Deciding between GTX 980's

[Mokarin]

I'm thinking about selling my 960 to a friend and upgrading to a 980 which would obviously be only one part of the upgrading process as an fx-8350 will obviously bottleneck a 980.

 

So I've got 2 questions.

 

The first is which 980 should i get? I also want to get the 6gb version  i've heard the gigabyte g1 is good and the msi whatever its called  but ive also heard peiple complain about msi qc. and iirc the gigabyte card is very long which raises some clearance issues and brings me to my next question. 

 

In the upper 16x slot my gpu is very close to my top sata ports and a 3 pin fan header. it allso kind of congests the breathing room for my cpu cooler. 

 

the bottom 16x slot is clearer at least for length and ive heard you can perform an expansion slot mod on the haf xb to make room for your gpu. 

But just below the slot there are a number of connecters includinng the currently jn use HD Audio and case led / power connecters. Which means the gpu heatsink would have to lay directly on top of that stuff. Im not sure if thats actually an issue or if thats normal but it has me concerned because if i get a longer 980 that's the slot i need to use. 

 

For reference I'm currently using an Asus M5A99FX Pro R2.0 

 

 

And heres the mandatory appology for the once again very long post. 

 

[z97]

MSI is okay.

 

The G1 is long, but usually the breadwinner of 980s.

 

Why not just wait for pascal? 

 

And i've never heard of a 6 GB 980

[FloRolf]

There is no 6gb version and just wait for pascal/polaris.

[Surpuppa]

1 minute ago, z97 said:

MSI is okay.

 

The G1 is long, but usually the breadwinner of 980s.

 

Why not just wait for pascal? 

 

And i've never heard of a 6 GB 980

I agree, the Gigabyte is the best of the lot and I would say the MSI comes second. But then again, why not just wait for pascal, it will be here in just a few months

[Mokarin]

https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=gtx+980+6gb

 

i dont know where you guys are getting your intel but I've seen 4gb, 6gb, and i believe even an 8gb though i couldnt find that one a second time so maybe that one was an error. 

 

As for waiting for pascal. id love to but i don't know how long that wait will be. 

[Dash Lambda]

1 minute ago, Mokarin said:

https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=gtx+980+6gb

 

i dont know where you guys are getting your intel but I've seen 4gb, 6gb, and i believe even an 8gb though i couldnt find that one a second time so maybe that one was an error. 

 

As for waiting for pascal. id love to but i don't know how long that wait will be. 

That's the 980 ti. It's a completely different thing.

 

EDIT: Though, to be fair, the MXM version of the 980 can have 8GB of VRAM (MSI Vortex), but you can't exactly buy one or put it in your computer easily.

[z97]

3 minutes ago, Mokarin said:

https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=gtx+980+6gb

 

i dont know where you guys are getting your intel but I've seen 4gb, 6gb, and i believe even an 8gb though i couldnt find that one a second time so maybe that one was an error. 

 

As for waiting for pascal. id love to but i don't know how long that wait will be. 

The 980 TI is 6 GB

 

They spoke of doing an 8GB 980 but it never happened.

[Mokarin]

sorry i meant to include the 980 ti in my question. Is that not a recommended thing then? 

[mx1701]

I think waiting for Pascal is the best option right now, it's what I'm doing. I don't think we'll have to wait longer than June.

[Mokarin]

hopefully you're right. I want to get all of my large spendings out of the way so i can get back to saving money. 

 

And regarding the other part of the question.

 

Does anybody have input?  

[Dash Lambda]

6 minutes ago, Mokarin said:

sorry i meant to include the 980 ti in my question. Is that not a recommended thing then? 

It's not that we don't recommend the 980 ti, in fact I absolutely do, but it wasn't your question.

 

Either way, the 980 ti is the best card you can get right now. In my opinion, the 980 is not powerful enough to justify it against a 970 nor cheap enough to justify against a 980 ti.

Given how close we are to Pascal, though, it may actually be advantageous to wait.

[Mokarin]

ill probably do that then  But last time i checked they havent even given an official name to the new cards unless theye sticking to the same naming scheme. 

[Dash Lambda]

1 minute ago, Mokarin said:

ill probably do that then  But last time i checked they havent even given an official name to the new cards unless theye sticking to the same naming scheme. 

They've already come out with the big Pascal chip in their Tesla cards, so we know they're in production and being rolled out. Won't be too long before they announce and start selling the gaming cards.

[Moonzy]

6 minutes ago, Mokarin said:

I want to get all of my large spendings out of the way so i can get back to saving money. 

pro tip: you can just save more and spend the amount you intended to spend in the first place `-`

i never recommend going overkill with a pc, sweetspot pc ftw

 

3 minutes ago, Mokarin said:

ill probably do that then  But last time i checked they havent even given an official name to the new cards unless theye sticking to the same naming scheme. 

we probably wont know the exact name until the day of launch, which is around mid of june

[Dash Lambda]

2 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

pro tip: you can just save more and spend the amount you intended to spend in the first place `-`

i never recommend going overkill with a pc, sweetspot pc ftw

 

we probably wont know the exact name until the day of launch, which is around mid of june

Hey, there's something to be said for an overkill PC.

[Mokarin]

Not really sure what you mean by sweetspot. 

 

Im planning to gradually upgrade to be able to jump in to VR if it takes off well. And also I've come to realize thats its best to just get the best you can so that you wont have to upgrade as often. Most PC gamers I know are still running 660's up to 680's.