• 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.

Should I get a 980 Ti for the Oculus Rift?

ggidd

ggidd

ggidd

Associate
Joined
10 Aug 2010
Posts
158
Hi Everyone,
So basically, somehow, my order number changed and I got pushed up the que (my order time was 35min53sec). This means I'm watching the UPS tracking of my Oculus Rift now which arrived in the UK just under 2 hours ago and is due to me tomorrow.

This is all great but it leaves me with the question... Should I get a 980 Ti?

So I haven't needed to upgrade the core of my PC for a almost 4 years except the graphics card which I had bought a R9 290 but that overheats so I bought a 970 as it was on an incredible deal. The reason I held off the 980 Ti was that it was twice the price of the 970 and I didn't feel I needed it for 1440p. Now with the Rift arriving tomorrow do I buy the 980 Ti or do I wait the long wait for the new Pascal?

My current machine is:
i5 3450
8GB memory
970 Asus Strix
256GB SSD for OS
2TB HDD for Steam partition and one for data

I have been gaming at 1440p for the last two years and my machine has never struggled. If I wait to upgrade the GPU then I will upgrade the whole machine. Or I could just buy the 980 Ti now.

OR...
I could book Wednesday off work and go all out and spend up to £2000 on a new build today
 
Have you tried any of the VR headsets because if you were upgrading just for that then I'd at least wait until you've tried it. You may not be compatible :) and the 970 is fine to drive that for now.

2560x1440 doesn't really need a 980Ti but I'm certainly glad I have a 980Ti for 3440x1440 in certain titles. This close to new hardware releases I'd be waiting before spending that much but that's me.
 
Last edited:
Well the short answer is no I haven't. I just have itchy feet to upgrade but my sensible brain (now I'm in my 30's) is causing a upgrade road block.

I used to upgrade most of my system every 6-12months but that just bcame far too expensive. Since getting the i5 3450 and the 290/970 I really just haven't had an excuse to upgrade. I guess what I saying is is the Rift my excuse or should I be sensible and wait for the new GPUs? I was disappointed to find out that the wait for the 980 Ti replacement would be longer than I was hoping for.
 
Same with me I was fine with an i5 3570K for almost 4 years but upgraded the GPU about 3 times and then got the urge for a complete system upgrade with on of the OCUK 6 core bundles late last year. Though I'd been using the 980 ti with the i5 since June with no issue. I'm not sure I can resist upgrading the 980 Ti again but I will at least try to wait until the truely big AMD/nVidia cards are released hopefully early next year!

I've got a Vive but I'm struggling with software for that already so I may not keep it long as I also have a Rift coming in a month and that is geared a bit more toward the sitting/sims I want to try with it.
 
Well my Vive is due later this month so I'm the other way around to you. But you are right that the 980 Ti really isn't needed for 2560x1440. I tried a 40inch@4k for a week and for Elite Dangerous I have to say that the 970 performed very well for me, I realise that that it wouldn't be pratical though for other games. Having that screen has slightly dampened my love for the game on my main monitor which is a 27inch 1440p. That amount of screen at 40inch with almost the same PPI as the 27inch was just spoiling me.
As delivery of these VR headsets get closer the draw to upgrade has been increasing at an alarming rate. Not sure I can keep myself at bay!
 
Not too sure what these people are on about, but my 980ti sometimes struggles to keep 60fps @1440p ultra settings on titles like dying light, mechwarrior online and gta 5!
im sure if i lowered some settings it would be great but i like it shiny
 
It depends what games you plan on playing, I have a 980ti and for most of the titles available on the Rift it sits at about 40% most of the time and there's little in the way of options to increase that

I would say try the card you have and only upgrade if it causes you a problem - if you had something older than a 970 I would say go for it, but with a 970 I would say sucker ithe and see and wait for the 1070
 
ggidd said:
Well my Vive is due later this month so I'm the other way around to you. But you are right that the 980 Ti really isn't needed for 2560x1440. I tried a 40inch@4k for a week and for Elite Dangerous I have to say that the 970 performed very well for me, I realise that that it wouldn't be pratical though for other games. Having that screen has slightly dampened my love for the game on my main monitor which is a 27inch 1440p. That amount of screen at 40inch with almost the same PPI as the 27inch was just spoiling me.
As delivery of these VR headsets get closer the draw to upgrade has been increasing at an alarming rate. Not sure I can keep myself at bay!
Click to expand...

Well snap I had a 40" UHD monitor before Christmas for a few months and I could run GTA V with High settings no problem with the 980 Ti. Dying Light was best played at 2560x1440 full screen to maintain a decent fps and felt more immersive. Witcher was best in an emulated 21:9 desktop @ 3440x1440 to see those lovely vistas and again maintain a minimum 60fps. The scaler was great in that monitor buy ultimately I fell for an Acer X34 for the best all round gaming experience.

40" made my old 27" 144Hz TN panel look tiny!
 
The pc oculus sent to giantbomb for their launch day stream had a 970 in from what I recall, and they used the same pc for the vive launch, Jeff Gerstmann did say his 2500k wasn't up to the job though. You might want to take a look at the vids on Giantbomb.com.
 
Stick with 970. Vr games are in their infancy and so are OK with the 970. Very quickly they will be capable of using the faster cards yet to come..
 
if it's for VR, you should wait for new GPUs to show up, once they are here 300 series and 900series wont be priority for driver optimisation anymore, and it's not like VR games are triple A, they are not really that demanding, and from here to the first ambitious project could take a while, so i would just wait up for pascal/polaris
 
Yes, and if you check what data it sends it is basically bug checking to see if it gets stuck loading anything, and metrics on how long you play each app... nothing more insidious than Steam
 
andybird123 said:
Yes, and if you check what data it sends it is basically bug checking to see if it gets stuck loading anything, and metrics on how long you play each app... nothing more insidious than Steam
Click to expand...

Does not change the fact that you should be asked first before submitting anything, its facebook after all, the bane of this world.
 
bimbleuk said:
Have you tried any of the VR headsets because if you were upgrading just for that then I'd at least wait until you've tried it. You may not be compatible :) and the 970 is fine to drive that for now.

2560x1440 doesn't really need a 980Ti but I'm certainly glad I have a 980Ti for 3440x1440 in certain titles. This close to new hardware releases I'd be waiting before spending that much but that's me.
Click to expand...

The 970 should cover you for now. A
whole new range of cards is incoming over the summer, so you might want to wait for those. In the meantime, if you need to scratch the itch, its your money at the end of the day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom