Will my i7 3820 bottleneck gtx 980ti 2xSLI?

juanfer1983

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Oct 31, 2015
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Hello everyone, I was wondering if I could run dual gtx 980 ti's in SLI (EVGA SC+ versión) with an i7 3820 @3.6ghz stock speed without experiencing a bottleneck?

Thanks to all in advance.
 
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You CPU won't hold you back much, if at all, and in most circumstances where the CPU is limiting, nothing else would...
Sorry to repeat myself, but what games? Some games struggle to reach decent FPS on any CPU due to poor coding, especially with high populations and/or long sight distances. What resolution/number of monitors are you using?

Your CPU is capable of driving two GTX 980ti's in many circumstances.
 

juanfer1983

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Oct 31, 2015
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No problem, I'm sorry for not being specific.
I mostly play at 4k but I also have 3x1080 monitors so 5760x1080 is also a possibility. I'm gonna try to use all the possible eye candy but aiming at 60fps if possible.
As for what kind of games, mostly open world RPGs, lets say The Witcher 3, Dragon Age Inquisition, Fallout 4 (which is my main reason for upgrading cuz I'm looking forward to modding it later).
I also play games like MGSV:TPP, Assasins Creed Syndicate (which isn't out on PC yet).

Thank you very much for your input.
 
Some of those games are going to be CPU limited with all of the bells and whistles and modding will further stress your CPU. On the other hand, I'm not sure those GPUs, as powerful as they undoubtedly are, will deliver the 'full monte' at 4k 60FPS. I'd suck it and see. You should be able to get something decent, but you may have to turn the wick down a bit. Even a modern Skylake CPU, overclocked, may not be able to reach 60FPS, 4k with everything Ultra.

You are pushing the limits of the technology.
 

juanfer1983

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Yes, I'm aware that the current tech isn't quite ready for 4k yet.
The only option I had, since my mobo doesn't support 3-way SLI, was going for TitanX 2way-SLI, for a very minimal gain and not worth the price in my opinion.
I will sacrifice some eye candy to maintain decent FPS if I have to but I was worried I couldn't use the gpus to their full potential because of my somewhat old CPU.

 

juanfer1983

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My PC is an Alienware Aurora R4 (2011 version), the mobo is a mATX x79 LGA 2011 (if I'm not mistaken the OEM vendor for the board is MSI). Like you said, doing some research I found out there's not really a cost-effective upgrade out there at the moment. I can just hope I don't take a big hit on performance because of my CPU holding back the cards.

 

Bodookie

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I doubt the processor will bottleneck the cards that much, it's quad core, with H/T (rumored to be liked by f4), so.. hard to say, i'm having a similar debate with my system. 2011 is at end of life, but in reality, short of spending thousands of dollars on something that will be current for another year? not worth it. but at this point, i don't need 4k gaming. i have a 980ti, 16g of ram, ssd drive. i'm good to go until we see the next round of whatever upgrades come out. give it a year.
 


You CPU won't hold you back much, if at all, and in most circumstances where the CPU is limiting, nothing else would work much better.
 
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