2 way SLI gtx 980ti vs gtx 1080

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dddisback

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Hey guys,
Since gtx 1080 will be coming out soon by the information they provided us it will obviously outperform the 980ti, and the price of the 980ti will obviously drop by a large amount(can't say exactly yet but expecting atleast a 200$ drop). We will have to wait for the benchmarks of the 1080 to be sure of this. Would the 2 way SLI 980ti ourperform the gtx 1080 since I would probably be able to get 2 980ti's for the price of a gtx 1080. What do you guys think?
 
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Scaling can be awful, and depending on the game, can actually make it worse (looking at you Fallout 4). Other games though, such as Far Cry Primal beast mode SLI and I get a stagnant 60 frames in UHD with everything except AA jacked. (Running 2X EVGA 980TI SC)

I'm in the same dilemma, sell the two 980Ti's and pick up a 1080 or just wait until the eventual 1080 Ti comes out and just get one of those. To the above point, I WOULD LOVE to go single card, but zero single card setups, including the 1080 can do 60 fps in 4K...
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genthug

genthug

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Don't buy an SLI setup over a single card setup, even if the single card is slightly outdone by the SLI. SLI requires a lot of other tweaking involved with the games you want to play, PSU requirements, etc. If you get the single card now, you can wait until prices drop on the 1080 then buy a second of that if you really need the SLI, and you'll have more performance than the 980ti SLI. Not to mention that if you're running a quad core i5/i7 you likely have 16 PCI-e lanes, which means that if you do go for the 980Ti SLI setup, you cannot further expand unless you grab something like a 6950k, or something from Broadwell E.
 
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dudmont

dudmont

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I have sli too, I wouldn't sli anything but flagship cards. 1080 might be better than the 980ti, but we don't know how much yet. Keep in mind that the 980 was very comparable to the 780ti, only a few percentage points better. I'd wait until we see how much better the 1080 is than the 980ti.
Azzazel couldn't be more correct, sli is not any kind of a nuisance. I almost never have issues and I've had it for well over a year. I'd let some more time and info come out before I waded into the 1080 pool. 980tis in sli is quite powerful. It will handle 1440 at 144hz, it will handle 4k at 60+. Let's see what 1080 can do.
 
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3ogdy

3ogdy

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Whenever in doubt about whether to go SLI or single card, most of the time the best solution is to go for the fastest single card you can afford right now. If, for whatever the reason, you'll find the performance unsatisfactory after some time, you can always get a second card and go for SLI, but it would be a GTX 1080 SLI, not a 980Ti SLI that would require either a third card (definitely not recommended) or an actual single card that outperforms 2x980Ti.
 
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SaintSe7en

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Scaling can be awful, and depending on the game, can actually make it worse (looking at you Fallout 4). Other games though, such as Far Cry Primal beast mode SLI and I get a stagnant 60 frames in UHD with everything except AA jacked. (Running 2X EVGA 980TI SC)

I'm in the same dilemma, sell the two 980Ti's and pick up a 1080 or just wait until the eventual 1080 Ti comes out and just get one of those. To the above point, I WOULD LOVE to go single card, but zero single card setups, including the 1080 can do 60 fps in 4K consistently. 2 980Ti's give me 4K Ultra 60 frames in about 60% of games, the rest I have to drop to 1440P (not a huge deal). Not a single article yet addresses 980Ti SLI vs 1080, and I assume it's because the SLI setup is better and Nvidia doesn't want to propagate that, as it's selling a new card. Still, it's hard to say no to Pascal.
 
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genthug

genthug

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I wouldn't be in that dilemma if I were you :p I'd just wait till your SLI setup finally gets obsolete in about 1000 years then look at the new cards haha

NV also never said that the 1080 was better than 980Ti SLI, they only said it was better than 980 SLI, they said the 1080 was taking over the performance king slot from the Titan X, which is more powerful than the 980Ti. Definitely not an issue though. That setup is absolutely killer.
 
