Should I replace my 780 Ti?

I am kind of on the fence about this... I don't have a monitor so I use my TV as my display which means 1080p/59 (60 tears) but some games need more power than the 780 Ti can deliver.

Specs

ASUS Maximus VI Formula
4790K @ 4.7GHz
32GB G.Skill DDR3-1600
2x256GB Crucial M550 (RAID 0)
2TB 7200 RPM Seagate Hybrid
EVGA 780 Ti SC w/ ACX

The thing is... My laptop walks all over the desktop in games that can make use of SLI but the 780 Ti holds up well unless it hits a RAM wall (like with Watch Dogs for example) or games like Witcher 3 so I'm not sure if it's worth upgrading. I'm also not sure that I want to give nVidia any more money with the garbage they have been pulling and obviously a 4GB Fury X is going to hit a RAM wall before the 6GB 980 Ti.

Any suggestions? I like to game on Ultra... Maybe I should wait til next year?

 

just go 980ti sli

 

Just grab a 980ti then. 1 is ample for 60hz and loads of AA.

 

Well money is obviously a factor for me or I would already be running 980 Ti SLI... I'm just not sure if I want to spend another 650-700 bucks when this card cost me 680 last year... I mean if I don't spend money this month I can buy a new card next month, I'm just not sure if it will be a good investment when I have a 980M SLI rig.

 

Just wait.

 

Then just wait, 980m SLI is roughly the performance of a single 980TI (give or take) minus the gamble of no SLI profiles.
Even with a 780TI I doubt your missing out on too much yet.
If you didn't already have 980m SLI I'd be a little different. But your honesty kind of set up to hold off till next round.

 

That's my thoughts about the situation as well. As long as my machine comes back and the 980Ms don't throttle anymore, I can live with the 780 Ti. I barely use that computer anyway because my H100i is noisy. I don't think I will do water again...

 

I have a 970 which a slightly less powerful but much cooler running 780 Ti and I have yet to find anything it can't handle at well above 60 fps on max settings other than Witcher 3.

I had a Strix 980 Ti reserved at MicroCenter which I was about to go pick up yesterday that is until I stumbled across this latest news about AMD cards benefiting hugely from DX12, and Nvidia cards not fully supporting DX12. This angers me as my 970 box says DX12 right on it. I knew about the 3.5Gb vRam issue before purchase, but this new potential issue/lie is really annoying.

I think I'll be waiting to see what actually happens with DX12 and Nvidia Maxwell, or looking at Pascal or possibly going team Red. For now I'll just wait as I don't feel like spending 500$ (after I sell my 970) for something that won't support DX12.

 

Are you referring to the Async Compute? That was the big news and supposedly this: http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/nvidia-will-fully-implement-async-compute-via-driver-support.html is saying Nvidia just hasn't put it into the drivers yet. I kind of believe it because Nvidia has known about this for a while, they wouldn't be dumb enough to let AMD cards crush them in DX12. Also Hi Talon! You helped me upgrade my GT60! Joined ur club though. (see sig)

 

Maxwell 2 likely doesn't support ASync compute at the hardware (shader) level, meaning while nVidia can emulate it at the software (driver) level, there will be some overhead and performance hit. Key is we don't know how much performance penalty there will be, plus we still don't know if this is a "one fix for all" deal or game specific. If this is something they'll have to optimize for every game, you bet your ass they won't bother and will just do what they do best -- sweep it under the rug, let the storm pass, and pretend nothing ever happened.

In any case, my vote is for don't buy anything now and just wait for 16nm GPUs. If you have to spend the money, considering upgrading to X99.

 

Whats up Galm17 I remember you upgrading GPU on that GT60. Its sad to say but I just don't miss my laptop much these days. I've become addicted to desktops again and the tinkering that goes along. That is a beast x99 build you have there. SLI 980 Ti must be nice!

 

Thanks for the advice everyone. I think I'll stick with my 780 Ti in the desktop for now and start saving up money for something else. I won't waste money on an X99 build when my 4790k is more than enough for me.

 

Probably a wise choice. The sad part about x99 is Haswell-E might be the only chip supported by the socket (besides the Xeons). There's little info on Broadwell-E and Skylake-E seems destined for a new socket.
Your 4970k is about as good as it gets for gaming right this minute.

 

Yeah, my 4790k is a beast... I don't even need the 4.7GHz, I just do it because I can and my H100i keeps it nice and cool. It's too bad my 780 Ti won't clock much higher than stock 1.07GHz boost.

 

Yeah I got a great price on my GT60 because of the 980m in it and it covered most of the cost of my build. The gpus are for pushing 4k. But I'm waiting for the 4k IPS Gsync panels to come out in a month or two. Haha these are so overkill at 1080p.

