SLI 970 FTW (cpu+moba)

What's the budget?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($258.98 @ DirectCanada)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($110.50 @ Vuugo)
Total: $369.48
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-12 15:39 EST-0500

Can I ask, do you already have one 970 and are planning to buy another one to SLI? Or do you just want to get two new ones?

The reason I ask is that SLI 970s is an inferior option to getting a single 980ti.

A single 980ti (non-reference version) slightly outperforms 2x 970s in most tasks, and does so by a huge margin in games/applications that have poor SLI support (such as the recently released Rise of the Tomb Raider). It will also consume much less power (meaning cheaper energy bills and a lower PSU requirement) and produce much less heat in your system.

Only go for SLI 970s if you already have one or if youre getting a great deal on a pair - if not, the 980ti is definitely the better choice for the same money.


As for the answer to your question, it really depends on the answers to the following two questions:

1) What are you planning to use the PC for?

2) What budget do you have? - please include the currency designation!

I have SLI 970s paired with an i5-4690k on a GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK motherboard. I play at 2560x1440 and the i5 has been able to keep up with every game I have tried. I wouldn't spend the extra money on the i7 if I were you. Benchmarks show that an i5 has nearly identical performance for gaming and it's much cheaper

If you are buying new today I would go with a Skylake i5 so you are on the latest Intel platform.

If you want to overclock I would get an i5-6600k and a z170 motherboard along with an aftermarket cooler like the Hyper 212 EVO.

If you don't want to overclock I would go a little cheaper and get an i5-6500 and an h170 motherboard. You don't need an aftermarket cooler if you go this route because an i5 will stay cool with the stock cooler at stock speeds.

I wouldn't really recommend an i7 for a gaming PC in any case. If you want hyperthreading with 8 threads the Xeon E3 line of CPUs has the same thing for quite a bit less money than the i7 line.

The Xeon e3 1240 V5 is a nice Skylake i7 replacement with 8 threads and turbo boost up to 3.9GHz for about $100 less than the Skylake i7-6700k. It will work in an h170 motherboard too.

Edit: While I was typing this long response I see that several people actually beat me to the point.

If the platform is Z97 and MoBo budget us moderate, I'd use the MSI Gaming 5 paired with the 4690k or 4790k. The Gaming 5 has a very good satisfaction level among board owners and tests show it to be the fastest board in its price range beating out $300+ alternatives.

Whereas w/ Z170... there is very little performance difference between motherboards. The Gigabyte G1 series are very well reviewed with high levels of satisfaction among board owners

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6ZP3S61269
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128846
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128836

The Asus Z170-A (unlike the Z97-A) and MSI Z170-A both do well with regard to reviews and user satisfaction.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132566
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130872
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130873

My fav Z170 board however is the MSI Z170 Titanium Gaming Edition .. It's the 1st board where the auto overclocking features really work well ... it it is just so frakin gorgeous, (pics don't do justice) that you just want to stare at it all day

I'd pair it with a 6600k or 6700k as budget permits.

Your cards still offer among the best bang for the buck at the high end. The following is the bang for the buck (fps per dollar) ranking using Techpowerups 19 game test suite and current newegg proved.

970 - 3.97
970 SLI - 3.48
980 - 2.97
980 SLI - 2.60
980 Ti - 2.53
980 Ti SLI - 2.21

The only reason I'd think about a 980 Ti if at some point, the plan is for two of them. My son rents a house with one of his old buds who had a 980 Ti... after my son built a 970 SLI build, the guy was so impressed he bought a 2nd 980 Ti

Actually SLI 970s slightly outperform a single 980Ti at 1080p and 1440p in most games. I do agree that it makes more sense to buy a 980Ti if you don't already have a 970 though.

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Gigabyte/GTX_980_Ti_Waterforce/23.html

Keep in mind with the above the comparison is two reference 970s against an overclocked and water cooled 980 Ti ... the 980 Ti on air overclocks over 30% making the above comparison "apples and watermelons".

Ok, in that case...

1) Do not go for SLI 970s. Seriously, a similarly overclocked 980ti costs less, performs equally (better in a lot of cases where SLI support is poor), uses less power and creates less heat. Also, it will be much easier to sell on in the future.

2) Gaming only? Get an i5 if you want to save some money. For gaming, the difference between an i5 and i7 is very minimal. This is becuase current games do no make very good used of the Hyperthreading feature that the i7 offers. However, the price difference is very significant. No budget restraints? Then sure, an i7 will give you some extra frames, but it not, you cannot go wrong with a high-end i5 like the 4690k or 6600k.

If you already have an i7-3770k you probably don't actually need a CPU upgrade. That CPU should still be performing petty well.

A bit of a stretch on those as I see it.

