I got a GTX 970 - Need upgrade advice

[Insane Buttocks]

Hello yall,

would love and appreciate some advice for my upgrade.

Here is the build I have been using for a while;



I am satisfied with it overall, but still want just a little more when it comes to truly maxing out games. I didnt have much $$$ left when i built this PC so had to cheapen out on the Monitor. I am getting two x 144hz monitors soon, so also want my build to be able to support that.

Main thing is that I live in Canada, and we have had our dollar plummeting for the past year and everything being very expensive. Cyber Monday sale is in just a few weeks, so I want to save cash by upgrading then.

What would you guys recommend; getting another 970 and doing sli? or just selling my current 970 and upgrading to a 980ti or something else?

Other upgrade advice is also welcome.


Thank you

[Fleckens]

Unless you have a ton of money to spent it seems like a bit of a waste to upgrade, as you should be able to run almost everything maxed out with your current computer.

[Insane Buttocks]

Unless you have a ton of money to spent it seems like a bit of a waste to upgrade, as you should be able to run almost everything maxed out with your current computer.

Hmm, maybe im doing something wrong then. I definitely noticed FPS dips when playing GTAV or Guil Wars 2 completely maxed out.

Just worried Ill get hit even more with performance when I get two high performance monitors.

[caervek]

Well your only options are GTX980 or GTX980ti (unless you wanna waste loads on a Titan for 0 benefit).

IMO go with a GTX980ti, that's what I did, it's a beast.

[Freshtildeath]

Hello yall,

would love and appreciate some advice for my upgrade.

Here is the build I have been using for a while;



I am satisfied with it overall, but still want just a little more when it comes to truly maxing out games. I didnt have much $$$ left when i built this PC so had to cheapen out on the Monitor. I am getting two x 144hz monitors soon, so also want my build to be able to support that.

Main thing is that I live in Canada, and we have had our dollar plummeting for the past year and everything being very expensive. Cyber Monday sale is in just a few weeks, so I want to save cash by upgrading then.

What would you guys recommend; getting another 970 and doing sli? or just selling my current 970 and upgrading to a 980ti or something else?

Other upgrade advice is also welcome.


Thank you

Honestly the .5 gigs isnt worth the money to upgrade. you should be fine. I have sli 970's and run one 4k monitor at 120hz and 2 HD at 144hz. I run everything silky smooth at max graphics even in 4k. One card will be enough for 2 hd 144hz.
If anything put the money to a new cpu, once cards drop in price and DX12 is implemented, you will be running 4k with 1 970, so just wait or go for a better cpu so you dont experience bottleneck issues.

[Lathais]

Well your only options are GTX980 or GTX980ti (unless you wanna waste loads on a Titan for 0 benefit).

IMO go with a GTX980ti, that's what I did, it's a beast.

You left out the better choice, an R9 390x.

@OP, the 970 should not be having issues for 1080p, not even at 144hz. I would not recommend SLI as not all game support it, so for at least some titles you'll only be using 1 anyway. Many titles that do support it, do not support it well and you are better off disabling it. For the few cases that it does work as it should, it sometimes requires tinkering to get it to do so.

You are almost always better off with a single strong card. The only reason I can think of for going SLI/XFire currently would be if you are trying to do things at 4k. Even at that, you're not gonna be running Ultra@60FPS.

If you really do want to upgrade, I would look at the R9 390x or the Fury X. They will outperform the 970 and will last you longer as they have true DX12 Support. Just sell the 970 if you do decide to upgrade.

[Evildeffy]

Honestly the .5 gigs isnt worth the money to upgrade. you should be fine. I have sli 970's and run one 4k monitor at 120hz and 2 HD at 144hz. I run everything silky smooth at max graphics even in 4k. One card will be enough for 2 hd 144hz.
If anything put the money to a new cpu, once cards drop in price and DX12 is implemented, you will be running 4k with 1 970, so just wait or go for a better cpu so you dont experience bottleneck issues.

Uh what?
You run everything silky smooth in 4K res? Even in SLI 970s I don't buy that unless you run at low quality or ancient games.
You're deffo not running it at 120FPS, not with SLI's scaling and limited VRAM on the 970.

Also upgrading the CPU? You are seriously on drugs to be suggesting that...
The CPU he has will become even more powerful when DX12 hits and he will NOT be running 4K res with a single GTX 970.
Mostly due to the fact that nVidia DOES NOT HAVE ASYNCH COMPUTE... the little thing that provides the biggest performance increase for DX12.

OP:
The only thing you could possibly "upgrade" is SLI if you so deem fit.
Your intention is to run 144Hz with eye candy than that's really your only option.

But whether it's better to run a 980Ti or SLI 2 x 970s is a toss up, the cheapest option is getting another 970.

Try it out with that and if you so want .. later on replace with either a Pascal GPU from nVidia or go Arctic Islands from AMD.
(Both are new gens coming out beginning of 2016)

Please do ignore the advice given to you by people like "Freshtildeath" because he's pretty much showing you from his posts that he has absolutely no idea what the hell he's talking about regarding at least the latter bit of his statement.

