Right, GTA V is around the corner for PC, and I know my cards are a little.. Out of date these days. But it's been a long damn time since I looked at cards, so frankly everything seems to be leaving me at a loss. Presently I have two 6870's, 1gb variants, and the rig is as my signature. As I understand it, I can make the switch to either Nvidia or stick with AMD without much hassle, but I would prefer to stick with SLI/Crossfire whichever way it goes. Ideally, I want to stick to ~£400 for a pair of cards, but by the same token, I'd appreciate a kick in the backside performance wise, as I know all too well that these cards struggle with GTA IV.
I would hold off deciding until GTA5 is out and benchmarked. It could perform drastically different on AMD vs Nvidia or vice versa and may also be a VRAM hog (looking at you Watchdogs). Go with whichever is the better set-up once the game is out.
I most probably will be, Xaser, but I'm still lost as hell as to who, or what, is offering what and what the different 'grades' are these days. I mean. AMD have changed (again), Nivdia seem to have changed since I last looked at their like (8800 era), so frankly the whole thing makes no sense to me anymore!
Why would you prefer SLI? with all the negatives? I've always seen SLI as a way to bring your rig up to snuff down the road rather than perf gains now *says the guy with sli 780* I'd recommend a GTX 780, r9 290, or 290x which will give you 3G-4G of vram which will provide space for the future with increases in demand for gaming. Right now 2G is plenty for 1080p but anything higher on games like BF4 and you'll need more which will mean SLI 770 2G wont be enough and 4G will be past your price range. Not to mention for now you will avoid all the draw backs of having and SLI with the perk of being able to go to SLI int he future I.E. 2-4 years down the road when your rig feels aged, you'll then be able to SLI your card with a 2nd hand and have renewed performance at a cheaper price. I'd def go the single card route.
My issue is running three monitors on one card! 2xDVI 1xDisplayport, for reference. Fortunately, I don't game above 1920x1200. Although, really, I don't game much anymore anyway! GTA is the main interest before Witcher 3, and the Cyberpunk game.
In this case you will def need 3G minimum which pits your options to sli 4G 770s or 1 780Ti. The 780Ti may struggle on certain titles with all the bells and whistles, but if you ever try to play a game that doesn't support sli config you'll be up **** creek without a paddle as 1 770 4G won't cut it.