 

I do know my newphews has two 770OC and it did tears as you said but it was because the Vsync wasn't set maybe that is why yours tears at 60fps-did you look at your Vsync setting? After he set the Vsync it stopped the tears.

 

No my TV has to be at 59hz in order to not tear. If I vsync it to 60hz, it tears. Could be a driver issue I guess.

 

I have a dual 980Ti SLI and not very impressed due to one crappy nVIDIA Driver after the other. My suggestion is hold on a bit longer to your 780 Ti and get the next flagship nVIDIA GPU, one that can handle all games you play at the resolution you want without the need for SLI. Just get a single one and save yourself the headache.

 

Well that was my whole reason for getting the 780 Ti in the first place but nVidia blew that 670 dollar purchase away less than a year later...

 

I think it's a conspiracy between the game developers and nVIDIA and/or other Graphics Cards makers. They make the games not perform so well on last year's flagship to force consumers to upgrade.

To be honest with you, I don't see why a 780Ti cannot handle any game even at this day and age because if I look at games from 2 years back vs today's games, I don't see a big difference in terms of graphics quality/realism.

Maybe I don't have the sharp eye but today's games don't have the WOW factor in terms of graphics so I don't see how the 780Ti cannot play anything at any resolution. It is a powerful graphics card.

Example of what I say: Batman Arkam's night

 

Its the poor tessellation performance of the Kepler generation compared to Maxwell. There's no doubt in my mind that nVidia planned obsolescence in the case of Kepler though, I agree.

Well I may end up having to at least RMA it... Check out this bit of nastiness... Now this is a liquid cooled system with the fans basically off because I had it on power saver mode... I've never heard such a noisy video card before...



Just noticed how bad it is today. Was running some Windows 10 benches. Mind you, it starts at 100% and then I'm dropping the speed incrementally using Precision X... Its just as unbearable as it sounds.

Actually, it's worse than that... I wish the mic was less noisy.

 

Sounds like you have the vacuum machine on bro.

 

Mic is just noisy when taking video... But the warbling sound is what I'm talking about... Its really bad. It flies right out of the top of my case and fills the room. You can even hear it in the hall...

 

The noise reminds me of the reference-cooler R9 290X I had for awhile. Hard to tell which is really louder since it's video recording vs. real-life. But the 290X is supposed to be loud; the 780 GTX doesn't have that reputation that I know of. At any rate if it is as loud as the 290X in Uber mode, I can definitely understand why it's an issue. I didn't keep that card due to the noise.

I agree with those who have said keep it for now (if you can work around the noise issue), and wait for 16nm this year. Performance-wise it doesn't sound like it's that much of a bottleneck, you've said you don't use it as much as the laptop anyway, and to upgrade from it would be expensive. If you want more than 4 GB of VRAM, that essentially leaves the 980/980 TI at a high cost, or perhaps the R9 390X 8 GB (make sure it's a third-party cooler) for a less extravagant sum, but given what you've said I'd be just as inclined to wait for 16nm, if it doesn't sound like a jet engine taking off.

 

My PS4 sounds like a jet engine taking off when it gets going. My 780 Ti sounds like alien ships from Star Trek screaming in my case... Lol.

I can RMA it with EVGA but there's no guarantee that the new one will be any better... Its an option though, especially since the card is a horrible overclocker as well and runs hot despite the fact it's the only large heat source in the system exhausting heat in the case (I have an H100i in push config at the top). But it's probably more trouble than its worth. As we both said, I never really use the desktop. With any luck my laptop will be back this week and completely fixed.

 

If it still helps you somewhat, but i just upgraded myself from a EVGA 780TI @ 1200Mhz and a Rajintek Morpheus (5 Slot Monster incl. Fans) to a MSI Lightning 980TI and besides the fact that it boosts out of the box 1438mhz i could OC it to 1538 @ 1.18v, it is a Ultra boost, my reason to upgrade was actually that i can use more DSR or SGSSAA + Reshade + forced HBAO+. For example in Guild Wars 2, the 780Ti worked pretty well but i couldn't oc it more than 1200mhz even when pushing my 1.125v to 1.21v and i got pretty hard framedrops sometimes when some effects getting on screen, now it's all nice and fluid, even 4k DSR in Deus Ex Human Revolution is playable at 120fps 99% of the time, 780Ti was around 80-90 + drops.

 

I don't even know if I want to go with nVidia anymore after what they've done lately. Honestly the Fury X would be a nice fit in my system... I've got two front intake fans, I'd make the radiator my rear exhaust, I have a side intake fan and I have two fans in a push configuration for my H100i.... All the heat would get moved right out of the case and I'd not have to mess with nVidia and their disastrous drivers...

