2X GTX 980 SLI vs single card 1080 Ti

[AntonioE1778]

I have a desktop setup with two GTX 980s in SLI (not 980 Ti, just regular 980s). However, I'm tempted to ditch the SLI setup in favor of a more simple, easier to manage single graphics card, the new GTX 1080 Ti. My question is this: on paper would a single 1080 Ti be a better option than 2 980s in SLI? Like, so far as speed, smoothness, manageability, power consumption, game performance, etc...? If you were in my position would you do this?

p.s. Yes, yes, I am aware that the 1080 Ti has not been released yet so real-world tests are not yet available. That's why I said 'on paper'. I'm not as good at reading the numbers as many of you on here.

 

[chemmajorp53]

No one knows, there are no benchmarks yet, so "on paper" doesn't even exist. For what it's worth, if the 35% over the 1080 is correct then a 1080 ti should have about the same or more raw horsepower than 2 GTX 980s and, given that the 1080 is already about as fast as 2 980s in SLI in a lot of games, the 1080 ti can only get better. It all depends on whether it's worth $700 to you, that's not a small sum of money when you already have a powerful setup.

 

[Supahos]

SLI isn't even supported at all in some newer titles the second 980 won't provide a single extra frame. There may be one or two cases where the 980s might do a tad better but there will be a lot more a 1080 today will win handily and even more so with a 1080ti

 

[WarWolverineWarrior]

There are usually lots of support problems with SLI/Xfire. Single card solution is always the best.

That's why I went from R9 295x2 to GTX 1080. I couldn't play half of the games due to no support.

No Support = No drivers. (Lots of glitches, texture problems and stuttering)

 

[das_stig]

Sell the 980's and get a 1080, an added bonus will be a drop in power requirements and heat.

 

[SgtScream]

Since most games aren't optimized for SLI, i'd say in most cases the GTX 1080 TI would trounce dual gtx 980 ti's.
I'd definitely like to see raw benchmarks of this, but until the 1080ti is released people can only speculate.
Another consideration, making the move to a gtx 1080 ti is increased vram.

 

[AntonioE1778]

Thanks for the responses! I went ahead and ordered the 1080 Ti and am expecting great things especially if/when I decide to save up enough money to do the whole SLI thing.

 

[Ransome]

Hey Antonio, I am in the same boat you were before.
With 1080Ti now released - how much of a performance boost did you get and will you say it was worth it?
I also have 980 SLI, with an i5-3570K and 16 GB of DDR3 RAM.
Pondering whether I should get that beefy 1080Ti now, or wait for Zolta architecture cards which arrives soon.
I wish to move away from SLI and get a significant performance boost, I don't buy GPUs that often.