Good 1080 card choice for this ~$1600 build?

[BinaryTobis]

I put together a computer build here, and the only thing missing is a graphics card. I was hoping for some advice about which one to pick so I could set up a stock alert, I'm assuming the contenders are the ones from this list. I was thinking the MSI GTX 1080 GAMING 8G.

I'm looking to buy one as soon as they are on sale again, I'm going to use it for 4k and 1080p gaming. I don't want to SLI at all as I've had bad experiences in the past and I'm not really comfortable in overclocking it myself. I probably want to buy from newegg or amazon.

Thanks in advance for replies! Build is as follows:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($345.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($59.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B150M-DS3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($91.08 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($76.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($43.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit ($85.95 @ Amazon)
Total: $948.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-07 12:50 EDT-0400

 

[n0ns3ns3]

I would go for the EVGA cards - they are the most reasonably priced. All pascal cards overclock and perform about the same.
EVGA cards have a good cooling solution IMHO and a reasonable price.

 

[fabiodrm]

Galax HOF and MSI Gaming Z are the strongest 1080 at this time.
But i would go for the EVGA cards too.

Tips: you could get a better MOBO, with z170 chipset, like asus Z170-AR.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

^ good point about MB.
There is no point in K CPU without Z170 MB

As for the cards, the best PCB designs of 1080 i've seen so far are Zotac AMP Extreme and EVGA FTW Gaming. They have the superior power delivery circuit in terms of component quality and possible current.

It just not much sense to pay for them if you are not going LN2. Anyway they will all overclock to 2050-2150MHz

 

[Epicness937]

can you get two 1070s in your budget?

 

[n0ns3ns3]

2 cards = bad idea.

 

[Epicness937]

2 cards = bad idea.

better value for the money over a single 1080
i just got two 1070s and it runs extremely well

 

[burdenbound]

2 cards = bad idea.

better value for the money over a single 1080
i just got two 1070s and it runs extremely well

OP already mentioned not interested in SLI, and I personally agree. Multiple graphics cards right now is a buggy buggy world.

 

[BinaryTobis]

Thanks for the advice guys! I'm definitely avoiding SLI since the last two builds I tried it in failed so spectacularly.

What about the mobo is different with the Z170-AR? I don't know anything about motherboards except compatibility, not sure what to look for.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

The cpu you picked is 6700K
it is a cpu with unlocked multiplier - you can overclock it with ease.
To do that, you need a Z170 MB.
So peak something reasonably priced like http://pcpartpicker.com/product/KgJkcf/asus-motherboard-z170progaming
Or at least : http://pcpartpicker.com/product/k4dFf7/asus-motherboard-z170e

 

[BinaryTobis]

Does this one work with my stuff? Z170P D3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813132572

Edit: Or I guess the normal Z170P since it is for DDR4 memory? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813132571

 

[fabiodrm]

Does this one work with my stuff? Z170P D3 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813132572

Edit: Or I guess the normal Z170P since it is for DDR4 memory? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813132571

no!

this mobo only supports DDR3, you need a DDR4 one.

 

[azzazel_99]

There is not 1 1080 better than the other. They all overclock the same unless on LN2 and they all run basically the same temps with custom fan profiles. Pick which one you think looks the best and get it. I also would choose EVGA as their customer service is the best in the business and their products are top notch

 

[azzazel_99]

2 cards = bad idea.

better value for the money over a single 1080
i just got two 1070s and it runs extremely well

OP already mentioned not interested in SLI, and I personally agree. Multiple graphics cards right now is a buggy buggy world.

I fail to see where you are getting this conclusion from. Considering the number of games that support sli and the driver support is the highest its ever been with over 200 games supporting sli and that number growing with every new release. Sli is no where near the issue it was in the past. I've yet to have one actual issue with my setup. The ONLY problems i had was my old psu not being powerful enough to support my current gpu's. Other than that my custom bios gave me a few hiccups but i figured that out and its been smooth sailing. Sli these days literally is put in both cards, add the sli bridge, turn it on and voila. You can even set sli on or off for specific games that do not support it well. It's a breeze these days. Took me just about an hour to get my pc up and going perfectly and this was my first ever sli setup. Been rocking it for over 2 years now.

 

[Epicness937]

2 cards = bad idea.

better value for the money over a single 1080
i just got two 1070s and it runs extremely well

OP already mentioned not interested in SLI, and I personally agree. Multiple graphics cards right now is a buggy buggy world.

I fail to see where you are getting this conclusion from. Considering the number of games that support sli and the driver support is the highest its ever been with over 200 games supporting sli and that number growing with every new release. Sli is no where near the issue it was in the past. I've yet to have one actual issue with my setup. The ONLY problems i had was my old psu not being powerful enough to support my current gpu's. Other than that my custom bios gave me a few hiccups but i figured that out and its been smooth sailing. Sli these days literally is put in both cards, add the sli bridge, turn it on and voila. You can even set sli on or off for specific games that do not support it well. It's a breeze these days. Took me just about an hour to get my pc up and going perfectly and this was my first ever sli setup. Been rocking it for over 2 years now.

from my 970 and 1070 sli i have two issues one was psu wattage and 2nd was a sli bridge not fitting

 

[azzazel_99]

Scaling in most games these days gives you a minimum of 70% performance gain.

 

[n0ns3ns3]

Scaling in most games these days gives you a minimum of 70% performance gain.

unless you prove it with numbers, it's kinda BS.
It's 50-60% in best case scenarios.
Usually, much lower. and than in many cases does not work at all - look at tomb rider.
And we have not started with glitches yet.

 

[azzazel_99]

What about tomb raider? Bf4, crysis, shadows of mordor, far cry etc. there are FAR more games that support sli than there are that dont these days. I also dont have to prove it. There are plenty of videos that jayztwocents, joker, kyle, linus, pauls hardware, gamers nexus etc have done that prove sli and xfire scaling is very well these days. I run sli so i know first hand sli scales beautifully in tons of games.

 

[azzazel_99]

Also a fix was found for rise of tomb raider and it now scales 95% in sli so again what about tomb raider?

 

[n0ns3ns3]

And Jay said that he is gaming with the SLI turned off unless it's for benchmarks
"the fix was found" is the problem. It's not reliable.

 

[azzazel_99]

Jay said he turns off the 3rd card and usually uses it for physX or has it turned off all together.

 

[azzazel_99]

Hardocp.com got 83% scaling in sli and 99% in xfire in rotr when using gtx 980 and 390x and similar performance with 980ti's and fury cards http://m.hardocp.com/article/2016/02/15/rise_tomb_raider_video_card_performance_review/10#.V3-s1PQ8KnM

 

[azzazel_99]

Again i use sli and have for some time now so i now first hand how dual card scaling works these days. Its damn near flawless. Argue all you want but if you arent using sli or xfire currently your input holds no ground sorry you're just sharing other peoples opinions and/or experiences. Plenty of benchmarkers including jayztwocents, pauls hardware, kyle @awesomesauce network use sli with no major issues other than a game here or there that at launch doesn't support sli. Like doom for instance. Its sli scaling is non existent however the vulkan update for doom does support dual gpu. The smartest choice is always to buy the most expensive best performing card you can afford at first then sli later for the extra performance but saying sli is garbage basically is false information.