Wow.
I'm running a system with the specs in sig, that is - a QX9650 running at 3.5ghz on the EVGA nForce 790i reference motherboard. I built this back in 2008. Since then I've added some SSD's (
http://forums.evga.com/SSD-TRIM-AHCI-and-the-790i-board-m1831510.aspx) and replaced the first generation DDR3 with some lower voltage sticks, upping the total RAM from 4 to 8gb following advice given in this forum (
http://forums.evga.com/Using-4GB-RAM-modules-on-a-790i-series-board-m837038.aspx). Essentially this is a 2008 PC with a Yorkie CPU though.
Initially I was running an 8800GTS, I stepped that up through EVGA to a GTX 280. Added another one for SLI. Later I bought a used GTX 580 which has served me well up until now. Since I game on a 2560x1440 resolution monitor I've been vRAM starved in newer games with high resolution textures. I've been tempted throughout the Titan/780 series to finally pull the trigger and upgrade but there's always been something making me reconsider.
The GTX 980 looked to me like the perfect card. Turns out it was. Whether this is down to project Denver and the integrated ARM proessor I cannot say, but gameplay is now smooth in every game on max settings. The Dell U2711 is a "slow" IPS screen so adaptive VSync is a very welcome feature.
I don't have many numbers to post yet but the benchmarking utilities for the latest titles all tell the same story - I might lose maybe 10 or so frames off the top end compared to the reviews but min and average fps match the expected results within 2-5. What's important is that there are no longer any frame drops when rendering smoke and lighting intensive scenes as was the case with the 580.
I would just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone here at the EVGA forums for the support and encouragement offered to fellow enthusiasts. Getting this first gen DDR3 system to work was a struggle but thanks to everyone here I can happily say it's been stable for 6(!) years. I did pay a higher price for being an early adopter, partly because of DDR3 being brand new, partly because EVGA wasn't at all established in Europe back then, but looking back I'm so happy with the choice to go with premium. Even if there are price drops for the 980 the timing was right and I won't regret it.
Only slight complaint I have is that the card suffers from coil whine in menus and other environments where the FPS value runs crazy. Is this something I'll have to live with or has anyone gotten a card without the issue?
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