New GPU advice

[MG0518]

Greetings,

 

I'm nearly done with getting the parts of my upcoming Haswell-E build, and I'm "just" missing the GPU, and would love to hear your thoughts and advice.

 

A bit of background first:

• I tend to play on a regular basis (1h to 2h a day, sometimes several hours in the week-end); my favorite games are role-playing games, hack n' slash and driving simulations, no interest in FPS. At the moment, I'm playing mostly Diablo 3, but I'm interested in Witcher 3, Dragon Age Inquisition and GRID 2.
• My current 6 years-old rig is Nehalem i7 920 and single GTX 275, running on a 20" IPS monitor in 1680 x 1050 which works decently (no anti-aliasing). But along with the new rig, I've ordered a 27" 1440p monitor (Dell U2715H, IPS, 60Hz) which obviously is going to put more pressure on the GPU if playing at native resolution
• I want a Nvidia-based GPU (nothing personal against AMD, but Maxwell-based are far more quiet and watt-friendly)
• I strongly favor single GPU (quietness, power consumption, stability)
• I would like to be able to run aforementioned games with best quality possible with acceptable FPS (is 60 the minimum required or is 30 acceptable?)
• I prefer to be able to keep my GPU several years (I've never felt the need to upgrade my GTX 275, probably due to the low resolution) BUT considering Pascal and HBM2 coming next year, I could go now for a more modest GPU and swap it in 1 year or so
• My future display seems to handle 1080p very well (http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2715h.htm) so playing at 1080p might be a way to go short-term
• I don't really have a budget, I'm more looking at having my investment make sense

 

So far, I'm hesitating between:

1. GTX 960: start small and wait for Pascal approach, play at 1080p, upgrade within 12 to 18 months (Asus Strix ~230€)
2. GTX 970: very good sweetspot, not that far from GTX 980 for 2/3 of the price, I could play less demanding games at 1440p and more demanding at 1080p, upgrade within 18 to 24 months (Asus Strix ~390€)
3. GTX 980ti: extreme performance, 1440p games should be fine for couple years, upgrade (if necessary) within 24 to 36 months i.e. mid-life of rig's life (MSI Gaming 6G ~780€)
4. Same as 1 but keeping my GTX 275 and keep on playing on my 20" 

Considering the "paradigm shift" of moving to HBM, spending now close to 800€ in the "previous" technology doesn't look to me like a smart move. So options 1 and 2 seem wiser.

 

What do you guys think?

 

Thanks! 

[MG0518]

Maybe I should wait a bit more 

 

http://wccftech.com/nvidia-price-cut-maxwell-2-graphics-cards/

[blueballs]

derp

[Ryoku]

Greetings,

 

I'm nearly done with getting the parts of my upcoming Haswell-E build, and I'm "just" missing the GPU, and would love to hear your thoughts and advice.

 

A bit of background first:

• I tend to play on a regular basis (1h to 2h a day, sometimes several hours in the week-end); my favorite games are role-playing games, hack n' slash and driving simulations, no interest in FPS. At the moment, I'm playing mostly Diablo 3, but I'm interested in Witcher 3, Dragon Age Inquisition and GRID 2.
• My current 6 years-old rig is Nehalem i7 920 and single GTX 275, running on a 20" IPS monitor in 1680 x 1050 which works decently (no anti-aliasing). But along with the new rig, I've ordered a 27" 1440p monitor (Dell U2715H, IPS, 60Hz) which obviously is going to put more pressure on the GPU if playing at native resolution
• I want a Nvidia-based GPU (nothing personal against AMD, but Maxwell-based are far more quiet and watt-friendly)
• I strongly favor single GPU (quietness, power consumption, stability)
• I would like to be able to run aforementioned games with best quality possible with acceptable FPS (is 60 the minimum required or is 30 acceptable?)
• I prefer to be able to keep my GPU several years (I've never felt the need to upgrade my GTX 275, probably due to the low resolution) BUT considering Pascal and HBM2 coming next year, I could go now for a more modest GPU and swap it in 1 year or so
• My future display seems to handle 1080p very well (http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2715h.htm) so playing at 1080p might be a way to go short-term
• I don't really have a budget, I'm more looking at having my investment make sense

 

So far, I'm hesitating between:

1. GTX 960: start small and wait for Pascal approach, play at 1080p, upgrade within 12 to 18 months (Asus Strix ~230€)
2. GTX 970: very good sweetspot, not that far from GTX 980 for 2/3 of the price, I could play less demanding games at 1440p and more demanding at 1080p, upgrade within 18 to 24 months (Asus Strix ~390€)
3. GTX 980ti: extreme performance, 1440p games should be fine for couple years, upgrade (if necessary) within 24 to 36 months i.e. mid-life of rig's life (MSI Gaming 6G ~780€)
4. Same as 1 but keeping my GTX 275 and keep on playing on my 20" 

Considering the "paradigm shift" of moving to HBM, spending now close to 800€ in the "previous" technology doesn't look to me like a smart move. So options 1 and 2 seem wiser.

 

What do you guys think?

 

Thanks! 

 

Get a single 970 and then when you upgrade get a 2nd 970. 2 970s are similar in performance to a titan x.  The only thing you need to consider is whether the 4gb(or 3.5gb) vram is going to be enough later down the road.  You may want to just go big now and get the 980ti for the 6gb of vram.

