Need a new gpu, Torn between two

[xToFxREAPER]

Hey guys, for those that have fallowed my golden beast log well.... the 770 blew a capacitor and it is now dead.. now i will more likely then not get it rma'd but now that im running nvidia surround im wanting something a little different so im looking at two cards. i will list the cards and in my eyes what the pros and cons are and would love some opinions and maybe suggestions for different cards. i will state this now i dont want an amd card. its not that im an nvidia fan boy but come on the price inflation of amd cards to performance at the moment is freaking stupid. i apologize in advance if i ramble and dont make to much sense, ive been up for almost 68 hours now going between the hospital and home

 

Card Option 1

Asus ROG Mars 760

Now im sure im gonna get some flack for this since i already stated im running a surround setup as well as single gpu's are better blah blah blah i know. lets just get that out of the way now ive had sli ive had 690's i know the pros and cons. reason im considering this card is A: it has a lot of gpu horsepower behind matching a 780ti B: only takes up two slots C: keeps both gpus at a fantastic temp which is why im not considering two seperate 760's because they run such staggered temps. as for the cons.. well the only thing that bothers me about this card to be honest its its 2gb vram.... i noticed many games barely hit 2gb vram when my sig gpu was still alive though i think that was because it didnt have the gpu power to use it so would that 2gb vram per card really be an issue with surround? i guess the other con if this card for me is the red would really clash in my black and gold build but i could easily fix that.

 

Card Option 2

Msi Lightning 780

So why this and not a 780ti? simple. because there is no lightning edition of the 780ti. The other reason is there really isnt a 780ti that i could flow into my color scheme except for maybe the gigabyte windforce cooled card. Now why the lightning edition and not something else? Well ive had lightning cards in the past and i know their build quality is fantastic, even if your not going to oc the hell out of it your at the very least going to have a card that lasts a really long time. the 3gb vram of 780's seems like a really nice sweet spot for nvidia surround usage and the 780 will easily feed the setup since the 770 did no problem.

 

So what is your opinion guys? would either of these cards be in your options for an nvidia surround setup? would you consider something else all together? i want to stick to a single card to keep life easy for the time being so please dont say dual 760's instead of mars or something along those lines. Just your opinions of these cards what your choice would be and why

 

 

[The Noob]

I would say 780 Lightning. Even tho you should with a 780ti EVGA Classified. (Same price as the Mars and wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy better) 

[lilc]

780>

[xToFxREAPER]

I would say 780 Lightning. Even tho you should with a 780ti EVGA Classified. (Same price as the Mars and wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy better) 

Not to fond of the acx cooler. it looks ok i guess but it seems to run hotter then msi cards in my case oddly enough considering i have good airflow. Im well aware of the performance but it really isnt THAT much better then the mars if any better for that matter -.-

 

780>

That was my thought to i just wanted some final opinions before i make a final decision

[lachyman]

Get the 780, but don't spend extra for te Lighting if you aren't an experienced overcocker, the DCU II and ACX are a lot cheaper and offer te same build quality and better warranty on the EVGA side.

[Stav Kats]

I vote for MSI Lightning 780, simply because it has better cooling and overclocking capability. Also, I don't like that sometimes when you have SLI you run into weird problems and driver issues, which then force you to use just 1 GPU from your 760 Mars, which in this case is a 760. In the 690 case, things are better because you are left with a 680, but in the 760 Mars, you are left with a 760.... Thus the performance hit is dramatic. The performance difference in the real world is not worth it in my opinion(780 vs dual 760). Better be safe than sorry.

Hope it helped!

[Suika]

GTX 780 Lightning.

 

The MARS 760 is an SLI based card. People never recommend an SLI with something like a 760, only high grade cards or upgrades.

[xToFxREAPER]

Get the 780, but don't spend extra for te Lighting if you aren't an experienced overcocker, the DCU II and ACX are a lot cheaper and offer te same build quality and better warranty on the EVGA side.

i know how to overclock quite well i actually made a thread about overclocking the 770 lightning edition and had a stable 1411mhz core and 8ghz memory oc which the mem wasnt much of an oc. dcuii and acx are not an option really as i really dont care for the acx and dcuii's red is a turn off in a black and gold system, only considering the mars because its really easy to recolor it. Ill argue about Evga's warranty though because so far they will not rma the card that just died so as far as im concerned evga can go die. As for pricing where i live and in my local store the lightning is actually on sale making it one of the cheapest 780's in store right now

[lachyman]

i know how to overclock quite well i actually made a thread about overclocking the 770 lightning edition and had a stable 1411mhz core and 8ghz memory oc which the mem wasnt much of an oc. dcuii and acx are not an option really as i really dont care for the acx and dcuii's red is a turn off in a black and gold system, only considering the mars because its really easy to recolor it. Ill argue about Evga's warranty though because so far they will not rma the card that just died so as far as im concerned evga can go die. As for pricing where i live and in my local store the lightning is actually on sale making it one of the cheapest 780's in store right now

Well get it then, it's a lot better option than 2 760's.

