Some advice on the new gtx 980 please, and questions about 4 GB vs 6 GB VRAM

[chancefate]

I recently jumped into 4k gaming (With the 28 inch ASUS PB287Q) and at the same time got a new graphics card, the 6 GB GTX 780, overclocked, from EVGA: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K699CRW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Now that the new Nvidia cards are out, and I only bought my old one 2 weeks ago, I am thinking of retuning it and getting a 980.

My main question is, with a single monitor (4k) set up, is my 6 GB card overkill? If the new 980 had a 6 GB version I would not hesitate to buy one, but since they are only 4 GB, how much do those extra GB matter? In my mind I assumed I would be future proofing a bit, that I'd have an advantage as games and software started to use more VRAM.

I also thought about financing two new 980 cards and doing a SLI setup. I guess I am just hung up on the 4GB vs 6GB and wondering how much it matters.

I also see that my current card has 2304 CUDA Cores and the new 980s only have 2048. How big a deal is that?

So basically:

1. What do you think of the new 980s in general?
2. Does 6 GB really make that big a difference compared to 4 GB?
3. If I spend the money on SLI 980s, will I regret not waiting for a 6 GB version?
4. Should I be worried by the smaller amount of CUDA cores in the new 980s?

Thanks so much for any help of advice you can offer.

 

[getochkn]

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/09/19/nvidia-gtx-980-tested-sli-4k-and-single-gpu-benchmarks-and-impressions/2/

Looking here, 4k gaming on ultra, you need 2x980's SLI'd to get playable FPS. 1 doesn't cut it.

295x2 is still the killer though.

 

[epicninja]

1. The 980s are an important step up. While not major improvements performance wise, they do come in at very aggressive pricing and with many bells and whistles. Plus less power consumption if you care about that. Anyway, I would highly recommend getting a 980 instead. If you want some specs read this:

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

2. Unless you plan on doing more than one 4k monitor, 4gb is perfectly fine.

3. Well first off the extra VRAM version of 980 would be 8gb, not 6. That's because you double the VRAM in those, and while the stock 780 has 3gb, the 980 has 4. I think you will be fine buying these cards, but extra VRAM is always nice too, but not extremely important if you already have 4gb.

4. The one maxwell cuda core is worth more than one Kepler cuda core. When converted, maxwell has about 780 ti numbers, with 2800. So it actually has more than your 780.

 

[itisravi]

I'd suggest two 970s in SLI. You can get two custom overclocked 970s for $700. It will be only 10% slower than two 980s and save you $400. And in most of the games 970 SLI should give 50FPS+, so 980 SLI isn't really needed.