GTX 970SLI or GTX 980Ti for 5760x1080p gaming???

[ktn21]

Hello,



I am having thoughts about upgrading my GPU in the near future. So I would be grateful if you could give me your opinion about this subject.
Don't get me wrong, for the most part I am satisfied with my current GPU. It does a quite good job with games at 1080p (single monitor), not much to complain about.

I recently bought a second monitor mainly for editing at home, since I work as a video editor at the National Television. Decided to try a few games with the dual monitor setup, not the best experience, since the bezel is right in the middle, but I liked the idea of multiple screens. So that got me into thinking about perhaps buying a third 27" 1080p 60Hz monitor. But this probably requires a more powerful GPU.

At the moment I am using "MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G" GPU. So I guess the most reasonable option would be to buy another GTX970 card (SLI). But this also requires me to buy a new MOBO, since my recent one doesn't support SLI. I live in a small country in Europe, so my options are limited regarding the prices. Another identical GPU would cost ~370€ ($416) + new mobo Z97 (MSI, Gigabyte or Asrock) ~135€ ($152) =~505€ ($568).
Would it be worth it? People say that some games don't support SLI or are badly optimized, micro shutter and messing around.

or

Would it be wiser move to buy GTX 980TI (Gigabyte, EVGA or MSI) for about ~680- 699€ ($765- $786). Less chance of issues, less heat, less power consumption, less hassle, more ram etc?



My rig:
Processor: Intel Core i5-4440 Haswell Quad-Core 3.1 GHz
Motherboard: ASRock H87 Pro4
Memory: 2x Crucial DDR3 4GB 1600MHz
Video Card(s): MSI GeForce® GTX 970 GAMING 4G
Hard Disk(s): Samsung 850 EVO Series 250GB SSD/ Hitachi Deskstar P7K500GB
Monitor: Samsung Syncmaster s27b350 27" , Samsung s27d590 27"
Power Supply: Corsair VS Series™ VS650
Software: Windows 7 64x Ultimate


I appreciate any help that you can provide,
Chris

 

[OneMoar]

970 doesn't have the vram/bandwith
go with the 980TI
even the 980TI is gonna have a hard time with tipple monitors likely will need a pair of 980TI's if you want high refresh-rates also with triple monitors

 

[EarthDog]

2 980s or 980Ti. You will want that extra 500MB of ram. Bandwidth is fine.

 

[GhostRyder]

Get the GTX 980ti, the 970 was not meant to do that and even with a pair when you start picking newer games its going to struggle. Your probably eventually going to want a pair of GTX 980tis.

 

[neatfeatguy]

1920x1080 = 2,073,600
2560 x 1440 = 3,686,400
5760 x 1080 = 6,220,800
3480 x 2160 = 7,516,800

Most people suggest GTX 980 or 1440 and over you want a GTX 980Ti. 5760x1080 is getting you very close to 4K resolution for pixel count.

I play across 3 1080p monitors on my 980Ti AMP! Omega. With bezel correction I'm actually running on 6012x1080.

Depending on what game I'm playing, most settings are high/max and the 980Ti usually holds a 60fps without much of any issue. Some games, even with my 4670k @ 4.4GHz and my 980Ti with a very healthy overclock choke (Grim Dawn comes to mind, in open areas the problem is noticeable. Indoor areas generally don't have issues). My 980Ti doesn't break 68C when gaming, so she stays very cool.

In the end, it all comes down to the game you're playing.

If you go with 970 in SLI, you're at the mercy of SLI profiles. As you also listed you have more heat, more power, and more noise (unless it's going under water). If SLI profile is good for the 970s, you shouldn't have any issues on 5760x1080, the cards should handle the game just as well as a single 980Ti or better in some cases. SLI also can come with micro stuttering, no matter how many fps they can kick out. Micro stuttering can be very noticeable to some people, making games downright too annoying to play while others hardly notice it or they easily ignore it.

I'd suggest selling the 970 and getting the 980Ti if you really plan on doing a lot of gaming on 5760x1080. You could certainly run 5760x1080 on a single 970, but you'd have to sacrifice game settings to the medium/low range, but it should certainly be doable to help you hold a 50-60fps range.

I've ran SLI configurations since the 7600 GT and this build is my first time in the past decade where I've only ran 1 card. I don't miss SLI, but at the same time it's awkward that I'm not running it since I'm so used to having SLI setup in my computers for so long.

TL;DR
Gist of my post. Personally I'd suggest that you sell your 970 and get a 980Ti if you're set on a lot of 5760x1080 gaming.

 

[OneMoar]

1920x1080 = 2,073,600
2560 x 1440 = 3,686,400
5760 x 1080 = 6,220,800
3480 x 2160 = 7,516,800

Most people suggest GTX 980 or 1440 and over you want a GTX 980Ti. 5760x1080 is getting you very close to 4K resolution for pixel count.

I play across 3 1080p monitors on my 980Ti AMP! Omega. With bezel correction I'm actually running on 6012x1080.

Depending on what game I'm playing, most settings are high/max and the 980Ti usually holds a 60fps without much of any issue. Some games, even with my 4670k @ 4.4GHz and my 980Ti with a very healthy overclock choke (Grim Dawn comes to mind, in open areas the problem is noticeable. Indoor areas generally don't have issues). My 980Ti doesn't break 68C when gaming, so she stays very cool.