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zornyan

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OK let's get some basics down.

1080 is approx 20% faster than a 980ti

sli 980ti, is dependant on scaling in games, now GENERALLY games are much better nowdays, even when not supported initially they get it pretty sharpish, and a poor scaled game would be around 20-25% better, up to 80% better in very well optimised games.

so worst case, 980ti performs the exact same as a 1080, best case? it's about 40-50% better.

now there's 2 other problems, heat being a major factor, and micro stuttering.

I had 970 sli up until January, I changed to a 980ti then.

sli scaling, issues etc are NOT as apparent as people make it sound, it worked very well, gave me big performance and was fine.

BUT , you get micro stuttering, I noticed it alot, you can try and adjust settings to aleviate it, but it is always there unless you buy a g sync monitor. it drove me insane.

vram isn't stacked, and even with dx12 developers probably won't take the extra time to make it stack, so you'll be limited in vram, now 6gb is enough at the minute, but when playing at 4k resolutions it's barely enough, and as games continue to evolve, I imagine 8gb will be required easily (shadow of mordor can eat up 7gb iirc) for most AAA titles.

personally, if you need a 4k solution right now, sli 980ti will be fine, but you'll need to upgrade in a year, or maybe less for more vram
 
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azzazel_99

azzazel_99

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I seriously doubt in a year 980ti sli will need upgrading. I still play with my 780ti's and i can get above 60fps at 1440p in pretty mich any game. 980ti sli while 4k settings may jave to be slightly adjusted in a year a replacement wouldn't be needed. Most people play with AA turned on when at 4k res which is stupid and benchmarks are done the same way or alot of them. AA makes little to no difference at all at 4k because the pixel density. Turn useless things like AA off and thats free performance boost with no loss in graphical quality. Besides if in a few years 4k was to much just set res to 1440p which looks great just like 4k does and problem solved. My 780ti's are still very relevant cards today and they are slightly aged. The 980ti's will undoubtedly outlast 780ti's in the performance market before needing to be replaced.
 
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SaintSe7en

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Lol, I do enjoy it. My comment was directed at all the review articles so far, some of which use Nvidia's benchmarks, and how NONE of the benchmarks include 980Ti SLI comparisons. There are 980 SLI comparisons, just not the Ti. I classically assumed that Nvidia was behind the lack of comparison lol.

I unfortunately played games in 4K early, and it's just so difficult to play it in 1080 after that. Expensive problem.

Rumor has it, the 1080 Ti will be straight double the 980Ti... I can dream lol
 
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zornyan

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it depends if you want to compromise on settings or not? again and resolution.

1080p? 1 980ti for the next couple years 60fps.

4k? could easily be a yearly flagship card upgrade, even old titles like crysis 3 and gta v can chew up vram, yes you are correct about AA etc, I don't use it at 4k.

but some people do, some people want real MAX settings, in that case, you'll need more than 6gb of vram, even now you need more than 6gb in some titles.

it's down to personal needs end of the day, I like my settings cranked up (except AA etc) so I understand I'll want to buy a 1080ti once it's out, and so fourth, as I much prefer the look of 4k than 1440 etc, and I don't like turning down graphical settings.
 
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zornyan

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4k does spoil you doesn't it? witcher 3 is the only game I can't get 60fps in, I tried turning down the gralhics, but thought I'd try 1440 instead and let my TV upscale the image.

bearing in mind my TV is 1500 quids worth, and the upscaling engine is very very good.....I hated it :( it all looks so....bad in comparison

feel like a snob now, but I hate playing anything on my xbox or ps4 nowdays, just feels like I've got back 10 years
 
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SaintSe7en

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Zornyan is correct, but here's what a lot of people don't understand about the current 4K gamers. We don't care about "need" lol. I'll get two 1080Ti's because I want them, and I earned the money to buy them. I'm also going to buy the new 4K 100-144Hz Gsync monitors when they come out. The current Acer Predator is prob my favorite for what's out there (I use that or my Samsung 4K monitor).

