SLI or Wait?

[jeremypairan]

Instead of piling a long and sad story about having very little to no income ill just give the TLDR version.

I cant afford a new high end video card (im talking about a 1070) which is still pushing $400+ But i am currently using a 780TI that is performing quite great. But i am running into some games now that i cant stream and play at the same time and i have to bounce the encoding between my CPU and GPU between games. My streaming software supports SLI/Crossfire already so thats not really the issue.

My question: Do i wait a few years and deal with having to constantly stop my stream and swap things back and forth between games? Or is SLI my 780TI's going to last me a few more years?

Right now the 1070 is around $430 or i can pick up a 780TI for $150. I can afford the 150, but now 400. Just kinda like to get some opinions and if anyone is familiar with SLI, what sort of issues icould run into and how prevalent the mircro-stuttering is? if its always there? etc

Thanks!

Also, IF anyone is familure enough to kinda give me a rough FPS number (average) that i would see between games if i went with the SLI. <3

 

[Barty1884]

Unless your workloads support SLI "well" (support and good support are two entirely different animals), SLI isn't really ideal.

If you can afford ~$150, could you afford ~$200? If so, selling your 780TI for $150 (opposed to buying one for $150) and picking up a used 980TI would net you comparable performance to a 1070 (with a bit of OCing it should be near identical, and in some cases; better!) for a ~$350 max investment

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-980-Ti-Reference-Cooler-Ships-USPS-Priority-Tomorrow/322922351495?hash=item4b2fac0b87:g:BnYAAOSwVtZaJFRp

Or, even less if you're prepared to do the "bid" thing:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-GeForce-GTX-980-TI-STRIX-GTX980TI-DC3OC-6GD5-GAMING-6GB-Video-Card-GREAT/162786163815?hash=item25e6cfbc67:g:F5AAAOSwytJaI4G9

 

[jeremypairan]

Unless your workloads support SLI "well" (support and good support are two entirely different animals), SLI isn't really ideal.

If you can afford ~$150, could you afford ~$200? If so, selling your 780TI for $150 (opposed to buying one for $150) and picking up a used 980TI would net you comparable performance to a 1070 (with a bit of OCing it should be near identical, and in some cases; better!) for a ~$350 max investment

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-980-Ti-Reference-Cooler-Ships-USPS-Priority-Tomorrow/322922351495?hash=item4b2fac0b87:g:BnYAAOSwVtZaJFRp

Or, even less if you're prepared to do the "bid" thing:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-GeForce-GTX-980-TI-STRIX-GTX980TI-DC3OC-6GD5-GAMING-6GB-Video-Card-GREAT/162786163815?hash=item25e6cfbc67:g:F5AAAOSwytJaI4G9

Biggest issue is the down time between uses. I pretty much only own my PC and im a homebound agoraphobic (i cant go outside) So the PC is my life essentially. I bought a GTX980ti before and i had to RMA it 3 times due to being DOA before i finally decided to just get a refund and converted my PC to an Intel base with the 780TI and a 6700k.

Looking over Bench's (i know they're benches and not exactly real world) but im only seeing roughly a 20-25% Increase in performance. Is that all i would get with running SLI?

 

[Barty1884]

SLI scaling is not linear (2x GPUs does not = 2x performance).

Applications handle it differently - for example, in games, a ~60% "gain" would be some of the better optimized titles for SLI.
Generally, you might see nearer the 20-25% on average, with certain tasks/games not able to take advantage of SLI at all -- In absolute worst cases, you may even hinder performacne.

Generally speaking, SLI is only "worth it" at the upper end, where there's no better 'single' solution that could serve you better.
For example, 2x1080TIs or TitanX(p)'s. There isn't a single solution 'better', so SLI would have to do if you needed more "power".

When looking at older tech, although a 780TI is still a great GPU, there are a few "better", single solution cards available.
Unless what you want to do scales really well with SLI, chances are these would all be better options:
980TI, 1070, R9 FuryX, Vega56, 1070TI, 1080, Vega64, 1080TI and TitanX (various)

The problem with those options though; is only a couple are even remotely within budget for what you've described.
You've had bad experiences with a certain 980TI/vendor, but I wouldn't encourage letting that spoil the card/vendor for you. Issues happen and, realistically, you could buy a second 780TI, only for it to fail on you anyway........ there are risks involved, new or used.

Appreciating the medical condition and the inability to afford/accept downtime, but IMO, those are your options.

 

[iamacow]

I went from a 780Ti SLi to a single 1070 and the performance is about the same (FPS wise). 2K gaming is the limit and with only 3GB of ram the 780Ti struggles with Ultra settings. Easy solution is to turn down the textures.

Benefits of a 1070 is a single card that pulls 150watts max, ability to run ultra settings @ 2k resolution, and its newer tech.

 

[Barty1884]

What were you playing with SLI 780TI's @iamacow?

Titles with strong SLI optimization, sure, they'll likely perform very similarly; Anything with below "great" SLI optimization though, SLI 780TI's are going to fall behind something like a 1070/980TI - by some way.

OP - if your specific workloads/titles can scale with SLI pretty well, given the circumstances, it might be worth considering.
If it were me, I wouldn't SLI 780TI's in 2017 unless the second card was super-cheap, well below $150.

For example, this one going for ~$80 bids right now:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/PNY-3GB-GeForce-GTX-780-ti/142613720246?hash=item213470acb6:g:e1AAAOSwIJlaJLi-

Or this one:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-DirectCU-II-GTX780TI-DC2OC-3GD5-for-parts-may-work/263365174780?hash=item3d51c9a5fc:g:k0EAAOSwz~paIEBN
At first glance, it would sound damaged; reading the description though, I don't think the seller knew what they were doing...... might be worth the risk.

 

[iamacow]

Well this was July 2016. At the time I was playing a lot of Battlefield 4, Starcraft 2, Company of Heros 2. Call of Duty Black Op 2. The only issue I ran into was the lack of vram not being enough. which is why I sold them and bought a single 1070. Basically got the 1070 for free after selling the other cards. Used a lot less power (150watts vs 500watts), the FPS was almost the same (maybe slight higher) and I was able set the textures to Ultra in 2K resolutions. It was a win win for me.

Edit: I also forgot about how much I hated SLI (or Crossfire). Micro-Shutters are present even with G-Sync. Not all games support 2 cards (aka Company of Hero Series). And sometimes games just refused to start with SLI enabled. However Im cheap, so I went 780Ti SLI instead of getting a 980Ti.