980 or Other Upgrades?

[Kermit]

I didn't know whether to put this in GPU or PSU, so its going here. 

 

About a year ago, a good friend of mine named Miles bought a decent gaming PC from iBuyPower, and it's been getting the job done. Recently, he's found himself with a superfluous amount of cash after getting a job, and wants to make some upgrades. His z97 (exact model is in spec list) has only one PCI-e x16 slot, and eventually wants to add another GPU (GTX 770) He doesn't have an account, but wants to know whether he should:

 

-Get a 980/980ti.

or

-Get a better motherboard (with two PCI-e x16 slots) and (gold+ rating) PSU.

 

I've told him multiple times that his z97 is completely functional, and his 700w PSU is supplementary, but he wants to hear other points of view, if any. So; are two 770s better than a 980 (or worth it for that matter) in regards to "risking" his system with a 700w PSU and z97 mobo. He doesn't really know a ton about components but what are your opinions?

 

 

 

ALSO SIDE NOTE- iBuyPower made two mistakes on the part list, but really there is only one PCI-e x16, and the PSU is 700w (I checked it myself)

Highlighted in red are the mistakes. 

 

1 x Processor Intel® Core™ i7-4790K Processor (4x 4.0GHz/8MB L3 Cache) - Intel® Core™ i7-4790K

1 x Motherboard: ASUS Z97-P -- 2x PCIe x16, 4x USB 3.0, 2X USB 2.0

1 x Memory: 16 GB [8 GB x2] DDR3-1866 ADATA XPG V2

1 x Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 - 2GB - Single Card

1 x Case Lighting: Cold Cathode Neon Light - Blue

1 x Power Supply: 600 Watt OCZ ModXStream Pro

[arronleeds]

980 or 980ti, tell him not to get sli 770, they only have 2gb of vram and will struggle.

 

everything else is fine, he doesnt need  to upgrade anything else.

[nicholician]

I'd personally just go with a 980 because of lesser heat output and lower noise with the same power that two 770s gets you. It;s a little more expensive, but you can seel that old 770 to make it back anyways, so it would probably cost the same anyway to buy the new card and sell the old one. Buying a new mobo and psu makes no sense, unless it's a super sketchy PSU, in which case I would upgrade that at least.

[Fluxx]

Yeah just stick with a single card, 770 only has 2gb of vram anyway.

 

980 is probably the best choice.

[Sauron]

With the premise that I'd wait for next year to upgrade the 770 (I usually recommend to wait for about 3 years inbetween gpu upgrades) before you buy a new one I would buy a new power supply; even if what he has now should run the new cards just fine, a low quality psu can potentially zap your whole computer if it goes bad.

 

I would not consider a 980, it's priced very poorly and a 980ti is well worth the extra 100 bucks. Getting another 770 at this point would be a terrible idea, the configuration would be bottlenecked by vram at anything but 1080p (where a single 770 is just fine) and you'd get all the hassles that come with SLI only to want to upgrade again in a year.

 

As for the motherboard, it's all right, I wouldn't change it unless you decide you want more expansion slots or it breaks. You may even want to consider buying a hyper 212 evo so you don't completely waste the cpu's overclocking capabilities.

[Dinodaur]

-snip-

This is exactly what you/he should do. Do not bother with a 980 and save up for a 980 Ti. The mobo is completely fine, and if he is gaming and whatever at 1080p then a 980 Ti is the best option even if it is a bit overkill unless he has a 144Hz monitor or never wants to drop below 60 FPS in pretty much every game. I wouldn't bother with getting a second 770, just sell the first one to make the money between the 980 and the 980 Ti if he needs to.

[Starelementpoke]

Or just get the 390x, which is between the 980 and the 980ti.

[No Nrg]

980ti would be overkill for 1080p in almost all cases, even a regular 980 smashes 1080p. The extra power is nice to have though if you run 144hz or like to stay well above v-sync limit.