I currently have 980ti's in SLI with EK water blocks. Is it worth the aggravation to dump them now and grab a 1080ti?

beekermartin · Mar 16, 2017

I am constantly upgrading my computer. I usually start with a single top tier card. I will keep the single card until the end of that models production and then buy a second for SLI. I hen keep that until the newest and greatest comes out. I skipped the regular 1080 because it was not much of an upgrade from the 980ti. Both of my 980ti's can be overclocked to 1500 mhz plus. I run them much lower than that for daily use because it isn't necessary to push them that hard for my triple 1920x1200 monitor SETUP.

With that said is now the time to upgrade/downgrade from 980ti's in SLI to a single 1080ti? I will be water cooling for sure. I might wait for the MSI Seahawk EK to be released. If I decide this is the right move I will have to work on selling the 980ti's now. I imagine their value will start dropping once the custom 1080ti's are released.

gillhooley · Mar 16, 2017

I would wait for AMD Vega, even if you have zero interest in it as a product it should hopefully push the price of the 1080ti down. From a Gflop perspective it is about equal to 2 980ti's so real word you will see some advantage (especially do to memory size and speed.) Personally unless you see performance issues I would wait.

atljsf · Mar 16, 2017

dump 2 980tis, well, yes, dump them, let me know where so i can get a free upgrade

perhaps after vega could be wiser

when tthe prices and models are right, always is better to have one gpu, simpler to manage and less problems with most games, a good amount of games this days will run on only one gpu

LilDog1291 · Mar 16, 2017

With 3 monitors it is a toss up for me as to whether that is the right move. On one hand the extra muscle is handy. On the other, a single 1080ti should have enough VRAM for triple monitor setups at that resolution. Tough call with the money you have put into the water blocks so far. Shame that Nvidia doesn't make the PCBs close enough to re-use them but from a design standpoint I understand why that is impossible. I would probably fall on the side of wait for now since I don't see you getting any more performance gains from switching other than maybe saving some on your electricity usage for the month.

beekermartin · Mar 16, 2017

I should be able to sell my cards for ~350 each and maybe ~75-100 each for the water blocks. I am hoping it won't end up costing me anything. More or less it will be a lateral move so I am not expecting an increase in performance. I am figuring now is the time to get the most for my 980ti's. I am just debating if it is worth the aggravation. It does appear that the 1080ti should perform fairly close to a 980ti SLI setup. Although, I haven't found any reviews comparing them yet. Even comparing the 1080ti to a 1070 SLI setup would be good to see the results.

atljsf · Mar 16, 2017

isn't easier to sell both things, not waterblock on one side and card in the other? it also saves you the time of reassemble the gpu with the old heatsink

the new gpu, the possible 1080ti, well, a founders edition with a new waterblock and just migrate the pump to the new one sounds to me a wiser approach

but the cost is big

in your situation it seems ou really need this

as i said before, wait for price stabilization nad better models than the founders and see how ideal is the whole idea or wait for vega and see if that pushes prices more?

you are in a situation where wait can give you benefits i think

beekermartin · Mar 16, 2017

I appreciate it atljsf!

I think I will get more selling the blocks separately. There will be a lot more people looking for a 980ti with a normal air cooler. The average person that will want a water block will already own that model video card. Since you can't get a new 980ti water block from EK anymore it should still have some value on eBay.

EDIT: It appears EK does have some water blocks for the MSI Gaming 980ti in stock again. They didn't for a long time but it appears they made a few more.

atljsf · Mar 16, 2017

that has alot of sense, you are probably correct

beekermartin · Mar 16, 2017

I will decide what to do over the next few days. Removing the water blocks and installing the air coolers is time consuming. If I start seeing some reviews showing the 1080ti can come close to the performance of a 980ti/1070 SLI setup then I will be grabbing a custom 1080ti when they become available. I am hoping the MSI Seahawk EK is released fairly soon. That should have a custom PCB and perform better than the stock 1080ti PCB. In theory of course.

atljsf · Mar 16, 2017

that sounds like the best decision, here you depend on reviews because you already have a great setup, so you have to be picky on where/if there is advantage

there should be advantage i think, but is possible it is very close to what you have now

time will tell

Isokolon · Mar 16, 2017

I don't see you getting 350 for a used 980Ti since the 1070 can be found new for 400 and has the same/partially better performance as the 980Ti

But good luck!

