PC will be upgraded slowly as time goes by anyway but I'd like this big upgrade to last 2 years of 1440p gaming at high/ultra settings and 50+ FPS (I can't tell the difference above 52-55 in a lot of games). I play lots of Witcher 3 at the moment as well as Metro, will probably get Elite Dangerous next week and might also invest in Star Citizen. I do also use the PC for simple CAD + CFD/FEA analysis (Solidworks) though it can handle that well enough now anyway so it won't factor into upgrades really.
I have no strict budget but I'd like to keep the whole thing under £1000, basically if something cheaper can do almost the same job I'd prefer to get that thing instead!
Win 904 Case
ASUS Maximus VII Ranger
Intel 4790K
Kingston Value RAM 8GB (2x4)
Zotac GTX 750
Corsair CX 500W
120GB SSD (OS)
1TB HDD
250GB HDD
Noctua fans throughout
For the upgrade I was thinking;
Get a MSI Radeon R9 380 4GB x2
Get a 27" 1440p capable monitor
Get a new PSU to power the 2nd GPU
Upgrade to 2x8 GB RAM
GPU: I wanted GPUs that have a fan-off mode at low temps, also they can't really be more than 2 slots high or 360mm long as there isn't the room in my case. Figured for 1440p it's better to have 2x[intermediate card] than one high-end one, feel free to correct me though!
Monitor: No damn clue about monitors to be honest - quality is key though, I don't want to sacrifice even blacks, colour clarity or good contrast ratio for a lower response time (I don't care enough about competitive gaming to want super-low ms from my monitor). Freesync looks like a good idea though I'm not really sure how well supported it is or, to be honest, exactly how it works.
PSU: Again after a fan-off mode for low temps, 180mm depth is the biggest that fits in my case, preferably not too tall either. 750W+. Fully modular would be nice, willing to spend to get a good one.
RAM: RAM will be anything quality that fits under a Noctua NH-C14 - was thinking Hyper-X Savage kit.
Might also replace the HDDs with new faster models - the two listed above are taken from a previous PC and are now 4 years old (1TB) and 7 years old (250GB).
Also will be doing a little mod to place an extra fan blowing cool air in below the GPUs.
______
So yeah I have a rough idea of what to do but I'm not up to scratch with the latest and greatest parts, how they perform, alternatives, problems (drivers etc) so thought i'd be best off asking before I invest.
Sorry if I missed any info off and thanks in advance for any helpful replies!
Its always better to stick to 1 powerful gpu than sli/cfire. Some games are not well optimised for them and in new games drivers for it will always come later. So i would advise to drop your money on 1 card. For 1440p i would grab a 980 be happy with it.
About the ram do you actually need more than 8gb? If you do just grab another pair of stick with similar specs.
Like Kostattoo said... all things being equal, 1x big card is always going to be better than 2x small if for no other reason than driver support. SLI/Xfire have gotten a lot better in the past few years, but they still can cause problems. A GTX 980 is a good choice with a good ratio of price to performance, but be advised that with only 4gb of VRAM it's already throttling some current-gen games at 1440p...
If you *need* more RAM, just buy another kit of what you have... no reason to get fancy with it. However, make sure that you're actually going to use it before you go and dump money into buying more. I have 16gb in my computer but never actually use more than about 45% of it even while gaming with Netflix and 10-12 Chrome tabs open.
That'll keep you going at or near max settings for the foreseeable future while leaving you a little extra to upgrade your memory if you really insist.
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