980ti Gaming Rig Planning

[Crazedbiker]

Hi everyone,

I am trying to plan out a gaming rig that will keep me ahead of the game for as many years as possible, within my budget (1400-1500) USD.

Even though pascal is soon to be here, I think the card for me is a 980ti since it will be quite some time till cards are actually available and will probably be as expensive for similar performance. I am planning on sticking with a single 1080p monitor @144hz for now, moving up to a 1440p when I have saved up enough after buying and building this set up. If possible I would like to stick to a white and blue theme, but I won't compromise performance for to that end. That being said, I do care about the looks quite a bit, but I maintain a function over form approach overall.

This is the build I have in mind; http://pcpartpicker.com/p/QhwGvK, and please keep in mind that this is my first build and I'm not looking to set up a custom water cooling system or something complicated like that. 

The parts I am less sure about is the case, and which version of the 980ti is really best. I read reviews that stated that the gigabyte version had an excellent cooler and therefore more room for overclocking. 

I would also like fan placement advice. The Enthoo Pro case has room for 3X 140MM on the top, 1X 140MM in the back, and 2X140MM in the front. There are also places in the bottom but I won't be using those. My thought as of now is to use two intakes in the front, and one in the back, relying on one 140 in the top to pull air out, and another two pulling air out through the 240mm rad. 

I don't need any peripherals or windows included in the price.

I appreciate any help you'd like to give!

Thanks!

 

Edited April 17, 2016 by Crazedbiker

[Moonzy]

2 minutes ago, Crazedbiker said:

since it will be quite some time till cards are actually available and will probably be as expensive for similar performance.

possible that the x80 will beat the 980ti is quite high, atleast from what i believe `-`

or atleast be around it, like the 980 vs 780ti

3 minutes ago, Crazedbiker said:

The parts I am less sure about is the case, and which version of the 980ti is really best. I read reviews that stated that the gigabyte version had an excellent cooler and therefore more room for overclocking.

H450 for silence, N450 for looks + air flow, Define R5 for silence, Define S for spaciousness for possible custom watercooling in the future, Corsair 760T

as for what gpu is the best, EVGA Hybrid or MSI Lightning if you want air, gigabyte is bleh, it doesnt cool the vrm iirc

realistically, EVGA FTW edition

6 minutes ago, Crazedbiker said:

 http://pcpartpicker.com/p/sGRj8d

comments

Spoiler

1) dont need aftermarket thermal compound

2) dont need an aio, could get away with an air cooler unless you want the looks

3) get samsung 850 EVO ssd, i highly recommend it

4) i would personally get wd blue over barracuda, seems to be more reliable averagely

5) wait for pascal if you can, live on the igpu for now

6) not a great psu, got i5 OC + 980ti, i recommend the EVGA SuperNOVA P2 650W, dont cheap out on the psu or you might risk frying your components

7) so many LED fans, imo just get 1 or two will do unless your case comes with 0 fans, two intake and 1 exhaust is more than enough

 

[N_Bot]

Change the PSU to something like an EVGA G2.

[Crazedbiker]

10 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

EVGA Hybrid or MSI Lightning

You are right about the lightning, thought i really don't know anything about the hybrid, but both cost in the area of 50 bucks more and this build is already right up on my limits. The same problem applies with the cases you mentioned, I really can't afford spending more than 100$ on a case. Thank you though!

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, Crazedbiker said:

You are right about the lightning, thought i really don't know anything about the hybrid, but both cost in the area of 50 bucks more and this build is already right up on my limits. The same problem applies with the cases you mentioned, I really can't afford spending more than 100$ on a case. Thank you though!

those two coolers are a joke, the real suggestion is the EVGA FTW Edition lol

as for the case, how bout a S340?

[Crazedbiker]

1 minute ago, Moonzy said:

3 minutes ago, Crazedbiker said:

You are right about the lightning, thought i really don't know anything about the hybrid, but both cost in the area of 50 bucks more and this build is already right up on my limits. The same problem applies with the cases you mentioned, I really can't afford spending more than 100$ on a case. Thank you though!

those two

Ah okay sorry haha. Honestly, unless it's a big difference, I just really don't like the look of the EVGA FTW card, so i'd rather not. the S340 is actually what I was thinking of in the first place, but the Enthoo Pro has much much better airflow than the s340 or h440. I want to keep my temps as low as I can,

[Energycore]

You could make room by using this motherboard from Gigabyte.

