Looking for advice on GPU upgrades

[KaRLiToS]

Plz advice base on facts.
People who are advising R9 290 CF should know that there is no CF profile for latest game like Evolve, Far cry 4 and Dying light so can tell him how he will play these latest game on CF?
he is buying muti gpu to play games with both gpu.
OP if u can wait for 3 to 4 months after game release for a CF profile than u should go for R9 290 CF.

You just need to be a tad resourceful or well informed to understand that you can choose any CrossFire Profile under AMD control panel. I mostly use AFR Friendly and Optimize 1x1 when I want to play a game that doesn't have a supported CrossFire profile yet.

FarCry 4 (On Ultra QuadFire 290x)
Check usage in top left corner, resolution of 8040x1440
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f...5_02_02_21_46_04_627_zpsc8b5f131.png~original

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f...5_02_02_21_37_27_910_zps1a410535.png~original

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f...5_02_02_21_47_11_361_zps1a0e8229.png~original

As you may already know, Far Cry 4 and Dying Light are two Nvidia GameWrecks titles, which is well known to KILL literally the PC gaming industry. I don't even understand why developpers still accept to work with that crap.

I would take some screenshots with Dying Light to show you that my 4 GPUs are getting usage and it's locked at 60fps with Vsync but that title runs like crap because it is another crappy GameWrecks title.

 

[desprado]

You just need to be a tad resourceful or well informed to understand that you can choose any CrossFire Profile under AMD control panel. I mostly use AFR Friendly and Optimize 1x1 when I want to play a game that doesn't have a supported CrossFire profile yet.

FarCry 4 (On Ultra QuadFire 290x)
Check usage in top left corner, resolution of 8040x1440
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f...5_02_02_21_46_04_627_zpsc8b5f131.png~original

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f...5_02_02_21_37_27_910_zps1a410535.png~original

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f...5_02_02_21_47_11_361_zps1a0e8229.png~original

As you may already know, Far Cry 4 and Dying Light are two Nvidia GameWrecks titles, which is well known to KILL literally the PC gaming industry. I don't even understand why developpers still accept to work with that crap.

I would take some screenshots with Dying Light to show you that my 4 GPUs are getting usage and it's locked at 60fps with Vsync but that title runs like crap because it is another crappy GameWrecks title.

Normal people or consumer dont care because it is not the problem of consumer which AMD is making look like.Dying light, Evolve and Far cry 4 run like butter on Nvidia and SLI.So that is why i said advice him base fact because if he buy AMD than of course he wont get the best experience to play games like The Witcher 3, Batman Arkham Knight, Project cars and MGS V neither CF profile on time.

I told u so long time in Anandtech forums even Mod also replied with statement that the majority and money matter a lot because nvidia has tons of money to play with .

 

[KaRLiToS]

Normal people or consumer dont care because it is not the problem of consumer which AMD is making look like.Dying light, Evolve and Far cry 4 run like butter on Nvidia and SLI.So that is why i said advice him base fact because if he buy AMD than of course he wont get the best experience to play games like The Witcher 3, Batman Arkham Knight, Project cars and MGS V neither CF profile on time.

Normal people don't buy SLI or CrossFire so your argument is fail.
Someone who buys SLI or CrossFire doesn't have the choice to make some researches.

Also, after what happenned last month with the GTX 970, I don't even understand why someone would even consider the GTX 970 to run in SLI. GTX 980 SLI or 290x CrossFire or go home, or even better, wait for R9 300 series or GM200 (the 1400$ card :whiste: )

 

[desprado]

Normal people don't buy SLI or CrossFire so your argument is fail.
Someone who buys SLI or CrossFire doesn't have the choice to make some researches.

Also, after what happenned last month with the GTX 970, I don't even understand why someone would even consider the GTX 970 to run in SLI. GTX 980 SLI or 290x CrossFire or go home, or even better, wait for R9 300 series or GM200 (the 1400$ card :whiste: )

ya normal people dont have SLI or CF but just try to read OP is saying so plz advice him what is best for him not worst .