1. It is not faster as has been rather conclusively shown above. Twin 970s top even the Titan X, the tougher the game, the bigger the advantage as scaling is usually better the more demanding the game (18% in Crysis 3), 6% at 1440p on average across the 19 game test suite.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_Titan_X/29.html

2. The "bang for the buck" numbers are also shown above and include all cards @ max overclock.

3. They do not cost less, especially considering the fact that when buying two cards you get an extra $60 game that can be sold, reducing that cost. That's how my son bought his 970s...Bought 1st for $320, he bought the second one for $270 from his college roommate who bought it for no other reason but to get the free game at a discount.

And they certainly don't cost less than when you already own them.

4. SLI does use more power... a hi performing 980 Ti will top out at 359 max instantaneous peak, twin 970s about 426 (18% higher) befo5e overclocking. TDP wise when overclocked, which is where overall heat and power come in) its 300 watts for the 980 Ti overclocked versus 325 for the 970s in SLI (just 8%)

5. Over 80% of our builds are SLI/CF from the getgo .. the rest with a PSU sized for the future upgrade. Systems are rarely sold in their entirety, but if ya choose to do so, nothing stops a user from selling a system and selling the 2nd card separately.





Agreed

All fair points, but allow me to reply:

1) Performance - In a lot of games SLI 970s top a single 980ti, but very rarely by any significant margin (were talking an average of about 2% according to your source). However, the margin when SLI support is poor is hugely in favour of the single 980ti, up to 50% where SLI isnt supported at all. I personally would rather have a GPU set up than performed excellently across the board, rather than risk a 50% performance loss in some games for a potential 2% gain in others.

2) Cost - They do cost a LOT more in Canada. The two 970 cards linked by the OP are $499 each, so essntially a $1000 total. A single high-end 980ti is anywhere from $790-$900 depending on the model. Thats around a $150 saving if we go down the middle. The 980ti also comes with Tomb Raider (which coincidentally, had terrible SLI support on launch).

Note that I have always said this only applies if youre buying 2 new cards. In my original reply I stipulated two things: Go for the 980ti unless 1- You already own a 970, and 2- You can get a great deal on them.

3) Power - if youre performance argument rests on a few percentage points, than an 8% increase in power usage stands.

4) Resale - Having ran a successful used parts eBay account for 4 years, I can almost guarantee that it will be easier to sell one very high-end but outdated card than two mid-range outdated cards for a good price. For example my 780ti sold within a day, wheres as Im STILL stuck with two 670s that Ive ended up putting in two family systems.

The way I see it, what it comes down to really is this; is that potential increase in fps in some games worth the higher price tag, the small increase in energy usages, the increase in system temps and the risk of having to only use one card in games that have bad/no SLI support? Id say no, but every has their own opinion - were just here to give the OP as many as possible to be able to form his own.

I disagree, my two 970's use about 300w and I have them folding 24/7.

1. The major point here is a) we have a 19 game test suite covering **the**most popular games b) On average the SLI option is faster but where SLI really matters is when, well it **it matters**. If the scaling is 96% in a very demanding game, here **it matters**. Where we don't see very good scaling is in games where the 970 ius already breaking 100 fps w/ a single card ... in other words, where it don't matter. That average performance ratio was determined by setting the equating the fps sum @ 1440p (all overclocked) for the 970 to a nice round number of 1000 and than applying a ratio for all the other cards ... the 970 SLI came in at 1750; the 980 Ti at 1403

2. The two cards linked by the OP are already owned, so cost is irrelevant. regardless of where you are a new 980 Ti costs more than something you already have. If you are buying two new cards, you would have to compare cards of comparable design quality ... the FTW certainly not be compared with a generic 980 Ti.

I'm seeing the No. 1 MSI 970s at $465 ($930 for two minus the sale of that 2nd $70 game card = $840) ... the "equivalent" MSI 980 Ti is $1,030 ... $190 more. The cheapest MSI 980 Ti you can buy is $879

3. We agree that the power difference is very small so should not be a major factor in the decision.

4. All I can say is I have had the opposite experience. You always pay a cost premium for No. 1. In fact, Nvidia has been working very very hard over the years cause SLI builds are hurting their bottom line.

Two 560 Tis were $100 cheaper and 40% faster than the 580. Two 650 Tis Boosts were much cheaper than the 680, tho the difference shrank....nvidia intentionally crippled the 970 architecturally, because its performance was too close to the 980. It turned out not to be enough so they went back and artificially lowered the throttling point of the 970 to 80C ) an 18C spread from the 98C max temp. Meanwhile the 980Ti with a 72% higher TDP is out there with an 85C throttling pint, just 7C shy of its max allowable temp.

To make them an equal value from a "bang for the buck" (fps per dollar) standpoint. The 980 Ti would have to cost $472 in US or 1.475 times the cost of the 970. And still nVidia is cringing with the fact that they sell 13 970s for every 2 980 Tis. They make a lot more on the 980 Ti than they do on 2 lower end cards.

The only 980 Ti builds we have been involved in are a) 980 Ti builds from the getgo or by 980 Ti builds with SLI capable MoBos and PSUs.