• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Did I make a mistake SLI'ing my 780?

Lankoss

Lankoss

Lankoss

Associate
Joined
24 Dec 2015
Posts
197
I bought a second gtx 780 over Christmas as OC had them on sale for a decent price. The main reason I bought it is I figured it would give me a year or 2 more headroom and allow prices of the 980ti to fall to an affordable price. I also want to game at 1440p in the near future. I am becoming increasingly concerned however as I see latest games coming out with high VRAM requirements even at 1080p ultra and I'm worried my 3gb won't be enough. I recently got the GOTY edition of Shadow Of Mordor to stretch my 780's legs a bit and I am seeing on that even at 1080p I am hitting 2950 of my 3000mb VRam being used. Should I sell my 780's while they are still fetching a good price?
 
There is a difference between cached and used. 3440 x 1440 on a 780ti was great, VRAM wasn't an issue but GPU horse power was. 980ti improved on that and again going by that logic when games fill my 6gb that doesn't mean they are using it, the game engines will cache game data if there is spare space to help load the next section quicker but it does zero for frame rates if the game uses less than the available VRAM for the actual game play.
 
Sli is fine for the most part, profiles are normally released quickly and most games support it. As for vram, very few games use it all, a couple of tweaks and it will be fine again.

Unfortunately most of the negative comments I've seen on sli seem to have come from people who have never used it or have been unwilling to tinker a bit to get the most out of it.

I did however sell my 2 to get a 980ti though as I got a good offer on one of them and the timing was good.
 
1440p is definitely my goal, I've no interest going any higher than that. As a, up until mid last year, console gamer I think 1440p will be as much as I can handle without my brain melting. Baby steps guys :-p

I am already eyeing up a 1440p G sync monitor for spring of this year.
 
I am running SLI 780s at 1440 and they are fine.

No ram issues and plenty of fps at that res.

A 980ti is not going to be any better.

Rgds

Matt
 
From my experience 780 sli - 980ti is a bit of a sideways move. At the time i had the 780's i was using a 1920x1200 monitor. VRAM wasn't a big problem in what i play. However, the heat and noise were. Sold both and got a 980ti which i used briefly at 1920x1200 before switching to a 2560x1440 gsync monitor.
 
A few recent games are poor in SLI/CF or no SLI/CF at all but if the games you have are running without issues, I wouldn't worry about it and wait it out for Pascal.
 
I also have 2 780's and they cope fine with 1440 gaming on my G-Sync monitor, not come across a game i can't play yet, only reason i'm thinking of upgrading my 780's is to experience VR.
 
I did the same upgrade as you early last year and came to regret it. I had SLI'd 780's but moved to a single 980ti when they launched as I was starting to hit the VRAM limit at 2560x1440.

I agree it is a bit of sideways move or even a downgrade compared to any game that's well optimised for SLI but at least I know now I won't be hitting the VRAM limit again for a while even running as I now do at 3440x1440.
 
980Ti made 780/970/980 SLI pointless.

Just ask everyone who left dual gpu behind and is not looking back (dual 970 to Ti here).
That said it's February, you might as well wait for Pascal.
 
Lankoss said:
I bought a second gtx 780 over Christmas as OC had them on sale for a decent price. The main reason I bought it is I figured it would give me a year or 2 more headroom and allow prices of the 980ti to fall to an affordable price. I also want to game at 1440p in the near future. I am becoming increasingly concerned however as I see latest games coming out with high VRAM requirements even at 1080p ultra and I'm worried my 3gb won't be enough. I recently got the GOTY edition of Shadow Of Mordor to stretch my 780's legs a bit and I am seeing on that even at 1080p I am hitting 2950 of my 3000mb VRam being used. Should I sell my 780's while they are still fetching a good price?
Click to expand...

I sold my 780 because of the ram issue going to 1440p ages ago and still haven't upgraded to the new monitor :(

I think you need a minimum of 4 gb's nowadays but of course turning settings down soon fixes that and often with little to no visual difference.
So basically don't be a graphics whore who demands max everything and you'll be fine until a well priced replacement appears.
 
Lankoss said:
I bought a second gtx 780 over Christmas as OC had them on sale for a decent price. The main reason I bought it is I figured it would give me a year or 2 more headroom and allow prices of the 980ti to fall to an affordable price. I also want to game at 1440p in the near future. I am becoming increasingly concerned however as I see latest games coming out with high VRAM requirements even at 1080p ultra and I'm worried my 3gb won't be enough. I recently got the GOTY edition of Shadow Of Mordor to stretch my 780's legs a bit and I am seeing on that even at 1080p I am hitting 2950 of my 3000mb VRam being used. Should I sell my 780's while they are still fetching a good price?
Click to expand...

I would sell them while they are worth something for sure.

Tbh, even 4GB of VRAM is pushing things especially at 1440P. I'd only consider 6GB+ to be viable when buying a new card for over £300 in this day and age. Anything less will be crippled by the lack of VRAM far too quickly.
 
Turning settings down will help with the vram situation, as grunt wise 780 sli is around the same as 980ti. Unfortunately prices for 780's have dropped a fair bit since i sold mine so youd need to add a fair chunk of cash to make up the price of a current comparable new card.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom