Question 970 SLI vs RTX 2070

Iamstumped

Commendable
May 1, 2016
12
0
1,510
I am running 2 MSI GTX 970 4G SLI on a Asus Crosshair V Formula Z with AMD FX9590 at 4.8 Ghz,32GB RAM.
I only play Overwatch,which is not SLI compatible Blizzard games told me.
I run the game in 1080P.
If I bought a Asus Strix RTX 2070 would the FPS and graphics quality be better than the 2 970's SLI?
Or don't waste my money.
I could get about $150 each for the 970's, if I sell them on Ebay.
The RTX 2070 is around $600.
 
FX, even a 9590 has very slow single thread performance.
Even an inexpensive G5600 runs 50% faster.
I suspect your games are more cpu limited.
Run this test:
Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

Your gaming experience will be better with a single good card like a GTX1660ti.
dual gpu is prone to stuttering, screen tearing and non support in an increasing number of games.
 

Iamstumped

Commendable
May 1, 2016
12
0
1,510
FX, even a 9590 has very slow single thread performance.
Even an inexpensive G5600 runs 50% faster.
I suspect your games are more cpu limited.
Run this test:
Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

Your gaming experience will be better with a single good card like a GTX1660ti.
dual gpu is prone to stuttering, screen tearing and non support in an increasing number of games.

My FPS doesn't change I tried it changing it in Overwatch's practice range it was at 300 FPS in 3 different resolutions with settings at low.
I looked up specs on FX9590 it is 8 threads not 1 and 8 cores.
 
Last edited:
FX 9590 has 8 threads made up of 4 2 thread modules.
It has a passmark rating of 10196 for all threads but 1720 for a single thread.
Most games depend on the performance of the single master thread.
Your test tells me that your money is better spent on a processor upgrade than on a graphics upgrade.

Here is a test to see how many of your 8 threads are actually useful.
experiment with removing one or more cores/threads. You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option.
You will need to reboot for the change to take effect. Set the number of threads to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many threads.
If you see little difference, your game does not need all the threads you have.
It turns out that few games can make good use of more than 4 threads.
This test is germane to your processor decision.
Many like the ryzen processors which give you a lot of threads for a very good price.
You need to determine just how many is useful to you for your games.
If you find that you really only need, say, 6 then a intel 9600K with 6 cores can run at a higher clock rate than ryzen. By comparison, the 9600K has a rating of 13474 and a single thread rating of 2677.

When you lowered the resolution and options, you reduced the load on the graphics card.
That is the effect you would get with a stronger graphics card that can loaf a bit.
Since performance did not change much, I conclude that your current limitation is not the graphics card.
 
Ok understood,but I have read I don't know if it is true.
That if a game isn't SLI compatible the second card is useless because it has a zero load on it.
It is useless because the second card is not being used.
sli shows up very well with synthetic fps benchmarks but not all games are coded to be able to use dual cards.
The fps you get with a particular game will be limited by either the cpu or the graphics card.
On occasion, the number of threads becomes important.
That happens mostly with multiplayer games with a large number of participants.
 

Iamstumped

Commendable
May 1, 2016
12
0
1,510
I am thinking about buying ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2060 Overclocked 6G GDDR6 HDMI DP 1.4 (ROG Strix RTX 2060 O6G) which is PCI Express 3.0, will it fit in Asus Crosshair V Formula Z board?
Which has only PCI Express 2.0.
I know card wont work at its full potential.
I will be upgrading to a newer motherboard and cpu when I can afford it.
So I can use that card in the future.
 

Iamstumped

Commendable
May 1, 2016
12
0
1,510
If Overwatch is your primary game and doesn't support SLI then sell the second 970 and save up for a CPU/MB/RAM upgrade as that will help increase the FPS over a GPU upgrade.

Holding off on video card,thought it thru.
Should I get a AMD Ryzen 5 or 7 for Overwatch game?
Looking at AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8 Core AM4 Boxed Processor with Wraith Prism Cooler would this perform better than my FX9590 which I run at 4.8 during gaming?
Or do I really need a AMD Threadripper to notice a big performance gain?
 

WildCard999

Titan
Moderator
Holding off on video card,thought it thru.
Should I get a AMD Ryzen 5 or 7 for Overwatch game?
Looking at AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8 Core AM4 Boxed Processor with Wraith Prism Cooler would this perform better than my FX9590 which I run at 4.8 during gaming?
Or do I really need a AMD Threadripper to notice a big performance gain?
You don't need TR4, even the Ryzen 2600 would be a big upgrade over your 9590 and cost much less then the 2700X.
 
I am thinking about buying ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2060 Overclocked 6G GDDR6 HDMI DP 1.4 (ROG Strix RTX 2060 O6G) which is PCI Express 3.0, will it fit in Asus Crosshair V Formula Z board?
Which has only PCI Express 2.0.
I know card wont work at its full potential.
I will be upgrading to a newer motherboard and cpu when I can afford it.
So I can use that card in the future.
Yes it should work in your slot.