Upgrading GPU/Monitor: advice requested

Will a gtx 980 work with my PSU/Motherboard/etc? ...How does r9 290 performance compare to a gtx 980?

Supposedly ATI will release drivers for FreeSYNC soon. (I hear nvidia is being a dick and making people pay extra for Vsync).

With this in mind, should I wait till next year to upgrade monitor? Are there FreeSYNC compatible monitors yet?

The problem is that don't know how ATI drivers will work with the video games I play. Right now I play Planetside 2, Skyrim +mods, Battlefield 4, CoD AW, Dragon Age: Inquisition, etc. When the newer games release I plan on playing Elite Dangerous, Star citizen, Witcher3, The Crew, etc.

 


Current PC specs

CPU – Intel Core i5-3570K

CPU Cooling - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO (CM fan replaced with a Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm Case Fan) XIGMATEK PTI-G4512 Paste

Case fans - (4) COUGAR CF-V12H

Motherboard – ASRock Z77 Extreme3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77

RAM – G.SKILL Sniper 8GB

GPU – ASUS GTX650TI Boost

PSU – Cooler Master GX - 650W

Case – RAIDMAX Helios modded to hell ( created brackets for fan to sit on top/rear of case)

SSD - SAMSUNG 840 EVO

HDD – 1TB WD blue

Monitor – HPw2338h planning on upgrading soon (any suggestions)

OS – Windows 7 64bit

The GTX 980 kicks the R9 290s butt ... but costs much more

What kind of budget do you have for GPU and monitor?

A geforce 970 would be a huge improvement.