Question about wisdom of SLI 770 with only 2 GB's of VRAM

[TrooperOrange]

Hello,
I have a GTX 770 SC 2GB. I run on a 1080p display, and don't see that changing in the near future, if it did I would go to 1440p.

I am looking to have constant solid 60 FPS v synced with all details on current games. Right now my single 770 doesn't cut it, especially in physx titles (looking at you borderlands 2).

So of course my natural inclination is to get another 770 and SLI, problem solved for performance. My concern is that both the cards would be 2 GB of VRAM which in SLI is mirrored, so efectively only 2 GB of VRAM for use. With next generation consoles around the corner and games like Watch Dogs, the next Batman etc... using physx, I am wondering if the 2 GB of VRAM would not be suffecient, even at 1080p?

Finally I would like this setup to last at least three years being capable of running stuff at mid-range settings.

Any input is appreciated, I have considered a 780 for the increased VRAM, but it would only be a minor performance upgrade from what I have now. Titan would be nice of course, but for what it cost, performance is not stellar, two 770's outperform it.

If the matters the specs of the rig:
Asrock z77 Extreme 4
i5 3570k @ 4.8
8 GB Balistix RAM
EVGA GTX 770 SC @1200/1300
Display is a 40" 1080p TV @ 60 hz, 120 hz motion flow. (Read, I only need 60 FPS, it can't actually do 120 hz)

Thanks for the advice.

 

[meowmix44]

One 770 will do for next-gen games. Two, is your backup insurance

Go for two in the future instead of getting one 780.


Oh, and BTW, the 700 series is having driver problems, I know this because before I sold my 670 WindForce, I bought it new and instantly went to play borderlands 2 online, I play for hours and hours maxed out at 1080P. The 770 is able to handle it, but the drivers are holding it back

 

[TrooperOrange]

One 770 will do for next-gen games. Two, is your backup insurance

Go for two in the future instead of getting one 780.

Thanks, I am thinking seriously about going for two now, so I can A)Still get the identical card (yes I like matching cards, don't ask) and B)Finally play borderlands 2 with high phsyx and no drops below 60. lol


It would just suck to sink all this cash into it, and two years down the road find out 2 GB isn't enough VRAM.

 

[TrooperOrange]

Oh, and BTW, the 700 series is having driver problems, I know this because before I sold my 670 WindForce, I bought it new and instantly went to play borderlands 2 online, I play for hours and hours maxed out at 1080P. The 770 is able to handle it, but the drivers are holding it back

Well crap, that could change things, I didn't know that, thanks for the heads up.

 

[meowmix44]

Oh, and BTW, the 700 series is having driver problems, I know this because before I sold my 670 WindForce, I bought it new and instantly went to play borderlands 2 online, I play for hours and hours maxed out at 1080P. The 770 is able to handle it, but the drivers are holding it back

Well crap, that could change things, I didn't know that, thanks for the heads up.

Another thing about the 770 is that it has a 256bit bus. The bus will never fully utilize 4GB. I thought about getting a 4GB 770/3GB 780, but I'm only on 1080P like you. Future Proofing only works with cards that can use all their bandwidth. For me, I'm buying the MSI Lightning 770 and going SLi in the future. With that said, me and you will be on Titan/690 performance with our OCed 770s. Personally I'm going to do a really high OC, since my card is custom for OCing. For some reason I still want a 780, but I know its sooo much better to get another 770 in the future. I knew a guy who ran 5760x1080 with one WindForce 670.

 

[bryonhowley]

At 1080p 2gb will be just fine. I run a Gigabyte SLI setup with 2 Winforce 2 GTX 670 2gb cards and have not had any problems at all. And on the games that support it I run Surround at 5760x1080 and they have worked just fine max/ultra.

 

[TrooperOrange]

Thanks all for the responses, greatly appreciated.

 

[RestlessAvenger]

I run full on 2GB of VRAM when playing Skyrim modded with some hi-res texture packs. I have a HD7870 with 2GB, and I too want to crossfire and wait a year before upgrading to a new single card. You may not get 3 years of satisfactory performance though, I say this because now that the next gen consoles are here, PC games are going to lose that bottleneck that consoles bring to the gaming scene. Who knows though, 770 is a great card from what I can see, but its not hard to max 2GB in a game @1080p if there is high res texture consistency throughout a game. I am told though Skyrim does this to even the highest end cards such as the TITAN, so highly modular games are a different story I guess.