Worth the upgrade?

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HappyBuffalo

Commendable
Jul 9, 2016
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1,510
Hello, I am currently running 3way Ali on gtx 980s (4gb) and I was considering upgrading to the new titan x (Pascal) that is getting ready to come out. Which is going to be around $1200 I believe. As of now I have no issues playing games. Although I have heard that you only use a portion of the graphics card power through sli. My main question is, is there a big enough difference in power between 3gtx 980s and the new titan to justify upgrading. Thanks for your help :)
 
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Mr Kagouris
The difference is that SLI performance scaling is not linear. To put it simply, with SLI 1+1 does not equal 2, it equals about 1.5 (and 3 way is barely 2 times the performance of a single card). On top of this, not all games support SLI. Most triple-A games do, but not all of them (and most smaller games don't). As a result, if you're dependent on your SLI setup and can't make do with the single-card performance, you may find yourself unable to fully enjoy games that don't have good support for SLI. Also, at higher resolutions you may often have issues because the VRAM of the cards does not stack, so you may end up with too little VRAM.

Nvidia has also dumped 3-way SLI with their newer cards, so while this doesn't directly affect you...
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Mr Kagouris

Mr Kagouris

Judicious
Sep 7, 2015
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There isn't a huge difference in total power but there's a huge difference in single-card power. Since I doubt you're in a rush to upgrade with that setup, I'd say wait for the 1080 Ti to release whenever. It'll likely be as good as the new Titan X for gaming but significantly cheaper.
 
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HappyBuffalo

Commendable
Jul 9, 2016
11
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1,510


Thanks for the quick reply. Can you please explain to me the difference in (not a huge difference in power but a huge difference in single card power) I have been told by friends that you are better off getting one high end card than getting two lower cards and using sli.

 
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Mr Kagouris

Mr Kagouris

Judicious
Sep 7, 2015
3,966
2
32,565
The difference is that SLI performance scaling is not linear. To put it simply, with SLI 1+1 does not equal 2, it equals about 1.5 (and 3 way is barely 2 times the performance of a single card). On top of this, not all games support SLI. Most triple-A games do, but not all of them (and most smaller games don't). As a result, if you're dependent on your SLI setup and can't make do with the single-card performance, you may find yourself unable to fully enjoy games that don't have good support for SLI. Also, at higher resolutions you may often have issues because the VRAM of the cards does not stack, so you may end up with too little VRAM.

Nvidia has also dumped 3-way SLI with their newer cards, so while this doesn't directly affect you right now, game developers will likely ditch 3-way support entirely in the near future, leaving your third card more or less as dead weight.

This is why I'm recommending you wait until Nvidia launches the 1080 Ti. You'll likely be able to afford 2 of them if you sell your 3 GTX 980s and add some money, and be in a much better situation.
 
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