770 SLI vs 780?

[Zero Gravity]

Hi all!

 

Well, basically, I can get one 780 for $679, or I can get two 770's for $739, which one is better for the money?

 

I know prices are really screwed up, but I'm in Australia, soooo yeah.

 

Thanks in advance!

[brownninja97]

sli seems better, the performance would destroy a 780 ti

[Zero Gravity]

sli seems better, the performance would destroy a 780 ti

 

Yeah, but I want this system to be reasonably high-end, so I don't have to upgrade it for a while, and when I do, what I was thinking is that if I got the 780 I could just put another one in and it would last even longer.

 

For how long are the 770's gonna be extremely well performing like it is now?

 

Thanks!

[Zero Gravity]

sli seems better, the performance would destroy a 780 ti

 

Oh and also, that 2 GB on a 256 bit bus, will it be good enough for 1440p?

[Jerakl]

SLI has some issues. Some games may only use one of the two graphics cards, etc.

I hear most people recommending single cards.

If you are just going to be gaming get a 780. I have one and it's even overkill for what I use it for (gaming).

And damn, those prices. Is there a particular reason hardware prices in Australia are so high?

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

[Paralectic]

I'd get a GTX 780 now and another one later instead of SLI 770 right now.

Or a 780Ti now and another one later.

or wait for Maxwell :-)

[Zero Gravity]

SLI has some issues. Some games may only use one of the two graphics cards, etc.

I hear most people recommending single cards.

If you are just going to be gaming get a 780. I have one and it's even overkill for what I use it for (gaming).

And damn, those prices. Is there a particular reason hardware prices in Australia are so high?

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Yeah, I don't know about them prices, but something I can do is order a 780 from Amazon, a 780 ACX for $509, but about dat shipping and dat RMA in case it fails or is DOA, what do you guys think?

[Zero Gravity]

I'd get a GTX 780 now and another one later instead of SLI 770 right now.

Or a 780Ti now and another one later.

or wait for Maxwell :-)

 

Something I can do is get a 780 ACX from Amazon for $509, but I'm not sure about RMA is case it fails or is DOA, is it worth it for $180 savings?

[pummetje]

go for the sli setup much faster

[Lord Pantaloons]

Raw power would go to the 770's but later adding another 780 would trump the 770's. Also others will chime in and over exaggerate the supposed "Downsides" to SLI so let me get some things out of the way before they do. Seeing as I'm a current SLI user I think what I have to say is more relevant than someone who isn't currently using SLI 7xx cards.

 

• Yes there is extra heat output but current Nvidia GPU's don't put out enough heat to cause issues even in a case with a x2 intake x1 exhaust fan setup. As long as you have a normal amount of airflow you will be fine.
• Yes more power is required but that isn't much of a downside if you're PSU is already capable of supporting another GPU, in addition the extra power consumed isn't even noticeable on monthly/yearly bills.
• Pretty much every game supports SLI, especially modern ones. Any game that doesn't support SLI will either be too old and thus wouldn't need the power anyways or is an indie title that also wouldn't require the power of the two cards so it isn't an issue either way. The Scaling for two way SLI is excellent and only gets better for a particular game as drivers mature after the game is released. The only times you might have to worry about SLI not working or working poorly is if a game is released as a broken half finished pile of excrement.

 

There are immediate benefits to SLI in the area of performance, however as I said above getting the most powerful single GPU that you can afford and adding another later if you find that you need it is pretty much always the better option. Getting SLI right out of the gate will limit your potential for upgrades in the future due to a lack of PCIe space. It would serve you better to get a 780 and then in a couple of years add another as they will be less expensive by then, the alternative of upgrading to the current generation is also viable but something like that is going to be up to you. A new generation of GPU's coming out doesn't magically make the last gen GPU's slow, GPU's like 470's, 480's, 570's, 580', 590's, 670's and 680's are all still strong cards and for someone running older cards like that SLI is a viable upgrade if extra performance is required. So if you go with a 780 and in 2 years find that it isn't enough you can find another 780 on the cheap and throw it in for some more grunt.

[Paralectic]

go for the sli setup much faster

And requires more power, isn't stable with the stuttering and partially lack of SLI support and it leaves no upgradabilities for the future.

No

[Phage]

get a 780, you can play 1080p ultra on that and can upgrade when you can afford it

[brownninja97]

Oh and also, that 2 GB on a 256 bit bus, will it be good enough for 1440p?

i think you need at least 3gb vram but you still will get better performance from the the two cards compared to the single one.

[acidydragon]

i think you need at least 3gb vram but you still will get better performance from the the two cards compared to the single one.

The 2gb for one 1440p screen is plenty.

The only time you'll currently need more VRAM is with high resolutions.

You'll be fine with the 2gb of VRAM for 1440p OP.

 

Back to the 770 vs 780.

 

My vote is for the single 780.

 

The 770 SLI, while it would be faster, wouldn't give you a make or break level of speed right now.

