gtx 780 brands+sli questions/r9 290 crossfire

[itayel]

hi,im kinda confused on which one to get and sli/crossfire later so if you can tell me which one should i get ill be thankful
1.which brand should i get for gtx 780?twin frozr,windforce or maybe lightning if i add extra 100$,money is an issue so consider price/performance
2.in 5 years-should i sli with another gtx 780/crossfire with r9 290 or get a new card?
3.if i go with sli/crossfire,what psu do you recommend?
4.does this motherboard support sli/crossfire?(ga-h61m-s2-b3)
5. if not do you have examples of others that do?

 

[nukemaster]

1. Brand is kind of a preference. Some users will say get brand A while others will say avoid brand A
2. in 5 years a single card will be faster than 2 5 year old cards in most cases. It will also be hard to get a second 5 year old card unless you are buying used.
3. A quality 750 watt + will give you headroom for a system
4. NO you board needs to have 2 x16 slots for one and you may want to go with a full ATX not mATX board to have more room for the cards to breathe. Almost too many boards to make a solid recommendation. Check out the stores to see the specs on boards and get the features you need.
5. Many users who go SLI and Xfire will wait about a year or 2 until the next gen cards make the last gen cards cheaper to get the second card for SLI/Xfire. I personally just get a fast single card to avoid needing to wait out any driver issues with multi card(a single card takes less power than 2 cards in most cases as well). It is not to say all users will agree with that idea.

 

[redeemer]

ga-h61m-s2-b3 does not support SLI or Crossfire, so if you want to add another card in the future you need to change your motherboard. GTX 780 and 290 are both excellent cards, the 290 is newer architecture and a little faster at the moment but has a lot more going for it. The 780 is more mature somewhat less issues as a result.

Keep in mind that you will need a strong CPU an i5 3570k to fully utilize either gpu.

 

[Quaddro]

1. get the cheaper..delta performance between the most expensive and the cheapest usually less than 10%..maybe less..
2. in 5 years, all strongest card today will become obsolete..so we can't predict if strongest card today will be able to handle games in next 5 years..but, usually no..
3. any 750w good psu from well known brand (antec,corsair, seasonic, fsp etc) will enough to handle any cf/sli setup (2 cards), exp seasonic x-750, corsair tx750 etc..
4. no
5. what is your processor..?

 

[itayel]

my processor is i5-2320,it wont get maximum fps but it will get most of them as i know,though im not sure ill be able to run 2 cards with this..though if i will crossfire/sli in some time then i7 prices will go down so...
so you are basically suggesting to get a new card instead since new cards will be much better?

 

[Quaddro]

so you are basically suggesting to get a new card instead since new cards will be much better?

yep..
single strong card always better than 2 weak card..
and strongest card today will be a weak or medium level card in next 2 years..

 

[itayel]

now another thing that bothered me for a while
which card will last longer-780 or r9 290
im not sure because maybe nvidia drives will be able to keep it last longer? r9 290 has better hardware but maybe nvidias drivers will make the 780 more future proof?

 

[Quaddro]

now another thing that bothered me for a while
which card will last longer-780 or r9 290
im not sure because maybe nvidia drives will be able to keep it last longer? r9 290 has better hardware but maybe nvidias drivers will make the 780 more future proof?

r9 290 will have more longer life than 780..

it's faster, wider bandwidth, nice overclock ability, and well..mantle..
but like usual, just wait board partners with their own cooling solution..because reference card is hot[/img]..

 

[itayel]

now another thing that bothered me for a while
which card will last longer-780 or r9 290
im not sure because maybe nvidia drives will be able to keep it last longer? r9 290 has better hardware but maybe nvidias drivers will make the 780 more future proof?

r9 290 will have more longer life than 780..

it's faster, wider bandwidth, nice overclock ability, and well..mantle..
but like usual, just wait board partners with their own cooling solution..because reference card is hot[/img]..

yes,i saw gigabytes one and it seems really good,15db less noisy and well tempatures i dont know but i know that itll be factory overclocked which is good,i think ill get it if tempatures are ok

 

[nukemaster]

Low temps are great for AMD's new cards as it allows them one step closer to a higher clock rate. They still have to be within other limits(just like Nvidia, but Nvidia does not temp to run out of thermal headroom before it runs out of power limit in the same way.).