Massive dielmma: Three way GTX 970 SLi vs. Two Way GTX 980 vs. wait for R9 39x and price drop?

[uplink-svk]

Greetings,

My apologies, I wasn't available for nearly three-four months, had a lot of work 🙁 so whichever topics I didn't reply, my bad.

Anyway, I have a bit of a free time now, and currently I'm running 2 x GTX 970 in SLi for one 2K LCD panel, but...

There's always a but. All games are "slow". I cannot get a single game [Assassins Creed: Unity, Dying Light, Far Cry 4, and other AAA titles] running normally [~50-60 fps]. I experience stuttering, lowering of framerates, etc. I know that around Summer new R9 39x is coming, but hell, if it's gonna be like nvidias GTX 980 Ti, which was suppose to come out last year in nov/dec, than this year jan/feb and now they said next year 2016, well, I don't want to wait. Games are piling up and I can't play them properly.

So my question is as follows: Should I:

• Get 3rd GTX 970 to SLi [seems like a bad idea]

• Sell 2 GTX 970 and buy 2 GTX 980 [it would cost 1010 euro :/ - 200 euro for sold GTX 970]

• 
  Wait for Kingdom Come R9 39x and hope she'll push down the GTX 980s price at some reasonable point [300-350 eur/piece], and/or get R9 39x CF?

Thank You for eventual help and reply,

regards

uplink

p.s.: fun fact is that those games suffer even in 1080p most of the times, it's like I'm doing something wrong. I'm running 4790k, 4way raid0 made out of Intel 530s and Windows 8.1 with newest updates and newest nvidia drivers.

 

[Casper Traberg-Larsen]

Something is WRONG. 2 way SLI gtx 970 is MORE THAN ENOUGH for maxing out everything at 1080p, maybe even 1440p 😱 i got a single 980 + 4790k and maxes out everything. I think a 2 way SLI 980 is on par with a 3-way SLI 970, but both is way overkill..

 

[uplink-svk]

Casper Traberg-Larsen - Thank You for Your ultra-fast reply. Maybe it's the games, they have so screwed up optimization. I bought all these games and I cannot find to play single one without a stutter, or framerate drops like hell 🙁 it's driving me crazy :/

 

[Gaidax]

You didn't set something silly like Antialiasing x16 or whatever bullshit setting in your driver?

 

[Casper Traberg-Larsen]

Casper Traberg-Larsen - Thank You for Your ultra-fast reply. Maybe it's the games, they have so screwed up optimization. I bought all these games and I cannot find to play single one without a stutter, or framerate drops like hell 🙁 it's driving me crazy :/

I don't have a lot experience with SLI. But you could try running a benchmark, to see if your GPU's performance is normal, or something physical is wrong with one of the GPU's. Next thing is your setup on the motherboard and drivers..

A working dual 970 is VERY powerful!

 

[rhysiam]

As others have said, you've either got a software or hardware PROBLEM. Don't go looking to upgrade, try to get what you've got running properly, or diagnosing and correcting the problem. If you've got a heat issue/psu issue/driver issue (all of which are possible), you're $1K investment in new video cards will land you back exactly where you are at the moment.

Here's a few suggestions to get you started:
- post back with your PSU make & model, a bad power supply can do all kinds of things
- check the temps on your CPU and both GPUs while gaming (HWmonitor or lots of other free utilities do this)
- completely uninstall (using driversweeper (from guru3d.com) or the like) your graphics card drivers and reinstall with the lastest (non-Beta) version directly from Nvidia
- try completely removing one of your cards from the system and see whether you get more consistent results (even one 970 at 1440p is pretty capable, maybe not at max, but it's more than playable). If that seems fine, swap out the cards and check the other one.
- probably other things you could try, but that's all I can think of for now!

 

[uplink-svk]

Gaidax - I am using almost highest possible antialiasing, I may try to tear it down a bit, though, I didn't want to compromise much since it should have a lot of horsepower :/ I'll try TXAA and update the thread.

Casper Traberg-Larsen - artificial benchmarks are running nice and smooth, both Unigine Heaven [2430 pts @ windowed 1080p and default benchmark settings] and FutureMark [~18,5k pts for standard benchmark].

rhysiam - greetings. Thank You for Your reply. So far I should have no overheating issues [CPU burns at 60°C after hours with SLi rigged in @23-25°C ambient and 40-45% RH [humidity]]. Graphics cards are both running at benchmarks up to 76°C at total burn out for hours. I noticed no bottlenecking, also there should be no driver issues, since artifical benchmarks are running good/or/and slightly above "rated" power. My PSU is Corsair RM750. Could this be the culprit? Weak PSU?

 

[Gaidax]

Try to disable all the fluff... put it to default values and see how it goes, if it is still crap then that is not the issue... if it's not then it WAS the issue.

Many driver settings are at a feature checklist bullshit things status made purely for PR like - "oooh we can do the SSBLAHXOXOAntialiazing!!!! Nvidia GPU roxx - look we even have High Quality BSFiltering!".

In reality some of those "supported" technologies will simply grind to a halt pretty much any GPU.


Take my GPU for example - if I would crank up Driver settings all to max BBQ edge-detect + morphological AAx24 wtf superscaling - I bet I'd be getting 15FPS in World of Warcraft let alone any recent AAA title.

 

[uplink-svk]

Gaidax - AC:U running at 2560 x 1440, with maxed out details and lowest antialiasing, at 2 x GTX 970 SLi, where both are running at 99% [I reckon that's 100%], I can barely keep it up at 48-55 fps, sometimes it drops down to 34 or 25 :/. This feels awkward.

FarCry 4 with latest update from Steam, running at 2560 x 1440, with maxed out details and lowest antialiasng, at 2 x GTX 970 SLi, where both are running at 99%, I can barely keep it up at 50-60 fps, sometimes it drops down to 45.

Is this "okay"? I'm using everything maxxed out, tried switching HBAO+ to SSAO and so, but no difference. When I lower the resolution, fps rises at above ~10 fps on average but still, the screen looks heavily blurry :/

Can't the RM750 be the issue? Or something?

P.S.: My aim here is keeping 60fps steady, lowering to 55fps at max. Since drop down to 25-35 fps feels like a "stutter" [slowdown in this case, not a real stutter] a lot, and it's annoying.

 

[Mousemonkey]

2x 970's + 620w PSU + 57 x 10 = smooth as you like, I don't recall the average fps but I'll try and fire it up later and see if I can get a SS posted.

 

[uplink-svk]

Mousemonkey - Thank You very much for Your kindness and time. In general I just re-did the temperature measurements with laser-thermometer, and it's all good. I'm starting to think that AC:U and FarCry 4 are horribly optimized :s

 

[Gaidax]

Make sure you disable ALL driver enhancements and set them to default, Antialiasing is only one thing - set it to game default or whatever...

If both GPUs are at 100% this means they ARE doing something and it might be working on some driver stuff you set because you thought you have deathstar in your case there.

Check Tesselation, Physics... everything - maybe there is some sort of "default" setting in the driver?

 

[Mousemonkey]

Mousemonkey - Thank You very much for Your kindness and time. In general I just re-did the temperature measurements with laser-thermometer, and it's all good. I'm starting to think that AC:U and FarCry 4 are horribly optimized :s

I don't know about AC:U but FC4 seemed OK to me but I only ran it for a few minutes after I dl'd and installed it, I was having a couple of issues with uPlay at the time (unheard of I know).

 

[uplink-svk]

Gaidax - used DriverFusion, tried older drivers, newest drivers, reset-settings on drivers [clean install] and I still have the same framerate, tbh. they're the best with newest.

Just a question, any idea when R9 390x should be released? I've read the threads here on forums, but the information seems inconsistent. Some are telling it's coming out "now" [this month], some are telling summer, and many don't know. Any opinions?

