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Good or bad time for an 980ti

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10 Jan 2016
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hi there guys, I am thinking about picking up a second 980ti so I can run 4k@60fps. However I am not sure if its a good or bad time to pick one up;

- Since we are seeing a new generation of cards, is there any chance we see a another price cut from nvidia? or say a 1080ti (I guess most people think nothing is due for 6+ months). I guess ocuk can hold onto those 980ti prices for awhile?

- I read about the 1080's scale better with the HB bridge - not an option with 980ti (I know). I read mixed comments about SLI, some saying its got lots of microstutter, other say none. I did see some guy on youtube stick on HB bridge onto a 980ti, which saw a increase in the division. Could that be done with two flex bridges? or is that a really silly thing to even suggest?

- It seems a bit strange for me that one of the biggest/cheapest ways of increasing my gpu power is to pick-up an older gen card. In the past when I required more gpu power, there is usually something better on the market in a single card solution. 4k is surely an up and coming tech, yet the new gen dont seem capable of doing in a single card solution. Kind-of feels wrong picking up an older gen card? if you get what I mean. I guess its doubtful nvidia will phase out the 980ti any time soon?

- I also have a 5820k, which doesnt have enough PCIe lanes for 16x/16x. Is 16x/8x going to cause things such as microstutter? Is x16/x8 not going to cause issues? Its not like I can change cpu's - that would be a huge cost for me, with very little improvement else-where.

- Then my last point, VRAM. 6gb doesnt seem to be giving much head-room in the future. My previous card (a 670, 2gb) had enough power for quite a few 1080p games, will the 6gb be a problem sooner, than later? Although the 8gb on the 1080 is better, its not going to a huge leap. Kind-of reforced with the 480x having 8gb too. If 8gb starts becoming main-stream, then a pair of 980ti will be limited on vram. doesnt rise of the tomb-raider already use 8gb of vram?

Ideally I would have picked up a pair of 1080's if pricing was around 400-500 ea. Seeing £1,300 of a pair of 1080 seems too much for me (to handle 4k@60fps).

So is the 980ti prices a great deal, or just wait and see what happens (or would I miss a great deal?)? Big thanks for any suggestions, I havnt a good a clue!

ps. I have a EVGA 980ti superclocked reference design. I guess that would work fine with an open-air EVGA 980ti (ref at bottom, open on top)? clocks dont matter?
 
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How much of a price cut do you want lol. These cards were well over £500 some over £600 and now only around £359. They won't be coming down anytime soon.
Well it makes me wonder if nvidia is clearing out the old gen line, and replace it with a new pascal line. Especially if they release a 1060. A lot of the cards are being doubled up.
 
How much of a price cut do you want lol. These cards were well over £500 some over £600 and now only around £359. They won't be coming down anytime soon.

What price they were is irrelevant. What is relevant is that the 1070 is out, so why would anyone pay £360+ for a 980Ti?
 
Personally I think it's not a bad time to get another one Maxwell and Pascal are so similar as opposed to Kepler and Maxwell so the drivers won't be an issue. I did have a 1080 on pre-order for £600 but cancelled it with the price down at £359 it was a no brainer to grab the 980 Ti and wait it out for big Pascal as the price will rocket down on the 1080s soon enough :') plus I had already had a 980 Ti which I sold for £500 10 weeks ago or so as I play at 4k the 1080 would have been nice for that little extra oomph but nowhere near worth close to double and as for the 1070 when both are overclocked it's actually slower than the Ti so the Ti is still the king in my eyes doesn't go in dry on you but still competes with the latest 16nm Pascal xards!
 
The key thing I took from your post is you want to run 4K at 60fps.

The ONLY way to do this justice is currently using 2 cards ( in SLI for nvidia )

As you already have one 980Ti it seems a no brainier to pick up another, especially at the new lower price point.

I run 2 AIO cooled 980Tis on an x99 system with a 5930k, on an x34 monitor at 3440x1440. In summary, it's all brilliant. 4K is tougher going though so bear that in mind.
 
hi there, yea 4k is the problem, other res arent a problem. Is a 5820k going to be okay with the lower amount of PCIe lanes? i think in the manual it says it will do 16x/8x. Hopefully that wont cause things like microstutter? ie. cards with different amount of PCIE lanes?
 
980Ti is still hugely powerful, it's more than a match for 1070 and beats overclocked 1070's when you overclock 980Ti as Maxwell is a much better clocker.

At £359 it's a great buy and OcUK has the lowest prices on 980 and 980Ti !!! :)
 
How much of a price cut do you want lol. These cards were well over £500 some over £600 and now only around £359. They won't be coming down anytime soon.

This. This is the final price cut you will see until stocks run out. In fact as they get close to running out, expect them to increase to more than they were before.
 
hi there, yea 4k is the problem, other res arent a problem. Is a 5820k going to be okay with the lower amount of PCIe lanes? i think in the manual it says it will do 16x/8x. Hopefully that wont cause things like microstutter? ie. cards with different amount of PCIE lanes?

Lo mate. Regarding the 5820k and the lanes, it's an interesting point. Technically it will and should be fine. But, I've run SLI, various cards for a few gens now. My previous gaming build was 780Ti's on a z68 asrock board. I used to have stutter issues in some games on this system running SLI.

Since I moved to my new x99 rig with a 5930k and 980Tis I have had no similar stutter issues with SLI.
Now, there are FAR too many variables to jump to any conclusions (as its a totally new build) but when I did my new build I purposefully went for a 5930k over a 5820 because the extra lanes permit 16 x 16 speeds, I knew I was going to go SLI and I wanted to mitigate against ANY Possible SLI stutter issues. It worried me about the 5820k that one card would be at x16 and one at x8. In my pea brain it seems that both cards should be at the same pcie speed. Make of that what you will :)
 
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Lo mate. Regarding the 5820k and the lanes, it's an interesting point. Technically it will and should be fine. But, I've run SLI, various cards for a few gens now. My previous gaming build was 780Ti's on a z68 asrock board. I used to have stutter issues in some games on this system running SLI.

Since I moved to my new x99 rig with a 5930k and 980Tis I have had no similar stutter issues with SLI.
Now, there are FAR too many variables to jump to any conclusions (as its a totally new build) but when I did my new build I purposefully went for a 5930k over a 5820 because the extra lanes permit 16 x 16 speeds, I knew I was going to go SLI and I wanted to mitigate against ANY Possible SLI stutter issues. It worried me about the 5820k that one card would be at x16 and one at x8. In my pea brain it seems that both cards should be at the same pcie speed. Make of that what you will :)

You can run them both at 8x if its an issue? You will lose a little bit of performance but nothing much.
 
thanks guys for your feedback, I decided to get a EVGA 980ti FTW to pair with my EVGA reference super-oc card. For me it was cheaper doing that (with a new PSU) than buying one 1080.
 
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