 

[KaRLiToS]

ya normal people dont have SLI or CF but just try to read OP is saying so plz advice him what is best for him not worst.

Oh come on desprado. The best would be to wait for R9 300 series and the worst is to get GTX 970 SLI.

The more time I spend on Anandtech, the more I realize it is a noob forum that doesn't want to progress.

 

[desprado]

Oh come on desprado. The best would be to wait for R9 300 series and the worst is to get GTX 970 SLI.

The more time I spend on Anandtech, the more I realize it is a noob forum that doesn't want to progress.

Lol u dont even know what type of performance R9 300 will deliver and that is not the proper advice.

Can u grantee him that R9 300 will be the best among all gpu including Nvidia Titan X or what ever it is called.
Answer is no.

 

[KaRLiToS]

Did you read my previous posts or what?

Why I still even post on this forum, I don't even know myself.

 

[desprado]

Did you read my previous posts or what?

Why I still even post on this forum, I don't even know myself.

Yes i have read and we dont know what kind of performance it will have and there always something new coming along side and it wont stop ever.So it is waste of time to tell him that wait for a new gpu which are 4 to 5 months away and of course he will miss some amazing AAA games.

 

[guskline]

If staying with Nvidia AND considering that you have 2 GTX670's with 4G TRUE Vram I would either upgrade to a single GTX980 or wait until the Nvidia prices drop a bit and snag 2 GTX 980s.

I would NOT spend the $$ on 2 GTX 970s due to the memory allocation issues. With a budget of up to $800 and with the AMD 300 series coming within the next few months, It's likely the Nvidia prices on the 980s may drop enough for you to snag two of them for $800.

I had 2 EVGA GTX670 FTWs (2G Vram) in a 3770k rig OC'd to 4.5Ghz (rig 2 not in my sig). Believing Nvidia's statement that the GTX970 had 4G Vram and that I could eventually add a 2nd to SLI I opted to sell my 670s and go with a single 970. Overclocked it could match my 2 670s in 3D Mark Firestrike and I "thought" hey, I doubled my Vram so I'm safe. When the "you know what" hit the fan @ January 26-28 with Nvidia admitting that the ROPs originally stated on the 970 were not 64, like the 980, but actually 56 and the 4 G Vram was actually 3.5G running full at 256 bit and the last .5G was running at 32 bit "but don't worry" I was steamed. I just bought the card on 1/4/15 yet this card was released in Sept 2014!

In your case, having 670s with 4G Vram, going to the 970 is in my opinion not a smart move. If the price improves on the 980, Definitely a smart move.

PS. I bought another Sapphire Tri-X R9 290 to run in the 3770k. A bit slower than the single 970 but I have 4 G full bore Vram.

I understand your desire to stay with Nvidia. I have a EVGA GTX780 Classified in my FX8350 rig and like it for Nvidia titled games.

 

[desprado]

If staying with Nvidia AND considering that you have 2 GTX670's with 4G TRUE Vram I would either upgrade to a single GTX980 or wait until the Nvidia prices drop a bit and snag 2 GTX 980s.

I would NOT spend the $$ on 2 GTX 970s due to the memory allocation issues.

Yup same here should go for single GTX 980

 

[WittyRemark]

Wait for GM200, for obvious reasons.

 

[cmdrdredd]

OP the GTX 970 is already struggling due to the memory partition in games like Evolve at 1440p

http://www.techspot.com/review/962-evolve-benchmarks/page4.html

"Disappointingly, the GTX 970 averaged just 44fps, being only marginally faster than the old HD 7970 GHz at 41fps. We believe this massive reduction in performance is due to the GTX 970's partitioned memory configuration."

Its a bad idea to buy a GTX 970 especially in SLI for 1440p because you will have lots of GPU power but will be limited by bandwidth and ROPs. Looking at 1440p VRAM usage and performance in games of 2013 is of no use. Look at Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor, COD AW, AC Unity, Lords of the Fallen, Dying Light and Evolve. All of them are known to use above 3.5 GB at 1440p at the highest texture settings. Games like Witcher 3 and Star Citizen are expected to be even more demanding and thus the GTX 970 SLI is bound to run into issues like it is already doing.

