What's the best bang for the buck pair of cards currently?

[jtbullet]

Hi. When I bought Octane 2 years ago, I bought a nvidia 770 4gb card to go with it. I am wondering if there have been significant changes in the graphics cards that could replace this card for a good price? I just checked, and my card still costs $449. Would an additional card need to match, or would even a half as powerful card add processing power and reduce render time?
Regards,
Jarrett

[TRRazor]

The great thing about Octane is that any additional GPU will up your render power.
So you could even get a really cheap low-end card and it would still decrease render times (although probably not considerably.)

Very good value-for-money-cards where (and still are) the GTX 780 / GTX 780 Ti cards.
These had a very good bang-for the buck ratio as you put it, as there where models which also came with 6GB of VRAM (actually owning an EVGA GTX 780 myself and using it to support my GTX Titan Black)

Now the problem is that you most likely won't find these new anywhere anymore, since nVidia and consequently retail has been phasing them out over the last 6 months or so, to push their Maxwell GPus (the 700 series where still based on the previous Kepler tech.) I'm pretty sure you can find some decent offers on Newegg or ebay though.

If you can spare a little bit more, you can still get your hands on a GTX Titan Black or GTX Titan Z (great, very powerful cards, based on Kepler technology as well).
If you want the most recent stuff, look for the Titan X which has been on sale since last week.

[jtbullet]

It sounds like adding another 770 4gb might be the cheapest acceptable option at that rate!

[gazukull]

780 ti - I just picked up two off ebay last week for 300 each. It's a buyers market on the 7xx series right now, as gamers jump to 9xx.

Even got a 780 classified for 250 shipped. I was pretty happy about that one.

[glimpse]

780 ti - I just picked up two off ebay last week for 300 each. It's a buyers market on the 7xx series right now, as gamers jump to 9xx.

Even got a 780 classified for 250 shipped. I was pretty happy about that one.

exacttly: Kepler based cards now will get into market..- as higher end rig will get an update (a lot of guys were holding for something better than 980s).. Titans, TitanBlacks & Zs will be replaced now as TitanX hit the market - keep an eye on those if You're looking for best value.. =)

[Scott762]

The great thing about Octane is that any additional GPU will up your render power.
So you could even get a really cheap low-end card and it would still decrease render times (although probably not considerably.)

Very good value-for-money-cards where (and still are) the GTX 780 / GTX 780 Ti cards.
These had a very good bang-for the buck ratio as you put it, as there where models which also came with 6GB of VRAM (actually owning an EVGA GTX 780 myself and using it to support my GTX Titan Black)

Now the problem is that you most likely won't find these new anywhere anymore, since nVidia and consequently retail has been phasing them out over the last 6 months or so, to push their Maxwell GPus (the 700 series where still based on the previous Kepler tech.) I'm pretty sure you can find some decent offers on Newegg or ebay though.

If you can spare a little bit more, you can still get your hands on a GTX Titan Black or GTX Titan Z (great, very powerful cards, based on Kepler technology as well).
If you want the most recent stuff, look for the Titan X which has been on sale since last week.

Octane has me looking at a Titan X - where did you get one? They seemed like they are sold out everywhere. Only one I saw was straight from GeForce.com, but I am holding out for an EVGA superclocked.

[harlequin3d]

So the previous 700 series Kepler cards are still better for rendering that the new 900 series Maxwell?
Why is that? The number of cuda cores? Number of shader units?

[glimpse]

So the previous 700 series Kepler cards are still better for rendering that the new 900 series Maxwell?
Why is that? The number of cuda cores? Number of shader units?

no Keplers are not better than Maxwell, as Fermi is not better that Kepler if You compare apples to apples..& by that I mean..

You have to look this way:
Titan > Titan Blacks > TitanX (Kepler, "improved/unlocked" Kepler, Maxwell gm200)

not this way:
780 > 780ti ~ 980 (Kepler, Kepler, Maxwell gm204)..

The reason 980 is not performing so much better than 780Ti is because later was based hi-end chip, while 980 is mid-end Maxwell (gk204). Hi-end of Maxwell architecture is TitanX (gm200)..

..it's the same story as we had before 580 vs 680 - "new card does not perform as good as expected" =)
but what we have to understand was that 580 used top end chip, while 680 was just mid..

yeah, companies do this kind of naming that makes the most sense for buyers..noOne wants to give You the best for the same amount..upgrading with every release You don't get the boost of more than 10-15% & some efficiency tweaks.

[harlequin3d]

Ah, that makes sense when you explain it like that. Thanks!

[glimpse]

Ah, that makes sense when you explain it like that. Thanks!

cheers! =) I'll add some info soon on my site 'bout this topic =)
..if someOne interested - feel free visit it from time to time =)