Which card to get? GTX970, GTX980 or GTX Titan

[Joske]

Money is not an issue however I don't want to pay extreme prices when I can play today's games maxed out with cheaper card/s. I do not use mulitple displays and the highest resolution would be 1440p but normally its 1080p.

I have no experience of any of these cards, however my plan was to purchase a MSI GTX 980, however I have read reviews of users stating the 980 is not much better than a 970 and to go SLI with two GTX970's.

My fear is that some games don't make the most out of SLI therefore you end up with a loss in performance compared to a single GTX980 card.

Do i go for a GTX 970, GTX 980 or GTX Titan or do I SLI them?

I have always been a big fan of Nvidia but do I change my thinking and go with AMD?

What are your opinions, good or bad?

Thanks

[shaithis]

The Titan cards are ridiculously overpriced for their performance.

SLI is fine MOST of the time. nVidia are very fast at delivering updated profiles and if you look at their updates you will see SLI profiles for games in beta and even alpha....but you will occasionally get caught out with a new title that doesn't work well (CoD has been a bit of a pain in the past for instance) and you may need to force games to a single card for a week or so.

980 keeps pulling away from the 970 the further you push the resolution......so if you are going to game at 1440p, the 980 is the better choice......although with DX12 on the horizon and SLI being well supported, you might find 2 x 970 the better bet in the long run.

[Joske]

The Titan cards are ridiculously overpriced for their performance.

SLI is fine MOST of the time. nVidia are very fast at delivering updated profiles and if you look at their updates you will see SLI profiles for games in beta and even alpha....but you will occasionally get caught out with a new title that doesn't work well (CoD has been a bit of a pain in the past for instance) and you may need to force games to a single card for a week or so.

980 keeps pulling away from the 970 the further you push the resolution......so if you are going to game at 1440p, the 980 is the better choice......although with DX12 on the horizon and SLI being well supported, you might find 2 x 970 the better bet in the long run.

Thanks for your reply.

Can yourself or anyone else shed some more light on the GTX 970 fiasco that I have seen popping up. Is this real or a hoax? I find it very hard to believe. I.e. the 3.5GB VRam and 512Mb to make the 4GB. Is this something that Nvidia later fixed or been resolved with newer GTX970 cards or is this the way of the GTX 970.

[kalniel]

Thanks for your reply.

Can yourself or anyone else shed some more light on the GTX 970 fiasco that I have seen popping up. Is this real or a hoax? I find it very hard to believe. I.e. the 3.5GB VRam and 512Mb to make the 4GB. Is this something that Nvidia later fixed or been resolved with newer GTX970 cards or is this the way of the GTX 970.

See the other threads in this forum! There's lots of info on it.

[Gpro]

Vote for gtx 970

[mbrown839]

As Shaithis has said, it's rare that games won't work with SLI and this is almost always a temporary thing even when it does happen. What to do really depends on your planned upgrade cycle and current setup. Since you're occasionally using 1440p, I assume that means you have a 1440p monitor. There aren't many situations in which Titans make sense at the moment. I personally would go for a 980 (well, did, I have a 980 and will probably buy a ROG Swift soon) but there's not much in it between the 970 for a single monitor setup. 1440p rather than 1080p pushes my recommendation from the 970 to the 980. If you have a 1080p monitor and are using DSR, then just get a 970, maybe a second one if you have/upgrade to a 144hz monitor. Regarding the GTX 970 thing, I can understand some people being annoyed as the VRAM configuration can be a consideration if you're planning on upgrading your resolution, or if you run something like Skyrim, Kerbal Space Program with a whole bunch of mods, but for most people it actually makes sense to use that 512MB in a slightly alternative way. If you are planning on running things with a lot of mods, maybe go for the 980.

[Kovoet]

There is a rumor going around gtx980Ti as well. Me I'm hanging around till April

[JoeOfJoedonia]

I have seen problems when running 2 970's in SLI as some games (even now) don't handle SLI memory addressing very well.
For your requirements Titan would be overkill and would recommend the 980, with the option of adding another 980 later when the prices drop a little.

That being said, if your heart is set on a Titan then hold fire as they have just announced a new one.

[Joske]

Thanks for all your replies. Since i wont be doing the upgrade until April i may try and dig out any info on the GTX980Ti.

Failing that i probably go down the route of the 980 for now and then at a later time buy a 2nd 980 to sli.

[v3teran]

I will be grabbing a titan or two.

[KeyboardDemon]

Your choices have been narrowed down to nVidia cards only, why have you completely ruled out AMD options?

Of the three options I would pick a GTX 970 for playing games at 1920x1080, a GTX 980 for 2560x1440 and I'd never pick a GTX Titan/Titan X. But that's my opinion.

With the AMD cards I'd pick the 280/280X for 1920x1080 and then 290/290X for higher resolutions.

[Agrippa]

There is a rumor going around gtx980Ti as well. Me I'm hanging around till April

Thanks for all your replies. Since i wont be doing the upgrade until April i may try and dig out any info on the GTX980Ti.

Failing that i probably go down the route of the 980 for now and then at a later time buy a 2nd 980 to sli.

You'll likely have to wait longer than April; we won't see a GTX 980Ti until after the Radeon 390X has been released and nobugger knows when that'll happen. Until then there's zero reason for Nvidia to release it, as it'll inevitably eat into the Titan X sales and cost them money.

[viper626]

GTX 980 All day...

[mjallan123]

I would advise the single best card you can get i.e the GTX 980. Then if that isn't enough, double up.

Sometimes getting two slower cards, even if it's cheaper, is a false economy.

[kalniel]

I would advise the single best card you can get i.e the GTX 980.

But the 980 isn't the single best card you can get.

[mjallan123]

But the 980 isn't the single best card you can get.

I guess you are correct now that the titan x is out, but I wouldn't class that card being in the same league since it's ridiculously expensive.

I would, if you can, wait until the summer when the 390x and possibly 980Ti get released, then go with the fastest single card you require.