SLI or single?

[Heroquetarro10]

What should I use, a gtx970 SLI or a single gtx 980ti?


I would like to know

 

[azca]

we shall see; I have been running CrossFire this entire time and I am happy with it; games that don't support CrossFire are old and don't need more than 1 gpu anyways; also DX12 games won't need AFR anymore and they should see a 2x increase in performance without any dual-gpu issues

^that all depends how much you pay for your R9 295x2; MSRP was $1500; now you can buy one for $500, so those charts are not correct. If you look at games, in most games at most resolutions R9 295x2 is much faster than 980ti; and at $500 it's a lot cheaper too; I actually went ahead and just purchased R9 295x2 myself.

Performance has NOTHING to do with price.

And the problem with the performance is in large part due to some games not supporting crossfire well or at all. In a lot of games, the 295x2 does beat the 980ti's FPS. But just because it shows higher FPS, does not mean it is giving a better experience, because the 295x2 is a Multi-GPU card, and experiences all the problems Crossfire brings with it; double latency, microstutter, lower minimums and lack of support at times.

You can't just focus on the good. You have to account for all its problems too.

 

[bystander]

we shall see; I have been running CrossFire this entire time and I am happy with it; games that don't support CrossFire are old and don't need more than 1 gpu anyways; also DX12 games won't need AFR anymore and they should see a 2x increase in performance without any dual-gpu issues

I think you have that backwards on the support issues. It's the new games which have Crossfire support issues. You often have to wait a month or more before a crossfire profile is out. The longer a game is out, the more likely Crossfire is supported, but some never really support it well. Same with SLI.

And DX12 brings the possibility of non AFR Crossfire, but it then is up to the dev's to add support for it. We have one Mantle game that added SFR support for Crossfire (Civ BE). While it is smoother, it gains much less performance too.

Because SFR will not provide as much FPS, you may find many dev's are going to stick with AFR.

(look at the Mantle CF, that version is SFR)

Crossfire is great for those who want more performance than what a reasonable single card can provide (skip the Titan X due to cost), but it is not a good alternative when a single card can come close to the same performance.

 

[azca]

^I don't buy games when they come out for $60, that's crazy expensive; so waiting 1 month for CrossFire profile is not a problem at all and you can make a CrossFire profile yourself without having to wait for one from AMD regardless

 

[bystander]

^I don't buy games when they come out for $60, that's crazy expensive; so waiting 1 month for CrossFire profile is not a problem at all and you can make a CrossFire profile yourself without having to wait for one from AMD regardless

Yes, you can wait, but that still is no guaranty. I get that you've been happy with your card, and you feel attacked because we disagree that it is the best way to go, but we are just giving what is likely "best". For most people, a single card is still better.

Many people who have a Crossfire/SLI setup don't know what they are missing, because you don't get to see both side by side. You grow to accept what you have, and that's fine. I have an SLI setup too, though when I bought it, there was no faster card, so it made more sense. Buying 980ti SLI still make sense if that's the performance you desire, but a 980ti is too close to a 295x2 to be worth buying now, unless it is just really cheap.

 

[bystander]

And don't forget, that even when Crossfire is supported, they still have double the normal latency for their FPS, less consistent frame times, and lower minimums. All the things people try to avoid when getting high end setups. You need much higher FPS to overcome the drawbacks. Much higher would likely be in the 40-50% range. The 295x2, even when supported well is not that much faster. On average the charts show it nearly a dead heat, with the good being as much as 20% faster.

 

[renz496]

SFR and AFR is just tech that makes multi gpu work. It has been the case since the very beginning of multi gpu tech. It has noting to do with DX12. but AFR prevail or one reason: scaling. the caling on SFR was very poor that defeat the purpose of going with multi gpu setup in the first place. That's why both company focus on AFR and nvidia develop frame metering to deal with frame time smoothness. But even so when it comes to frame times single gpu will always be better. And there is matter of game have no support for multi gpu at all. Take The Evil Within for example. That is Triple A title in 2014. wait all you want that game will not going to have official support for multi gpu from both nvidia and AMD. And the new UE4 dev already talking the game engine is much less multi gpu friendly than UE3. and game developer in general has less interest with multi gpu setup. Look at Sniper Elite 3. In DX11 AMD did release CF profile for the games. The Mantle version where AMD give more control to game developer over the gpu resource dev decided not to implement multi gpu support.

Personally I used to own 660SLI myself. And I'm very satisfied with it. But that after knowing what kind of trouble I will get myself into. If not because of one of my 660 fan goes kaput I will not replace my 660 SLI with my current 960. I was hoping I could hold out until Pascal.

 

[azca]

this is a good test, which clearly shows that 2 x AMD R9 Fury X in CrossFire are faster and scale better than 2 x 980TI in SLI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1EoFWrD3lE

 

[renz496]

the OP only asking about going SLI with his existing 970 or get 980Ti. not about Fury X CF vs 980Ti SLI. i will stop here until there is further response from OP.