sli or single card?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
M

manlyman

Honorable
May 17, 2013
46
0
10,540
ok so i have a gtx 980 currently, got it for 200, i can get another for 200 and run sli, which at a 400 price point it blows the 1070 out of the water.
i know people are gonna say " games arent optimized for sli". but is that really the case anymore?? im pretty sure 95% of games support it. 980 sli is on par with a 1080, so is it worth running sli?
 
Solution
IInuyasha74
Well no, the majority of games aren't optimized for SLI. That is unlikely to change. It is more work for game developers, who often due as little optimization as possible. Some games will use it, but a lot still won't. And even in the best scenarios, performance doesn't scale evenly. Your performance will increase, but not double. Usually with two, 150% of what you would get with one is usually what you will achieve in well optimized games.

If you have the extra cash though, go for it. Check what games you plan to play, they may benefit from SLI. Either way, $200 for a GTX 980, especially in the current market, is an excellent deal.
Sort by date Sort by votes
IInuyasha74

IInuyasha74

Splendid
May 1, 2013
6,333
18
27,965
Well no, the majority of games aren't optimized for SLI. That is unlikely to change. It is more work for game developers, who often due as little optimization as possible. Some games will use it, but a lot still won't. And even in the best scenarios, performance doesn't scale evenly. Your performance will increase, but not double. Usually with two, 150% of what you would get with one is usually what you will achieve in well optimized games.

If you have the extra cash though, go for it. Check what games you plan to play, they may benefit from SLI. Either way, $200 for a GTX 980, especially in the current market, is an excellent deal.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
M

manlyman

Honorable
May 17, 2013
46
0
10,540
Well I know most games aren't optimiZed for it but it's not like it won't work with it correct ? Like u said it jst won't scale as well as it would if it was optimized, but it's still one hell of a jump for 200 dollars , puts it at the 1080 range. Thanks , I'll grab the 980, do u think a 850 g2 from evga can power it ?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
blockhead78

blockhead78

Distinguished
Apr 7, 2011
1,186
0
19,960
trust me... i had 2 x 980's and they do not perform as well as a single 1080

while £200 is a great price, just don't expect massive improvements. Also, don't forget it doesn't increase the vram and the way games are going, 4GB is quickly becoming a bit limited

it's not worth the hassle with the current state of sli

i got absolutely sick of having to disable it to overcome sli compatibility issues

honest, sli is hardly an afterthought for most game studios & nvidia these days
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
IInuyasha74

IInuyasha74

Splendid
May 1, 2013
6,333
18
27,965
Yea a single GTX 1080 would outperform two GTX 980s. It would come in close to a GTX 1070 in some games though.

As for how it works, I mean technically you can have both of the GPUs "On" in every game. It may cause glitches and crashes in some games though. In other games it is possible to have lower performance with two cards in SLI than you would see with just one of those cards. A lot of AAA title games will get at least some increase in performance, but usually at most it ends up at 150% of the single card. It really depends on what games you plan to play.

A lot of people, like blockhead78 and myself, simply don't bother with it because it ends up being more trouble than it is worth. It's a technology that sounds amazing, and worked well in the late 1990s when it was easier to render games. It just doesn't work that well anymore, and really I think AMD and Nvidia mostly keep it to increase GPU sales. Either way, a $500 GTX 1080 would be a superior option.

But if you are set on doing it, an EVGA 850 G2 shouldn't have an issue running it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
M

manlyman

Honorable
May 17, 2013
46
0
10,540
well from the benchmarks I've seen it blew the 1070 out of the water and was on par with the 1080, but I'm sure there's some ticks or bugs while playing that are annoying
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom