4k and either 295x2 or 2 x 970

AgedIdiot · 19 Oct 2014 at 18:05

Am sorting new build - 5820k at core.

Running 7950 x 2 at moment - watercooled.

Had decided that a move to 2 x 970 would be a decent upgrade . Cost of about £520 + 160 for blocks (£680)

But with 295 currently on offer at £660 .... not sure which is the better deal?

I believe that the 295 is faster with 4k (next upgrade - currently on 1440) but I would need to buy a new block (£120 - taking cost to £780) and would need new psu as current 750 xfx is not sufficient (for the 295 - maybe ok for the 970's?)

Thoughts?

jrwagh333 · 19 Oct 2014 at 18:18

Pretty confident that the 2x Nvidia 970's would would run with the 750w PSU more than merrily.

AgedIdiot · 19 Oct 2014 at 19:39

jrwagh333 said:
Pretty confident that the 2x Nvidia 970's would would run with the 750w PSU more than merrily.

Did think that but will they handle 4k as well as the 295?

Not too worried if I have to buy a new psu - the superflower leadex gold for £150 looks as tho it would be powerful enough and useable for the next build; so not a one off loss.

nutsnut · 19 Oct 2014 at 21:59

Performance drops off steeply at 4k with the 970s.

Doomedspeed · 20 Oct 2014 at 03:02

nutsnut said:
Performance drops off steeply at 4k with the 970s.

How cone? In relation to the 295x2?

Any reading material on this issue?

LegendaryDread · 20 Oct 2014 at 03:15

Guru3D - GTX 970 SLI Review

What we'll see continuously is that in Ultra HD the 970 SLI setup is not as fast as say two 780 Ti cards or a Titan-Z. This is due to a more limited 256-bit memory bus mostly. The higher clocks alone won't save the performance.

Doomedspeed · 20 Oct 2014 at 05:14

Nice too know. The 295x2 won't have that issue.

Though with retailers discounting old lines 780ti SLI becomes a reasonably priced option.

Simon Belmont · 20 Oct 2014 at 06:13

Hardly anyone games at 4K. I could careless about 4k. 1080p and 1440p aren't going anywhere

Doogles · 20 Oct 2014 at 06:38

Simon Belmont said:
Hardly anyone games at 4K. I could careless about 4k. 1080p and 1440p aren't going anywhere

How is that helping the op?

Anyway back on topic I'd get the R9 295x2 just for the extra VRAM and it has been known for GTX 970 to drop off @4k like other posters have said. Why not stick with the HD 7950 and wait for 20/16nm?

almighty15 · 20 Oct 2014 at 06:45

Drivers are playing a massive part too, when running SLI with DSR set at 4k scaling in SLI drops off.

Batman Arkham Asylum is particularly bad, SLI just doesn't work when DSR is set to 4k.

GTX970 SLI has quite a bit more fill rate then a 295x2 and with MSAA turned off there's no reason why performance should trail off as bandwidth would be more then enough for 4k with no MSAA.

But performance still drops.

Personally I would wait for a few new driver releases before making judgment.

JamesM · 20 Oct 2014 at 06:58

Remember the 295 has a higher memory bus for each card too

almighty15 · 20 Oct 2014 at 07:33

JamesM said:
Remember the 295 has a higher memory bus for each card too

Bus width dictates memory bandwidth and nothing more.

If you factor in the new delta compression the 900 series have then 256Gb/s should perform the same as a card with 320Gb/s bandwidth, or a R290/290x.

old gamer · 20 Oct 2014 at 08:26

i think if was going 4k for know i would look to my cheapest option 290 xfire or 780 sli mabe even second hand and wait for nvidia or amd to release the big boys

AgedIdiot · 20 Oct 2014 at 12:29

Thank you , all , for the input.

Does look as tho currently the 970's would not be the wise choice and if I buy the 295 after adding the new psu and block not much change out of £1000

and the move to 20nm (or whatever it ends up as) may result in the 750 psu being more than sufficient .... Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Advantage of buying now is that I can build the new system whilst running the old and then can sell the old as a unit. (assuming it will sell this way - if I end up splitting, which does look to be most probable, it will not matter)

The 7950's are good enough to power the existing monitor (1440) and I do not intend to upgrade to 4k for some time yet so....
Might be best to carry forward the 7950's - it's just the faff that comes with draining , re-filling etc (although I do enjoy such - some of the time)

Decisions, decisions :confused:

almighty15 · 20 Oct 2014 at 12:33

As an ex-User of 7950 Crossfire I can say that GTX970 SLI is AWESOME!!

It's nice to have down sampling in pretty much every game and still be locked at 60fps too.

Quartz · 20 Oct 2014 at 12:51

LegendaryDread said:
Guru3D - GTX 970 SLI Review

Unfortunately they offer no data to back up that statement.

Kaapstad · 20 Oct 2014 at 13:11

AgedIdiot said:
Thank you , all , for the input.

Does look as tho currently the 970's would not be the wise choice and if I buy the 295 after adding the new psu and block not much change out of £1000 and the move to 20nm (or whatever it ends up as) may result in the 750 psu being more than sufficient .... Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Advantage of buying now is that I can build the new system whilst running the old and then can sell the old as a unit. (assuming it will sell this way - if I end up splitting, which does look to be most probable, it will not matter)

The 7950's are good enough to power the existing monitor (1440) and I do not intend to upgrade to 4k for some time yet so....
Might be best to carry forward the 7950's - it's just the faff that comes with draining , re-filling etc (although I do enjoy such - some of the time)

Decisions, decisions

I am just about to assemble a system with a 5960X in it and will be using it @4K, as a short term solution I will be running it with a couple of HD 7970s and don't think I will have any problems.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 20 Oct 2014 at 13:29

AgedIdiot said:
Am sorting new build - 5820k at core.

Running 7950 x 2 at moment - watercooled.

Had decided that a move to 2 x 970 would be a decent upgrade . Cost of about £520 + 160 for blocks (£680)

But with 295 currently on offer at £660 .... not sure which is the better deal?

I believe that the 295 is faster with 4k (next upgrade - currently on 1440) but I would need to buy a new block (£120 - taking cost to £780) and would need new psu as current 750 xfx is not sufficient (for the 295 - maybe ok for the 970's?)

Thoughts?

Stick with what you have ATM??

We have not seen the R9 390X yet and neither have we seen the Nvidia Geforce Titan II/GTX980TI either.

Both will most likely sport the improved texture compression seen with newer AMD and Nvidia cards.

ubersonic · 20 Oct 2014 at 14:03

LegendaryDread said:
Guru3D - GTX 970 SLI Review

What we'll see continuously is that in Ultra HD the 970 SLI setup is not as fast as say two 780 Ti cards or a Titan-Z. This is due to a more limited 256-bit memory bus mostly. The higher clocks alone won't save the performance.

Click to expand...

Complete garbage FUD, they just pulled that statement out of their you know where, the drop off in SLI is because the drivers are not as refined, the Titan-Z may have a wider bus but that means nothing without context, the hardware compression on the 970's means they can feed more through each bit of their bus giving a total bandwidth that's roughly the same.

ubersonic · 20 Oct 2014 at 14:06

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
We have not seen the R9 390X yet and neither have we seen the Nvidia Geforce Titan II/GTX980TI either.

We haven't seen the Titan III or the R10 595X2 either, the is always something better in the future, the fact the OP wants to upgrade now and would see a big improvement from doing so means that advising him to wait until 2015 is a bit daft.