Another "what should I buy" thread

[Asa]

I previously had a reference 980TI, with a grand ambition to buy another for SLI. Then I decided to try and quell the noise a little with a Corsair HG10 AIO solution for the card. Long story short, I now have a very quiet PC. Because I don't have a graphics card.

Sooooo I'm looking to get another, and my long-term goal is 4k60 without much noise, ideally a full custom water loop. I don't have an unlimited budget, so I may need to build in stages. Getting a 980TI and custom water in one hit is out of my range.

Option 1, get a 980TI. One of the AIO hybrids would put me back where I was, but would make the upgrade to full water path difficult. Eventual price of 2 980TIs is pretty hefty (even without water) so this build won't likely be complete before the next wave of cards.

Option 2, get a couple of nanos upfront and WC later

Option 3, get a nano under water now, and add another one or two later.

Option 4, get some 390s or 390Xs under water

Option 5, Play some fugly disappointing PS4 games while I wait for pascal/polaris.


So.... should I stick with reliable beastly 980TIs? Would a couple of nanos be a decent investment for 4k gaming?

Thanks!

 

[Ayahuasca]

Option 5 if long term goal is 4k 60 fps.

Multi card solutions still seem to have problems on both sides.

That being said I can't see any single card running new games at 4k 60fps either.

So I can understand your conundrum.

 

[Asa]

I think multi-card is an inevitability for me down the line regardless of which option I go for. It's fun when it works. Just means it's also important to have good single card performance to fall back on for those many occassions where it doesn't work, or has annoying artifacts.

2 or 3 nanos is tempting. Seems to be very little OC headroom, but the temps and power requirements seem so easy to accommodate. That 4GB though.... I don't want to be lowering textures just to get things to work.

 

[hominid]

It's soo close to the new swath of graphics cards being released, in the 3 months or so range, that I'd be tempted to wait - Although you would need a stop gap in the mean time of course.

 

[Asa]

Yes waiting might be smart, but 3 months is a long time and from what i gather the first wave of new cards might not even surpass the current high-end anyway.

I have a spare r9-290 windforce kicking around that i am not sure is in good nick. If it runs OK i could always start my project with the water loop, and switch in new cards later in the year. Not sure though, Nanos are an appealing price right now.

I have until about Thursday to decide!