Have $1100 Budget, Which GPU SLI Set-up To Future Proof

[Bullseye34]

Hey guys,

My budget is $1100.00 for 2 video cards.  I want the best cards for this price but also want to future proof them for newer games.  I have 3 2560x1440 monitors but will only play using one monitor (don’t like playing using 3).   These monitors are the QNIX models that only have DUAL DVI connections. I pretty much decided to go the NVIDEA route because its supported by ADOBE. I do a lot of photo editing and video editing using ADOBE.  At first, the obvious choice seemed to be the GTX780 3GB 384bit SLI.  Lots of Cuda cores! But the 3GB of memory has been worrying me.  I’m getting conflicting reports on this issue.  A lot of people think that it wont be enough in the coming future when playing FPS games.  So another option was GTX 770 4GB 256bit SLI.  Its about $200.00 cheaper but has a slower bus speed and much less CUDA Cores.  If you were me, what would you do?

I would really appreciate your feedback.

Thank you,

Joe

 

Computer:

 

Intel 4930k

Asus Sabertooth x79

32 gigs of DDR3 Ram

Samsung SSD

PC Power & Cooling 1200 Watt Power Supply

Corsair 100i Water Cooler

[Joshyy]

I believe Adobe supports OpenCL now, which is faster than CUDA, look into 2 R9-290X's, wait for non reference coolers unless you want wind turbines however. 

[sanderdegrote]

Wait for the aftermarket R9 290X to release. Dat overkill PSU :-).

[Jumper118]

2 r9 290 with water blocks. 

[Cyrus]

"Future proof", Wait for the 780Ti 6gb.

[lilc]

"Future proof", Wait for the 780Ti 6gb.

Yeah I would say one of those will do you good for a while and another one can always be added.

[austin541]

no go on the 770 route because of the 256 bit bus you cant utilize the 4gb vram. i would say 2x 290s and add waterblocks later if your so inclined. and the 290s have 512bit bus with 4gb vram so its a bigger plus. 

[maazster]

"Future proof", Wait for the 780Ti 6gb.

It cannot utilize the full 6GB as the card has a low memory bus

[amintha1992]

Adobe does support openCL, I would say get 2x R9 290 either reference with water cooling or non reference (Asus direct CU is an excellent cooler)

[Cyrus]

It cannot utilize the full 6GB as the card has a low memory bus

 

.... I had something in mind that it was similar to the titan?

[Jumper118]

It cannot utilize the full 6GB as the card has a low memory bus

even if it can't use all 6gb it will use 2gb+ more than a standard 780ti and over 1gb more than any amd card

[Bullseye34]

Well guys, seems like r9 290 is the way to go!  Any particular one that you guys like over the others?  There seem to be a few different flavors of the same card.  Is there a vendor you guys like?  Link would be nice

 

 

Thanks guys  for al your help!!!  This forum is awesome!!!

[old reece frost]

Well guys, seems like r9 290 is the way to go!  Any particular one that you guys like over the others?  There seem to be a few different flavors of the same card.  Is there a vendor you guys like?  Link would be nice

 

 

Thanks guys  for al your help!!!  This forum is awesome!!!

Either wait for the aftermarket ones or if you can't wait get a waterblock OR one of those Kraken G10's

[ltguy]

+1 for 2 x R9 290's.

[brob]

Does anyone have any links to benchmarks that show the 290 doing better than the 780 in video rendering, particularly in Adobe products?

[blimpi]

Crazy, I have the EXACT same build but a 1050w power supply instead of 1200w.  Even more fun is that I am in the same boat looking for a card/cards for 1440p and all everyone recommends is the 290/290x aftermarkets.  I am a fan of green but no one out there likes to recommend them haha.  It is hard sitting looking at all the hardware without the GPU --- and waiting for a card to be released feels like an eternity.  I've almost pulled the trigger multiple times on 780's and 780ti's however the various forums around the internet make me question that decision all the time!

[Kuzma]

Yeah if you're looking at anything past CS5 then OpenCL > CUDA and you shoud look into AMD tbh

[brob]

Yeah if you're looking at anything past CS5 then OpenCL > CUDA and you shoud look into AMD tbh

 

Why is that?

[maazster]

.... I had something in mind that it was similar to the titan?

Actually let me rephrase that, ' the GTX 780Ti 6GB edition cannot utilise the full memory in games due to the low memory bus width but can in applications for video edditing and 3d rendering'. (I missed out a large chunk of the sentence)

[Skylark]

no go on the 770 route because of the 256 bit bus you cant utilize the 4gb vram. i would say 2x 290s and add waterblocks later if your so inclined. and the 290s have 512bit bus with 4gb vram so its a bigger plus. 

 

Agreed I would avoid the 770 setup however the vram speed between the 780 and the 290 are compatible:

• GTX 770 = 7 GHz VRAM Speed on 256-bit bus width = 224~ GBps
• GTX 780 = 6 GHz VRAM Speed on 384-bit bus width = 288~ GBps
• R9 290 = 5 GHz VRAM Speed on 512-bit bus width = 300+ GBps

[Kuzma]

Why is that?

CS6 is when Adobe added complete OpenCL support and AMD cards generally have superior compute performance as everyone knows.

 

 

Agreed I would avoid the 770 setup however the vram speed between the 780 and the 290 are compatible:

• GTX 770 = 7 GHz VRAM Speed on 256-bit bus width = 224~ GBps
• GTX 780 = 6 GHz VRAM Speed on 384-bit bus width = 288~ GBps
• R9 290 = 5 GHz VRAM Speed on 512-bit bus width = 300+ GBps

 

this, 4GB 770 is a no no

[Swegly]

I would definately reccommend 2 R9 290s cooled by custom water loops. Just having one runs REALLY hot like 95 degrees celsius (My friend has this card) so I would not reccommend going sli with these without water loops cooling them.

[Titanicium]

It cannot utilize the full 6GB as the card has a low memory bus

 

They will just make the bus bigger then

 

Hopefully  :unsure: