gtx960 SLI or gtx970

[GertjanHiel]

I have an msi gtx960 2g but it cant run every game smooth that I want it to run so should I invest in another 960 or should I get a 970 or 980 (which are quite expensive...) I already have a motherboard that supports SLI and I've seen comparisons between a 960 SLI build vs a 970 build and with the games that supported SLI, the 960 config came out better than the 970 config so what should I do?
Thanks for helping!

 

[syked3]

To be honest the difference in performance between the 960 SLI and 970 is not that great. I'd recommend a single 970/980 because:
1) Less heat production
2) Less power consumption
3) More VRAM
4) Avoid SLI compatibility issues and sometimes SLI can be really buggy
5) Not all games are optimised for SLI

 

[orca-4444]

I have an msi gtx960 2g but it cant run every game smooth that I want it to run so should I invest in another 960 or should I get a 970 or 980 (which are quite expensive...) I already have a motherboard that supports SLI and I've seen comparisons between a 960 SLI build vs a 970 build and with the games that supported SLI, the 960 config came out better than the 970 config so what should I do?
Thanks for helping!

If you ran two gtx 960s in sli, you would get higher fps at lower settings than the 970. However, a 970 would beat the 960 sli at higher settings. If you can, try to sell the 960 for ~100$, then buy a gtx 970 (or maybe an R9 390) for 300$. The cost will be the same overall compared to getting another 960. Also, there are more reasons to not go with SLI in the post above ^

 

[king3pj]

SLI has been great for me but I'm not sure I would recommend it in your case. As you have already pointed out 2 960s have more processing power than a single 970. Most AAA games do support SLI from day one so that isn't the major concern. Like I said, SLI has not been a problem for me with my 970s at all.

The reason I would not recommend it for you is because you have a 2GB 960. Plenty of games are starting to to ask for more VRAM than that these days. Running SLI currently would still only give you 2GB of VRAM. There are things suggesting that DirectX 12 will allow for memory doubling in SLI setups but until we see proof of that I wouldn't count on it.

If you had a 4GB 960, a second 4GB 960 in SLI would be a cost effective way to get you GTX 970 performance. I just wouldn't put more money into staying on a platform with 2GB of VRAM.