Advice on Video cards - 770 vs 780, and Single vs SLi

[Vulcan Assassin]

I am seeking a little advice before spending a ton of money on new video card(s) this year, and this seemed like the place to do it. I read the 'best of' article before posting as recommended but still want/need some opinions/thoughts on 2 things. Before I start, here is a guideline for my choices - I am looking to buy an EVGA card(s) (I have best luck with them), I want to keep it under $900-1,000 US dollars. If it helps, I am upgrading from a 2GB EVGA 660GTX Sig2.

My first question - 4GB 770 vs 3GB 780 - Is the 780 really faster?
Here is my inquiry: The 4GB 770's have 256 bit Memory, and the 780's have 384 bit, BUT... the 4GB 770's boast clock speeds of over 1100mhz, and the 780's are only around 900mhz. to make it even harder to decide to me, the 770's Memory Clock is rated at 7010mhz, vs the 780's which are at 6008mhz. So which should I care more about - Bit size or Clock speeds? Will the 3GB 384-bit 780 really be faster than the 4GB 265-bit 770, considering it's higher clock speeds & extra 1GB of Memory? ..and what about the # of cuda cores - how much of a difference will they make - should I care about them more? (The info on Cuda cores and speed seem kinda vague to me after googling them all morning)

Here are the 2 cards I am comparing above if it helps:

4GB 770 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130948
3GB 780 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130951

My second question - Would it be worth it to SLi either card above, or stay single card?
Like I said, I my goal is to get a significant increase of performance over my current card, an EVGA 2GB 660 GTX Sig 2. If I can get a big enough boost with one card, I'll settle for just one card for now, and maybe SLi with a 2nd card later - my reasoning here is I believe I would need to upgrade my 650 watt PSU to something like an 850 watt or something, which is going to cost me more $$, obviously.

Any advice or opinions would be appreciated, and thanks for your time to anyone who reads this.

 

[Joshontech]

Well I currently have the EVGA 780 ACX OC GPU and I love it. The 770 and 780 have a pretty sizable gap in FPS so if your looking for raw FPS for a single gpu setup go with the 780. If you are wanting to go sli I would get 2 770 due to the fact that they have the 4gb of gddr5 because with the new 4k monitors coming out that 4gb of frame buffer will come in handy. As far as the memory on the gpu goes though if you are running games at 1080p you will see really no differance between 2 gpu's that have different ammounts of memory untill you get below 2gb than you will start to notice.

 

[Vulcan Assassin]

Well I currently have the EVGA 780 ACX OC GPU and I love it. The 770 and 780 have a pretty sizable gap in FPS so if your looking for raw FPS for a single gpu setup go with the 780. If you are wanting to go sli I would get 2 770 due to the fact that they have the 4gb of gddr5 because with the new 4k monitors coming out that 4gb of frame buffer will come in handy. As far as the memory on the gpu goes though if you are running games at 1080p you will see really no differance between 2 gpu's that have different ammounts of memory untill you get below 2gb than you will start to notice.

Thanks, that's exactly what I was wanting to confirm. I'm not going to go 4K anytime soon, and I am indeed looking for raw FPS on a single GPU. It would save me some money, seeing that if I did sli I would end having to upgrade my 650 watt psu too.

 

[Joshontech]

Well I currently have the EVGA 780 ACX OC GPU and I love it. The 770 and 780 have a pretty sizable gap in FPS so if your looking for raw FPS for a single gpu setup go with the 780. If you are wanting to go sli I would get 2 770 due to the fact that they have the 4gb of gddr5 because with the new 4k monitors coming out that 4gb of frame buffer will come in handy. As far as the memory on the gpu goes though if you are running games at 1080p you will see really no differance between 2 gpu's that have different ammounts of memory untill you get below 2gb than you will start to notice.

Thanks, that's exactly what I was wanting to confirm. I'm not going to go 4K anytime soon, and I am indeed looking for raw FPS on a single GPU. It would save me some money, seeing that if I did sli I would end having to upgrade my 650 watt psu too.

What are your system specs and let me see your psu from like newegg. I might be able to help with the needing to upgrade your PSU for 2 770's.

Oh and just letting you know that 2 760's will be more powerful than a 780 and be cheaper just saying. Scratch the being cheaper part I forgot they decreased the price of the 780 lol but if you get the EVGA acx cooled 760 its 250 for one so that's about 500 for 2 which is what you will pay for a 780 now. I know that the 760 has 2gb of gddr5 ram but as long as your not going 4k you will be fine i promise haha.

 

[Vulcan Assassin]

Well, I already ordered the EVGA 3GB 780 Ti ACX SC last night. So maybe in about a year I'll upgrade to add a 2nd identical card and SLI it. I checked around and it seems my psu should run the single card ok. Here are my system specs anyway, since you asked:

CPU - i7 3770K @ 3.5
RAM- Corsair Vengeance 8GB @1600mhz (2x4GB)
MOBO - ASUS P8Z77V-LK
GPU - EVGA 2GB GTX 660 SC
PSU - NZXT 650W 80+ Gold Certfied (came with my NZXT Phantom 410 Case)
DISPLAY - Single ASUS VG248QE (1 ms GTG, 144hz RR)

According to 3D Mark Benchmark, I am getting a score of around 4800 now, and would get about 9,000 with the EVGA 4GB 770 SC ACX, But I'll get around 13,500 with the EVGA 3GB 780 Ti SC ACX. That's a pretty big difference, so I took in all the advice I've gathered, and that added pretty much made it a done deal.