Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in

Reply to this thread

Forum question

Started by samskellern1 | | 11 answers
980 sli VS 970 Sli
I am building Computer obviously

but i trying to choose between 970 sli and 980 sli

- I am gaming on 1440p

with minds to water cooling them in the future i wondering if 980 sli performance with the water cooling will beat 970 sli performance to value ratio

also with water cooling which reference model will be best

if that makes sense

please ask question if need


  • By posting on this site, I confirm I am over 13 years of age and agree to abide by the site’s rules.

October 17, 2014 5:37:46 AM

with looking at prices at my chosen retailer

the 970 come to 600 pounds for sli

the 980 comes to 1000 for sli
October 16, 2014 4:11:17 PM

My comment of 65% performance was in comparing the costs/performance of a 970 sli setup vs 980 sli... With all cards at stock speeds. $800 (970x2) is approx 65% of the $1200 (980x2) and with dual 970's you should expect much more than 65% of the performance of dual 980's.

I am not an expert at high end GPU setups, so I'm not sure exactly how they compare performance wise, but I know a single 970 gets most of the performance of a 980 and carrying that over to a sli setup.

GPU over clocking is seldom to give you more than... I'm going to say... ~20% overall improvement (in a stable 24/7 gaming setup).
October 16, 2014 12:29:18 PM

Always go with the better single card solution then a double cheaper card solution.
October 16, 2014 9:41:33 AM

menetlaus said:
Performance to value ratio favors the lower cost cards (general rule of thumb - IMHO that is 100% true at the high end)

Reference design is reference design - if upgrading the coolers to allow for watercooling it won't matter which brand you get if they follow the reference design.

My suggestion is to buy a big enough PSU to handle overclocked/SLI and get a single 980 now. If you need the additional performance later get a second 980 for SLI and do the watercooling/OC setup at that time. This plan will save a pile of money on the second GPU (especially if able to get a used 980 for cheap).

If set on SLI from the start I'd look at a pair of 970's as they are ~$800 (vs ~$1200 for dual 980's) and will get far better than 65% the performance of the dual 980's.


So your saying if i was water cooling i could get 65% performance increase buy getting the 2 sli 980 also i might go three way 970 as it is cheaper including water blocks then 2 980s

in answer to the psu question evga 1300 watts
October 15, 2014 9:40:45 AM

Performance to value ratio favors the lower cost cards (general rule of thumb - IMHO that is 100% true at the high end)

Reference design is reference design - if upgrading the coolers to allow for watercooling it won't matter which brand you get if they follow the reference design.

My suggestion is to buy a big enough PSU to handle overclocked/SLI and get a single 980 now. If you need the additional performance later get a second 980 for SLI and do the watercooling/OC setup at that time. This plan will save a pile of money on the second GPU (especially if able to get a used 980 for cheap).

If set on SLI from the start I'd look at a pair of 970's as they are ~$800 (vs ~$1200 for dual 980's) and will get far better than 65% the performance of the dual 980's.
October 15, 2014 9:34:22 AM

ya but it may be these cards are new and not fully optimized with there drivers yet??

as for me I like the 970 but will hold off and see where it all goes down the road
October 15, 2014 9:27:46 AM

sreeramnair said:
I recommend you to go for the Nvidia GeForce 980 SLI as it has lot of new stuff and anti-aliasing techniques. It will be useful for playing next-gen games at resolutions and ultra settings. GTX 970 wouldn't be able to do that good.


There is only a 10 - 12 FPS difference between the 970 and 980. If you buy reference, you are looking at a ~$550 difference between SLI 970's and SLI 980's. That amount of extra money isn't worth the small FPS difference, IMO.

The 970 has all of the features the 980 has, the only difference is that the 980 can do quad SLI.

Two 970's will do great at 1440p. Even one 970 would be good.
October 15, 2014 9:26:37 AM

well ya its a hier end card just like saying that with a x290 vs x280

you get what you pay for [and some times less]
October 15, 2014 9:22:46 AM

I recommend you to go for the Nvidia GeForce 980 SLI as it has lot of new stuff and anti-aliasing techniques. It will be useful for playing next-gen games at resolutions and ultra settings. GTX 970 wouldn't be able to do that good.

See all answers