[sgloux3470]

Get a 970.

 

It's entirely capable of solid 1440p gaming and imo is well suited to what you're looking for.

[GrimNeo]

-snip-

I would wait for the price cuts. I suggest this card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125787 Gigabyte 980 Ti G1 Gaming. http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/gigabyte-geforce-gtx-980-ti-g1-gaming-soc-review,1.html

Hopefully it comes back in stock.

[MG0518]

Thanks guys, seems there's a consensus around the fact NOT to go to either GTX 960 or GTX 980 

 

I guess I'm gonna hold my horses and be patient a couple of weeks to see if the rumor of price drop becomes a fact. Sympathize with me as I'll be running a GTX 275  :wacko:

 

For either GTX 970 or GTX 980ti, what are your recommendations brand-wise? I like Asus Strix for they are completly silent until medium load and have very good build quality. MSI and EVGA seem too, but the latter is less common in Europe.

[incarnate]

If you're spending the money on haswell-e you might add well go for a 980ti. That beast still be great for 1440p for a while

[kipper]

Titan X.

[m_tieu]

I would go with a 980ti and be done with it for the next few years. I don't think pascal will be a huge improvement over what we have today. I would get the best thing now which is the 980ti and just enjoy it while it lasts like you did with your gtx 275. Based on the games you said you are playing, I think you'll be able to get very playable frame rates above 30 and closer to 60 even at 1440p.

[dougdangger]

970

[Ryoku]

Thanks guys, seems there's a consensus around the fact NOT to go to either GTX 960 or GTX 980 

 

I guess I'm gonna hold my horses and be patient a couple of weeks to see if the rumor of price drop becomes a fact. Sympathize with me as I'll be running a GTX 275  :wacko:

 

For either GTX 970 or GTX 980ti, what are your recommendations brand-wise? I like Asus Strix for they are completly silent until medium load and have very good build quality. MSI and EVGA seem too, but the latter is less common in Europe.

 

I would go with evga or gigabyte. evga's warranty is legendary and gigabytes g1 gaming series cards overclock like a boss due to their binning process. As for the silent fans on the strix you can do that with any 900 series gpu http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/275897-tutorial-how-to-make-your-900-series-video-card-have-a-0-fan-mode/

[incarnate]

Thanks guys, seems there's a consensus around the fact NOT to go to either GTX 960 or GTX 980

I guess I'm gonna hold my horses and be patient a couple of weeks to see if the rumor of price drop becomes a fact. Sympathize with me as I'll be running a GTX 275 :wacko:

For either GTX 970 or GTX 980ti, what are your recommendations brand-wise? I like Asus Strix for they are completly silent until medium load and have very good build quality. MSI and EVGA seem too, but the latter is less common in Europe.

Evga is great to go with for their warranty and customer service, gigabyte g1 is a legendary overclocker, asus was the one to popularize 0 fan speed, but other than that there's nothing too special about then

[Prysin]

@MG0518

Do not buy a 960. If you going to buy something in that pricerange you can ACTUALLY get a 280X. The 280X goes as low as 183 USD and it mops the floor with the 960.

 

970 is 970. It is a solid choice

 

The 980 is more expensive then the 390X, and performs just a fraction better (once AMD drivers for the 300 series improve, the gap should very well close). That being said, the 390X is probably a more "sane" choice at that price range.

 

 

Pascal will be Nvidias first attempt at HBM, and while they can look at what AMD is doing atm, they will have their own issues with it. If you are waiting for HBM 2.0, i would put my money on AMD for now. They got more real world experience to learn from. They will better understand the limits and the possibilities then Nvidias engineers will. For Nvidia and HBM i would say wait until "pascal2" or a later launch like, if they launch at summer with their main line, wait until next GPU launch to see if they learnt something and thus improved stuff.

[MG0518]

Thanks all.

Consensus remains GTX 970 or GTX 980ti

 

@Prysin: thanks for the detailed post.

I agree with you that performance and technology-wise, AMD has strong arguments with the 390X, but I favor GTX 9xx as they're more quiet and more watt-friendly.

Your hypothesis about what Nvidia can do with Pascal/HBM2 cards makes sense, meaning 2016 might still be too early to go for that new technology.

 

For the moment, I've decided not to buy anything and suffer with my GTX 275 for couple of weeks and see what's going on with pricing. I should (finally) receive my new display by end of July, so it will be time to decide.

 

Will unburry the topic in couple of weeks 

[Prysin]

The next "anticipated" launch is the Fury and Fury Nano from AMD. Especially the Fury Nano is aimed at 2x performance to watt as the 290X. Meaning we can deduct that it will be about 290X-390 performance, but HALF the power draw. It will be a tiny card, but it is definetively the most exciting.

 

Fury (non X) will be air cooled Fury X. The vendors (MSI, Gigabyte, XFX, Sapphire, Powercolor etc...) will be allowed to make custom versions of this card. The MSRP for the Fury is 100$ less then Fury X, so somewhere around 550 USD starting price. Looking at how AMD does things, it is very likely that the Fury might prove to overclock WAY beyond the Fury X's limits (just like 290 was often overclocking way past even OC 290X for some weird reason)