I'm using a 770 and while it is borderline for a good experience I'm happy with it. Sure a 970 can supersample and have a few higher quality settings, but there are a few things putting me off upgrading:
- Improvements in ED, such as direct to rift might come along soon and make things better
- I'm not sure even the 980 will run a CV1 when they come out - 90fps at 1440p is a big ask, particularly if supersampling will give even better results.
- by the time the CV1 is available, the 980 will probably be cheaper and may perhaps be superceded with a new and improved, VR-optimised range of cards that are designed to run the CV1.
I got my dk2 last week and currently running on an i7 920 2.67Ghz and a GTX465, oh the horror! Everything set to low and shadows/aa/ao off and it runs ok enough to play. Stations are pretty horrible, but for some reason i've always been able to accept low framerates, no-AA on visuals etc.
However I always knew I was going to have to upgrade i've just been agonising for the last few weeks as to what to do. Well today I took the plunge, whole new system with a GTX970
Now the rest of my post is just opinion.
I was going to go sli but I felt it to be a false economy since i'm 99% sure i'll get the CV1 when released. Trouble is I don't think we'll see the CV1 till at least summer next year and quite likely not before the end of 2015.
Even then i'm very doubtful that sli 970 or even 980 is going to be enough for CV1 and ED (or other state of the art games) unless Frontier manage some substantial optimisations. My gut feeling is that ED is fillrate limited overall and if CV1 is 2560x1440 thats quite a few more pixels to fill ( 1.77 times in fact), more if you go supersampling. Add to that the jump from 75 Hz to 90Hz and that is a heck of alot more work the gpu has to do.
So again seemed like quite a risk getting sli 970 now on the hope it will run the cv1 next year. Best approach would seem to be to get a single 970 to enjoy the game now and then re-asses when cv1 hits.
One very important fact though for nvidia gpu's at least, is that I have high hopes for VR Direct. I'll be watching out for news of when that gets pushed out as I feel it might well be the most vital solution for high quality gaming on the Rift. That's assuming using a card per eye allows for considerable improvements in performance over normal sli and removal of the normal latency you get. It may well be that VR Direct makes sli 970 viable for CV1, but again I'd rather wait and see than buying sli now on a hope.
TL;DR - Though i've yet to experience ED on the rift using a GTX970, it would seem to make sense to me that if you have the money and need a good experience now, an upgrade to a GTX970 makes a lot of sense. The alternative is to probably make do with your current card for at least 6-9 months maybe even longer and that seems like a bit of a shame for such a great game as Elite.
This is the first time i've ever bought a new system just to play a game on, and although it wont quite run ED as it currently stands at highest options and supersampling, it will clearly be a huge improvement over what i'm currently enduring. I figured for once i'd just join those PC enthusiasts and splurge. I've got a good PSU in the new system so I could even go sli 970 if I want in a few months.
To me this is a sign just how amazing Elite is, especially considering I played and still have the original 48K spectrum version boxed. In fact its the first game where i've seen a coming together of various technologies to providing a far greater experience, be it the Rift, IR tracking, Voice Attack and HOTAS (oh yeah got X-55 Rhino coming at the weekend). I've never been this stupid with money before, but I actually don't think I care
