Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question

EVGA GeForce GTX Titan Black or 2 GeForce 980’s in SLI?

Tags:
  • Titan
  • Republic of Gamers
  • Asus
  • Geforce
  • Graphics
  • Gtx
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
Share

EVGA GeForce GTX Titan Black or 2 GeForce STRIX 980’s in SLI?

  •  
  •  
See results
October 15, 2014 3:12:39 PM

New Build Multi-GPU or single card: GeForce 980 GPUs or EVGA GeForce GTX Titan Black

I want to know what would be better for the long run (5 years at least). I have looked at things such as the cuda cores, base clock and boost clock speeds. I would like to know if I should buy one EVGA GeForce GTX Titan Black or install 2 GeForce STRIX 980’s in SLI. I possible can add another GeForce GTX Titan Black later on but for now I can only spend about $1200 on graphic cards.

The Titan Black would be 6 gb and the 980’s are 4 gb cards. So if I put 2 980’s in SLI would the graphics be close to an 8 gb card? Am I overlooking something or can you suggest a better setup for $1200?

All the system specs are listed below.

Thank you in advance for your help.


APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: Now- Today
BUDGET RANGE: $1200 for all graphics cards

USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: Gaming: Wolfenstein: TNO, Assassins Creed IV Black Flag, Call of Duty Series, Diablo III. Photo editing (Adobe Photo Essentials 13), movie editing, AutoCAD/Google Sketch UP, light programming, web design, web browsing and multi-tasking

CURRENT GPU AND POWER SUPPLY: No current GPU, (this is a new build) and PSU is EVGA SuperNOVA P2 1200W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply

OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS:
Intel Core i7-4960X Extreme Edition 3.6GHz 6-Core Processor
Asus Rampage IV Black Edition EATX LGA2011 Motherboard
Cooler Master Seidon 240M 86.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
G.Skill Ripjaws Z Series 64GB (8 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory
NZXT Phantom 530 (Red) ATX Full Tower Case
Sandisk Extreme Pro 960GB 2.5" Solid State Drive x 2 in Raid 0 (OS Volume)
Western Digital WD Black 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive x 2 (OS Volume Backup)
Optical Drive – ASUS BW-16D1HT
Win 8.1 Pro

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: Newegg.com, ncix.com
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

PARTS PREFERENCES: Asus Strix GTX 780 x 2 or EVGA GeForce GTX TITAN BLACK Superclocked Signature

OVERCLOCKING: Just a little and only for gaming SLI OR CROSSFIRE: SLI Only
MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1920x1080 Samsung LED 27”

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Lifetime Warranty would be nice


EVGA GeForce GTX TITAN BLACK Superclocked Signature

PcPartpicker link for ASUS GTX 980

PcPartpicker link for Complete Build with ASUS GTX 980’s

More about : evga geforce gtx titan black geforce 980s sli

October 15, 2014 4:09:15 PM

If you want optimum performance, The 980 GTX's in SLI will outperform the Titan Black by far unless you are only rendering and editing, and not gaming. Two GTX 980's in SLI will fit your performance needs nicely. Have a nice day.
October 15, 2014 9:36:09 PM

Even one 980 will outperform the Titan Black in games, it's a bit less powerful than the 780ti in games I believe.
Related resources
October 15, 2014 11:32:37 PM

Are 2 980's the best I can do for $1200 right now? Why are they out of stock everywhere I look?
October 16, 2014 7:37:05 AM

They're out of stock everywhere because everyone wants one, lol. Yeah it's pretty much the best you can do for gaming. Also, the VRAM from 2 GPU's in SLI doesn't stack, the memory usage is mirrored, meaning the data is mirrored exactly across both GPU's, leaving you access to only 4GB as if it were one card.

I suck at explaining things, sorry, I tried!
October 16, 2014 7:52:32 AM

There are two things to bear in mind here. The first is that your monitor's resolution is only 1080p, so you don't need massive graphical performance in gaming terms. A single GTX Titan or GTX 980 would be more than sufficient.

The second thing to consider is that not all games play nicely with an SLI configuration. If the developer hasn't accounted for it, and never will, then you're out of luck. Your expensive SLI configuration just became redundant. Even if a game does support SLI, you could end up tearing your hair out trying to make it work properly, and if you succeeded, you wouldn't see any benefit if your monitor only supports a 60hz refresh rate.

If you do SLI two 4GB GPUs, you don't get 8GB VRAM, you still get 4GB.

My advice, buy a single GTX Titan or GTX 980. Either one will do a great job, but so will a GTX 970.
!