1440p 144hz gaming, 980 ti or wait for Pascal?

[Water0125]

I'm building a new PC and going to a 1440p 144hz monitor and I'm still debating on whether to get a 980 ti now and finish the build or wait for the pascal arch to be released in hopes that the mid level card (970 price range) will be equivalently substantial to the 980 ti for almost half the price. I understand the issue of having a PC that I can use now vs waiting for 6-8 months. I'm not entirely concerned with that issue because I don't upgrade my computer or build new computers very frequently and I'm thinking more long term. My current build is from 2011 with a 2013 graphics card which will give you an idea of how often I upgrade.   

 

I'm not so worried about maxing out AAA games I usually run med to low settings to maximize performance. I prefer better fps vs top end visuals. I'm also thinking about the 'future proof' aspect for releases of upcoming AAA titles (i.e. Battlefield 5, Escape from Tarkov, and others that will be coming in the next 2-3 yrs.).

 

Thoughts? and thanks ahead of time to all for your help!

[StareX]

Pascal is unknown currently when it's going to be released. As far as I know they have said it's not going to be out in 2016, but at a later date.

 

I suggest a 980 Ti with a GSYNC monitor.. and later down the road, upgrade.

[App4that]

1. Pascal is months away, and we do not know the release schedule. We could be a year away from anything stronger than a 980ti.
2. All EVGA 980ti's come with 90 days of upgrade protection. So you can trade your 980ti in and use its purchase price towards a new card if one releases stronger than the 980ti.

[Sauron]

First of all, we know almost nothing of Pascal's performance. Bear that in mind.

 

If you are set on maxing out everything a 980ti won't cut it, you'll need at least 2. Waiting is never a bad idea, but if you need the computer soon don't be afraid to go for it now.

[Peakfire]

I'd say wait for Polaris which should be coming around Q2 - Q3 this year. Since the Pascal release is unknown, getting a 980 ti or waiting for the AMD GPUs are the only viable options. But you won't be able to max out current (let alone future) AAA titles with a 980 ti.

[Krzych]

There can be a lot of waiting since we don't know Pascal release date and we also don't know when the most powerful cards comes out, they may begin with less powerful cards and release the most powerful ones later, at the end of the year or even later. I don't think that waiting that long is worth it, even if "GTX 1070" will be as powerful as 980 Ti at half price. If you are okay with lowering graphics settings to maximize performance as you said you do, then 980 Ti will last you for long. Just go for it, buy good 1440p monitor and enjoy your games, there is nothing good in sitting and waiting for well over half a year, which is optimistic prediction anyway.

[Guest]

What about AMD?? They make decent GPUs...really good GPUs. Try the R9 Fury X

[App4that]

Just now, jkeasley said:

What about AMD?? They make decent GPUs...really good GPUs. Try the R9 Fury X

The Fury X costs the same as a 980ti in many regions but the 980ti is much faster once overclocked, even a little.

[ivan134]

I'd wait for Volta

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, App4that said:

The Fury X costs the same as a 980ti in many regions but the 980ti is much faster once overclocked, even a little.

Yes, but the Fury X runs 20C cooler and has HBM

[Siman]

23 minutes ago, App4that said:

The Fury X costs the same as a 980ti in many regions but the 980ti is much faster once overclocked, even a little.

DX12 support...

[App4that]

Just now, jkeasley said:

Yes, but the Fury X runs 20C cooler and has HBM

4g of HBM. Games go off of quantity, not speed. The more you have, the more it uses. The disparity between the amounts of VRAM is why the Fury X battles stuttering in new titles, while the 980ti does not.

 

And my 980ti idles at ambient temperature and has a peak load temperature of 50c. You can get a AIO on a 980ti too

[Siman]

Right now its hard to recomend Nvidia GPUs they dont have compatibility with DX12... also free sync is much cheaper...

[App4that]

Just now, Siman said:

Right now its hard to recomend Nvidia GPUs they dont have compatibility with DX12... also free sync is much cheaper...

Blatant misinformation.

 

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/207598-demystifying-directx-12-support-what-amd-intel-and-nvidia-do-and-dont-deliver

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, App4that said:

4g of HBM. Games go off of quantity, not speed. The more you have, the more it uses. The disparity between the amounts of VRAM is why the Fury X battles stuttering in new titles, while the 980ti does not.

 

And my 980ti idles at ambient temperature and has a peak load temperature of 50c. You can get a AIO on a 980ti too

Use 2 R9 390s then

[App4that]

Just now, jkeasley said:

Use 2 R9 390s then

I did. I paid the same for my 290 and 390 as my 980ti and got half the performance because none of my games supported crossfire. While fighting heat issues. WHEN the crossfire worked, like in synthetic benchmarks, you got impressive numbers. But my 980ti is just under where my crossfire was and I haven't really pushed the 980ti yet.

