Widescreen Gaming Forum

I'm looking for a new graphic card. Currently I have one GTX 670 witch really doesn't do the job for nearly any new game and my other hardware looks good enough imo. I looked into two 960 in SLI but I saw a review I get more FPS with my resolution with a single 980 on FarCry 4.
I only plan to play on only one screen, the widescreen. High setting would be enough, I think Ultra would be a bit expensive...

My question:
-Should I take the single 980 or would be a 970 in SLI be better for my resolution?
-Any other interesting videocards coming out in the future, maybe I should wait?
-Any better AMD cards? (didn't mention them because I don't really know them)


(I'm also thinking to buy a second LG 34UM95 in the future, this is why SLI would be preferred because of the special display connector)

My current setup:
Monitors: LG 34UM95 3440x1440 and LG w2753VC 1920x1080
Corsair 850 watt PSU
GTX 670
Moederbord Intel Asrock Z77 Extreme
Processor Intel Core i7 3770K (Currently not overclocked)
Samsung SSD 840 Series Pro 256GB
Corsair 2x4GB DDR3 2133 CMZ8GX3M2X2 (666 MHZ CL9 tRCD 9 tRIP 9 tRAS 24)

Far Cry 4 ate my VRAM in a second... not a game I'll play that much, so I wont replace my two 970's. But a 980 would be a good choice... but other than FC4 two 970's could come at the same price as a 980. I got my two for 635€, which was the same price as one 980. Two 970's outperforms one 980 every day of the week but could be a stumbling block once you pass the barrier of 3.5GB VRAM...

(Playing @ 3440x1440 on an AOC u3477pq)

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Gaming: CPU: i7 2700K + Silver Arrow SB-E @ 4.6Ghz | GPU: 2x EVGA SC ACX 970 +100/+400 | RAM: G-Skill 2x8GB @ 1866Mhz CL8 | MB: ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 | SSD/HDD: 120GB Intel 520, 500GB Crucial BX100 SSD's & 1TB WD Black HDD | PSU: Antec HCP 850W 80+ GOLD | Monitor: AOC u3477pq 34" + Benq G2420HDB 24" - All this inside a Corsair 600T

Media: CPU: AMD A8 6600K + CM 212+ | GPU: AMD A8 6600K APU | RAM: Corsair 2x4GB | MB: ASRock FM2A88M Extreme4+ | SSD/HDD: 120GB Samsung Evo & 3x 3TB WD Red | PSU: CM 450W 80+ BRONZE | Monitor: 47" LG - All this inside a Corsair 550D

as much as i've heard 970 is NOT reccomended as it only has 3.5gb on fast access and 500mb with slow, therefore tries to keep the VRAM under 3.5gb. Which will NOT happen on high resolutions with high settings. Therefore: Lag

Here some Benchmarks.
http://www.hardwarepal.com/far-cry-4-pc ... rformance/
Sadly Frametimes only for 1920x1080 and not 4k



if you have another 3-4 months time, AMD should release the R9-380 which is said to be more powerfull than a 290x

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We gonna send it to outa space!

Hey Haldi this is Nikolas (from HardwarePal) I have the tests saved in Google Drive. Which frame times at 4K would you like single GTX970 or SLI ?

Anyway I went out and did SLI 1440p and 4K for those interested (if you would like something else just ask). I don't have the GTX970s anymore I RMAed them because they gave me some weird stutter over 3.5GB usage.





High frametimes are from one of the cores on the CPU spiking to 100%

Hi Nikolas. you're awesome, welcome to WSGF.



Those 3.5GB spikes was exactly what i was looking forward to see. Thanks.

While the 1440p graph still looks fine (except some spikes, same as 1080p), the 4k has this horrible up and down that goes from 10ms to 30ms. Guess these were the stutters you've seen ingame.



So the 970 is still safe for 2560x1440 but not reccomended for 3840x2160.
One could even dare to say it's not reccomended with future games in 2560x1440.

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We gonna send it to outa space!

Thanks.

To be honest FC4 isn't the game you would want to look at for the 3.5GB problem it's something with one core spiking to 100%. I actually emailed a few people about the issue I was facing at 4K with the GTX970s prior to all the noise ( i had no idea what it was). Anyway I would only recommend the GTX970 for 1080p as we already have games hitting over 3.5GB at 1440p with eyecandy at max.

Heres a little thread I made on reddit about the issue

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comme ... d_stutter/

I was lucky enough to get an RMA from OCUK on my cards. (good riddance)

Happy with my R9-290s I had hidden in the closet