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DrDoomz on 19 March 2015
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JEMC said:
Kirin_gaming said:
DrDoomz said:

What are the best manufacterers for the 980gtx? Are all 980's SLI-enabled? Checking amazon and I only see evga as the only one that specifies SLI. :)

What's the best ddr3 memory I can find?


Again, thanks for the replies guys.

If you're planning on building a 4k rig I would wait for cards with more than 4gb of ram.I game at 4k with 3xgtx780ti and I always have to turn down textures, sometimes even shadows, the 780ti is a 3gb card though.Back when I built the rig in 2013 3gb was more than enough to max everything at 4k, nowdays some games use more than 4gb even at 1080p.

Now if you still want to build that rig,and money is not a problem, I suggest you get 3 EVGA gtx 980 classiffied.Only 2 980 are not enough if you want to a completely smooth experience with no frame drops whatsoever.

For cpu and again only if  money is not a problem get an i7 5960X but only if you aren't planning on upgrading in a few year later, if you're planning on upgrading later, get an i7-5930K.

For ram is the same get ddr4 if you aren't upgrading, and ddr3 if you are upgrading later.

Many things to say here:

1-It is true that there are games that at 4K need more than 4GB of graphics RAM, HardOCP has a preview of the new Titan and provides RAM usage backing this claim. However they only reach those really high figures when using Anti Aliasing at its highest settings, and it's generally accepted that in 4K AA can be turned off or left at the lowest x2 settings.

2-With the new Maxwell cards (9x0 and TitanX), Nvidia introduced a new compression algorithm that lowers RAM usage. So not only do the 980 have more RAM than your 780Ti, but is also more efficient on its use.

3-At the end of the day, the 4GB of the 980 is not what dictates its performance at 4K. Simply put, at 4K the card is running at the max of what it can do, so the extra RAM won't improve its performance.

4-Adding more cards is not always the best solution. Neither SLI nor Xfire scaling is perfect, as you know, so by adding a second card you won't see an improvement of 100% in your performance but rather something betwen 80-90%, and that's when everything works great. When adding a third card the improvement will be even lower, gaining maybe another 70-75%.

In this case, a pair of TitanX will be more useful than three or four 980s.

5-DDR4 is not better than DDR3 when gaming. While DDR4 is faster, starting at 2133MHz all the way to 3000MHz, the latency is also higher and that hinders its performance. Example: The 2133MHz set of DDR4 have a latency (or CL) of 14 or 15 while a 2133MHz set of DDR3 will have a CL of 9. If we go for a faster set of RAM at 2400MHz, the DDR4 set will still have a CL15 while the DDR3 set will be at CL12. In those cases, DDR3 will be better as it has lower latency.

6-And an i7-4790X with its 4+4 cores is plenty fast for gaming today and in the next 5 years, and has enough PCI lanes to handle 2 and 3 way SLI/XFire.

There is no need to go with Intel's most expensive CPUs and motherboards.

Wow. Awesome reply. Thanks! The CPU/RAM comments were eye openers and just might save me some solid bucks (was planning on going with a 5960X and DDR4s) but if that's the case, I might just go the 4790. 

But I can't find titans anywhere in Amazon. At least nothing for less than 3.5k usd. Which makes it seem more efficient to just buy multiple 980s and SLI them. Heck, I'd have room in the budget to dedicate a 3rd 980 as a full Phys X card if I need to. You know where I can get a a TitanX?

You got any recommendations on the best manufacturer for 980s? EVGA, Gigabyte or MSI?