[Bouzoo]

11 minutes ago, Siman said:

Right now its hard to recomend Nvidia GPUs they dont have compatibility with DX12... also free sync is much cheaper...

980 Ti is the only dGPU (you can count TItan X as well) that supports DX12_1. It not have hardware capability in DX12_0 but they provide it via software, so it's the first full DX12 card. So software wise all Maxwell cards support DX12_0 at least. 

[Siman]

5 minutes ago, App4that said:

Blatant misinformation.

 

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/207598-demystifying-directx-12-support-what-amd-intel-and-nvidia-do-and-dont-deliver

no its not DX12 is supported on GCN GPUs... what your missing is microsoft's DX12 tiers.

[App4that]

Just now, Siman said:

no its not DX12 is supported on GCN GPUs... what your missing is microsoft's DX12 tiers.

No, you're missing how it works. DX12 feature utilization is up to the developer, and developers make games they hope to sell. Nvidia cards make up 80% of the market. So even if what you said was true, and it's not.

 

Why would any developer make a game that only runs on 20% of the computers owned by their customers?

 

[Siman]

4 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

980 Ti is the only dGPU (you can count TItan X as well) that supports DX12_1. It not have hardware capability in DX12_0 but they provide it via software, so it's the first full DX12 card. So software wise all Maxwell cards support DX12_0 at least. 

As stated above AMD's GCN arcutecture supports DX12. They are the only ones to support tier 3, of the primary compute functions of DX12...

 

1 minute ago, App4that said:

No, you're missing how it works. DX12 feature utilization is up to the developer, and developers make games they hope to sell. Nvidia cards make up 80% of the market. So even if what you said was true, and it's not.

 

Why would any developer make a game that only runs on 20% of the computers owned by their customers?

 

still not seeing facts? Nvidia does support DX12 but not at the level of AMD's GCN. Also yes some AMD cards dont support all the DX12 features some fall in tier 2. However AMD is the only company to have tier 3 level DX12 support...

 

Here guys found it its a good read: https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/direct3d-feature-levels-discussion.56575/page-9

[App4that]

4 minutes ago, Siman said:

As stated above AMD's GCN arcutecture supports DX12. They are the only ones to support tier 3, of the primary compute functions of DX12...

 

still not seeing facts? Nvidia does support DX12 but not at the level of AMD's GCN. Also yes some AMD cards dont support all the DX12 features some fall in tier 2. However AMD is the only company to have tier 3 level DX12 support...

 

Here guys found it its a good read: https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/direct3d-feature-levels-discussion.56575/page-9

you just cited another forum. I'm out.

 

Let me know if you want to use facts.

[Siman]

Just now, App4that said:

you just cited another forum. I'm out.

 

Let me know if you want to use facts.

Well it is, they have a program for checking DX12 levels... sorry but forums are a good source of knowledge. As of yesterday my Nvidia cards including my titans didn’t support all DX12 features... Ive also had mixed reports after various AMD driver updates as well...

[App4that]

Just now, Siman said:

Well it is, they have a program for checking DX12 levels... sorry but forums are a good source of knowledge. As of yesterday my Nvidia cards including my titans didn’t support all DX12 features... Ive also had mixed reports after various AMD driver updates as well...

But you're ignoring that not all features have to be used!!! *breaths heavily*

 

It's all speculation anyway. And I hate "ifs" because it's just a variable, and one easily exploited with confirmation bias.

[Siman]

2 minutes ago, App4that said:

But you're ignoring that not all features have to be used!!! *breaths heavily*

 

It's all speculation anyway. And I hate "ifs" because it's just a variable, and one easily exploited with confirmation bias.

No dont get me wrong not all of them have to be, but the overall reason is to have more control over the GPU. AMD simply has more support for control over it's GPUs... its to be expected since MS wants compatibility for the Xbox...

[App4that]

1 minute ago, Siman said:

No dont get me wrong not all of them have to be, but the overall reason is to have more control over the GPU. AMD simply has more support for control over it's GPUs... its to be expected since MS wants compatibility for the Xbox...

But you said this.

48 minutes ago, Siman said:

Right now its hard to recomend Nvidia GPUs they dont have compatibility with DX12... also free sync is much cheaper...

You're ignoring current performance for speculation. Nothing is set in stone. My 980ti is fully DX12 compatible save for the asynchronous shading software, which is not as efficient as AMD's hardware solution.

 

But how that impacts my ability to play the games I want, at the settings I want, and the fps I want is not decided. If we look to what's happens recently with AMD's inability to utilize their hardware advantage I can't see having a problem.