Graphics Card Advice

Sky01454 · 29 Sep 2018 at 15:44

I need some inputs/advice on what to do regarding my GPU. I currently have 2x 980ti in SLI with a custom loop. I was waiting on the 2xxx series cards but as everyone knows by now how disappointing of a launch it was. So I am torn on what to do. I game on a 34' UW at 3440x1440. Should I:

1. Keep the cards and wait for team RED
2. Get the GTX 1080ti
3. Get 2x GTX 1080ti's
4. Get the RTX 2080

Also is there any benefit to watercooling Pascal cards? I am benefiting a lot from watercooling my Maxwell 980ti's would this be the same for Pascal? It seems to be a rarity of finding any advice for UW users. I am kind of regretting not getting the 1080 ti before the mining craze then I would have enjoyed the performance all this time!! Like how I am enjoying my 980ti's but its starting to show its age.

EDIT: Looking around the prices of a used 980 ti, It looks like I can sell both of mine and pay a little more for a 1080ti.

Legend · 29 Sep 2018 at 15:48

You could just get a single 1080Ti, would be easier than faffing about with SLI which doesn't scale well as you know... unless you play that small % of games that do OK in this regard.

At UW a 1080Ti is the best value right now. SLI just isn't worth it though and is largely pointless... unless as I say, you have a specific use case for it. You will certainly get more reliable performance with a single card solution though.

Watercooling is going to give you more noticeable benefit with silence than anything else. Slight bump in performance, but nothing spectacular, and certainly not so much to justify the added cost. It's more aesthetics and noise. Plus coming from WC as you are, you'd probably HATE the noise an air cooler churns out based on what you're used to.

martos123 · 29 Sep 2018 at 15:49

I'm running a 980ti at 1440p and was hanging on for 2080, but with the performance and price, going to see what AMD do. I can run most things maxed, so happy to hang on for a while. I was thinking of going for a cheap 1080ti, but there dont seem to be any waterblocks for the ones that are at the cheaper end (i'm on a custom loop too).

Sky01454 · 29 Sep 2018 at 15:51

Wow that was so fast. Thanks Legend for the mega quick reply. Yeah I am used to not hearing any loud whiney fan as my radiator fans are spinning at very low rpm. I dont mind the woosh sound but not the whine.

Legend · 29 Sep 2018 at 15:53

Sky01454 said:
Wow that was so fast. Thanks Legend for the mega quick reply. Yeah I am used to not hearing any loud whiney fan as my radiator fans are spinning at very low rpm. I dont mind the woosh sound but not the whine.

I went from water to an air cooled card and it bugged the hell out of me. Quiet by air cooled standards, but once you've gone full custom loop it's not so easy to go back as you get spoilt with that super silence under load. At idle it's no problem, only under heavy loads would you notice. But then if you game with headphones on, it may not be a big deal.

As for AMD... I don't know. Waiting on them seems like as much of a gamble as seeing what RTX does in the months ahead. I don't see AMD having a 1080Ti rival for a while yet though, and all the time you're waiting your 980Tis are depreciating. Now is a good time to jump on a 1080Ti I'd say and enjoy that performance.

Sky01454 · 29 Sep 2018 at 15:54

martos123 said:
I'm running a 980ti at 1440p and was hanging on for 2080, but with the performance and price, going to see what AMD do. I can run most things maxed, so happy to hang on for a while. I was thinking of going for a cheap 1080ti, but there dont seem to be any waterblocks for the ones that are at the cheaper end (i'm on a custom loop too).

Exactly what I found when I looked around. However the MSI and Aorus does seems to have waterblocks but its not sold by OCUK anymore. Oh and I did find a EVGA card somewhere else for good price but the added total cost of waterblock kind of putting me off. Thinking of just air cooling the thing but then I would have 2x 480 rads cooling the CPU.....

easyrider · 29 Sep 2018 at 15:54

2. Get the GTX 1080ti

Sky01454 · 29 Sep 2018 at 15:55

Legend said:
I went from water to an air cooled card and it bugged the hell out of me. Quiet by air cooled standards, but once you've gone full custom loop it's not so easy to go back as you get spoilt with that super silence under load. At idle it's no problem, only under heavy loads would you notice. But then if you game with headphones on, it may not be a big deal.