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gigabyte-z170-hd3-lga-1151-intel-motherboard,4279.html

http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-gaz170hd3

[Crazedbiker]

I really don't like the look of air coolers so i'd rather not go with that. Why is the Gigabyte board preferable? I didn't think size was an issue?

 

[Crazedbiker]

9 minutes ago, N_Bot said:

Change the PSU to something like an EVGA G2.

Gladly, thanks! I didn't see any platinum rated boards in this price range when I looked!

[Energycore]

1 minute ago, Crazedbiker said:

I really don't like the look of air coolers so i'd rather not go with that. Why is the Gigabyte board preferable? I didn't think size was an issue?

 

It's $50 less. You can spend that money on a better PSU / Premium case

[Energycore]

Also EVGA FTW 980 Ti for $620 over at NCIX US. After a rebate.

 

http://www.ncixus.com/products/?usaffiliateid=1000031504&sku=115882&vpn=06G-P4-4996-KR&manufacture=eVGA&promoid=1219

[Crazedbiker]

I really don't like the look of that card either. Is the cooling as good? It seems to have a lot of plastic shroud and not a lot of fan area

[Shahnewaz]

Some comments about your build:

- Overclocking isn't worth it. The money are spending on more expensive CPU, memory, motherboard, cooler and PSU is way more than the performance you'll get out of a decent overclock. And that's assuming you actually get a decent OC.

- Since you want it last "as long as possible", Maxwell GPUs are definitely not the way to go. They are heavily designed to run best on DX11 games and applications, and that doesn't bode well when DX12 is right around the corner.

- I'm not sure about the PSU quality, but I'm sure 700W is way too much.

[Crazedbiker]

1 minute ago, Shahnewaz said:

Some comments about your build:

- Overclocking isn't worth it. The money are spending on more expensive CPU, memory, motherboard, cooler and PSU is way more than the performance you'll get out of a decent overclock. And that's assuming you actually get a decent OC.

- Since you want it last "as long as possible", Maxwell GPUs are definitely not the way to go. They are heavily designed to run best on DX11 games and applications, and that doesn't bode well when DX12 is right around the corner.

- I'm not sure about the PSU quality, but I'm sure 700W is way too much.

I disagree with you wholeheartedly on the overclocking issue, but I don't really want to make this a thread about that. I think the 980ti will carry me over for somewhere in the two year area before getting a new card, and it should do that admirably. When i said i wanted it to last, i meant as a build, if that makes sense. To address your last point, I wanted to have a lot of headroom for a possible sli in the future and or something like that. I'll concede that the quality could leave much to be desired. Thanks!

[Shahnewaz]

14 minutes ago, Crazedbiker said:

I disagree with you wholeheartedly on the overclocking issue, but I don't really want to make this a thread about that. I think the 980ti will carry me over for somewhere in the two year area before getting a new card, and it should do that admirably. When i said i wanted it to last, i meant as a build, if that makes sense. To address your last point, I wanted to have a lot of headroom for a possible sli in the future and or something like that. I'll concede that the quality could leave much to be desired. Thanks!

Feel free to create a thread about how you think overclocking is worth the money. But as you said, not here. Although I still stand by my point unless you've got a counter-argument to show.

Why purchase a 980Ti when there are equivalent priced cards that are bound to better that it in DX12? Fury X anyone?

SLI is another feature that isn't worth at all the price. But I'm guessing you wholeheartedly disagree on that too?

[Crazedbiker]

1 minute ago, Shahnewaz said:

Feel free to create a thread about how you think overclocking is worth the money. But as you said, not here. Although I still stand by my point unless you've got a counter-argument to show.

Why purchase a 980Ti when there are equivalent priced cards that are bound to better that it in DX12? Fury X anyone?

SLI is another feature that isn't worth at all the price. But I'm guessing you wholeheartedly disagree on that too?

No need to get upset, we are all in the same community, and I asked for help, so your responses are giving me what I want, other opinions. Like I stated, I am inexperienced as a pc builder, but I have done a fair amount of research. The Fury X is consistently less powerful in benchmarks and the like, in LTT's own videos and other sources, and like I said before, i'm only really planning to use this card for a few years before swapping. Besides mico-stuttering and various screen tearing issues, what is your problem with sli? 