In the end, it all comes down to the game you're playing.

If you go with 970 in SLI, you're at the mercy of SLI profiles. As you also listed you have more heat, more power, and more noise (unless it's going under water). If SLI profile is good for the 970s, you shouldn't have any issues on 5760x1080, the cards should handle the game just as well as a single 980Ti or better in some cases. SLI also can come with micro stuttering, no matter how many fps they can kick out. Micro stuttering can be very noticeable to some people, making games downright too annoying to play while others hardly notice it or they easily ignore it.

I'd suggest selling the 970 and getting the 980Ti if you really plan on doing a lot of gaming on 5760x1080. You could certainly run 5760x1080 on a single 970, but you'd have to sacrifice game settings to the medium/low range, but it should certainly be doable to help you hold a 50-60fps range.

I've ran SLI configurations since the 7600 GT and this build is my first time in the past decade where I've only ran 1 card. I don't miss SLI, but at the same time it's awkward that I'm not running it since I'm so used to having SLI setup in my computers for so long.

TL;DR
Gist of my post. Personally I'd suggest that you sell your 970 and get a 980Ti if you're set on a lot of 5760x1080 gaming.

pretty much this tripple 1080's is gonna hurt more then a single 4k because of the extra work the cpu needs todo
I am a put a hear be dragons sign up because, triple 1080p is the point where you need to spend some serious coin to exceed 60FPS reliably

 

[EarthDog]

retty much this tripple 1080's is gonna hurt more then a single 4k because of the extra work the cpu needs todo

Do tell.............

 

[basco]

vote for used single 980ti if you get good price

 

[Vayra86]

980ti hands down

or wait a couple months and grab the replacement mid-ranger for about half or 2/3rd of the price. I wouldn't shell out 600 for it anymore with GP104 around the corner. Especially if the full enabled 104 will have GDDR5X.

 

[Frick]

or wait a couple months and grab the replacement mid-ranger for about half or 2/3rd of the price. I wouldn't shell out 600 for it anymore with GP104 around the corner. Especially if the full enabled 104 will have GDDR5X.

At least wait and see what they bring, buying high end cards at full price now would be quite daft IMO.

 

[Vayra86]

At least wait and see what they bring, buying high end cards at full price now would be quite daft IMO.

That, and Maxwell seems to be 'aging' very fast and very easily thus far. I'm not a fan of the arch. Good at first glance. Not that good in due time. It's not versatile like Kepler still was and AMD's GCN still is.

 

[ktn21]

"Stavrosmast: I also noticed your psu.... That psu is a step above the worst psu's available in the market so for a 980Ti you would really need a new one. "


True/False?

 

[ne6togadno]

"Stavrosmast: I also noticed your psu.... That psu is a step above the worst psu's available in the market so for a 980Ti you would really need a new one. "


True/False?

very true

edit
for single 980ti
https://www.computeruniverse.net/en/products/90621730/evga-supernova-g2-650.asp

for 2x980ti
https://www.computeruniverse.net/en/info.asp?id=90552722

 

[basco]

i think with 50 amps on 12 volt rail you should be fine with 1x980ti.

 

[Delish]

Like others already have said, it depends on what games you plan to play.
2016 AAA games demand a lot of gpu power in higher resolutions.
In The Division, Geforce Experience suggests low-med settings at 2560x1440 with a 980ti.

 

[EarthDog]

The VS650 PSU is FINE for a single 980Ti guys......

 

[Iceni]

It depends solely on what you play.

If your into first person games then 3 monitors needs a lot of graphics power to max out the games.

If you are into a more sedate gaming routine then a single 970 might actually be enough.

Personally I'm a 3 monitor gamer. And I use all 3 monitors in most games. The games I play are by no means high end.

Typically I'm playing, Warthunder, IL2, World of Warships, And a lot of titles that are 2-3 years old or older.

I have played Borderlands 2, Farcry 4, Metro 2033, Skyrim and Crysis 3 at full resolution with some effects and features disabled. Sometimes I'd get FPS drops and a touch of tearing, but never were the games unplayable. Often in the FPS titles you have to play about with the FOV to get the games to sit right, and you pretty much always suffer with distortion.

The pixel count above is actually slightly wrong.


1920x1080 = 2,073,600
2560 x 1440 = 3,686,400
5760 x 1080 = 6,220,800
3480 x 2160 = 7,516,800

Physically it is correct, but not true for most games. Even when the resolution is set it cannot create a render of that size, so part of the image gets stretched out at the sides. I believe most games to render about 3840x1080 = 4,147,200 pixels. The titles that can do the actual resolution are harder on the GPU. For the most part it's not a lot more overhead than 2560x1440.

This makes the image distort at the edges of the outer monitors like a fish eye lens. http://www.flawlesswidescreen.org/ will sort this on some older titles but not all. I think you can also use it as a manual plugin for some games.

 

[Mindweaver]

This late I would wait for a 1080.

 

[OneMoar]

This late I would wait for a 1080.

indeed its only a month off

 

[Mindweaver]

indeed its only a month off

Yea, it would suck to pay for a 980 ti now and in a month it's successor comes out. Pay that kind of premium for it to be out dated in a month.. I know people say well you can pick up another one when the prices drops.... When the 1080 drops those 980 ti's should dry up quick, as well as they are selling.