The thing is, I just don't know if it would be a worthwhile expenditure when my use of that machine is limited. Maybe I should just RMA the 780 Ti or just play with headphones for now. DSR would indeed be very nice but the 980 Ti literally costs half of what I take home for a month so it's not really income I should just be throwing around.

 

if i were you i would RMA that 780TI, it sounds like that the 780TI would still be plenty for you and if the card still is in waranty i would benefit from it. I were on the fence too about Fury (X), but without nVidia Inspector and to be able to force particular Anti Aliasing Bits in DX9 games the choice was very limited, the only option for AMD was RadeonPro which wasn't developed since some years and doesn't have the freedom like nV Inspector has. On my Desktop i never had any issues with drivers to date *knocks on wood* and the Developer drivers 355.84 work pretty darn smooth and stable (r355_60-5 branch instead of r355_x) wich i will stay on for a while, just hoping the EDID doesn't get broken on my Asus 120hz Display tho

Edit: if you are lucky EVGA even exchanges the 780Ti to a 980

 

I probably will end up RMAing the 780 Ti. I wish I didn't toss the box as it would make shipping it to them a lot easier. I'll have to see if I have an antistatic bag big enough to hold that monster. I wouldn't mind a 980. I mean it's a sidegrade but with a moderate overclock it should beat the 780 Ti in everything.

You know, I never really use Inspector. I wouldn't miss it too much but I get the feeling that's one of those things that I'll say that, switch to AMD and then find that my AMD card can't do something the nVidia would have care of Inspector.

As for your monitor, it should be fine. The EDID corruption that has been occurring is through exploiting LVDS cables in laptops.

I also forgot that AMD cards don't work well with a lot of emulation software I use... Definitely no sale.

 

Definitely RMA that 780 Ti, there's just no reason or excuse for a card to sound like that after just a year.

 

Yea I am not upgrading my titan x sli for at least another 2 years

 

yea with the way things are going, now that I have my own place, I am definitely moving away from laptops, going to upgrade my desktop component by component when necessary.

 

lol you probably wouldn't need to upgrade unless you want to do single card 4K gaming

 

Just purchased another Strix 970 today. Newegg has a pretty decent deal on them through today. Was $303 out the door. Since I game at 1080p 144hz I figure it should hold me over for a couple years or so until 4k IPS 144hz is both cheaper and viable with single cards. I just don't see 1440p upgrade being worth it for me at this point. Haven't had SLI since 8800GTs

 

Shoulda sold the 970 and gotten a single 980 Ti instead...

 

I agree a single card is better and I was leaning towards exactly what you said but I sort of feel like the 980 Ti is over priced and when Pascal drops their price/value is going down the tubes fast. I also figure it would be harder to sell at a decent price when it becomes necessary.

Most people that buy those high end cards won't be interested as they'll want the latest and greatest only. The 970s on the other hand will be easy to dump at around $175 or so to anyone looking for a decent card or a second for SLI.

Like I said I had 8800GT in SLI way back in the day and even then never experienced issues with it from what I remember.

I mostly play AAA titles and most likely those will get SLI drivers and won't have to worry much about potential issues. I guess if I hate SLI I can always sell them and go single card or just go back to a single 970 until Pascal comes out

 

Yeah especially given that said video card has MAYBE 20 hours of usage...

 

The 980 Ti's pricing is ok, I mean personally I would've liked to see it at $599, but absent of AMD pulling a rabbit out of the hat I knew that would never happen. Nevertheless, 980 Ti @ $649 is proof that we very much need AMD to keep nVidia in check. I mean nVidia could've charged $749 for the card, and it in all likelihood would sell just as well, if the $999 Titan X is any indication.

And frankly for 1080p, 970 SLI is overkill. I say this as someone who is running 970 SLI and used to game at 1080p 144Hz. Except for your usual Ubi$hit games, you really have to crank up the AA or DSR hard to tank your framerates. Then there's also the issue of frame pacing with SLI, not to mention that certain games simply don't play nice with SLI or flat out refuse to work. Ubi$hit games are notorious in this regard.

Unless nVidia does a 180 and release big Pascal first before milking the hell out of everyone with small Pascal, I don't foresee big Pascal coming any time before Q2 2017. Or if GP100 does drop first, expect it to be a Titan card with a HEFTY premium since HBM2 is likely to be in short supply initially, plus I have absolutely no faith that TSMC won't run into issues with their 16nm FF node (this is TSMC we're talking about, you know, the one that screwed up the 40nm, 28nm, and 20nm nodes?), so yield is likely to be horrible initially. Plus with Intel pushing Knights Landing, nVidia will want GP100 out ASAP to compete in the HPC segment, since Maxwell can't DP to save its life, and I seriously doubt nVidia wants to take Knights Landing head on with just Kepler-based Tesla K40 and K80. So I predict any good GP100 dies are going into the Tesla lineup first, with consumer parts coming (much) later.

