Hey guys,
 
It is long past time to upgrade my gtx 295. It's been a beauty, but retirement is here.  This will be going in my sig rig.  I currently game on a 27" 1920 x 1080 monitor.  In the not distant future, I will either upgrade to a 1440 or triple 1080s, so my new card needs to be beefy enough to support future growth.  Right now I am playing skyrim, bioshock infinite, and war thunder.  The card will be watercooled.  I want to stick with EVGA.  I am considering three options.
 
1.  vanilla GTX 780 with block ~$680 with block
2.  780 classified hydrocopper $720
3.  780 ti  ~$850 with block
 
With my resolution (now and future) and gaming choices, what do yall suggest?  I am currently leaning towards 2, as the price between it and the vanilla is not that great.  However, is the TI so much better to warrant the extra $130?  I know I won't use a kingpin in a way to justify it, and the classified is probably going to be more than I want to spend.
 
I appreciate your thoughts!

I tend to keep cards for a long time.  Ive had the 295 since 2007 or so.

Would I be better off buying a 770 or the vanilla 780 and the upgrading in a year or 2?

I don't know that I mind waiting, if the 770 or vanilla 780 would be an improvement over my 295 (I don't doubt it!).  My question, I guess, is what would I be waiting for?  The 800 series?  Do we expect higher vram there?

I speak from the aspect of tri-monitors since 2008 at 5760x1080 resolution with 120 hz (3D Vision monitors).  
 
Battlefield 3 hovers around 2.7-2.9 GB of ram at that resolution with everything on Ultra.
 
Battlefield 4 peaks around 3.2 to 3.4 GB of ram with everything maxed out in single player, multiplayer has seen upwards of 3.6 GB of ram at times (why?  I don't know).  But, even 2x Titans can't handle BF4's new engine; so, I have to turn down the 4xMSAA down to 0xMSAA to keep the frame rates above 100 FPS (I want 120 FPS with my 120 Hz monitors).
 
Skyrim with lots of bitmap texture mods has gotten up to 3.6 GB of ram depending on the scenes.  Usually hovers between 2.6 and 3 GB though.
 
Point being: 3 GB is dated.  Yes, you'll live a nice long life with 3 GB today - knowing you have to limit your settings in the future though - which means you'll have to turn down graphics in order to save on Vram - which means you won't be able to fully utilize that GPU.  
 
With that said, I wouldn't pay the premiums for the Ti.  My 780 Classified on stock BIOS beats out a stock Ti easily, according to 3dmark.  Being watercooled, you are in for a treat with the 780 Classified.  It's a great buy right now.
 
But there is the saying that if you are going to buy a single GPU, and hold onto it for 5 years, you might as well go out on top so there is no buyer's remorse, right?  My problem with that is the premium Nvidia charges for the "top" GPU.  
 
If you can hold out until April or May 2014, when the 800 series is released, you'll be able to pick up a new 780 Ti for about $550.  That is if you care about money.
 
 
My last thought would be a used Titan with 6 GB of ram - this is what I did (sold my 780 Classifieds, went with Titans to sit on them for a long long time).  They are a great buy right now at around $600 to $700 (I saw one go for $530 on eBay).  You get the warranty with the card.  Then, pick up a waterblock.  I personally like EVGA's full-PCB waterblocks, but a lot of people want the EK blocks.  To each his own I guess.
 
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=38204
 
GTX 780 < GTX Titan < GTX 780 Ti
 
And we are only talking 1 to 3% differences in each.  It's not a big deal, but you get 6GB of ram with the Titan to enjoy Skyrim like never you have never seen it before!  Trust me.. Install a few texture packs and be blow away compared to what the 896 MB GTX 295 can show you in Skyrim (I've had plenty of GTX 295s - it says 1.7 GB of ram, which is BS - it's only 896 MB per GPU frame buffer).
 
I've loaded up a custom BIOS on my air-cooled ACX Titans, and it made a world of difference in stability and memory overclocking.  I just hate the heat that the ACX coolers dump into my chassis (I may switch to the stock reference coolers that I got with my used Titan deal).
 
As of yesterday, I hold the Top 25 position for the fastest 2-way SLI in Firestrike Extreme (27th in Firestrike normal).  I'd say Titans can hold their own, save the premium price and go with 6 GB of ram.

About that 770 and lower series... They are just rebranded 680s with a slightly higher clock.  Look closely at the specs: they are 256 bit memory bus, not the 384 that is in the 780/Titan/780 Ti and look closely at the benchmarks of 680 vs 770.  This is why memory in the 670/680/760/770 are all 2 GB or 4 GB.  With the 384 bit bus, you start at 3 GB and 6 GB.  I haven't seen anything, but I'm hoping the Maxwell chip will be 512bit to compete with AMD.  If so, I'll skip the 800 series and go after a 980 or whatever it's called in April/May of 2015 (you can quote me on release dates, I've been tracking Nvidia for years now - they are like clockwork with a marketing release schedule).
 
Side bar:  Nvidia really messed up with the 670 and 680 releases in the same chip - there was only like a 2 to 5% performance difference - with the 770 and 780 though, Nvidia learned from their lost sales in the 680s and made the new GPU flagship strictly a 780/Titan/780 Ti only to maximize profit - and just rebranded last year's 680 chip as a 770, so that the performance is far less than the 780.
 
Don't get me wrong, a 770 is priced just right as a good buy, 4GB, and you are correct that SLI will beat any single card combo.  That's all I have been using until the 780 came out: 2x GTX 295s, 2x GTX 470s, 2x GTX 570s, 3x GTX 670s (now, I did have 3x GTX 580s at one point, so not completely x70).
 
I always bought 1 card new, and the rest as used after prices dropped.
 
3GB can get you pretty far today.  4GB can go a bit further, at the sacrifice of performance on the small memory bus.
 
I personally had a need to purchase hardware this year as I won't have the opportunity next year.  So I set myself up for at least a few years.
 
Just a last word about "waiting"... If you wait for the next best thing, you'll always be waiting.  nvidia's release cycle, with their marketing hype, really leaks the "next big thing" shortly after the last big thing.  So you'll always be waiting.  If you were considering $800 for a WC 780 Ti, then go for a used Titan and watercool it for the same price, and have 6 GB for the next 5 years.

Oh, and stay away from 3-way SLI.  I haven't 3 different setups across 4 chipsets.  The micro-stutter is just so annoying.  That's the only reason I jumped from 3-way GTX 670s to my 2-way 780 Classifieds at the time - they were almost exactly the same performance (same FPS just about, before overclocking the Classified which I stopped doing cause I wanted a stable gaming experience).  Dropping back down to 2-way SLI after 3 years of 3-way SLI was a night-and-day difference is smoothness and stability in games.
 
 
 

So if the 4GB 770s don't really utilize the extra memory, and I am not willing to put down the scratch necessary for a titan, then it seems the 780 classified may be the way to go.  It will hold me for a few years at least, and may still be decently sellable when cards more apt to support 4k resolutions are available.  SLI would be an option too, if I decide to delay a future card purchase.

Thanks for all your feedback.  I will take a look at your listing, but as I mentioned I will be watercooling whatever I go forward with.
 
 

 The only games I play that utilizes the GPU for PhysX is the Batman series (Arkham Asylum, Arkham Origins).  There are many others out there; but, I don't play them.  The Battlefield series and MWO do not.
 
With that being said, any 400 series or higher GPU for PhysX would be great.  yes, there are faster PhysX scores with faster GPUs; but, games don't really utilize it much if at all.  Though I will say that Batman Arkham Origins really does start to use a lot of Nvidia PhysX in particles and I haven't fully tested its affect on the GPU - it's really heavy in that game.
 
A Titan would seriously be overkill; but yes, you can use it as a PhysX card.  I don't think you'd want to enable Double Precision on the Titan for PhysX as DP is only used for larger Double calculations; but, that's a good test to see if it affects the PhysX calculations.  I'll try that in the coming week or so to see.  Interesting idea.  I kind of doubt they use integers that large though.
 
For the record, I just use my Titans as the PhysX card.  Nvidia usually defaults to the "Primary" GPU for PhysX auto-assignment.  But I'll disable SLI, hook up all 3 displays to a single Titan, and try a few Batman benchmarks with the Titan itself as PhysX, versus using the 2nd Titan for PhysX, versus Double Precision enabled on the 2nd Titan for PhysX.  
 

 
As far as price drops, the rumors of a Titan Black Edition / Titan 2 / Titan Ultra kind of thing are due around Feb/March 2014, for when the last Titan launched.  It's too early to speculate on Nvidia's Titan marketing scheduling, rebates, and price drops since the Titan was a new release for Nvidia in the middle of the normal 500, 600 and 700 release schedules (launched Feb 2013).  So the "Titan Ultra" may very well have been the 780 Ti, with more CUDA cores - Nvidia just cripples the Double Precision and FPU calculations and calls it a 780 Ti.  Just remember that the previous "Premium GTX" card was the GTX 690, the first $1000 card Nvidia had.  When the Titan was launched, in the first 3 months it outsold all of the GTX 690s every sold 1 year prior - and still selling strong.  There is no hint at Nvidia giving up that $1000 price mark for something new and exciting, and usually Feb/Mar (Q1) is due for that "next-big-thing."  I would wait for the 780 Ti noise to calm down, and for the next Nvidia marketing release come Feb/Mar.  If that does happen, for the next $1000 card, you can bet the Titans WILL drop in price.
 
Here's a hint to know when a price drop is about to happen: rebates and discounts.  When you see NVIDIA offer a big rebate on, say, a Titan, or EVGA offer a big discount, you'll know a price drop is imitate along with a new "Announcement" of something bigger-and-better.  You can apply that logic to just about anything electronic in retail BTW - such as the Nexus 7 (which I followed closely, waiting for the Nexus 7 FHD) and currently the Nexus 10.  Rebates = liquidate stock, to make room for the next thing.
 
 
For the record, I could not afford an arm, a leg, an eye ball and a kidney for a $1000 Titan, much less two of them.  I got a hell of a deal on two used Titan SCs, with ACX coolers and backplates.  I could only justify it by selling my 780 Classifieds off.
 
Buying EVGA used is great because their warranty carries over with the product now (as of the 600 series and later).  The only catch is you don't get to "Step Up" if the "next big thing" comes out by buying used.  But considering what I got my Titans for, I can still sell them and make a few hundred dollars in the used market for profit.  I won't though.  
 
So seriously considering buying used from a reputable source, like the EVGA Marketplace we have here.  I know of a Titan SC right now for sale by Szeged for around $650 or so in there I think.  I'd buy it myself for the ASIC rating, and sell the higher ASIC rated card I have here.  But I am all done with my upgrades, Dremels, etc for my current build.  Time for Xmas and back to building the house.

I'll see what I can do over the weekend or next week before my travels.

Well, we were mostly talking about tri-monitor gaming - not a single 1440p monitor.
 
But yes, 2x 780 is the best buy right now vs 2x 780 Ti's premium price for just a nudge higher - all at stock speeds.  Once you start overclocking, like the 780 Classified, you exceed the 780 Ti pretty quickly.

The 780 TI beats up all the games I throw at it on ultra settings. I can even play Tomb Raider on ultra without dipping below about 80 FPS. I even run it with TessFX hair. I went with 2x780 ACX at first and then returned them because they got up to 80c in a very well ventilated case. One card alone would not even break 70. The ACX's are great for a single card, but suck in SLI. I now have a single TI and it is pretty good actually. I was CPU bound with the dual 780's and a 3820 at 4.5... One TI seems to be a perfect match for my 3820.

Solar Trans
Wow I can't believe a 3820 at 4.5 would bottleneck just 2 780s.
 

I should have mentioned, at 1920x1080.

I would go on GTX780Ti SC or GTX780Ti Classified on your place.
Better stronger chip than more video memory as 4GB on some GTX770. 
With GTX770 even with GTX780 you need to turn off something, but GTX780Ti fabric overclocked is something else, you can play with every details. Anyway for 2 year you have enough time to save money and price difference between that two cards. Only in one case 2 years you play with Maxed Out and in other case you play 2 years and non stop half hours search for best settings. For next 24 months you will be fine with 3GB, maybe not for all texture mods but for settings in games enough. 
GTX780Ti is for me best possible options and fabric OC mean lot, now more than ever. Cards are really pushed and 100MHz over fabric OC in gaming is nice overclock.
I think games where you need 5GB of Video Memory will not show up until NVIDIA no prepared few models to support that.