Mousemonkey - the commentary on uPlay made me laugh hard

P.S.: I'm gonna go and try two clients GTX 980s tomorrow [will update thread], won't bother You guys anymore. Chose Gaidax's as a solution since he was most active and kind of opened my eyes together with You Mousemonkey. Also checked a few benchmarks and at 2k, well that's that I guess. I will need a little more raw power after all for my level of details.

Thank You once more for Your time! Appreciate it.

 

[Gaidax]

Regarding R9 390x - no idea... the buzz seems to indicate *soon* - my guesstimate is 2 months, but this is info from my crystal ball here...

I'd say you should concentrate on making your current setup work better.

BTW... A good idea would be downloading 3DMark and testing it there, then comparing with what people are getting with similar setup - if you get the same as average, then that's what your system can get - if it is lower, then there is some weird issue.

 

[uplink-svk]

Gaidax - my 3DMark score is above average from similiar setups, so I'm okay there. That's why I guess I need stronger setup :\. I really don't wanna lower anything else besides antialiasing.

 

[Gaidax]

Well, then no problem with Drivers/Hardware, it means it is all it can do - just compromise for some things and you will be fine, 2k is not a trivial resolution to Ultra with all strings attached.

 

[Mousemonkey]

I can't seem to get a SS of FC4 but @ 57 x 10 I'm getting about 87 fps max and 30 fps in the cutscreens.

 

[bystander]

I hope you have verified that SLI is even on. Every time you update your drivers, SLI is turned off, so it is easy to find yourself running with a single GPU, and not know it.

 

[uplink-svk]

Mousemonkey - hmm, one question, what is 57 x 10? And secondly, do You use 2K? If yes, my setup is performing worse in FarCry 4 [but I have v-sync on], but I don't go as low as 45.

bystander - thank You for Your suggestion. I tried switching to single card mode. I go on average 55-60% of SLi, so yes, SLi works [at least what about MSi AfterBurner and indicator in the upper left corner, and fps power].

 

[bystander]

You don't happen to have any 3rd party tools like SweetFX with force SSAA, SMAA or some sort on?

 

[Mousemonkey]

Mousemonkey - hmm, one question, what is 57 x 10? And secondly, do You use 2K? If yes, my setup is performing worse in FarCry 4 [but I have v-sync on], but I don't go as low as 45.

bystander - thank You for Your suggestion. I tried switching to single card mode. I go on average 55-60% of SLi, so yes, SLi works [at least what about MSi AfterBurner and indicator in the upper left corner, and fps power].

57 x 10 = 5760 x 1080 resolution.

 

[sz0ty0l4]

i haven't tried ac u in 1440p, but for far cry 4 1440p 2x gtx 970 sli working properly and having 45 fps? thats just not right.

i have a very solid system compared to yours with i7-4790 @3.6 ( nonk) and gtx 980
and i get 45-60 fps in 1440p maxed settings+smaa ... even when driving and its stutter free gameplay
i think your rig should have 70-100 fps with these settings..
do you encounter any gpu usage drops aswell when your fps drops to 45? if yes do you encounter voltage dropping when gpu usage dropping?

 

[uplink-svk]

Mousemonkey - thank You for Your kind explanation.

sz0ty0l4 - I'm about to test it on 2 x GTX 980, so I'll see where's the culprit. I'll update the thread. Thank You very much for Your insight, I find it helpful so I can have a more solid ground and comparison. Thank You once more

//edit: so, 2 x GTX 980 packs a lot of punch, and definitely performs better than my two GTX 970. I was able to achieve almost 65-80 fps at AC:U stable [this really got me] at maxed settings + second antialiasing options at 2K, and I've got rock solid 80-100 fps on FarCry 4. I'm starting to think I have faulty GTX 970, one of them at least :/. They accelerate something as for SLi, but not enough. I'll try to use different brand GTX 970 SLi which I'll have available on Thursday [it's a evga GTX 970 ftw+ acx 2.0+]. I wonder if I'll manage to hook her up with one of my GTX 970 from Asus [Strix]. I'll update the thread.