GTX 980 Ti SLI vs Single GTX 1070 Ti

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souperzombie

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I'm thinking of selling some of my computer parts to get a bit of cash and to have a more up-to-date graphics card but I don't know if it would be worth the time, effort or money to change the parts.
I currently have 2 MSI brand GTX 980 Ti GPUs, one of which is the gold edition, and I'm not sure what brand 1070 Ti to go for if I decided to get one.
I Generally use my computer for gaming and editing videos, and I care more about a high FPS (~120) than running in 4k or whatnot.

Thanks.
 
Solution
Karadjgne
Depends entirely on the game. At best, you'll get about 70% support out of any DX11 game. For sli in that case, a couple of 980ti's will get better fps than a single 1080ti. On the other hand, for any DX12 title and more than a few games, sli support is beyond miserable and you'll get better performance by actually disabling the sli, leaving you with a single 980ti. Most games range from @30% to 60%.

Overall performance lies with a single card, it might lack in some games compared to sli, but generally keeps up with or even beats sli in a larger sense.
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delaro

delaro

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A 1070 TI isn't that much stronger than a single 980 TI and a 980 SLI is more or less equal to a 1080 GTX. SLI in general is kind of getting left behind as support is slowly fading, To see a substantial upgrade you would need a 1080 TI or one of these new 2XXX cards.
 
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souperzombie

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If that's the case, If do decide to sell my card(s), do you think I would be better off just selling 1 GPU and keeping the other rather than shelling out an extra £150 for a 1070 Ti if the performance isn't that different? I've realised I will need to sell at least one of them now, so my computer's performance is going to decrease either way.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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Depends entirely on the game. At best, you'll get about 70% support out of any DX11 game. For sli in that case, a couple of 980ti's will get better fps than a single 1080ti. On the other hand, for any DX12 title and more than a few games, sli support is beyond miserable and you'll get better performance by actually disabling the sli, leaving you with a single 980ti. Most games range from @30% to 60%.

Overall performance lies with a single card, it might lack in some games compared to sli, but generally keeps up with or even beats sli in a larger sense.
 
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souperzombie

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Well I just had a mess around with a few games with SLI disabled and really didn't see any notable decrease in performance, so I guess SLI is something I won't be needing anymore. As for getting a new card I think I'll stick with a single 980 Ti until I can get something a bit more beefy than a 1070 Ti.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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980ti is still a respectable card, especially for 1080p gaming. And nvidia is already releasing the 2080/ti and the 2070 is in the works, so I'd be expecting ppl to be dumping prices for a short while to make room on shelves for the new equipment.
 
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Killer01ws6

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I just completed my new build a few weeks back, new rig in sig.. but I have been gaming at 1440P on most and some 4K (when I got my new monitor before new rig was built on the 4K part) on two MSI 970s OC
Those two cards rocked me for a long time all the way to the jump to my current setup. high or ultra detail most games and your SLI setup is decently stronger than my cards.

Keep your current SLI cards, until your next complete build.
 
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Karadjgne

Karadjgne

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If just pure gaming, on 4k even, games can stretch the vram significantly, some using well over 6Gb. That's one of the major drawbacks to the SLI, you are stuck with the 6Gb of a single card, so that can limit fps at times, more so in 1440p if trying to get beyond @144fps.
Ideally you'd get a single powerful card, then sell the 980ti's for whatever you can get for them. You might get a little more for the Gold edition, since it is a limited edition card, but basically it's identical to the Gaming X with slightly higher clocks. Nothing that any user couldn't get with a simple 'OC mode' from software.

A 1070ti really isn't much, if any, of an upgrade from a 980ti, for something relevant you'd be looking at a 1080ti, 2080, 2080ti, especially for 4k use.
 
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delaro

delaro

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No a 1080ti is close to 60% faster than a 980ti SLI in none gaming tasks and 24% faster overall in raw FPS when you looking at gaming. A 980ti SLI is close to being on par with a single 1070ti but that is only if you can get SLI to work like it's supposed to. The main issue here is SLI and Crossfire are being slowly dropped, while MGPU support has been resisted by AMD and Nvidia. Engine manufacturers also have been extremely slow at adopting support which makes it hardly worth the effort unless your aiming at specific titles that have managed to stay cutting edge with driver support.

So as far as an upgrade vs an SLI that works a 1080 or 1080ti would be noticeable. Over a single 980TI, a 1070ti would give you a big leap. The newer RTX cards I honestly would avoid those for a few months and see how well that actually perform because right now they are well overpriced and support is limited..
 
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