Help a newbie. Which card should I buy?

[dotChuckles]

So I have an i7-4790k overclocked to 4.6, 16GB of RAM, and everything running off a solid state drive. Currently I have a Standard GTX970 too.

 

My Rift is on the way and i'm hoping to just try it out with my current system for a bit before I spend some more money.

 

So when that moment inevitably comes in a months time and I wan't to buy a new card. Which should I go for 1070 or 1080?

 

I have read a few posts that I didn't really understand, that the 1080 isn't so good. Does that mean the 1070 is giving better performance? Or is the 1080 performing better but not as much as it should?

 

As I say, i'm a complete novice at VR, so can someone break it down for me in a way my idiot-man-baby brain can understand?

 

thank you muchly in advance.

[DerekSpeare]

980ti

[dotChuckles]

What is that based on, value for money or raw frame rates?

[Penshoon]

The 970 might not be your bottleneck in DCS with VR anyway so I would wait for the rift to arrive and check how it runs first.

 

You will be able to crank up the AA & pixel density more with a gtx 1080 compared to a gtx 1070 as it's faster but you pay a premium for that extra bump graphical horsepower for only a slight increase in "eye candy". You will definitely not gain any better performance (maximum potential fps) with a 1080 compared to a 1070 in DCS as they both will be bottlenecked by your cpu. VR in DCS is very demanding on the CPU.

 

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[/ame] Edited August 12, 2016 by Penshoon

[dotChuckles]

That was a really useful video! Very clear.

 

So I could save some money, hit the maximum potential performance with a cheaper card.

 

Food for thought.

[KLR Rico]

In DCS, the CPU is still the limiting factor for your draw distances, number of units, etc; GPU isn't stressed by these things much. The CPU has to do all the work deciding what to draw, and the GPU just has to render it. In DCS the single biggest factor for GPU load is resolution.

 

The GTX970 can feed the frames to the Rift as fast as the CPU can give them if you keep AA reasonable and pixel density to 1.0, but IMHO the pixel density has a *huge* impact on visual quality with the rift, and this is where you need GPU power. The GPU load increases by the square of the pixel density setting. Pushing it up to 2.0 requires 4x the power as keeping it at 1.0, and even a 1080 struggles here. For the sole reason of being able to push the density as high as possible, I recommend still buying the most GPU power you can afford.

[hansangb]

The one thing to consider into the ROI equation is how much VRAM is available on the card. I think we can all agree that the demand is increasing.

 

One of these days, I'll have to try and test how much of my VRAM is being used with XYZ settings.

[Raz_Specter]

A mate of mine has the same system as me, he ordered his CV1 while still having a Gainward GTX970 installed. In DCS he was getting between 20 and 25 FPS, which isn't that great to be honest in the CV1. So he ordered the EVGA 1080 Founder Edition, same as me and is very happy

 

You need that extra power to use Pixel Density, I currently have PD set at 2.0 and this gives, for me, the best resolution for the cockpits and detail

 

Check this Thread out

I would certainly recommend getting a 1080 myself.

Edited August 13, 2016 by Raz_Specter

[dotChuckles]

Thanks guys, VR is a bit of an experiment for me. If it works out then I'll invest some more money in to power. If not I'll see what I can get on ebay for it :-)

[hansangb]

Be careful. Once you go VR...there is no going back!

[Gman109]

Are you JUST using your system for DCS with VR? If not, 1080 isn't a bad card, nor the 1070. At all. We maintain 3 or 4 gaming PCs plus a gaming laptop or 2 constantly, and I just went through an upgrade cycle (yearly pretty much) and switched out 980ti SLI for 1080s in 2 systems. In no way shape or form are the 1080s a disappointment or poor cost/performance cards. I think in fact that DCS using VR or SLI with a 1440p/4k Gsync panel is the only place where a 980ti is still reasonably close to the performance of the 1080 cards.

 

I would buy a 1070 over a 980ti right now, you would be crazy not to IMO - lower cost, as good if not better performance in virtually ever game I've tried.

[hansangb]

DAMN!! That's a lot of horsepower!