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The big 970 SLI dilemma

Hands up I'm not a 970 SLI owner but surely if you change your setup for a single 980 you will be getting worse performance in the majority of situations.
If the 980s had 6GB than sure in the long term they would pull more ahead but with effectively only an extra 0.5GB how many games will really fall into that sweet spot (between 3.5 and 4 GB used) where the single 980 will be better rather than just needing over 4GB where both 970 and 980 will suffer?
 
I'm in the process of returning my single 970. Will probably get the 980 and hope that the resale value will be decent when the time comes for the need to upgrade to 8GB.

Right now I only game at 1080p but am too worried about the resale value of the 970s once I get a 1440p monitor later in the year.

I'm even considering going cardless for a few months until a good option arrives either from AMD or Nvidia. Really sucks that there's no legitimately future proof card(s) for higher than 1080p gaming.
 
tempted to keep my 970 sli, ive had no problems playing at 1400p and that includes dying light, i will think on it for the next couple of weeks and who knows nvidia may come up with something with drivers

just to add im a bit reluctent to go 980's, is there a chink in there armor no one knows about yet
 
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Mayh3M said:
I'm in the process of returning my single 970. Will probably get the 980 and hope that the resale value will be decent when the time comes for the need to upgrade to 8GB.

Right now I only game at 1080p but am too worried about the resale value of the 970s once I get a 1440p monitor later in the year.

I'm even considering going cardless for a few months until a good option arrives either from AMD or Nvidia. Really sucks that there's no legitimately future proof card(s) for higher than 1080p gaming.
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4a4sVWD.jpg

About as future proof as you can get.:)
 
Mayh3M said:
As I've said in other threads for me the R9 290s are way too hot, loud, and power inefficient next to the Maxwells for me to seriously consider them. I especially value low noise - my system is virtually silent in idle!
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I only mentioned them as you were asking about future proofing and I think 8gb cards would do well at this.:)
 
Mayh3M said:
I'm in the process of returning my single 970. Will probably get the 980 and hope that the resale value will be decent when the time comes for the need to upgrade to 8GB.

Right now I only game at 1080p but am too worried about the resale value of the 970s once I get a 1440p monitor later in the year.

I'm even considering going cardless for a few months until a good option arrives either from AMD or Nvidia. Really sucks that there's no legitimately future proof card(s) for higher than 1080p gaming.
Click to expand...

Trying to truely future proof any pc component is damn near impossible anyway. There's always going to be something better just around the corner and it's not as if when new stuff comes out your existing bits stop working. A 970/980/290/290x are all still powerfull cards that are still going to be able to be able to run games for a good while yet. Yes as time goes on you'll have to start turning settings down a bit but no card can ever prevent the need for that. There's still plenty of people enjoying games while only running 7950's or 760's that have been around for ages now and if you're the sort of gmer that can only possibly accept a locked 60fps on ultra settings then you're going to be buying whatever is the lastest and greatest anyway :)

Resale wise this current outrage may impact the 970 values a bit but they are still good cards and historically NVidia cards have held on to their value pretty well.
 
nails666 said:
Trying to truely future proof any pc component is damn near impossible anyway. There's always going to be something better just around the corner and it's not as if when new stuff comes out your existing bits stop working. A 970/980/290/290x are all still powerfull cards that are still going to be able to be able to run games for a good while yet. Yes as time goes on you'll have to start turning settings down a bit but no card can ever prevent the need for that. There's still plenty of people enjoying games while only running 7950's or 760's that have been around for ages now and if you're the sort of gmer that can only possibly accept a locked 60fps on ultra settings then you're going to be buying whatever is the lastest and greatest anyway :)

Resale wise this current outrage may impact the 970 values a bit but they are still good cards and historically NVidia cards have held on to their value pretty well.
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What you say is true. But the scenario I was envisaging was GTX 970/980 8GB SLI at 1440p. I would be set for the next two years at max/near max settings at 60FPS and not have to care about what comes out in the meantime. That in itself is valuable.
 
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String said:
The big dilemma for me, is should I do it!
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I don't envy your position but.

If I was in your position I would stick with what you have.:)

Always like to have 2 cards in case 1 goes belly up.

String said:
Will the 980 perform adequately at 1440p with AAA titles?
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Depends if you like all the settings maxed?

String said:
I'm planning on buying a ROG Swift, so do I keep the 970's or get the 980?
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The 4GB vram is still potentially the limiting factor with future games,
so for me you'll run out of grunt before vram and be able to keep a decent frame rate.
 
Mayh3M said:
What you say is true. But the scenario I was envisaging was GTX 970/980 8GB SLI at 1440p. I would be set for the next two years at max/near max settings at 60FPS and not have to care about what comes out in the meantime. That in itself is valuable.
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Yeah would be a nice solid setup but I think Nvidia realise that and want to make sure you have reason to upgrade again soon :)
 
Replacing the 970s with 1 980s seems a poor choice imho. Especially if you are planning the ROG swift as well. Needs a fair amount of grunt to get 100fps+ at max settings on 1440p.

If you are planning to sell/trade up when new cards come out I think it would be an okay choice though...
 
Been thinking this over too. basically £200 to step up to the cheapest 980's from my G1s, not sure it's worth the outlay but i'm worried about the resale value later down the line. I have noticed stuttering in COD AW and FC4 but assumed they were just stuttery anyway.
 
Loque said:
My 2 970's are going back, and for me, there is only 1 option for replacement. 295x2.
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you had better get in there quick and buy one as I am sure Gibbo said these were going back up in price next week..

If they go back up the 970's will be better value for money again with little to no performance gain.
 
Well I have the swift and 2 gtx 970 MSI cards and I do love the set up . The only 2 titles that have buggered up so far is shadows of mordor and assassin creed unity. As soon as the dreaded 3.5 Mb hits it all goes to a horrible stutter fest .

I tried my r9 295x2 on the swift with the lastest drivers in bf4 mordor dragon age inquasition and fary cry 4. For me personally even with the 3.5 vram problems i will still be sticking with my 970's

Turning mordor from ultra textures to high made little visual diffrence for me but 0 stuttering and great fps and same for creed.

I just pray that the witcher 3 does not need 4 gig to look stunning or I will cry xD!
 
Having been used to a pair of 970s and the SWIFT, I'd not want to step down to a 980 at 1440p. If I do return mine and stick to Nvidia it'll have to be a pair of 980s which is unfortunately megabucks.
 
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