[Shahnewaz]

3 hours ago, Crazedbiker said:

No need to get upset, we are all in the same community, and I asked for help, so your responses are giving me what I want, other opinions. Like I stated, I am inexperienced as a pc builder, but I have done a fair amount of research. The Fury X is consistently less powerful in benchmarks and the like, in LTT's own videos and other sources, and like I said before, i'm only really planning to use this card for a few years before swapping. Besides mico-stuttering and various screen tearing issues, what is your problem with sli? 

The only thing I'm upset about is your attitude to argue when you can. You can at least ask why I said what I said.

 

I'm not making up stuff when I said overclocking and SLI isn't worth it, and the Fury X is a better card for DX12. If you don't believe me, go watch the DigitalFoundry benchmarks yourself, and it doesn't even have to be Fury X vs 980Ti. Any DX12 title with any Nvidia vs AMD card, and you get the same story.

Here's an example:

With SLI, not only you get micro-stuttering, but you also get limited to no scaling depending on titles, and then some games just won't work on SLI configurations or suffer from poor optimizations.

 

Fine, use it for a few years and swap (what a waste of money), but I never recommended less value components to anyone ever, even when they are just buying now to sell later. And I won't do it now.

 

I'm all in for a nice discussion about what steps should you take and what you shouldn't. If anything, I'm trying to save you money, or trying to get you the best for your money, or both. I might have to question your research now...

[LewisBloom]

Ok I'll jump in as I gotta ask.

 

Given that now in 2016 dx9 is still the most used direct X in gaming why on earth would you purchase a card because it has a slight edge in dx12 but none in all the others? (And this includes the context of newer things coming in the future if using the existing trend for developers to rightfully not jump on the newest bandwagon).

 

thanks,

Lewis

[Shahnewaz]

49 minutes ago, LewisBloom said:

Ok I'll jump in as I gotta ask.

 

Given that now in 2016 dx9 is still the most used direct X in gaming why on earth would you purchase a card because it has a slight edge in dx12 but none in all the others? (And this includes the context of newer things coming in the future if using the existing trend for developers to rightfully not jump on the newest bandwagon).

 

thanks,

Lewis

Reason 1:

Because if you have a choice between:

 

1) A card that does DX9 well but not DX12

2) A card that does both DX9 and DX12 well

 

Which one would you pick? It is as simple as that.

 

Reason 2:

What would you do when a DX12 title comes out? Scream at the developer for picking a newer and better API for their games? Throw your $650 GPU into the trash can?

 

Reason 3:

The edge in DX12 is significant, not slight. One gains performance here and one loses performance (yes, not gains less, but loses performance compared to DX11). The edge in DX11 and DX9, on the other hand, is anywhere from marginal to none.

 

Reason 4:

Prediction is prediction. I don't buy or recommend cards based on assumptions or speculation.

[LewisBloom]

but given all the evidence a prediction would still be for the 980, given as stated 2016 and games even big boy games are still released primarily for dx9 and 10. The card being brought will more than likely be end of life before one is worrying about performance in dx12.

 

Economy means that right now value is still for the 980 over the fury and given your reasons for reason 1, its just roll reversal for the majority of the games on the market or coming to market soon. Its almost cutting of your nose to spite your face hoping you get better performance for the minority at expense of the majority.

 

[Shahnewaz]

7 hours ago, LewisBloom said:

but given all the evidence a prediction would still be for the 980, given as stated 2016 and games even big boy games are still released primarily for dx9 and 10.

This is still speculation by and large.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_DirectX_12_support

See what I mean? No amount of prediction will cut this list short. In fact, it'll only get longer through time.

7 hours ago, LewisBloom said:

The card being brought will more than likely be end of life before one is worrying about performance in dx12.

So you will throw your $650 GPU into the dumpster when enough games will support DX12? That's your money and your decision, when there was a similarly performing $650 card that flies in DX12.

7 hours ago, LewisBloom said:

Economy means that right now value is still for the 980 over the fury and given your reasons for reason 1, its just roll reversal for the majority of the games on the market or coming to market soon. Its almost cutting of your nose to spite your face hoping you get better performance for the minority at expense of the majority.

Are you telling me the Fury X is trading serious DX11 performance for DX12 performance?

http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1513?vs=1496

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/video-card-review-geforce-gtx-980-ti-vs-radeon-r9-fury-x/

DX11 role reversal you speak? Nope, nowhere a significant near role reversal. In fact, the difference is minute, and evens out at 4K. DX12, and the role is reversed significantly.

