 290?

[Josheyman123]

Coming around through next gen, I have a feeling my 670 wont cut it for high fps (running a 144hz monitor) for next gen AAA titles except on utter-low details. Its been going through my mind for a while that I should pick up a second 670 for SLI, and after looking at Radeon cards for a while, followed by the big bitcoin/litecoin boom, it further solidified my idea of getting a second 670. However, I have seen some 290's dip into the 400-450 range again, and I return troubled...

I've sifted through the first few pages of Google, and I haven't come up with "fitting" results. I've seen it go both ways.

One thing I do want to note: when 1440p becomes slightly cheaper with the nice 120hz panels (OC'd or not), I'll make the move to 1440p. So, the question of VRAM becomes much more relevant. Will the 4GB make a large difference? Same with the memory bandwidth advantage of 512-bit?

Thanks in advance for all answers, I really appreciate the assistance/advice.

- Josheyman123

P.S. System Specs, if they matter?

i5 2500k
16GB Corsair Vengeance
EVGA GTX 670 FTW 2GB

P.S.S. Something else: Maybe I wait out the rest of this year, wait for Skylake (Q1 2015), and build an entirely new computer?

I still appreciate all the answers

 

[chemmajorp53]

Coming around through next gen, I have a feeling my 670 wont cut it for high fps (running a 144hz monitor) for next gen AAA titles except on utter-low details. Its been going through my mind for a while that I should pick up a second 670 for SLI, and after looking at Radeon cards for a while, followed by the big bitcoin/litecoin boom, it further solidified my idea of getting a second 670. However, I have seen some 290's dip into the 400-450 range again, and I return troubled...

I've sifted through the first few pages of Google, and I haven't come up with "fitting" results. I've seen it go both ways.

One thing I do want to note: when 1440p becomes slightly cheaper with the nice 120hz panels (OC'd or not), I'll make the move to 1440p. So, the question of VRAM becomes much more relevant. Will the 4GB make a large difference? Same with the memory bandwidth advantage of 512-bit?

Thanks in advance for all answers, I really appreciate the assistance/advice.

- Josheyman123

P.S. System Specs, if they matter?

i5 2500k
16GB Corsair Vengeance
EVGA GTX 670 FTW 2GB

P.S.S. Something else: Maybe I wait out the rest of this year, wait for Skylake (Q1 2015), and build an entirely new computer?

I still appreciate all the answers

If you are content running your current setup on 1080p 144hz for now and are looking to upgrade to 1440p in the future, the best option may be to simply wait until you upgrade to 1440p and buy an Nvidia 8 series card at the same time. Otherwise, getting an r9 290 would be a better option than SLI as the 2GB of VRAM will definitely hold you back at WQHD and up in next gen titles. Personally I want to see how the 20nm Maxwell cards fare before upgrading my card because if they are anything like the 750 ti they're going to absolutely demolish everything currently on the market.

 

[Josheyman123]

I really appreciate it, and not meaning to get off topic, but what has been so promising about the 750 cards? I haven't seen anything except a small performance increase that Nvidia wants to rape the consumer's pockets for over current 700 series Kepler cards? Am I completely wrong?

 

[chemmajorp53]

I really appreciate it, and not meaning to get off topic, but what has been so promising about the 750 cards? I haven't seen anything except a small performance increase that Nvidia wants to rape the consumer's pockets for over current 700 series Kepler cards? Am I completely wrong?

It's the performance per watt and performance per core. An overclocked 750 ti can now do on 60W what a GTX 660 does on 120W. The Maxwell cores are approximately 1.5x as powerful as a kepler core. So, if Nvidia decides to give you more cores with the the process shrink to 20nm as expected, there will be a huge performance increase. All this depends on how expensive they will be, however, as Nvidia doesn't have much reason to go for value with AMD so far behind. Also, the GTX 880 "leak" rumor suggests 4GB of standard VRAM.

 

[JUICEhunter]

750ti is also pretty cheap if you shop around, saw some good OC models for about $150 but I would say it's a 650 ti/boost replacement targeting OEM PC users who don't want to change their power supply but want to get the best possible card.

Back to your topic: I was able to sell my 670 for $175 to a friend and got a 780ti OC for $660 and it is a very nice upgrade. I actually had a 780 OC for 2 weeks which should be about the same speed as the 290 and the TI is a good amount faster.

 

[RobCrezz]

670s in SLI are beasts! I would SLI them.