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Started by elgreco | | 1 answers
GPU upgrade path for 5760*1200 gaming
looking for help with understanding the difference between 4gb gpu and future 8gb gpu for multi monitor setup

Edit: Sorry, don't know where the rest of this post went.
Anyway, running 5760*1200 three monitor setup off a HD7970 3gb Ghz edition. My games (mostly bf4) run on medium to low settings so i feel i'm missing a trick.

looking at the new nvidia GTX9xx series now as a potential upgrade path. I was considering eithre a couple of sli'd GTX970s or a single GTX980. But then i saw that an 8gb GTX980 is expected in a month or so. So i'm a bit confused. I always thought that the additional gpu memory was useful for extremely heavy (eg Skyrim) games, or multi-monitor gaming (or 4k).

I'm fairly sure that the 4gb cards will run everything without a problem now (but happy to be corrected). But, does the 8gb cards give me a bit of future proofing? Is it worth it?

thank you
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a b C Monitor
a b 4 Gaming
October 17, 2014 1:17:18 AM

It's difficult to say if 8GB VRAM will have a noitceable difference until people benchmark it, but in theory, at high resolutions the more VRAM the better. It's all relative though, and you may find 4GB to be plenty.

The GTX 970 is considered the best GPU on a price/performance ratio. According to a lot of testers out there (including Tom's), a GTX 980 doesn't offer much beyond a GTX 970, yet it's almost twice as expensive.

If I were you, I'd wait for the 8GB cards to arrive and check some benchmarks; apparently, they're due for release this year. One important thing to note is that if you SLI two 4GB cards, you don't have 8GB VRAM, you still only have 4GB.

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