 

At least do your research before making a point.

[Crazedbiker]

6 hours ago, Shahnewaz said:

This is still speculation by and large.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_DirectX_12_support

See what I mean? No amount of prediction will cut this list short. In fact, it'll only get longer through time.

So you will throw your $650 GPU into the dumpster when enough games will support DX12? That's your money and your decision, when there was a similarly performing $650 card that flies in DX12.

Are you telling me the Fury X is trading serious DX11 performance for DX12 performance?

http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1513?vs=1496

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/video-card-review-geforce-gtx-980-ti-vs-radeon-r9-fury-x/

DX11 role reversal you speak? Nope, nowhere a significant near role reversal. In fact, the difference is minute, and evens out at 4K. DX12, and the role is reversed significantly.

 

At least do your research before making a point.

To be fair, the 980ti is of course less amazing at DX12 than the Fury X, but don't think that it can't support it or something like that, so I don't really understand why you keep saying one would have to throw it away in a "dumpster" when there are more DX12 based games? It will still work, just perhaps not as well as a fury x. Some of the 980ti's even say on the box that they support DX12.

[Shahnewaz]

1 hour ago, Crazedbiker said:

To be fair, the 980ti is of course less amazing at DX12 than the Fury X, but don't think that it can't support it or something like that, so I don't really understand why you keep saying one would have to throw it away in a "dumpster" when there are more DX12 based games? It will still work, just perhaps not as well as a fury x. Some of the 980ti's even say on the box that they support DX12.

That's not the point. It does support DX12. I'm not saying that. In fact, all Maxwell cards support DX12. But there is a significant negative performance difference in DX12; while the positive performance difference in DX11 is marginal.

 

As in, you will get significantly less FPS on DX12 using a GTX 980Ti than an R9 Fury X. On the other hand, you will get marginally higher FPS on a GTX 980Ti than a Fury X on DX11 1080p, and equal performance with the two cards on DX11 4K.

 

In other words, the Fury X is a jack of all trades, and hence a much better card to buy.

[Crazedbiker]

18 hours ago, Shahnewaz said:

That's not the point. It does support DX12. I'm not saying that. In fact, all Maxwell cards support DX12. But there is a significant negative performance difference in DX12; while the positive performance difference in DX11 is marginal.

 

As in, you will get significantly less FPS on DX12 using a GTX 980Ti than an R9 Fury X. On the other hand, you will get marginally higher FPS on a GTX 980Ti than a Fury X on DX11 1080p, and equal performance with the two cards on DX11 4K.

 

In other words, the Fury X is a jack of all trades, and hence a much better card to buy.

Do you have any sources to back that up? I wouldn't consider myself a fanboy of either Nvidia or AMD, but I am coming from an Nvidia GPU and unless there is really solid evidence against them, id rather stick with what I know and am confident with, if that makes sense. 

[Shahnewaz]

4 hours ago, Crazedbiker said:

Do you have any sources to back that up? I wouldn't consider myself a fanboy of either Nvidia or AMD, but I am coming from an Nvidia GPU and unless there is really solid evidence against them, id rather stick with what I know and am confident with, if that makes sense. 

I'm glad you asked for sources. Because that's the way everyone's mindset should be.

 

First off, DX11 comparisons.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/video-card-review-geforce-gtx-980-ti-vs-radeon-r9-fury-x/

http://anandtech.com/bench/product/1513?vs=1496

You can see the GTX980Ti maintained a small lead in lower resolutions, and it equals out in higher resolutions.

 

Next, DX12 comparisons.

 

 

 

 

Although not the same cards everywhere, since they are the same architecture, they are useful numbers to us. In properly made DX12 games like Ashes of the Singularity, AMD really shines. DigitalFoundry's analysis really hits the nail on the head on what is happening and why there is such a significant performance disparity.

Here's another analysis of DX11 vs DX12 using Ashes of the Singularity by AnandTech. Again AMD really takes point here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/10067/ashes-of-the-singularity-revisited-beta

 

And that's why I was insisting on buying a GCN based GPU. Short term, both cards can play any game very well. Long term, AMD is a better investment, simply because of their forward thinking architecture and DX12 advantage.