Need some help choosing

L

Liveeight

New member
Hey guys,

I was hoping for some guidance on a minor issue i have. I recently bought a Dell U3014 (had a sale in Aust) and was looking to upgrade my GPU.

Current Computer:
- 3930k @ 4.4ghz with H100
- AMD 7970 reference
- Asus P9X79-PRO
- 8gb Ram @ 2133mhz
- Cosair Carbide 500R
- Seasonic 1000W 80Plus Platinum
- 120gb SSD

My current options are to sell my 7970 and perhaps buying 780 sli. Or i can keep the 7970 and get either another one or a 7990.

What do you guys think? does the 1600p warrant the 780's if i want to play games like BF3, BF4 and whatever demanding games come out in the near future?
 
for 2560x1600 i'd get either one or two 780s. you can get one first and then add another if you feel like it's not enough.
i can get you some 780 sli 1440p benchmarks if you want
 
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Nah thats fine thanks, im sure i can find some online and dont want to put you out.

If i was to get two 780's should i get reference or something like a Windforce 780? I know they get lower temps and generally are quieter but would my case be able to exhaust the extra heat?

i currently have two intake 120mm at the front, two 120mm exhaust for the h100 at the top and one more on the back. And on the side i have a 200m intake.
 
yeah i'd get a non-reference if you don't plan on watercooling them.
airflow should be fine, although i think that 200mm in the side is most likely not filtered. you should either remove that or get a filter for it, so you don't have dust all over your stuff
 
Liveeight said:
Nah thats fine thanks, im sure i can find some online and dont want to put you out.

If i was to get two 780's should i get reference or something like a Windforce 780? I know they get lower temps and generally are quieter but would my case be able to exhaust the extra heat?

i currently have two intake 120mm at the front, two 120mm exhaust for the h100 at the top and one more on the back. And on the side i have a 200m intake.
Click to expand...

If you decide to run windforce's or similar then I would try changing the rear fan to an intake and the 200mm to an exhaust and I think you will find a noticeable improvement for CPU and GPU temps, of course the GPU's will use the boost clock to hold them at 80c pretty much all of the time their loaded.

I have two 780's on 1440p and it's pretty sweet, more than enough grunt for the pixels. I went with reference Titan cooler cards because I thought having rear exhaust blowers would really help in SLI. My old 570's were a little closer together with big 2.5 slot coolers and the top one always ran hot so perhaps I was worrying about nothing. You'll have more clearance with your X79 anyway so do whatever suits your tastes. I don't regret getting the Titan Cooler cards, I wouldn't swap them for ACX's but wouldn't turn down Classifieds :)

JR
 
Ah JR thats a good idea. the only issue is the non-reference cards are around $100 more each card, so not sure if its really needed.

But if i do get non-reference then i will forsure try that setup out.
 
Get the reference ones, the cooler works really well for sli and if you ever wanted to go with a 3 way setup in the future it would not be a problem.

Even 4 way like in the pic below the stock coolers can keep the cards below 80c

003fbu.jpg
 
Considering you have the budget for 780 SLI then i see no point in going for another 7970(would still be very much playable though).

Keep in mind on Sept. 25th AMD will be announcing new GPUs that are supposed to be on par with a titan but cheaper/as cheap as a 780.. I would wait IMO until more specs are released.. For now you could just turn off AA in the settings for a bigger FPS improvement(also don't really need it on 1600p).
 
Dont forget we test our GPU's with 1440p..... Plenty of results front page.

Members here need to start remembering this is a REVIEW site
 
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