Upgrading from GTX 690 to either Titan X or EVGA GTX 980ti SC need advice, budget ~$1500 AUD also monitor advice

Serbian_Wolf

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Hi Guys,

I'm tossing up between the below options, looking to upgrade my graphics card from a ASUS GTX 690 in the next week or so. Monitor next few months.

A) Waiting for windows 10/dx 12 to arrive (i've registered to recieve the free win 10 upgrade end of this month). I assume dx 12 is included with that? Any advantages with remaining on my GTX 690? Adding another one would not increase my VRAM at all as far as i understand, i would still be on 2GB usable VRAM.

B) Getting a Titan X ($1500 AUD)

C) Getting a EVGA 980ti SuperClocked, which i've read is almost identicle to the Titan X except for having half the VRAM. ($1100 AUD)

D) ASUS Rog Swift 27" 1440p 144hz G-Sync or the Acer Predator 27" 1440p 144hz G-Sync(both around $1000 AUD, and wanting to buy in a few months time). 4k Screen suggestions/worth it?

I can easily afford the Titan X and was originally leaning towards it, but have read many articles insisting that the 980ti is the better choice.

What i'd like to know is whether this particular 980ti is good, being already Super Clocked and being from EVGA. Is this the best possible 980ti?

My second question is in regards to my PSU (see below). Is my PSU compatible with either the 980ti or the Titan X? Anything i need to worry about regarding my PSU?

I've also highlighted my monitor below as i will be upgrading to either the ASUS Rog Swift 27" 1440p 144hz G-Sync or the Acer Predator 27" 1440p 144hz G-Sync in the next few months. Open to suggestions here on which one is better. Would a 4k monitor be worth it with my build instead of those ones? I prefer the 27" size as that fits on my desk perfectly and i game relatively close to the screen at about 3 feet or so. From my perspective my current monitor looks pretty good despite being 6 years old, but i'm concerned that i won't be utilising the power and visuals of my new graphics card if i remain with it. I think its a TN monitor is that correct? The ROG Swift would probably be the logical upgrade for me as i'm used to a TN screen, but would love to see sharper clearer colours with the Acer... not sure!

Aside from those upgrades i won't be touching my set up until late next year once Skylake is established. I would then get a new Mobo/CPU/RAM + another Titan X or 980ti (depending on your advice) and a new case w/liquid cooling also.

TL;DR - i need your advice on which gfx card between TITAN X or EVGA 980ti SuperClocked with respect to my current set up. Also need advice on which monitor 1440p 144hz 27" between the Acer Predator and Asus Rog Swift, or if a 4k monitor is worth it for my build. Worried about my PSU compatibility with my new gfx card.

For your reference, below is my current setup, and i've highlighted my monitor and my current graphics card, as well as the PSU which i'm worried about.

Thanks in advance everyone i hope i was clear and my request for advice makes sense.


Case: Antec 1200

CPU: Intel Core i7 3770K/3.50GHz/8MB CACHE/LGA1155 Ivy Bridge

MOBO: Asus SABERTOOTH Z77 SABERTOOTH Z77.Z77 4xDDR3 3xPCI-E16 GBL SATA3 USB

GFX: Asus GTX 690 PCI-E 3.0 4GB 512-bit DDR5

P/Supply: Corsair AX-1200 1200W ATX 80+ Gold 100% Modular Cabling

RAM: Corsair 16GB (4x4GB) Vengeance CMZ16GX3M4X1600C9 1600MHz DDR3 CL9

SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 1TB (just upgraded from a HDD!)

HDD: Seagate SATA3 2TB 7200RPM Barracuda 64mb Cache

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit OEM (going to windows 10 pro free upgrade end July)

Mouse: Logitech G400 Gaming Mouse

Keyboard: Roccat ROC-12-504-AS Gameing Keyboard Arvo Compact Gaming

Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 2233RZ (120Hz) resolution: 1680 x 1050
22"
 
Solution
To start off, the 980Ti is a superior card compared to anything else on the market. Evga's Superclocked verison is in my opinion, the best 980 Ti. If you have the cash, I highly recommend shooting for that.

Your PSU is more than adequate to run a 980 Ti and it has the necessary connectors, so you'll be fine with that.

Secondly, 4k gaming is one of those things that isn't quite obtainable using ultra settings. Just about everything is playable, but in some titles, you won't achieve a silky 60 FPS.

However, this doesn't discount the idea of purchasing a 4k screen. Monitors are expensive so why not buy a 4k screen and just downscale it to 1440p for gaming? 4k doesn't play nicely with this idea. For some more information on that...

zared619

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To start off, the 980Ti is a superior card compared to anything else on the market. Evga's Superclocked verison is in my opinion, the best 980 Ti. If you have the cash, I highly recommend shooting for that.

Your PSU is more than adequate to run a 980 Ti and it has the necessary connectors, so you'll be fine with that.

Secondly, 4k gaming is one of those things that isn't quite obtainable using ultra settings. Just about everything is playable, but in some titles, you won't achieve a silky 60 FPS.

However, this doesn't discount the idea of purchasing a 4k screen. Monitors are expensive so why not buy a 4k screen and just downscale it to 1440p for gaming? 4k doesn't play nicely with this idea. For some more information on that, I recommend going to this thread.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2232285/downscaling-native-1440p-gaming.html

So that brings us to which 1440p monitor should you get. I think the Asus would be a little better. It has great reviews, 1ms response time, but it is really expensive and not an IPS dislpay. It's still a fantastic monitor though.
 
Solution

kyllien

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First, your power supply is more than sufficient to power whatever video card and even multiple cards.

The 980 Ti, is positioned much better then the Titan X. The 980 Ti Superclocked even matches the Titan X in many benchmarks. Even considering where it falls short of the Titan X is gets 95% there for only 60% of the price. Also, the 980 Ti is DirectX 12 Feature Level 12.1 compliant. The Titan X only gets Feature level 12.0 This means the 980 Ti has more potential when DirectX 12 games start coming out.
 

Serbian_Wolf

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Thanks very much for your replies gentlemen. I'm ordering that 980Ti now. One final note - will moving to that new screen ASUS Rog Swift at 1440p look considerably better than my current screen which i believe is 1050p? (1680 x 1050). I'm just debating waiting it out for a better, gaming optimized 4k screen. However i've got the upgrade bug in me now and once i have this 980Ti i'll be itching to have that 1440p screen with it.

My 1050p is almost identical to 1080p correct? Does a move to 1440p look amazingly different in your experience? If so then i'll have no qualms about spending the cash for a nice new 27" ASUS Rog Swift.

Thanks again
 

uglyduckling81

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Get a G-Sync monitor but get one with IPS. Every review I've read raves about the merits of IPS over TN. The ASUS was a great monitor to start of the G-Sync feature but things have progressed since then.

Acer XB270HU is probably the best G-Sync monitor on the market at the moment.
 

Serbian_Wolf

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Thanks mate. I've ordered this monitor but its sold out across Australia, estimated to arrive mid August for me, I can't wait.

By the way i got the 980Ti and it's amazing... just as an example im running Crysis 3 everything ultra with V sync on and using FXAA and getting a solid 110FPS... and on MFAA x 4 getting about 40fps which is still playable.

Will be interesting to see how the game looks (and runs with FPS) on my new monitor as my current resolution is 1680 x 1050 and i can still see jagged lines due to the low resolution