Upgrade to GTX 960 SLI

[jewoods]

So I've been upgrading my computer a lot recently (mostly just for fun, but also to get a little more performance out for my games with graphics ranging from Half Life 2 to Crysis 3) and I have come to a point where I need to know what would be the best upgrade/configuration for my computer. My ideal computer is quieter when running normally (if it gets louder during a game that is fine)

My questions are this:

1-What is the difference between all the GTX 960s listed on the amazon link below? (ie-SC vs SuperClocked vs SuperSC ACX etc...)
2-If I wanted to upgrade to a SLI GTX 960 with the purpose of improving gaming graphics quality, would it work and which one should I get?
3-If I get a GPU that is larger than my current one should I place the longer one above or below the smaller one?
4-What type of ventilation organization should I have?
5-If I want to make the eventual upgrade to a 4k monitor, would 2 GTX 960s in SLI be able to handle gaming without problems (even if it meant lower quality and FPS)?

I recently tried out a Samsung 4k 28" monitor and played CSGO on the highest settings fine. Every once and a while I noticed a line that ran horizontally across the screen make a "wave" and figured it best not to destroy my GPU so I didn't keep it. I'm hoping that SLI 960s would prevent that from happening. I didn't even try my GPU intensive games like Crysis 3 or Alien Isolation for fear of burning something out, but would 2 even be able to handle a game like that safely? (even on lower quality settings)

My current ventilation setup is 2 Dynamic GP-14 (140mm - 1000rpm) fans at the front and one at the back, but I have options for side, bottom, and top ventilation.

Specs:
Case: Fractal Design Define R5
MB: ASUS Sabertooth Z170 Mark 1 LGA 1151
CPU: i5-6600K 3.50Ghz, 6M, LGA 1151
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB SC (6.8") - Link to amazon purchase
RAM: (16GB) 4 x 4GB HyperX Fury DDR4 2133MHz
PSU:EVGA SuperNOVA 750W G2 80+ Gold
Memory: 1 x Samsung 500GB SSD + 2 x Hitachi 500GB HDD
Monitors: 2 Samsung 23" and 22" SyncMasters

Thanks for all your help!

 

[Zerk2012]

1 different coolers and clock speeds.
2 In supported games yes but your not going to get double the performance. Your usually better off selling your card and buying a higher end single card.
3 don't matter.
4 what you have is fine.
5 not even close.

 

[saywhut]

1-They come pre-OC'ed. If you look at the details in the clock speed, you will see that they are higher than the stock cards. Also they may have more memory.
2-Yes, it should work with your current mobo. If you do get another one, try to match it with the exact specs as the one that you have now.
3-What do you mean by "larger"? As in a better model card, or physically bigger?
4-Cable management, fans, etc.
5-The better option here would be to wait for Pascal and Polaris. They will be more efficient in handling the higher resolutions due to HBM2. You can probably get away with those 960's, but you will have the burden of SLI (not saying it's bad, but sometimes there is compatibility/stability issues with some games)

 

[JackNaylorPE]

1. No link
2. It will work assuming you have adequate PSU size (you do). You shud get the same one you have now. There's noting special about the EVGA SC series... just a plain reference card offered with different cooling options.
3. Don't to that. Theoretically it works, but kiss tech support goodbye
4. One 140mm fan for each 75 (50-100) watts of power draw .. 50 (25-75) for 120mm. Add a fan on back ogf HD cage blowing between the cards. Use a MoBo that leaves at least one full slot spacing between the cards.
5. No two 980 Tis / Titans / Fury X cant handle 4k.... two 960s cant even equal a 970.

SLI is a great technology and you can expect a typical average 70% improvement, with up to 97% on the most demanding games (which is where its needed). The average is kept down by several factors such as where games have a fps limit or are already getting 100 fps w/ a single card. But on demanding game like Tom Raider and such we d0 in fact see performance improvements in the high 90s

Two 970s blow away a 980 Ti. However the implementation on the 960 is not all that great ....1440p is the gaming sweet spot right now, we wont see cards that can do 4k reliably, using current monitor technology like ULMB,

 

[Luxion]

1-What is the difference between all the GTX 960s listed on the amazon link below? (ie-SC vs SuperClocked vs SuperSC ACX etc...)
ANSWER: The SC, Superclocked and SuperSuperClocked mean that they are factory overclocked.

