Question Is SLI worth it?

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ch33r

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Jun 13, 2010
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I figured out that I can almost get 2 RTX 2080s for price of 1 RTX 2080Ti. If I could SLI two 2080s, I would get about an 80% performance in SLI over one 2080Ti (I think). But I have also been told that many games have stopped supporting SLI, and that DX12 has very little, if no support at all for SLI. Can some highly experienced souls clarify the facts?
 
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Ok. I think I'm starting to understand what you're saying. So is it that its not cost effective for dual-GPU to physically be built? or is it that its not cost effective for developers to support it in their games?
 
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ch33r said:
Ok. I think I'm starting to understand what you're saying. So is it that its not cost effective for dual-GPU to physically be built? or is it that its not cost effective for developers to support it in their games?
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Both.
Physics and economics all come into play.

Is it physically possible to do it? Yeah, maybe. At great cost.
Would it give a performance gain? hmm....to the eyeballs, maybe not.
If we can pump out 150FPS with the current architecture, what would a dualGPU bring?

Would the game developers spend buttloads of extra money creating something for the 0.1% user base? No.
They also have to make the game playable for the 14 year old with a 6 year old PC, and no money for upgrades.


The GPU you have now, whatever it is, is miles and miles faster than what was top of the line a few short years ago. Whether it is single/dual/quad/oct...meaningless.
It is still miles faster.
 
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Ok. The reason that I'm asking you always these questions is because in July Im building a rig based around the 3900X. I wanted to crossfire 2 2080s but apparently that idea just went to hell in a handbasket because you're telling me I wont benefit from it, and you're not getting 150FPS (so Im told) at 4K. I want to play in 4K at 120FPS and apparently we don't have a single GPU that can do that yet unless the game Im playing is 30 years old. I want to be able to play games in 4K at 120 FPS. So apparently dual-GPU/SLI/game support/what you will seems worth it to me. I don't know. Thoughts?
 
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Just because SLI exists does not mean it is great. Or can do what you seek.

Read this:
www.techpowerup.com

NVIDIA SLI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 with NVLink Review

In our Turing NVLink review, we test RTX 2080 Ti SLI against RTX 2080 SLI in 23 games and also include Pascal's GTX 1080 Ti SLI numbers. Our results confirm that NVLink does give higher performance than previous generations' SLI, even though game support could be better.
www.techpowerup.com www.techpowerup.com
 
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ch33r said:
Ok. So I had a look at that. Battlefield 1 at 1080p did better on the RTX 2080 without SLI than with. You wanna explain that?
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Maybe because they never wrote it to use SLI, and the extra overhead of trying to force it ended in a worse result.

Building that capability is not free.

And BF1 was released before the 2080 was released. Can't build to a capability that did not yet exist.
 
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Oooooooh k. I understand. So my next question is: Do you think its worth it to get a 2080Ti over a 2080? Where do I show what card with give what FPS on which game? Im tempted to get a Ti but not if the performance difference isn't that much
 
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ch33r said:
Right. I understand what you're saying. Where do I show what card gives what FPS and on what resolution on specific games? Which is the most reliable?
Click to expand...

There are many comparison and testing sites. Look at many, read with a skeptical eye, throw out the paid shills (a lot of utube).

And whatever you find, project that out 6 months or a year, for games that have not yet been released, or even finished.
You can't.

Buy the best balanced system within your budget.
 
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Ok. All I can find are benchmarks for GPU vs GPU. I want to be able to say "Sprawl Of Trudy: Crap Plops 2, Max settings: 2080. What FPS do I get at 4K and at 1080?" That's what Im trying to find out
 
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Ugghh. Well every benchmark website I go to only has GPU vs GPU comparison. I want to be able to see what GPUs give off what FPS on specific resolutions on specific games
 
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I was all over techpower and couldnt find it... But ya of course YOU would find it. Nah I'm kidding lol. For real though, thanks for all your help and input and taking time to discuss this. Im probably dropping $3500 on this PC so I want to make sure I get it right, so this definitely helps. I'm not getting SLI, not after this conversation. Every person I come across and every article I read tells me its not worth it. Im favoritesing this page, and Ill probably read over all your input a few times so I can understand it better. I guess any time someone asks you about SLI, just send them to this page.... Looooooooooool. Thanks again
 
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Only thing is, one of the main things I'm getting this PC for is mod tools for customs on BO3, BO3 isn't listed on that site for some reason. The oldest I found was IW but they don't have any benchmarks for 2080 or 2080 Ti
 
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