Debating 980Ti for Triple 1080 Gaming

[OneLapDown]

I have looked all over regarding the performance of the 980Ti relative to Crossfire 7950/R9 280's, and haven't found what I am looking for. Perhaps someone out there can help me. I am running an i5 4690K on an Asus Maximus VII Hero board OC'ed at 4.3Ghz with a Corsair HX750 PSU. I currently have two MSI R9 280's crossfired. One card alone can OC up to 1200, while the second card can, "only," handle 1150, so I have them crossfired and OC'ed at 1150. The top card generally maxes out at just under 80 degrees.

My main game is iRacing on triple 1080P TV's, all eventually to an HDMI input on the TV, so I believe I am capped at 60Hz. With most options set to high and 2XAA I think, I can generally stay over 60FPS easily. Every once in awhile on a newer track with more detail and a large grid, I may dip into the low to mid 50's for a few seconds.

I would like to get into more games, especially Star Wars Battlefront when it comes out, not sure if it supports 5760x1080, though, so I may just be playing it on one monitor. As you can imagine, the computer and the air around it gets pretty warm. I know I am at the upper end of the PSU, and have been interested in the MSI GTX 980Ti Gaming 6GB. Outside of power consumption and heat generated, would I see any improvement over my crossfire setup?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

[rolli59]

Yes it will improvement! The 980Ti is more than 100% faster than a single 280 more like a 150%

 

[incognito31]

There are lots of advantages to the 980ti in your situation. First, you will have 6GB vs 3, which will be important if you want to run those resolutions and maintain high performance. Driver support is already a significant issue for AMD, and it's worse for Crossfire configurations, so improved driver support with a single card should translate into much more stable and reliable performance. The 980ti is a complete beast and is pretty much the best overall card currently available, and sounds like a great fit for what you are looking to do now and in the future.

 

[maddogfargo]

You won't see a big difference performance wise. I had crossfired HD 7950 GHz editions at 1100/1400 and they were much faster than my current 970.

So why did I switch?

Noise, heat and power consumption. A single 980ti will be MUCH quieter and cooler than dual 280s and still give you the same performance.

So it depends in whether or not the noise, heat and power use of your crossfire setup is a problem for you or not.


Personally, I recommend the Gigabyte G1 Gaming 980ti. My G1 970 is great, but the G1 980ti is just amazing. When overclocked, you're pushing TitanX performance for much less, and for much cooler/quieter.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2-gCXscH04"][/video]

 

[rolli59]

You won't see a big difference performance wise. I had crossfired HD 7950 GHz editions at 1100/1400 and they were much faster than my current 970.

So why did I switch?

Noise, heat and power consumption. A single 980ti will be MUCH quieter and cooler than dual 280s and still give you the same performance.

So it depends in whether or not the noise, heat and power use of your crossfire setup is a problem for you or not.


Personally, I recommend the Gigabyte G1 Gaming 980ti. My G1 970 is great, but the G1 980ti is just amazing. When overclocked, you're pushing TitanX performance for much less, and for much cooler/quieter.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2-gCXscH04"][/video]

980Ti is about 66% faster than a 970 at high resolutions so OP will see good improvement! http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_980_Ti_Gaming/30.html

 

[OneLapDown]

OK, for anyone else wondering about performance of a 980 Ti vs X-Fire R9 280's, here are some benchmark numbers.

X-Fire MSI R9 280 Gaming 3GB Stock (1,000 Mhz/5,000 Mhz)
Valley Benchmark Extreme HD w/ 8X AA: 3066/73.3 FPS
3D Mark Firestrike: Graphics Score 13,929

X-Fire MSI R9 280 Gaming 3GB OC (1,150 Mhz/6,200 Mhz)
Valley Benchmark Extreme HD w/ 8X AA: 3552/83.0 FPS
3D Mark Firestrike: Graphics Score 16,734

MSI 980 Ti Gaming 6G Stock (1,316 Mhz /7,012 Mhz)
Valley Benchmark Extreme HD w/ 8XAA: 3,999 (30% Above Stock XF R9 280 / 13% Above OC'ed 280's)
3D Mark Firestrike: Graphics Score 18,708 (34% Above Stock XF R9 280 / 12% Above OC'ed 280's)

MSI 980 Ti Gaming 6G OC (1,450 Mhz/7,560 Mhz)
Valley Benchmark Extreme HD w/ 8XAA: 4,334 (22% Above XF R9 280 OC)
3D Mark Firestrike: Graphics Score 20,238 (21% Above XF R9 280 OC)

I did not play with voltage adjustments, and I get crashes if I move Power Limit at all, so my 980Ti was not as much of a lottery winner as each of my R9 280's were, but it is still stable at 1450/7560. Would have liked to have been able to hit 1500/8000, but I can't really complain.

Power at Wall:

OC'ed R9 280 Build - Highest power draw 650 watts during 3D Mark and Valley Benchmarking
OC'ed 980 Ti Build - Highest power draw 450 watts during 3D Mark and Valley Benhmarking

Pretty sure my 280's hit temps of 84 with an aggressive fan profile. Using the default fan profile, the 980 Ti hit a maximum temp of 76 and fans hit a max of 68%. Hope this helps someone.