Crossfire 390's or 1 msi 980Ti

[TylWhite]

I want my components to not have to be upgraded in within a few years. So should i get Crossfire 390's or 1 msi 980Ti. I am playing at 1080p and would like to reach frames 100+. And games aren't as well optimized for AMD cards so that is a plus with going with the 980Ti. I would get a second 980ti a few years down the line when games cannot run 100+ FPS. So what do u think my best option is. With DX12 coming out and a future Windows 10 user. That might play a factor. I like the extra nvidia game works option that are exclusive to nvidia user as well. And also how long do u think it will take until a secong gpu will be needed.

 

[Reaper_7799]

I would do single 980 TI and when we get to the point where your fps isn't reachable, the 980 TI will also be cheaper and then sli for another few years. Hell, I get close to or over a 100 FPS in 1440P in a lot of games. I think it will be quite awhile before you needed to sli if you stay in 1080P. What games you play most?

 

[jerdle]

the 390s will be more powerful in most cases
the 980TI will not run into any of the occasional multi GPU problems (until such time as you SLI it)

 

[Eggz]

Even though I'm an Nvidia user, there's no denying that two 390s in CrossFire will be so much faster than a 980 ti that it won't even be a fair comparison. There's footnotes, though.

First, expect that CrossFire will at time not work, and you'll only be able to actually use one card. It's not that big of a deal because a single 390 is comparable to a 980 ti (though not as fast), and because it won't matter much at 1080p.

The 390s will also have more VRAM, and you'll be able to keep them if you upgrade to a higher resolution monitor in the future. Running two of them should keep you well above 60 fps in almost any current game at the highest settings up to 1440p, as long as you don't turn up Anti-Aliasing past the point where you can't see what it's doing.

You'll also need enough power and cooling. The cards get hot, and they draw a lot of power. So much so that they'll heat up your whole room after a while if you don't have AC.

You'll have to become a tinkerer if you aren't already. Adding a second GPU makes you system inherently more complicated, and most programs can't address both cards at once. Games are the exception. But luckily non-games will run smooth with just one of the 390s, so it will usually be a non-issue.

With those footnotes . . .

For the price, the 390s are amazing.

 

[clutchc]

You'll need a minimum of a 1000W PSU to safely CF 2 x 275W (TDP) R9-390s. And really good cooling and air flow. Me, I'd opt for the GTX 980 Ti. As mentioned above, later a 2nd 250W GTX 980 Ti will run a bit cooler and use less watts. Dual GTX 980 Ti can use a 850W PSU. I presume you have a suitable CPU...

 

[TylWhite]

I would do single 980 TI and when we get to the point where your fps isn't reachable, the 980 TI will also be cheaper and then sli for another few years. Hell, I get close to or over a 100 FPS in 1440P in a lot of games. I think it will be quite awhile before you needed to sli if you stay in 1080P. What games you play most?

 

[TylWhite]

I play all the latest games coming out, as my budget pc was a test to see if i liked gaming on the pc and i love it and will never go back to primarily console.

 

[Reaper_7799]

I play all the latest games coming out, as my budget pc was a test to see if i liked gaming on the pc and i love it and will never go back to primarily console.

There was a time when the console was pretty even and it was a toss up between the two, even if you had a high end graphics card, the games just weren't graphically great and hi resolution was not really a thing back then. Now, it's a whole different ballgame.

I have an xbox one for my kid and it's not bad at 1080P, I know ps4 is better but all his friends from school had xbone, but once you can get into the higher resolutions and with the quality of the graphics of the games at this point in time...even though a lot are console ports or are built to run on console first...there's just no comparison. Plus in your case, if you just want 1080P, the fps difference is huge.

 

[Eggz]

The crossfire setup looks pretty damn good (when crossfire works). Keep in mind, though that is just one benchmark, and results vary from game to game. It's also the 390x, not the 390, but the cards perform very similar, and seeing the crossfire scores for the 390x will give you a good idea about the 390, at least showing that you'll usually get better performance than the 980 ti for the same money.

 

[NeymarX]

My brother has 2x 390 in crossfire and uses a 144hz 1080p monitor. The only negative point for him is that he gets slight micro stutter in most games. Crysis 3 and bf4 are quite bad .

 

[Reaper_7799]

I play all the latest games coming out, as my budget pc was a test to see if i liked gaming on the pc and i love it and will never go back to primarily console.

Like eggz said up above. It's tough to say...The plus for the 390 crossfire is that you get better performance by higher fps in everything now. Honestly you probably wouldn't have to worry about 1080P getting below 100FPS for quite awhile.

Now the drawbacks...it's an amd card so even without thinking about crossfire issues, you will have issues in certain games like witcher3, grid autosport, project cars, GTA V and any new games that don't work well with amd...there's a couple other ones that just don't work well with AMD cards.

Now, crossfire...they are getting better and now that win 10 is out and dx 12 is supposed to help with sli and crossfire but we need to see it to believe it, and in the meantime there will be issues just being in crossfire...good profiles for new games, etc.

Power consumption and heat....definitely something to think about.

If you absolutely want the better performance for $650 right now...that would be the way to go, just remember the drawbacks. However in 2 or 3 years when you go to upgrade, you're stuck with the 390's and will have to spring for a top end card, while with the 980ti, the prices should be much lower and you could sli at that point...which would destroy the 390 crossfire and keep you gaming for another few years without full upgrade.

Maybe you'll want to upgrade anyways in a few years for HBM and the 16nm nvidia or amd cards because they will be more powerful than the 28nm we have now. In that case, if you can live with the drawbacks crossfire away and enjoy it.