This is about pushing limits, not about "need" or achieving playable settings.
 
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genthug

genthug

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Res does make a huge difference. A year ago I was playing on a... 1280 * 1024? I think, monitor. Got to college with a brand new 1920*1080 laptop and immediately needed a 1080p monitor for my desktop.
 
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SaintSe7en

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Witcher 3 killed me a little for that reason lol. I rock that in 1440p.

It is all about what you want. I prefer to max everything except AA, so I'll go 4K if at 55-60 or 1440 if I can't.

I can't wait until I can have 4K for all my games. Hopefully with one card someday.
 
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zornyan

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^ pretty much saintse7en there's a fine balance.

a close friend of mine has a 970, oc it a touch, and plays at 4k with low settings, he doesn't care too much about fps or graphics just enjoys it for what it is.

me? I want more powah! and when you DO get that game, at max settings, cranked up to 110% on a fat 4k tv....it's bloody worth it.

my Mrs didn't belive crysis 3 was as old as it was when she saw it lol, and witcher 3? I can sit and stare into the distance for ages.

is it frivolous? he'll yeah...but frivolous looks good imo.
 
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zornyan

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#consolepeasants30fps720p

lol sorry had to....

4k is just too damm good, tried running a couple games at 4k+dsr to render it at 8k the other day for fun.....OMGZZ

so yeah, OP, stick with a single 980ti, even I would say it's fine for now, and if your at 1080p it'll be fine for a good while yet.

if you're looking to go 4k, I'd wait for 1080ti, juding by history, I'd wager it'll be about 10-12gb vram, with a few more performance hikes, at that point it WILL be a 4k card, as the vram will be substantial enough to be used at 4k with all the memory eating settings turned on, with enough raw power to drive the games.

essentially a titan x with 40ish percent more power
 
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SaintSe7en

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I have both consoles and a wii U for exclusive games, but it's freaking torture. Here's exactly what I'm running from CPU to Cooling and I can't complain. It's why justifying a 1080 is so difficult, because it's not a single card 4K solution, as awesome as it is.

Specs:
DISPLAY: Samsung 27 inch UHD 4K 2160p
CPU: Intel i7 Quad Core 4790K at 4.6 GHz 
GPU 1: EVGA GTX 980Ti SC ACX 2.0 (1248 MHz boost) (6GB GDDR5 VRAM)
GPU 2: EVGA GTX 980Ti SC ACX 2.0 (1248 MHz boost) (6GB GDDR5 VRAM)
SLI ENABLED: EVGA Pro Bridge
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16GB 1866MHz DDR3 
HDD: Samsung Evo 800 1 TB SSD
MOBO: ASUS Z97-AR
PSU: 1000W EVGA SuperNova Silent Series
KEYBOARD: Corsair Vengeance K70 RGB
MOUSE: EVGA X10 Carbon Torq
CASE: Corsair Graphite Series 780T
COOLING: Corsair H100i GTX Liquid Cooling, X2 140mm front intake fans, X1 140mm rear exhaust fan, X4 120mm fans in push/pull dorsal exhaust.
 
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zornyan

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^ same lol, I hate exclusives, but hey its worked eh? we both bought consoles for em! as well, some games get such bad bad pc ports consoles do have their shining moments like dark souls series, fromsoft literally hate their pc playerbase...

I'm using an x99 msi mobo, 5820k and just one 980ti, got a 850w gold evga psu and a h100i for the cpu.

have been tempted to get a second 980ti, but u remember the micro stuttering I had with my 970s driving me insane.

imo, the 1080/1070 is a replacement for 970s and under, 980> there's just no point, the 1080ti will/should be a true upgrade, 40-50% performance increase, probably with a lower TDP, and less heat.

20% just isn't enough imo, I mean that's what? turning a 35 fps game to maybe 45, where as the ti should be a true 60fps 4k card.
 
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SaintSe7en

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Couldn't have said it better myself.
 
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