The point I'm getting at with the above is that as long as you wait for GP100 before upgrading, a 980 Ti is still a pretty good investment. Or more generally, stick to the same die class with your upgrade cycle, unless the small die of the new arch manages to get 50% more performance than the big die of the old arch (hasn't happened since Fermi or maybe ever).

 

Don't you mean new medium die vs. old big die? It didn't happen with Fermi (excepting DX11 support, 460 and 285 were very close in performance). Kepler was the closest I think. 680 was up to 50% faster than 580 at times.

 

Yeah you're right medium die is the proper term, but for me anything below the "4" series dies just don't warrant any consideration, so it's just big die and small die.

 

Given the additional info, I agree that RMA is the way to go... would make more sense than a new card, from either manufacturer, given finances and not using it much.

 

Well I just played an hour and a half of Watch Dogs which beats my card to the ground and it was stable, max temp 77C. I think I'll keep it and just play with headphones - they make the difference in FPS anyway. If I RMA it now, I doubt I'd get a 980 in exchange and I've heard all the SC ACX 780 Ti cards have some degree of coil whine and warbling so I could end up getting an even worse 780 Ti than I have. My card has a 3 year warranty so there's time yet if I change my mind but I have to admit, I forgot how smooth single card game play was compared to SLI. nVidia even set a DSR resolution of 2715x1537 when I used the optimize function in GFE which was kind of surprising and combined with Temporal SMAA actually looked better than 1080p 8xMSAA (not to mention ridiculously smoother). Makes me wonder what my 980M SLI recommendation will be.

 

Yeah going back to a single card really made a difference for me. With SLI any time I dropped below 50 FPS (even for a second) there was notable stutter, and forget about gaming at 45 FPS. With a single card though, 45 FPS actually is suprisingly tolerable as long as the frames don't jump around too much. Of course the other side to is the experience is better even if the average FPS number is lower. Larger frame drops are much better tolerated, and Stutter Dogs Watch Dogs actually feels smooth with a single card lol.

 

Yeah I was actually able to play it without so much input lag that I couldn't shoot the CT OS goons without getting wasted. Game is a lot more pleasurable running without stutters and if I don't feel like hacking my way through I just shot my way through lol. That's aa game mechanic I never could do before so yeah.

 

Don't know how I ended up here but EVGA is giving me an RMA and the way they were talking, since I have a SC w/ACX, they basically said all of them are broken... I'm probably going to get a 980 (that's assumption) with ACX 2.0

 

Only 980?!? 980ti or bust!

 

980 is overclockable while my 780 Ti can't even muster 50....... I'm fine with a new card because I plan to run SLI.... Getting a 980 and getting a second will cost me less than a flat upgrade and EVGA even just told me tonight that they don't try to fix the card, they send a new one as soon as they get it... This is why I will never buy anything that isn't EVGA... Because I have a 780 Ti SC w/ ACX. Nvidia stopped shipping GK104 awhile ago so unless they have one in stock, I'm going to get a 980 (talked to dude about what happens when they don't have replacements and what that would mean for me - because I have an SC with ACX, I have a recorded convo where he states I would get a 980 SC w/ ACX). Running tests, my 780 Ti got a HUGE boost from the new nVidia update... whatever they broke, they fixed...

This is the same company who I bought one of those 7900GTs and it failed (I think that chip was nVidia's worst in history actually, they had a failure rate between 80-90%) and I called EVGA and they not only bumped me to a 7950GT but they paid for a cross ship... meaning they sent it out at their risk (they asked me for a credit card and I gave it to them but didn't charge me), dude apologized profusely for a good fifteen minutes, they overnighted the new card, and they gave me a 30 day extension to return the defective card.

Just doesn't get better.

 

But admit it, you would have loved it if they have sent you a 980ti.
I remember when my RMA'ed 6600GT got replaced to 7600GT. Christmas came early that year.

 

@Ethrem I'd stick with the single 980 and save your cash for a flagship Pascal. I'd never normally advise against going SLI but I wasn't happy when I had 980 SLI. Your milage may vary since you're on a 1440p 144hz (right?) and I am on a 1080p 144hz so was more CPU limited, but Maxwell in SLI hasn't been a great experience for me.

 

Agreed, with Pascal coming out so soon, a single 980 should be fine... Get Pascal Ethrem