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Started by DAGGER51 | | 8 answers
GTX 980 vs. GT 780 Ti
Hello everyone. I'm going to be building a new gaming PC within the next 9 months or so, and I need help deciding on a GPU. My two options are a GTX 980, or the Asus DirectCU II GTX 780 Ti. I want to know if I should wait for GTX 980s with better coolers for around $550, get a GTX 980 with a stock cooler, or just get a GTX 780 Ti. I will be overclocking the GPU. So, what do you guys think?
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September 21, 2014 6:00:12 AM

Hmmm, 9 months is a very long time in the world of computer technology. I suggest you put the AMD R2 390x on your radar, too. It is due out in "2015", but not sure when. My guess is it will be sooner rather than later given AMD is about to lose serious market share in the mid-range GPU category to the GTX 980. Of course, it may or may not beat out the GTX 980, but since AMD now knows the GTX 980 performance, you can only guess what they're talking about in the halls of AMD.

Best solution chosen by DAGGER51

a b K Overclocking
September 19, 2014 3:27:30 PM

The reference cooler is actually pretty nice for the GTX980, however so far the Asus STRIX is looking pretty good. It's $10 above reference at $560 USD.
http://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-Cards/ASUS-Announces...

*There's a LOT more going on with Maxwell:

1) New anti-aliasing method which is more efficient called MFAA
2) HDMI 2.0 (for 4K HDMI)
3) H.265 encoder (roughly HALF the size of H.264 video)
4) better VR support, dynamic light plugin for future games called VXGI

PCPER has an awesome review and benchmarks: http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphics-Cards/NVIDIA-GeFo...

*In the FUTURE games will more efficiently use the Maxwell architecture so you'll see performance improve again. There's just no point in a GTX780 or GTX780Ti anymore unless you are grabbing another one fairly cheap to add a second card for SLI with your current setup.

The GTX970 at $329 for reference is the most amazing deal I've ever seen. The Asus STRIX version should be able to overclock to match a GTX780Ti as it already sits above a GTX780 on average and they've shown the card can overclock by up to 20% (though I wouldn't) which might add 10% or so more frames per second on average.

**SLI 2xGTX970 is where it gets really interesting.

If you get two cards for a total of $680 you'll get at least 80% the performance of a GTX980 (if no SLI support) and up to 50% or so higher performance than a GTX980 depending on the game (so between 80% and 150% the performance of a single GTX980 depending on how well SLI is supported). Assuming a $560 GTX980 then you're paying just over 20% of the price for that.

As well, for games that use hardware PHYSX it's often better to assign the second card specifically to that so even if a game doesn't support SLI you'll still get a boost. I still often recommend the 2nd card approach even when it is supported, or at least try BOTH methods (SLI or dedicated to PhysX) and look at both frame rates AND game smoothness.

For example, Batman Arkham Origins has a lot of PHYSX on the high setting so it's a prime candidate to try both ways.
September 19, 2014 3:24:34 PM

If you were planning on a 780ti, go 980. If you were planning on a 780 or 770, go 970. Looks like the reference card coolers are sufficient.
September 19, 2014 3:20:21 PM

According to the reviews, cooling does not appear to be an issue with the GTX 980 anyways, since it's so much more power-efficient than all the previous lines. Get a GTX 980.
a b K Overclocking
September 19, 2014 3:19:26 PM

no reason to buy a 780ti anymore unless its a crazy good deal 450 or below
September 19, 2014 3:19:10 PM

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_g...

3dguru has some benchmarks on the Gigabyte G1 version, clocked at 1228 mhz and 1329 mhz boost. They're getting a 8% or so increase in FPS. Something like the EVGA SC ACX 2.0 or the Gigabyte G1 should easily be capable of 1400mhz boost (and i guess K|NGP|N hit 2ghz)

So yeah, If you're planning on an OC, wait for a decent deal on an aftermarket cooler. That 165 watt chip should have a heck of a lot of headroom on coolers designed for 300-500w chips.

And in 9 months it shouldnt be difficult to find one around $550
a b K Overclocking
September 19, 2014 3:13:20 PM

the aftermarket 'better cooler' versions will come out in a few weeks time, so get 980, they will have slightly better fps at cheaper price and supports dx12 fully

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