Currently the ASUS ROG POSEIDON GTX780 is a surprisingly low $329 on Amazon right now, making it cheaper than the GTX 970 Strix ($349). Now for my build I intend on watercooling my next graphics card so the Poseidon looks to be the better choice, but the fact that its aluminum and the rest of my loop is copper concerns me. Performance wise they both have their strong points, more ram on the GTX 970 is leaning my decision towards that card as well. I could go into more details about my business but I just can't decide between these two cards and I'm hoping the community would be able to help.
I would go with the 970. It has a great price for the performance and trades blows with the 780 after being overclocked. Plus, you have a very silent and cool variant of the card ensuring a grand gaming experience.
Logan says the 780 is more powerful.
Most other sites say the 970 is more powerful
Well since you are watercooling, right now the GTX 780 Can do this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6vjBwtSvCQ
So we are talking 1400MHz on a 780.
While as of right now, the 970 cannot, but show some potential:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1516169/best-gtx-970-for-watercooling-and-for-mods
As for the aluminum concern, you can use 50/50 antifreeze and eliminate most of the issues with dissimilar metals. But if it were my loop I wouldnt use an aluminum block in the same series as copper parts.
Zotac's 970 AMP! Extreme went over 1500mhz core easily:
I might as well go for the Poseidon 780, I mean it is still a 780 that's cheaper than the 970 and the only one I can find on Amazon that is. I would probably be swapping out the hybrid VGA cooler for an EK waterblock and sell the Poseidon's cooler. Like I mentioned before, I'll be adding a waterblock to the 970 anyways once they're available, so a custom block with the 780 would still be cheaper than a custom block with the 970.
If I were to switch out my copper rads with aluminum ones then maybe I'll keep the Poseidon block, maybe a separate loop from my VRM and CPU would be good for this situation?
Asus Rog POS x2! xD Or 1 :D. I think alot of us are being mislead by these 970 benchmarks, I have 2 now and I had the chance to test another, and I'm not as impressed as I thought I would be!
Probably because a lot use synthetic benchmarks rather than real world games.
Hmm, maybe. x2 970s is great for 1440p. Honestly, I would not recommend buying a single 970 and expecting ultra 1440p out of it, i would call it more a 1080p killer and a medium - high settings 1440p card. I know they are talking about how it's a 4k card, but i dont see how it could be with just 1.
+1
Logan posted on the benchmarks video comments that he miss spoke, saying he meant the 970 was faster than a 780, slower then a 780ti.
I'm getting a gigabyte 970 g1 gaming, but I only have a 1080p monitor, and that's all I expect to get out of it. If I ever want 1440p I'll get a second 970 with the monitor, I say that if you want 1440p reliably, 2 970's is a must, as you might get 40-50 fps with one, but only on some games.