1 gtx 980 or gtx 970 sli for 1080p?

[bloodywolf99]

hey guys i can use your help on this one, should i use 1gtx 980 or 2 gtx 970 for 1080p gaming?

 

[Woody1999]

Neither. Both are incredibly overkill for this resolution, unless you're going to be using a 144Hz monitor and want to hit maximum FPS every single time.

I recommend a single GTX 970 to power a 1080p monitor. It will hit over 60FPS at maximum settings on most games.

Woody

 

[askara]

If you want to get oculus rift i recommend you get 2 970. otherwise get a 970 but maybe wise to wait for amd 300s serie

 

[sz0ty0l4]

i recommend single 980 for 1080p 60fps ultra gaming.
970 sli is more powerful in terms of pure process power, but i dislike sli.

 

[sizzling]

If it was my choice I would go for the 980. The 970 cant quite maintain 60fps at ultra in all games and this will be more common over time. The 970 only has 3.5gb usable vram too whereas the 980 can really use all 4gb and with games already tipping over 3gb at 1080p the extra headroom on the 980 looks like a good option.

Personally I'm waiting for the 980ti before I upgrade from my 780. I game at 1080p

 

[sizzling]

Forgot to say the sli 970's still only have an effective 3.5gb vram so a lot of horsepower but limited vram

 

[10tacle]

Yeah that is extreme overkill unless you eventually plan on upgrading to a 1440p monitor. But even so you are better off getting one 970 for now as both the 980 and 970 prices may drop in the coming few weeks when the 980Ti is released.

With that said, 2 970 in SLI are much faster than 1 980. I have my 970 SLIs overclocked to near 980 performance with zero problems unlike some people report about when running SLI. And you do not need anything more than a 970. Even a single 980 is overkill for 1080p.

Regarding VRAM concerns, I have yet to see anything close to hitting 3GB, and that is running at 1440p with Ultra and high AA settings in all of my games. The only two games I have heard that use over 3GB VRAM at 1080p are GTA5 and Skyrim with a lot of mods. I'm playing everything from Battlefield 4 to Witcher 3 with zero VRAM issues.

 

[mrmike_49]

if 4K is in your future, then 980

 

[jakegroves]

Forgot to say the sli 970's still only have an effective 3.5gb vram so a lot of horsepower but limited vram

why do people still say that 2gb+2gb=2gb vram ... directxt12 is basically on our doorsteps so its irrelevant now 😛 as we will have 3.5+3.5 v.soon woo

 

[sz0ty0l4]

Forgot to say the sli 970's still only have an effective 3.5gb vram so a lot of horsepower but limited vram

why do people still say that 2gb+2gb=2gb vram ... directxt12 is basically on our doorsteps so its irrelevant now 😛 as we will have 3.5+3.5 v.soon woo

thats not likely. dx will have a stacked memory feature but the game engine has to be programmed for it as i know, so don't bet on that.

 

[freightguy70]

Wait till 980ti. I have sli970. Crank resolution up to 200% in BF4 and watch the frames drop. It's a great card. Don't get me wrong. But so close to 980ti. I would wait and see benchmarks. I'm contemplating selling them both after I see some benchmarks for 980ti if it performs better. Time will tell.

 

[jakegroves]

Forgot to say the sli 970's still only have an effective 3.5gb vram so a lot of horsepower but limited vram

why do people still say that 2gb+2gb=2gb vram ... directxt12 is basically on our doorsteps so its irrelevant now 😛 as we will have 3.5+3.5 v.soon woo

thats not likely. dx will have a stacked memory feature but the game engine has to be programmed for it as i know, so don't bet on that.

its kind of been confirmed tho ...

 

[Woody1999]

Well, yes. It will happen. However, it's up to the game developers to code their games correctly so they can make use of it. To be honest, a lot of developers have trouble with plain old SLI/Crossfire - this is going to confuse them even more.

Woody

 

[jakegroves]

well by the looks of what has been said and discussed it's going to make everything easier then ever ... because alot of people have integrated graphics and dedicated graphics. we will see i guess

 

[sz0ty0l4]

i guess only the games which's developement start after dx12 is out( so those games release at least 2-3 years or more from now) will take full advantage of the new resource binding and the new rendering features, i doubt that these features could be easily implemented into dx11 game engines. But since i'm not an engine programer or anything like that, i can be wrong. and let's hope so, because all the 12.1 features would give a huge performance boost to current titles.

 

[sizzling]

The benefits of DX12 are theoretical at the moment, no one know what the real work benefits are and if there are any drawbacks. I certainly wouldn't make a hardware choice based on it