Quandary over choice with regards to GPU.

[StriderX]

Since i have the Prodigy M, I highly doubt aftermarket cooling is a smart idea, but AMD's Blower fans sucked so bad they barely exist now.

The issue that has risen lately is the need (perhaps) of VRAM, which Nvidia seems to struggle with, except for a few cases, though id likely doubt that every game from now on is going to need over 3GB...I can not tell the future.

The pain is that the only 6GB Nvidia cards on offer are not reference (apparently an EVGA one exists...but i cant find it) and AMD...well only offers the other style of cooling.

Kinda in a pickle...I am quite over the "feature" set analysis of which there really isnt much of a difference, so id like opinions here.

 

[Rroff]

Depends quite a bit on the resolution your going to be playing at. A reference 3GB 780 would likely be fine for quite awhile yet at 1920x1080 whereas 2560x1440 or higher could be a different story.

 

[StriderX]

I am aiming for 1440p, though it does depend on money and whether i have enough, though the secondary aim would be for two cards (which obviously benefits from reference).

 

[Marine-RX179]

This (£299.99):
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-017-VX&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

plus this (£29.99):
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-007-NX&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2262

plus this (£56.99):
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-024-CS

Total: £387.97

I am aiming for 1440p, though it does depend on money and whether i have enough, though the secondary aim would be for two cards (which obviously benefits from reference).

If you are thinking of two high-end cards, you'd best forget about MicroATX and go ATX instead. But I guess it's too late to say that since you already have the Prodigy M and obviously a MicroATX board.

 

[llamadal]

not had a single problem in any game @ 1440p with a stock 780 gtx , stock cooling is great

 

[StriderX]

This (£299.99):
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-017-VX&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1752

plus this (£29.99):
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-007-NX&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2262

plus this (£56.99):
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-024-CS

Total: £387.97


If you are thinking of two high-end cards, you'd best forget about MicroATX and go ATX instead. But I guess it's too late to say that since you already have the Prodigy M and obviously a MicroATX board.

While i realise the reasons, id still like to know why, its perfectly doable after all.

 

[Marine-RX179]

While i realise the reasons, id still like to know why, its perfectly doable after all.

It's out of the consideration of the airflow of the Prodigy M and the direction of how the motherboard is mounted.

For a graphic card with a AIB custom cooler or other "dump heat into the case" type cooler, generally what they do is with the vga cooler fans blowing into heatsink of the card and the heat get push out the side of the card. The issue with Prodigy M is that I think even if you would have difficulty removing the heat that get dumped into the case by the graphic card efficiently (especially with a high power card like 290x). With the AIO watercooler, you will pretty much guarantee better cooling performance regardless of the airflow inside the case comparing to vga air-cooler.

I'm not sure if you got any HDD or SSD mount at the bottom...if not (or may be with only one drive), this is how I would do it:
Have the AIO watercooler's rad on the rear fan mount as intake, the two top fans as intake, the CPU cooler (tower heatsink I'd assume) orientated toward the bottom, and with the bottom fan(s) as exhaust. For the bottom if I needed to mount 1 HHD and 1 exhaust fan, I would have the front for mounting the exhaust fan, and the HDD mount at the rear bottom.