[xToFxREAPER]

I vote for MSI Lightning 780, simply because it has better cooling and overclocking capability. Also, I don't like that sometimes when you have SLI you run into weird problems and driver issues, which then force you to use just 1 GPU from your 760 Mars, which in this case is a 760. In the 690 case, things are better because you are left with a 680, but in the 760 Mars, you are left with a 760.... Thus the performance hit is dramatic. The performance difference in the real world is not worth it in my opinion(780 vs dual 760). Better be safe than sorry.

Hope it helped!

yeah sli things like that have never been an issue for me at all so im not to concerned there really but thats part of the cons in my mind. Other reason im really leaning towards the 780 is the larger memory bandwith, since im running surround i think that will make a rather large difference

 

GTX 780 Lightning.

 

The MARS 760 is an SLI based card. People never recommend an SLI with something like a 760, only high grade cards or upgrades.

I usually dont either im an experience system builder ive built many many configs in the past few months for clients friends family and myself so i know what kind of performance to expect. im really not aiming for top end balls to the walls performance. the 770 ran my nvidia surround without issue so either option im looking at an upgrade anyway.

[Stav Kats]

yeah sli things like that have never been an issue for me at all so im not to concerned there really but thats part of the cons in my mind. Other reason im really leaning towards the 780 is the larger memory bandwith, since im running surround i think that will make a rather large difference

 

I usually dont either im an experience system builder ive built many many configs in the past few months for clients friends family and myself so i know what kind of performance to expect. im really not aiming for top end balls to the walls performance. the 770 ran my nvidia surround without issue so either option im looking at an upgrade anyway.

Then it's a no-brainer, mate! The memory bandwith is a very good reason to opt for the 780.(Sorry I hadn't read that you were using Surround)

[xToFxREAPER]

Then it's a no-brainer, mate! The memory bandwith is a very good reason to opt for the 780.(Sorry I hadn't read that you were using Surround)

no worries i dont think anyone really read the post anyway -.- keeps me to my black and gold color scheme of the build at least then. sadly the system running the card that died was actually my golden beast wip log -.- so im replacing a card thats 30 days old as of today and evga is being a rather terrible company to deal with not wanting to replace my card

[Stav Kats]

no worries i dont think anyone really read the post anyway -.- keeps me to my black and gold color scheme of the build at least then. sadly the system running the card that died was actually my golden beast wip log -.- so im replacing a card thats 30 days old as of today and evga is being a rather terrible company to deal with not wanting to replace my card

I am also having a GPU problem at the moment. I am super sad, because even if I get the green light for a RMA I will have to pay 50$+ for shipment and the GPU is a 7870 so I don't know if it is worth it....

Anyways, glad I could help a fellow mate. Have a nice day and get some rest!

[xToFxREAPER]

I am also having a GPU problem at the moment. I am super sad, because even if I get the green light for a RMA I will have to pay 50$+ for shipment and the GPU is a 7870 so I don't know if it is worth it....

Anyways, glad I could help a fellow mate. Have a nice day and get some rest!

would love to but i gotta go to work soon then back to the hospital i remember having a 7870 fail on me a while back i didnt bother and just bought a 680 at the time

[Stav Kats]

would love to but i gotta go to work soon then back to the hospital i remember having a 7870 fail on me a while back i didnt bother and just bought a 680 at the time

I wish I had the money.Beause if I could buy a 680, I certenly would. Greece is in a big pile of sh*t and I am trying to make as little expenses as possible.

BTW, this is my 600th post. Woohoo, 400 to go for the great 1K!

[xToFxREAPER]

I wish I had the money.Beause if I could buy a 680, I certenly would. Greece is in a big pile of sh*t and I am trying to make as little expenses as possible.

BTW, this is my 600th post. Woohoo, 400 to go for the great 1K!

grats, i suppose im almost at 1500 posts now but yeah i probably best rma'ing that card to keep cost down