As for AMD... I don't know. Waiting on them seems like as much of a gamble as seeing what RTX does in the months ahead. I don't see AMD having a 1080Ti rival for a while yet though, and all the time you're waiting your 980Tis are depreciating. Now is a good time to jump on a 1080Ti I'd say and enjoy that performance.

My old AMD 280x (Yes I still have one lol) on a another system and oh boy that thing sounds like a jet

Legend · 29 Sep 2018 at 15:57

If you can find a good second hand 1080Ti with a block on it, that might be the best solution. They sometimes pop up on the MM.

Sky01454 · 29 Sep 2018 at 15:59

Legend said:
If you can find a good second hand 1080Ti with a block on it, that might be the best solution. They sometimes pop up on the MM.

As you can see I cannot access the MM...

Legend · 29 Sep 2018 at 16:00

Sky01454 said:
As you can see I cannot access the MM...

Ah yes. Well there's always the bay, but more risky buying used on there. Still, watercooling enthusiasts GENERALLY take good care of their kit.

Sky01454 · 29 Sep 2018 at 16:02

easyrider said:
2. Get the GTX 1080ti

Any reasons to why? The reason I am asking around is because the GTX 1080ti was about £700 ish before the mining craze and I am not sure spending as much as I paid for my 980ti at launch for a GPU thats over 18 months old is a good value.

Sky01454 · 29 Sep 2018 at 16:03

Legend said:
Ah yes. Well there's always the bay, but more risky buying used on there. Still, watercooling enthusiasts GENERALLY take good care of their kit.

Both of my current cards are from the bay LOL. They work fine and seems to have been well looked after. Apart from one of the stock cooler which seems to have the LED's removed.

Legend · 29 Sep 2018 at 16:06

Sky01454 said:
Any reasons to why? The reason I am asking around is because the GTX 1080ti was about £700 ish before the mining craze and I am not sure spending as much as I paid for my 980ti at launch for a GPU thats over 18 months old is a good value.

Take away the Tensor cores on the RTX cards and from a technological point of view, there isn't much difference... apart from the GDDR6 of course. And benchmarks don't lie... the difference between the 1080Ti and 2080 is nothing. DLSS and ray tracing may see that balance change somewhat, but we won't know that for months and it may end up not even being worth it still. I think it just comes down to whether you feel more comfortable paying that extra for the 2080 or not. A second hand 1080Ti with block would be the best option though I think.

Sky01454 · 29 Sep 2018 at 16:09

Legend said:
Take away the Tensor cores on the RTX cards and from a technological point of view, there isn't much difference... apart from the GDDR6 of course. And benchmarks don't lie... the difference between the 1080Ti and 2080 is nothing. DLSS and ray tracing may see that balance change somewhat, but we won't know that for months and it may end up not even being worth it still. I think it just comes down to whether you feel more comfortable paying that extra for the 2080 or not. A second hand 1080Ti with block would be the best option though I think.

I missed a great deal at the bay of an Aorus card with a block for £500.

easyrider · 29 Sep 2018 at 16:09

Sky01454 said:
Any reasons to why? The reason I am asking around is because the GTX 1080ti was about £700 ish before the mining craze and I am not sure spending as much as I paid for my 980ti at launch for a GPU thats over 18 months old is a good value.

