Simple question really, would you ditch 2 295x2's with koolance waterblocks for 2 980 TI's gaming at 4k? I have been a amd/radeon fanboy for a long time because of the price/performance but now I'm whoring out for frames and amd/radeon is no longer cutting it for my budget. I recently upgraded to a 4790k and maximus vii hero from a fx9590/crosshair v z that was @5.8ghz under LD phase change cooler, and the 4790k is already better w/o the phase change lol. I was planning to switch to skylake but after I sold the phase change I fried the crosshair mobo so I decided to go intel and get some experience overclocking devils canyon before the skylake drop. anywho, so what do you guys think? ditch the two xfx 295x2's and go for some fancy 980ti's, throw some water on them and OC? or would smart money wait for pascal? btw first post on tek i think. ; )
Personally I would make the switch, Sli has come a long way over the last few years and the performance gain you get from a second card is quite substantial.
The Ti's overclock really well too so there's always headroom for even more performance gains.
off the top of my head I'm not sure which setup would use less power but that's not something I really take into account when I'm going for pure performance.
thanks man, I appreciate the input. power isn't really an issue for me either, I had to rock a 1600w evga psu to push my amd system so I'm sure that area is covered.
If you've got the cash then yeah do the swap - less heat in your loop for a start...
btw how have you found the quad-fire scaling?
You wont see much increase in FPS.
Only better scaling, nicer power consumption and less microstutter.
I'd not make the switch if you cannot sell those 295s.
Scaling is not as bad as you might think. I was running a 295x2 with a sapphire r9 290(non x) tri x oc for a tri fire for awhile and I noticed enough of a jump replacing it that made it feel worth it. Told myself I would go fury x when they released but It doesn't look like the gains are there yet.
I would wait to see what is coming. You have more power there with 2 295x2s than you would with 2 980tis, maybe not lots but more all the same. Worst that happens is everything gets a little cheaper.
And of all the ironies the drivers for nvidia suck right now. Amd is doing way better on that front currently. Microstutter was largely fixed in Omega, scaling has for a very long time been better on amd and so has high resolution and multi monitor support.
Don´t swtich, it is not worth the 2 to 20 FPS more.
In terms of performance in games, isn't this a sideways upgrade at best?
if you have a good scaling right now, which i highly doubt,
but if, then why would you change?
I would hold off a few generations. 2x R9295 cards are fast enough. Really, really fast enough for the next gen. Wait for Volta (2017/2018), then go with two of the best bang per buck cards on the enthusiast market.
Many of the muli-gpu reviews that I've seen have the Fury cards scaling better than the 980ti with the current drivers. Here's link to one of the ones I read. I've watched a few on YouTube as well.
I'm currently running 3 290's water cooled but I'm replacing them with 2 Fury's. I think there is better performance for the price to be had with Fury than with the 980ti's and less likely to run into scaling problems with only 2 cards. I've ran into issues on a few games where there is no scaling with 3 cards.
All great advice, thank you. I think I'll wait at least until after I go skylake. I might accidentally click buy on a couple furyx2 when they drop. I would probably light candles and set the mood before I click buy if asus made some aresIV dual fury waterblock cards.