should i buy second gtx 970 for sli or swap for single 1070 ?

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Ri2do

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Jun 9, 2015
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Hello all,
Im hoping that you guys could help me out on this matter.
Basically I build a gaming rig (sort of) about a year ago, with main specs as follows:
i5 4690
16gb of ram
gtx 970

TL;DR:
better to buy a second gtx 970 for SLI and a new power supply or upgrade my 970 to 1070?



This was my first build in years, but its all working fine (i think - really dont know about the fans placements and stuff, just gone with some general info, gut feeling and good ol' common sense).

Anyway I'm now thinking about getting a second gtx 970 to put it in SLI with my first one. Im not sure if I need it, as the games i play are mostly bethesda games (skyrim, fallout 4 ect) and some online games, that could run on a toaster.
My bethesda games are heavily modded tho, so even with this card i can just about to pull 40-50 fps. But i did managed to get so many textures mods in 4k and a ton of post processing that i dropped to 10 fps, and had to rebuild the game ^^. So that what made me think that maybe I should buy a second card so I can run these ultra demanding graphical setups.

My biggest concern are:
- is it worth to buy a second 970 over selling my card and putting that extra money towards getting a 1070
- would I even be able to install it (some one can advise me later on this, as Im in work office,lol, and I dont remeber the mobo model, I got the second pci-e slot i think)
- will i need a new psu as well ? (im pretty sure i got Corsair CS 650M - but would have to double check the model exacly, i know its a 650 one)
- some games may have problem with SLI setup?

I hope this is not confusing and I can get some decent advices :)

cheers guys

PS: http://www.pcgamer.com/geforce-gtx-1070-performance-preview/ benchmark for 1070
 
Solution
V
SLI won't help for too reasons:
- It won't increase effective VRAM at all. With two GTX 970 cards you have effective video memory of 4 GB (only 3.5 GB without suffering a big performance hit). This is plenty for most things, but is likely the issue you are hitting with the very big texture files.
- These games are not optimized for SLI

Replacing with a GTX 1070 on the other hand means a much faster card and 8 GB of VRAM.
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Mousemonkey

Mousemonkey

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Sep 3, 2006
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And why would you not be able to install it? It uses the same slot and is about the same size so what would be the issue? :heink:
 
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atomicWAR

atomicWAR

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I'd just get the GTX 1070...unless you find a used GTX 970 for dirt cheap. The GTX 1070 is as fast as two 970s (roughly) and won't have the issues some games have with SLI nor will you have the power supply/PCIe slot issues. I am a fan of SLI but in this case I would just get the newer card. SLI is best when no single card is capable of what your model in SLI can do...ie two GTX 980s (Ti or not)...2 GTX 980 > 1 GTX 980Ti for example. Or if the price of two cards is a fair chunk less cash wise then the single card solution equivalent in this case 2 GTX 970s in place of a GTX 1070 (or GTX 980Ti for that matter). ie 2 GTX 970 = 1 GTX 980Ti or 1 GTX 1070, roughly

Point being you get another GTX 970 for say 150 or less used. It might be worth it if you don't mind SLI. But if you can't get one as cheap you mind as well sell your GTX 970 and put the funds toward a GTX 1070. Anyways I hope this helps
 
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Wayfall

Wayfall

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When you get round to upgrading your GPU I recommend you go for the GTX 1080TI also I would not recommend buying one now at full price as for the amount of power for the price over your current card it really is not worth it.

My GTX 970 cost me £245 so why would I get a GTX 1080 for £600+ and I wouldn't see a huge difference in performance for the price. £600+ for a GPU while my current one is still able.
 
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VincentP

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Oct 18, 2013
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SLI won't help for too reasons:
- It won't increase effective VRAM at all. With two GTX 970 cards you have effective video memory of 4 GB (only 3.5 GB without suffering a big performance hit). This is plenty for most things, but is likely the issue you are hitting with the very big texture files.
- These games are not optimized for SLI

Replacing with a GTX 1070 on the other hand means a much faster card and 8 GB of VRAM.
 
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atomicWAR

atomicWAR

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Yes and no on the SLI support for games. Skyrim yes it supports it....fallout 4 no it does not. And he is very right about the Vram issue. Some of your FPS issues may well be the GTX 970's hokie 3.5 +.5 GB VRAM issues.
 
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Ri2do

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Jun 9, 2015
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Thank you very much all.
I was reading a lot about the gtx 1070 in recent days and I think i will wait for 1070 to get in the market and than I will try to sell my gtx 970 and get a 1070 instead.
 
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wellsoul2

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I started playing Fallout 4 with a single GTX 970 at 1440p and had some FPS lag at times. So I bought another GTX 970 for SLI. SLI works fine in Fallout 4.
Immediate difference was FPS which stays at 60FPS in all areas. Makes a big difference. A GTC 970 can be had for around $270 so not bad, though it seems the price just dropped due to the 1070 coming out. All things even I would probably go buy the 1070 if it was now though, because VRAM is 8GB. Now I probably will stick with 1070 SLI since it's comparable and I have so much cash invested already. Still it's great...1070 seems a great card for the money and I think it only uses 150 watts. I was a AMD fanboy for years but Nvidia has done so well with performance without requiring huge power supplies.
 
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