3440 x 1440p needs grunt. The 1080ti will supply this grunt for £579.

the 2080 trades blows with the 1080ti but its £700 its has DLSS and RT but no games support it and by the time they do the 2080 wont be quick enough to use those features and the new 7nm cards will be out.

the 2080 is unremarkable on every level. Its overpriced and its features useless currently. Even a 2080ti can't push 1080/60 with RT enabled so you certainly wont be using RT on a 2080 at 3440x1440p

Legend · 29 Sep 2018 at 16:14

easyrider said:
3440 x 1440p needs grunt. The 1080ti will supply this grunt for £579.

the 2080 trades blows with the 1080ti but its £700 its has DLSS and RT but no games support it and by the time they do the 2080 wont be quick enough to use those features and the new 7nm cards will be out.

the 2080 is unremarkable on every level. Its overpriced and its features useless currently. Even a 2080ti can't push 1080/60 with RT enabled so you certainly wont be using RT on a 2080 at 3440x1440p

DLSS is not ray tracing though, they aren't remotely the same thing, so to say the card isn't quick enough to use it is just wrong. That's not how it works. The 2080 will be able to use DLSS just fine... it may be ineffective at ray tracing... but even there, we have no idea how such effects will be implemented in games yet. It could be we see partial implementation and effects that enhance certain games nicely, and with DLSS coming in to play it may even run quite smoothly at 1440p.

But yes, it's a gamble... there is a chance though. It's WAY too early to write off the 2080 yet. The 1080Ti is a fantastic card, a great value buy today and probably the right choice... but it is as good as it's going to get, FACT.

Sky01454 · 29 Sep 2018 at 16:23

what is concerning is the fact that the performance of my SLI setup vs the 1080 ti is almost identical (If SLI is working that is) but then again I either play very old games or AAA titles which mostly support SLI even though the scaling is questionable. I have not experienced any huge issue with SLI so I am debating if I should SLI 1080 ti's as I have a custom loop.

TNA · 29 Sep 2018 at 16:27

Sky01454 said:
I need some inputs/advice on what to do regarding my GPU. I currently have 2x 980ti in SLI with a custom loop. I was waiting on the 2xxx series cards but as everyone knows by now how disappointing of a launch it was. So I am torn on what to do. I game on a 34' UW at 3440x1440. Should I:

1. Keep the cards and wait for team RED
2. Get the GTX 1080ti
3. Get 2x GTX 1080ti's
4. Get the RTX 2080

Also is there any benefit to watercooling Pascal cards? I am benefiting a lot from watercooling my Maxwell 980ti's would this be the same for Pascal? It seems to be a rarity of finding any advice for UW users. I am kind of regretting not getting the 1080 ti before the mining craze then I would have enjoyed the performance all this time!! Like how I am enjoying my 980ti's but its starting to show its age.

If you are on G-Sync and do not intend to upgrade your monitor in a year or so, then definitely number 2. If not and you can hold out a bit longer, then hold out until 7nm from either AMD or Nvidia.

Hindsight I also regret not buying the 1080Ti before the mining craze. I game at 4K myself and just went for a Titan XP from the members market in the end. Never had a Titan before and having 12gb of vram also was enticing for playing Final Fantasy 15 which seems to be a vram hog. At least I know I am now fully covered until 7nm comes out. I really hope Nvidia actually bring the performance with 7nm and not just another 20-30%.

Sky01454 said:
what is concerning is the fact that the performance of my SLI setup vs the 1080 ti is almost identical (If SLI is working that is) but then again I either play very old games or AAA titles which mostly support SLI even though the scaling is questionable. I have not experienced any huge issue with SLI so I am debating if I should SLI 1080 ti's as I have a custom loop.

I personally would not bother with SLI. If you must buy today then buy one 1080ti and put the money saved towards a 7nm GPU.

Legend said:
If you can find a good second hand 1080Ti with a block on it, that might be the best solution.

They are very expensive there from what I have seen. People wanting on average £550 for their second hand gear, might as well add £30 more and get the Gigabyte Gibbo has up for pre-order brand new!

Legend · 29 Sep 2018 at 16:31

TNA said:
They are very expensive there from what I have seen. People wanting on average £550 for their second hand gear, might as well add £30 more and get the Gigabyte Gibbo has up for pre-order brand new!

Yeah it's just annoying there isn't a block for it, other than that funky looking Alphacool one.