[Kagthul]

.
Mostly due to the fact that nVidia DOES NOT HAVE ASYNCH COMPUTE... the little thing that provides the biggest performance increase for DX12.

ORLY?

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/nvidia...xide-confirms/

[Lathais]

ORLY?

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/nvidia...xide-confirms/

nVidia's hardware does not directly support ASync comupte and never will due to hardware architecture. They will emulate it with software, which kinda defeats the purpose as the whole point is to remove software overhead.

[Evildeffy]

ORLY?

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/nvidia...xide-confirms/

And pretty much erase any benefit that DX12 should bring in regards to increased performance.
nVidia has no hardware Asynch Compute capability that differentiates from how it works today with DX11.

In essence it will not see a performance boost period.

Also the fact that it becomes a driver also has other ramifications, one of them being VR = utter dogshite on nVidia as context switching becomes too slow,
The nVidia driver in essence becomes an emulator, trying to do in software what was originally meant for hardware.

AMD's GCN architecture process of Asynch Compute: Game -> Hardware -> Game.
nVidia's Maxwell 2 architecture: Game -> Drivers -> Hardware -> Drivers -> Game.

Result:
Added latency and performance loss as the physical capability isn't there and the driver has to sort everything.
All the Driver reduction work that was meant to be minimized (read: removed) in DX12 is entirely nullified.
Every time a game comes out that uses Asynch Compute the driver will need to be updated.

Hence:
nVidia does NOT have Asynch Compute... but to be technical I shall rephrase it for you: nVidia does NOT have HARDWARE Asynch Compute.
You should read this article, it's tied to DX12's issues in nVidia hardware.

[Kagthul]

nVidia's hardware does not directly support ASync comupte and never will due to hardware architecture. They will emulate it with software, which kinda defeats the purpose as the whole point is to remove software overhead.

you might want to read the article. There is a -single portion- (scheduling/work distribution) of Asynch Compute which will have to be done in software, the rest IS supported in Hardware.

[caervek]

You left out the better choice, an R9 390x.

AMD have poor performance in Blizzard games compared to their Nvidia counterparts (assuming he plays Blizzard games as he posts here), a 390X isn't really an upgrade from his current position.

[Deleted]

AMD have poor performance in Blizzard games compared to their Nvidia counterparts (assuming he plays Blizzard games as he posts here), a 390X isn't really an upgrade from his current position.

Why would he need to upgrade at all for blizzard games?
He stated GTA5 and GW as examples. While I don't know how both cards perform in GW, for GTA5 a 390x will be a small upgrade.

I would not upgrade the 970 or not now at least. Just wait till you have your monitors (also why get 2 144Hz monitors? I assume you will only game on one) and then decide if you feel the need. But I think for a noticable upgrade you would either have to SLI, or go for a fury X or 980Ti.

[Isheria]

If you want to upgrade from what you currently have then you gonna waste money big time. For starters current gpus from both vendors do not fully support dx12 and they never will, if you want that capability you'll need to wait for the new ones estimated to be released mid 2016. If playing on 4k or multi-monitor setup is that much important to you right now you can either get another 970 and sli or move to the highest tier of gpus which would be a 980ti or a fury X provided you're willing to spend that much.

[Master Guns]

My only question is why are you getting 2 144Hz monitors? Like, 3 okay, I'd understand 3, but 2? That's irrelevant anyways. You can't game on two monitors.

[Deleted]

Your configuration is pretty much top tier still and will be in the future as well. The CPU is like 5% slower than the new Skylake CPU (i7 6700K) the GPU is great too. If you are seeing some fps drops it might be some poor optimization at some places inside the games, no game is perfect after all, or there is a software issue or another bottleneck somewhere else (SSD, HDD). I would get the monitors and then test things out on a fresh installed operating system.

[Deleted]

Something else that I was wondering. From your screen it seems you are using Geforce Experience. Are you setting your game options using that or do you do that in game? I am not sure, but I thought there were some issues with letting GFE set the graphic options.

[Lathais]

AMD have poor performance in Blizzard games compared to their Nvidia counterparts (assuming he plays Blizzard games as he posts here), a 390X isn't really an upgrade from his current position.

Blizzard games will run fine on a 390x. None of them are demanding enough that it can't max them out.

Also, assumption is bad. I post here and do not play a single Blizzard game anymore. Have not in a few years. Actually, I am currently not playing a single MMO. Have not in a couple months.

[Artorius]

Blizzard games will run fine on a 390x. None of them are demanding enough that it can't max them out.

Also, assumption is bad. I post here and do not play a single Blizzard game anymore. Have not in a few years. Actually, I am currently not playing a single MMO. Have not in a couple months.

This exactly. I think most active posters actually don't play them anymore.

[Insane Buttocks]

My only question is why are you getting 2 144Hz monitors? Like, 3 okay, I'd understand 3, but 2? That's irrelevant anyways. You can't game on two monitors.

hmm? I only game on 1 monitor. I just hate constantly alt+tabbing when I want to look something up mid-game, ifi get an email form work, changing music etc. Eventually I will get a 3rd one.