Personally i don't think the upgrade justifies the cost. Unless you have some performance issues I'd wait for the next generation with an upgrade.

beekermartin · Mar 16, 2017

I imagine the performance will be close. Which is usually when I jump. When two of the prior generation cards equal one of the newest and greatest that is usually when I upgrade. It has worked well for me over the years.

I plan to upgrade my CPU/Mobo soon as well. I haven't yet because I am still hoping the AMD Ryzen will help lower the 7700k prices some. As of now that doesn't appear to be the case.

beekermartin · Mar 16, 2017

Isokolon :

I have been checking on ebay and they do appear to be selling for ~325-375 for a 980ti MSI Gaming. Of course there are eBay, PayPal, and shipping fees. I am hoping I can clear close to $300 but I may not of course.

The problem with waiting is the value of the 980ti will continue to drop. Of course the price of the 1080ti might drop as well once Vega is released.

I will decide what to do over the next few days.

Thanks everyone for the responses!

Isokolon · Mar 16, 2017

Hard to believe someone's actually spending 375$ on a used 980Ti when s/he can get a new 1070 for 25$ more with warranty from a store. Well I guess I overestimate buyers

It's too soon for Intel to lower prices. And I wouldn't expect the big drops on the 7700k, rather the 6850k going down a bit and the next i7-generation being hexacores.
Since the 7700k still is the best consumer grade CPU overall I don't think AMD will be able to pressure Intel too much there ( the i5/i3s might be a different story) but who knows. If AMD manages to sell enough Ryzens in the next months to really hurt Intel they'll be forced to react. I sadly doubt it but we can hope.

If you can sell your 980Tis for more than 300, upgrading to a 1080ti is indeed interesting

beekermartin · Mar 16, 2017

Isokolon :

Keep in mind that people that are looking to SLI their current 980ti would be willing to pay more than a new 1070. At least I have done the same in the past and would again if I was trying to match my existing card.

I think a water cooled and overclocked 1080ti would be interesting to compare to the 980ti's in SLI.

beekermartin · Mar 18, 2017

I did find a review comparing 1070s in SLI to a Titan X Pascal. The 1070's performed slightly better in most games that SLI scaled well. The Titan XP wasn't that far behind though and was obviously way ahead in titles that didn't scale well with SLI.

I know this isn't an exact comparison to my 980ti's and a 1080ti but it is damn close comparison. I am leaning towards doing it. Now I just need to find the time to switch the blocks, test and then list the 980tis/water blocks on eBay. By then the 1080ti's with aftermarket cooling and hopefully the MSI Seahawk EK should be available.

beekermartin · Apr 23, 2017

I have now scene a few reviews comparing 980ti's in SLI to a 1080ti. The 980ti's in SLI are more powerful in games that support SLI but not by much.

I am leaning towards getting the 1080ti and selling my 980ti's. Unfortunately I missed the opportune window and the market value of the 980ti's has dropped to around ~300 or so. I can probably get ~50-75 for the EK block and back plates as well.

So should I bother now or wait until Vega is released and see what happens then? Decisions decisions...

I usually sell/upgrade at the best time but I might have missed the window on this series. I don't mind losing a bit more than usual but I am still struggling with the idea of losing money to get less performance in most games.

atljsf · Apr 23, 2017

no idea how good vega will be

1080ti seems decent to keep for at least 1 year, until vega or new nvidia comes out

I currently have 980ti's in SLI with EK water blocks. Is it worth the aggravation to dump them now and grab a 1080ti?

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