Second 770, or 780(non ti)

[weric13]

So, income tax season is here! I can spend some extra money after getting my daughter and woman what they want and I've come to the conclusion I want either an  SLI setup since I already have a single 770, or maybe go ahead and grab a 780 non ti since its only under $200 more(the TI is just too much right now). Yes I know for pure FPS performance the SLI 770's will out perform the single 780, albeit with a little more heat and all the other annoyances SLI brings. The reason I'm considering a single 780 right now, is because of the VRAM. The 770 I currently have is a 2gb version, and yes I only run a single monitor, which would make you think hey, thats ok. But as I've been looking at my VRAM usage on DayZ Standalone on high settings, I'm starting to really get worried. The highest its went is... 2032mb out of 2048. BF4 doesn't even get there, maybe 1800+. The 780s come stock with 3gb VRAM which I personally think in the near future will start being the norm. Now keep in mind that the DayZ Standalone on steam is in Alpha stages and is by far not fully optimized yet, so there's that to think about. But even Arma 2(a finished product) is a VRAM hog itself, so it makes me think CRAP... should I be careful and go with the 780 3gb card, or just throw another 770 in there. And then there's Maxwell coming up to think about! Should I not spend big bucks on a 780 and just wait for MAxwell, and spend trhe little $350 for a second 770?! I feel like a woman picking out shoes, but hey, I have a forum where my fellow geeks/nerds can throw their opinions at my question and debate over it as well! There's a bunch of other things to consider that I won't get into as most of you will probably pick up on them, but opinions are needed!

[Jogostar]

second 770.

or wait maxwell.

[dizmo]

You can get a 780 for $430, but 2 770's will have more grunt.

However they'll also use more power, generate more heat, etc.

I think it's going to be a whiiiiile until non reference Maxwell cards start hitting the market, so it really depends on how long you're able to hold off for.C

Can your PSU handle 2 cards? That'd be an added cost as well.

[weric13]

What about the VRAM worries? 2032 out of 2048 is cutting it really damn close no? Even though yea its an Alpha game, but man it makes me just worry about later. I could just be worrying too much but meh

[Face2Face]

I would hold onto the money for awhile longer if you can. If you are already running into vram issues, then I would advise to not to get another GTX 770.  For me it was modded Skyirm that made be return my week old 7850 for a 7950. 

[weric13]

Well its ONLY with that damn Standalone game in Alpha with no optimization right now. In any other game on max settings or less I literally have NO VRAM issues, so I don't wanna feel like I'm grabbing a 780 or not getting a second 770 for ONE game ya know. Its just a back and forth debate in my head!

[TheRoss0411]

770

[Ciccioo]

2gb vram is what made me think the most before buying the 2gb 770

i had a gt540m, the 2gb version (marketing yo), and playing at 720p on medium/high settings i could sometimes see the memory usage going over 1gb

counting pixels and doing proportions, i was afraid that 1080p ultra would need more than 2 gigs

 

but now i think that cards are kinda smart about it, if they have spare space they just throw a bunch of stuff in the memory to make things slightly faster, but not having that spare memory just gives an unnoticeable benefit

looking at some benchmarks on 3x1080p sorround with a 2gb 770 i noticed that it actually handled that pretty well (not ultra settings, of course), so i felt less worried about it

 

(dammit i can't find those benchmarks anymore)

[SeanE]

I've been thinking about the same thing. I have a single 770 at the moment and have been wanting to upgrade. But for your situation, I would go for the second 770.

[Antistatic12]

Get another GTX 770. GTX 770 SLI is beast.

If you wait for Maxwell it could be a long wait, plus the way prices are going, it might be a rude shock,

[Ciccioo]

SLI 770 or 780

first world problems are harder than they appear to be

 

honestly, i think they're both "bad" ideas, but going from a 770 to a 780 is not a big enough performance increase to justify the upgrade, so i would go for the SLI

[weric13]

Whats your idea of a "good" idea then? In terms of grabbing a GPU for as much of a performance increase as possible with under $500?

[Ciccioo]

i got a 770 because it's the first card that you might call "high end" with a great price/performance

what i personally plan on doing, is just wait for a better single gpu card on the same price range, and yeah that implies waiting of course

 

the only alternative that i would call "good" would just accept the price range bump and go for a 780ti, so that you get the powah, the vram, and i'd love having something "fully fledged" with all cuda cores enabled and stuff. feels complete

 

but let it be clear: SLI 770 is not "good", but it's very good

if it makes sense

[weric13]

I would love to grab a 780 Ti, the only reason I don't is because of the Maxwell release later on in the year. Yes it may be a bit of a wait, but why drop $700+ on a card right now when their next flagship is gonna finally be based off new tech and probably outdo the 780 TI all together. Hopefully. If I'm gonna spend a LARGE amount of cash, I can't justify spending it on a card thats about to be "last gen", even though it would suffice for years to come. If I'm gonna spend that much I'll grab Maxwell. But for only $350 right NOW(until THEN) I can grab a second 770 and have a marginal performance increase until Maxwell comes out. Or I could drop $440-500 on a standard 780, which is what I keep debating, but I think I'm leaning more towards the second 770 now.

[Ciccioo]

yeah i know, the upcoming maxwell is a too big variable to safely spend money on a high high end card

 

and yeah the dual 770 will be a great option in the meanwhile

at what resolution do you game?

[weric13]

Well up until recently I was actually still gaming on my 720p monitor, but I've been on my ASUS 1080p for quite some time now. Ultra on 720p is more than easy to accomplish with the 770, but the fps on ultra/max on 1080p with a 770 on CERTAIN games can dip down kinda low sometimes. Not low enough to ruin the game, maybe lowest I've seen is 35-40 on a couple games? But not for any period of time. Still, I'd like that extra umph until Maxwell comes out. As I said, VRAM is my only worry, but I'm thinkin I'm over worrying about a game thats in Alpha not even Beta, with crappy optimization.