If you are not in a hurry to buy the GPUs wait till R9 390X and 380X launch in Q2. That will push GTX 980 prices below USD 400 and would be a good option in SLI. :thumbsup:

Evolve needs a driver, thought that was obvious.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Thanks for all the additional responses. While I believe cmdrdredd when he/she states they are having no issues with their SLi 970s, I'd rather wait for the 980s to drop in price and see what else comes. I'm in no rush to buy new cards but I normally upgrade/rebuild in the spring anyways since hardware prices tend to drop.

Has nVidia stated whether or not the 970 memory issue is just for the 970 or is there a chance they will come out and state the 980s are not actually 4GB VRAM as well?

 

[cmdrdredd]

Thanks for all the additional responses. While I believe cmdrdredd when he/she states they are having no issues with their SLi 970s, I'd rather wait for the 980s to drop in price and see what else comes. I'm in no rush to buy new cards but I normally upgrade/rebuild in the spring anyways since hardware prices tend to drop.

Has nVidia stated whether or not the 970 memory issue is just for the 970 or is there a chance they will come out and state the 980s are not actually 4GB VRAM as well?

If you can wait then wait it out. No need to rush into a purchase. For me I absolutely needed more performance. Far Cry 4 was abysmal on my 670s at 1440p.

 

[Rvenger]

Karlitos and desprado - Please stay out of this thread. I am not going to sift through your arguing any longer.


-Rvenger

 

[Spanners]

Thanks for all the additional responses. While I believe cmdrdredd when he/she states they are having no issues with their SLi 970s, I'd rather wait for the 980s to drop in price and see what else comes. I'm in no rush to buy new cards but I normally upgrade/rebuild in the spring anyways since hardware prices tend to drop.

Has nVidia stated whether or not the 970 memory issue is just for the 970 or is there a chance they will come out and state the 980s are not actually 4GB VRAM as well?

You can be 100% sure the 980 doesn't share the same memory config as the 970.

 

[Paul98]

I would just wait for big maxwell and amd 300 series, shouldn't be more than a few months then you can get a great upgrade.

 

[KaRLiToS]

Karlitos and desprado - Please stay out of this thread. I am not going to sift through your arguing any longer.


-Rvenger

I didn't had the intention to post in this thread anymore. In fact, you just encouraged me to refrain from posting on anandtech forums from now on.

 

[guskline]

Thanks for all the additional responses. While I believe cmdrdredd when he/she states they are having no issues with their SLi 970s, I'd rather wait for the 980s to drop in price and see what else comes. I'm in no rush to buy new cards but I normally upgrade/rebuild in the spring anyways since hardware prices tend to drop.

Has nVidia stated whether or not the 970 memory issue is just for the 970 or is there a chance they will come out and state the 980s are not actually 4GB VRAM as well?

The GTX 980 is CLEARLY 4 G Full bore Vram. The GTX 970 Chip is just a 980 chip that didn't pass all the tests for all components.

 

[Stg-Flame]

I wonder why they allowed that to happen to the 970s. It's a shame too since I'd rather go with a SLi configuration and keep the GPUs for a few years rather than go with a single and have to swap out a new card in less than two just to keep up with new games.

 

[SimianR]

I'm going to jump in here and say that if it were me, I wouldn't bother with the 970 and either wait for the R300 series from AMD or grab a single 980 to replace your card or SLI if you really want to break the bank. I know it's not a huge deal, but I guess with all the titles coming out pushing more and more VRAM usage, I'd like to have a solid 4gb that is useable with no performance hit.

 

[Ranulf]

I'd say waiting it out for a few months is the smart play here, what with the new AMD cards coming soon. Prices drops are likely in theory, hopefully we don't see a repeat of last year for nvidia. Just use your 670s in SLI for now.