i5-4690, evga gtx 970 sli (2) opinions?

[jmich96]

Hi, I'm new into building higher end gaming pc's. I recently decided to go with the above processor and gpu's. I know it sounds crazy, but I want to run games 1080p at over 120 fps (Hoping towards 240 but I don't think I'll get it). I wanted to know if using this processor with these gpu's on a z-97 board will bottleneck, or if I will even get towards what I want to achieve. If not, can you please help me? I'm trying to keep my build under $1400. Thanks!

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

Your biggest obstacle is one which is entirely out of your control, and that's game optimisation. If a game is a console port, as a lot of AAA titles seem to be, you'll probably find that the frame rate is arbitrarily locked. Even if a game is optimised for PC, very few still have an unlocked frame rate. This also brings me to SLI optimisation, as you're entirely at the mercy of the developers. If they don't factor in SLI, then you're out of luck, and if they do, it can take a long time to iron out the issues.

If you're buying a 4690, there's no point in buying a Z97 motherboard. You should go for an H97 motherboard or a 4690K. Neither a 4690 or 4690K will bottleneck an SLI GTX 970, but the second PCIe slot on your motherboard should run at PCIe 2.0 x8 at least.

 

[chenw]

H97 mobos by default do not support SLI, usually all of the secondary PCI x16 lanes only have X4 connectors in them.

Z97 is required for SLI setups

H97 does support Xfire though because Xfire does not require X8 lanes on all of its GPUs

 

[DubbleClick]

Exactly, although the amd equivalent to sli is called crossfire, not xfire.

And since you're already looking at a SLI z97 board, you could as well get the I5 4690k to overclock later on or just for fun without spending extra money on it.
If you want advise on what motherboard to choose, there are a few cheap options:
-MSI z97 Krait SLI (awesome look, did however show subpar 3d performance in some benchmarks) for $110
-Gigabyte z97x-sli/ud3h. I own the former and I'm satisfied, scores great in benchmarks but shows a 100mhz less than optimal overclock in some reviews (topping at 4.7 instead of 4.8 ghz, mine however does up to 4.9ghz stable and 5ghz stable enough to benchmark) for $110
-asus z97-a(r black), latter looks great and shares about the same features as the z97x-sli. Former is essentially the same but doesn't look as nice. Sells for $130
-asrock z97 extreme4. Probably the best board for $130 you can get. Has six instead of four vrm phases (such as the 3 former boards) which might help overclocking a bit. $130 again.

Whatever board you choose (or even one I did not mention here) great choice with the I5 + 970 sli. Get the k version (not even $10 extra usually) and there's nothing you could have spent the money on for more (or same, even) performance.

 

[chenw]

I call it Xfire as I abbreviate "Cross" in crossfire to "X" 😛

But yes, AMD's version is called crossfire.

I own Gigabyte Z97x-UD5H and it also serves me well.

If I wasn't so hell bent on mounting a motherboard to the chassis with 9 screws rather than 6, I initially had G1.Sniper Z97, good features for good cost.

Also agreed with going for k processor. Usually K processors have higher clock count by default, and have unlocked cores that allow you to do overclocking later, but you will still get higher stock clocks even without OC'ing.

K and Z go hand in hand, not much point in getting one without the other