At the same time, the single 780 would give you upgrade options in a few years, to keep your system very current. However, if you decide to go with the SLI set up,

You'll run into the issue of not having much upgrade paths down the road without replacing your entire GPU setup. 

[Zero Gravity]

And requires more power, isn't stable with the stuttering and partially lack of SLI support and it leaves no upgradabilities for the future.

No

 

Also not to mention that I am using an mATX rig, so I can only go with 2 GPU's, and that would be stretching it

 

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=193_1577

 

For like $60 more than the 770 SLI, I can get either a reference 780 ti, or a Gainward Phantom, what do you guys think? Although, ASUS, EVGA and MSI cards, which are the ones that I would prefer, are WAY more expensive.

[brownninja97]

The 2gb for one 1440p screen is plenty.

The only time you'll currently need more VRAM is with high resolutions.

You'll be fine with the 2gb of VRAM for 1440p OP.

 

Back to the 770 vs 780.

 

My vote is for the single 780.

 

The 770 SLI, while it would be faster, wouldn't give you a make or break level of speed right now.

At the same time, the single 780 would give you upgrade options in a few years, to keep your system very current. However, if you decide to go with the SLI set up,

You'll run into the issue of not having much upgrade paths down the road without replacing your entire GPU setup. 

i remember seeing a while back 2gb getting full on bf4 at 1080p.

[acidydragon]

i remember seeing a while back 2gb getting full on bf4 at 1080p.

BF4 is the exception to the rule. The game is terribly optimized, and that problem won't get better with 3gb. I've seen BF4 also use 12gb of RAM, and other weird things.

BF4 was a pile of crap at launch, and is being cleaned up.

[Zero Gravity]

The 2gb for one 1440p screen is plenty.

The only time you'll currently need more VRAM is with high resolutions.

You'll be fine with the 2gb of VRAM for 1440p OP.

 

Back to the 770 vs 780.

 

My vote is for the single 780.

 

The 770 SLI, while it would be faster, wouldn't give you a make or break level of speed right now.

At the same time, the single 780 would give you upgrade options in a few years, to keep your system very current. However, if you decide to go with the SLI set up,

You'll run into the issue of not having much upgrade paths down the road without replacing your entire GPU setup. 

 

What about a single 780 ti? Like I said above, for like $60 more than the SLI setup I can get a referance 780 ti, or a Gainward Phantom, or a HOF card, but the ASUS, MSI, and EVGA are like $900, which is crazy, what do you think?

 

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=193_1577

[acidydragon]

What about a single 780 ti? Like I said above, for like $60 more than the SLI setup I can get a referance 780 ti, or a Gainward Phantom, or a HOF card, but the ASUS, MSI, and EVGA are like $900, which is crazy, what do you think?

Go for the 780 ti if you can. It's a beast of a GPU. Go for it if you can.

 

The 780 Ti will also perform very similarly to the 770 SLI (losing or winning by a minor amount depending on the SLI support of the game.)

And it gives you the option to nab a cheap one when 800 series arrives.

[Zero Gravity]

Go for the 780 ti if you can. It's a beast of a GPU. Go for it if you can.

 

The 780 Ti will also perform very similarly to the 770 SLI (losing or winning by a minor amount depending on the SLI support of the game.)

And it gives you the option to nab a cheap one when 800 series arrives.

 

Hmm, I'm not sure if my budget will allow that, but I'll try to go min-max with the rest of the system.

 

I'll make a post later on this thread of the build, so stay tuned

[imthewalrus]

Oh and also, that 2 GB on a 256 bit bus, will it be good enough for 1440p?

 

1440p is not that far away from 1080p, so even just a single gtx 770 might do really well to your right now. I can tell you that I can run most games (skyrim with a ton of mods, dirt 2, assassins creed black flag) at high settings on 1440p with a single hd 7790 (1 gb vram), of course at playable frame rates (above 30 fps) which is fine to me. Note that the gtx 770 is twice the performance of an hd 7790.

[acidydragon]

Hmm, I'm not sure if my budget will allow that, but I'll try to go min-max with the rest of the system.

 

I'll make a post later on this thread of the build, so stay tuned

A balanced system is better than being overkill in one section.

If you can budget the 780 ti, do it. If not, get the 780.

[Zero Gravity]

A balanced system is better than being overkill in one section.

If you can budget the 780 ti, do it. If not, get the 780.

 

How's this?

 

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/3nxiT

 

Keep in mind that I already own the 350D, so substracting the $149 it ends up to be $1620.

 

Oh and for storage I also already own a 2 TB Seagate, but I still want an SSD.

 

What do you think?

 

Budget is about $1800, but I don't want to overspend

[acidydragon]

-snip-

Looks good, you can easily bump it up to a 780 ti though, and be at 1770 bucks.

http://au.pcpartpicker.com/p/3nxty

[N0ksuu]

Sli will look better and perform better, thus the single GPU would be a wiser choise