Is SLI Worth It?

[teflon66]

I'm stuck between getting a single GTX 980 or two GTX 970s. People say different things about a single GPU and SLI so I'm very confused. I plan to game at 1440p and was just wondering how many games support SLI. If I do get SLI, will the majority of AAA games support SLI, or am I better off getting a single GPU?

 

[bignastyid]

Most aaa games support SLI, but for 1440p I'd opt for a single 980 and maybe add a 2nd later. At 1440p ypu may run into problems with 970s 3.5gb vram issue in newer titles.

 

[teflon66]

What do you think the chances I would run into the 3.5gb vram issues are, or any SLI problems for that matter?

 

[bignastyid]

@1440p there's a good chance you will hit the 3.5gb limit. I have run several SLI setups on my personal gaming rigs and have had few issues. My 2 770s run great, before them I was running 3 580s, and 2 460s before that.

 

[teflon66]

So do you think it'd be best to get to just get one 980 right now and wait to get a second one in the future? I saw some people say that 970's shouldn't be used for anything above 1080p, because, as you said, there is the vram issue.

 

[bignastyid]

At 1080p the 970s are great, they are ok for most games at 1440p. But newer games are using more vram so that extra .5gb of ram will come in useful. It's possible dx12 will help as it has the potential to allow vram to stack instead of mirror, but if it does happen it will only work in dx12 games. If it were me I'd get the 980.

 

[teflon66]

Sweet, I'll be getting the Gigabyte G1 980! Maybe in the future, I'll get a second one or even get a newer single GPU. Has the release date for DX12 been announced?
Here is my completed build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rsfkP6

 

[bignastyid]

Sweet, I'll be getting the Gigabyte G1 980! Maybe in the future, I'll get a second one or even get a newer single GPU. Has the release date for DX12 been announced?
Here is my completed build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rsfkP6

DX12 is going to release with Windows 10 sometime this year I don't think that have announced a release date yet.