What would me more powerful, GTX 980 sli vs the GTX 1080 (Pascal)?

Deankavanagh1999

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Jan 9, 2016
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Hello everyone, just as the title say's, what would be the better option for me to do! Sli my current GTX 980 or wait for the Pascal series to drop and buy the GTX 1080? (or whatever they call it)
 
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Usually you want to go with the best SINGLE card you can. SLI or Crossfire doesn't always scale 100% so adding a second GPU doesn't always automatically double performance. Plus, the load (electrical and thermal) on a system increases quite a bit more as you're doubling power usage without getting that 100% performance increase.

Besides, we know almost nothing about Pascal. Allegedly with will feature HBM, and if it's as good as their highly efficient Maxwell architecture it will be quite a powerhouse. As long as it's not twice the price of a pair of GTX980s, while still increasing performance, then you're better off waiting.

Heck, you're better off waiting anyhow. Look at the situation with the Radeon 3xx series vs 2xx series...

maxinexus

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Jan 1, 2007
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Unless you have watercooling loop, I would stay away from SLI or CF. It is simply a space heater with a lot of noise. Not counting headaches with compatibility etc etc. Anyway, I would wait for pascal. But I tent to skip one generation before upgrading a VGA ( that is usually 40-50% performance increase) If you want to try a SLI go ahead. Get a used card from ebay try it out and if not satisfied sell it back or return if allowed.
 

Rookie_MIB

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Usually you want to go with the best SINGLE card you can. SLI or Crossfire doesn't always scale 100% so adding a second GPU doesn't always automatically double performance. Plus, the load (electrical and thermal) on a system increases quite a bit more as you're doubling power usage without getting that 100% performance increase.

Besides, we know almost nothing about Pascal. Allegedly with will feature HBM, and if it's as good as their highly efficient Maxwell architecture it will be quite a powerhouse. As long as it's not twice the price of a pair of GTX980s, while still increasing performance, then you're better off waiting.

Heck, you're better off waiting anyhow. Look at the situation with the Radeon 3xx series vs 2xx series. Not a big jump in capabilities while the 2xx series plummeted in price. That made the 2xx series a better buy. That could also happen here. Think about it, if the new Pascal series is good, then you want to go Pascal. If it's marginal, you can pick up the 'last gen' hardware at a discount as some people will still upgrade and sell their used hardware. Either way, you lose nothing by waiting.

tldr;
If you wait:
if Pascal underwhelms, you can SLI your 980, possibly at a discount since 980s are last gen.
if Pascal is great, you can upgrade to a single gpu.

If you buy now:
You'll pay full price for almost last gen hardware.
You might have to pay again if Pascal is as good as it might be.
 
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