Hi again guys. So before getting told Im stupid and wasting money, or that its a sideways step etc etc etc, I know! So now that out of the way, heres my idea. I am thinking of moving to the Ivy-E side of things as I quite fancy the extra cores. I run a lot of rendering jobs and the extra speed and reduced time would be nice to have, plus I am fed up of looking back longingly on my SR-2 days so this would help fill that gap a little. The board of choice would be the Asus Rampage IV Extreme, paired with a 4930k... Question is, what kind of real world increases would I see? Any improvement in other areas, I game a lot, and use the entire Adobe Creative Suite (CC), along with solid-works, and a couple of rendering programs?? Also what clocks are achievable with this setup under H2o? The second step in this bizarre idea, is to swap my 680sli setup (2gb cards) for either a pair of 290's or 290x's . I really miss the Eyefinity side of things and to be honest I know this goes against the general consensus, but Ive had a tonne of issues with Nvidia drivers, that previously on my 7970's and my 6000 series cards I never had, I know there are pros and cons for both but I fancy the change, again, will it be enough of an upgrade? I will again have these under water so the noise is not an issue, just the performance? Will there be any advantages in my chosen software (see above). Screen res is 2560x1600 and two 1200x1600 in portrait, which will be spanned for specific games in Eyefinity, not native I know, but there are ways and means!! A long one I know but any help will be much appreciated! Thanks!
at that res are the SLI 680s not cutting it? if it's just for eyefinity, there's nothing wrong with 290 or 290x. they're great cards, especially underwater. imo you should wait for X99 and haswell-e to launch in a few months if anything. X79 is starting to get a little dated. the 4930k overclocks very very well underwater if you want to go that route, but IMO hold out for the next gen intel enthusiast CPUs. they're pretty close to release, and your setup is very capable as is. i'm in the same boat. almost picked up a 4930k, but now I'm sticking it out for X99
^^^This I was going to do a side ways step from SB-E to IB-E but then I decided against it since the IB-E cpu don't seem to overclock as well, but are abit faster at the same clocks etc. I am waiting for Haswell E to launch now before I upgrade as that should be a decent speed increase for me, and would be a decent speed increase for you as well. The graphics side of it is where you would see the more benefit because the 290s are faster than the 680's, and the extra Vram will help with those resolutions.
Thanks ever so much guys for taking the time to reply. Really is appreciated. I think I will do as you say and wait for X99 and haswell rather tgan spending a chunk on almost EOL stuff. I think I will pull the trigger on a pair of 290's in the meantime tho, would anyone be brave enough to recommend between the 290's and the 290x's in crossfire for me at all tho? Thanks again! Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
Both 290s and 290x are over priced atm due to mining. I would go with a pair of 780s if it were my money.. Surround isn't as good but it does work pretty much the same way.
there should be more maxwell info out by the time X99 is released, and maybe 290/290x prices will have calmed down i very rarely recommend waiting this long for a PC upgrade, but given your situation i think that's the best course
I think I will wait for the mobo deffo and go X99 when that is released. In reality, once under water and overclocked to the hilt, what will the performance difference be between a 290 and a 290x? In some reviews, the performance of the 290x under water can be as great as 30% over stock clocks? Does the 290 do the same or does it close the gap?
Did you break your SR-2 or something? Do you rending with GPU's or CPU's? Since that would make a big difference as you know. Maybe add a 3th GTX680?
Didnt break the SR-2 but it did die yes, started having lots of issues with it and then nothing, so went itx for a while an now back to e-atx on Z77 I render with the GPU's currently, a 3rd 680 might be an option, but I still miss the simplicity of eyefinity, hence the above question about the difference between 290's and 290x's... Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk
