PC Builder's Central

GPU: GeForce GTX 980ti

Description

The final decision for the GPU in this build was Nvidia's GeForce GTX 980ti. Onto the specs for this card it has a 6GB frame buffer on a 384 bit bus running at 7010mhz out of the box. The core clock for this card comes in at 1000mhz base clock and 1075mhz boost clock, however, the MSI version of this card chosen for this build has slightly higher base and boost clocks. This card also has 2816 CUDA cores, slightly less than the Titan X, but the performance difference is very negligible.

Reasoning

The choices for this machine came down to two GPUs in the end, as the Titan X, and the R9 295x2 had to be eliminated as they were too expensive and offered little benefits over their cheaper counter parts. Because of this I was left with the Fury X from AMD and the 980ti from Nvidia as the only single GPU solutions (as that would be preferable in a small form factor system due to airflow restraints with two GPUs). Both cards trade blows with each other at this resolution and what it really came down to in the end was the fram buffer. AMD's Fury X uses much fast HBM memory and NVidia uses slower GDDR5 memory, however, as the technology is still new AMD was only able to fit 4GB of this HBM onto their first card with it. Because of this I chose the 980ti as the resolution of textures is still rising and will continue to consume more memory, even if 4GB is enough for 1440p at the moment.