To SLI or Not SLI That Is The Question

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aypheros70

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Feb 3, 2016
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So I am looking for some opinions.....
I currently run a 970 GTX and was thinking of getting another and running them in SLI. However, now with the 1070 GTX coming out, would I be better off with a 1070 GTX and a 970 GTX in non SLI. I do have a dual monitor setup.

Thanks for your opinions.
 
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geofelt
First of all, attaching two monitors to a single graphics card is no problem.
You will game on the primary monitor, and the side monitor will nave no noticeable impact.

You will win fps benchmarks with sliGTX970, but gameplay will be better with a single good card.
You will avoid issues such as stuttering, screen tearing and even non sli support in some games.

A GTX970 will play most games well at 1080P.
The GTX1070 is considerably stronger if you are going to 1440P or even 4k resolutions.
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Gam3r01

Gam3r01

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I personally would consider the 1070 a "better" choice. It performs slightly ahead of 970 SLI, and of course is a single card setup.
However, I dont know if I would call it a "good" choice. The prices on 970s are low, so you could get near the same levels of performance as a 1070 for a fraction of a price.
 
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aypheros70

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Yeah that was what I was trying to decide...The 970 is dropping below 300.00 seems a better choice per dollar.

 
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Gam3r01

Gam3r01

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Well you can get them down around 260 (cheaper after rebates in certain cases).
Another, I think logical, option is to buy a used card. People are selling them fairly cheap, possibly cheaper than they should. A used 970 would easily be a phenomenal price/performance upgrade.
 
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Hlsgsz

Hlsgsz

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Feb 29, 2016
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The 1070 is a better choice. In general its better to go with the highest single gpu one can afford and avoid SLi as it comes with issues, going from games not supporting it to the dreaded microstutter.
Plus, games are going to push past 4 gb of vram, and, as you may or may not know, sli doesn't add VRAM as both cards need to have the same data mirrored in their respective memory.
But i have to ask you this: why do you feel like you need to upgrade?
 
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iRon_Man22

iRon_Man22

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I would get a 1070, that way you could always SLI the 1070 in future. One thing to consider is that the 1070 is the new Pascal architecture, it took NVIDIA years to come out with a new GPU architecture so the 1070 now and then SLI later will keep your PC up to date much longer than a 970 SLI. If your budget is super tight, definitely get a used 970 off craigslist or ebay. I've seen local 970s go for $180 (here in Utah). If you are not on a tight buget, go with the 1070. You won't regret future proofing your PC.
 
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Hlsgsz

Hlsgsz

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I forgot to mention something important: older Nvidia GPUs underperform in DX12 games. This is architecture related and has been fixed in the new generation. So as games start to move to DX12 you may regret going with a 970 SLI setup pretty soon.
 
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Hlsgsz

Hlsgsz

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This is true of all DX12 games, not just Ashes: Quntum break, far cry primal etc.

http://wccftech.com/nvidia-amd-tested-cry-primal-radeons-lead-pack/
http://www.tweaktown.com/guides/7655/quantum-break-pc-performance-analysis/index2.html
 
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Mousemonkey

Mousemonkey

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Nvidia GeForce And AMD Radeon Graphics Cards Tested In Far Cry Primal – Radeons Lead The Pack
1920×1080
Click to expand...

Nvidia-AMD-Far-Cry-Primal-PC-Benchmarks-1080p-PCGamesHardware.jpg


And yet a 980Ti and Titan are top of the chart, how is that Radeons leading the pack? :heink:
 
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Hlsgsz

Hlsgsz

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Yeah, not such an inspired title :)))
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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First of all, attaching two monitors to a single graphics card is no problem.
You will game on the primary monitor, and the side monitor will nave no noticeable impact.

You will win fps benchmarks with sliGTX970, but gameplay will be better with a single good card.
You will avoid issues such as stuttering, screen tearing and even non sli support in some games.

A GTX970 will play most games well at 1080P.
The GTX1070 is considerably stronger if you are going to 1440P or even 4k resolutions.
 
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