2-If I wanted to upgrade to a SLI GTX 960 with the purpose of improving gaming graphics quality, would it work and which one should I get?
ANSWER: To be able to add another graphics card in SLI, the 960 that you have at the moment will have to be the same model as the one you want to purchase, or, get a different card (making sure it's a 960) with the same amount of VRAM that your one has right now and it should still work in SLI, make sure your motherboard can support SLI and make sure your power supply has connectivity for another card.

3-If I get a GPU that is larger than my current one should I place the longer one above or below the smaller one?
ANSWER: Honestly, I'm not sure if it really matters which one goes at the top and which one goes at the bottom, if you really want to, you can test to see which layout will give you the best cooling.

4-What type of ventilation organization should I have?
ANSWER: I kind of added it slightly in the last paragraph, but just make your case has good ventilation, maybe a chassis fan if you're really that desperate.

5-If I want to make the eventual upgrade to a 4k monitor, would 2 GTX 960s in SLI be able to handle gaming without problems (even if it meant lower quality and FPS)?
ANSWER: My friend has a 4k monitor but still plays games in 1920x1080 (which is 1080p,) but if you're really going to want those extra graphics, most games let you set your games in 2560x1440 (which is 4k,) but personally, for Half life 2, 2 960's in SLI would be overkill. However, Crysis 3 will need that extra fire power from the SLI, so it's your choice. If you were playing Crysis 3 on a single 960, you would probably get 50fps on average!

I hope I helped and have a great day 😀

 

[jewoods]

3-What do you mean by "larger"? As in a better model card, or physically bigger?

Yes, I was refering to physical size. My current GPU is 6.8", but if I get a double fan model (eg-GTX 960 4GB SSC ACX 2.0+) that is 10.1"

My logic is that the larger GPU would extend over the end of the smaller one and pick up less air that was directly heated by the smaller one below. If the smaller one is above, ALL the air it takes in is heated from the larger one below. BUT, the larger one might benefit from having ALL cool air below it, so I wasn't sure.

 

[jewoods]

5-If I want to make the eventual upgrade to a 4k monitor, would 2 GTX 960s in SLI be able to handle gaming without problems (even if it meant lower quality and FPS)?
ANSWER: My friend has a 4k monitor but still plays games in 1920x1080 (which is 1080p,) but if you're really going to want those extra graphics, most games let you set your games in 2560x1440 (which is 4k,) but personally, for Half life 2, 2 960's in SLI would be overkill. However, Crysis 3 will need that extra fire power from the SLI, so it's your choice. If you were playing Crysis 3 on a single 960, you would probably get 50fps on average!

I hope I helped and have a great day 😀

So if I set the resolution in game to something lower like 2560x1440 I would be able to use the 4k monitor (gaming) without requiring a huge performance upgrade? I would like to upgrade the monitor for basic things like youtube, netflix, or other things that wouldn't require a huge GPU boost BUT don't want to have to make my 4k monitor my secondary monitor JUST to play games. If I can utilize it (even if it means sacrificing on visual quality) as my primary monitor for everything that would work for me.

Thanks!

 

[saywhut]

3-What do you mean by "larger"? As in a better model card, or physically bigger?

Yes, I was refering to physical size. My current GPU is 6.8", but if I get a double fan model (eg-GTX 960 4GB SSC ACX 2.0+) that is 10.1"

My logic is that the larger GPU would extend over the end of the smaller one and pick up less air that was directly heated by the smaller one below. If the smaller one is above, ALL the air it takes in is heated from the larger one below. BUT, the larger one might benefit from having ALL cool air below it, so I wasn't sure.

In that case, it doesn't matter which card goes in which slot. Suit it best to your airflow.

From a technical standpoint, make sure both cards are same clockspeeds and what not. If one is clocked higher than the other, try to have the higher clocked card in the main PCIex16 slot which is typically the top one.

 

[Luxion]

5-If I want to make the eventual upgrade to a 4k monitor, would 2 GTX 960s in SLI be able to handle gaming without problems (even if it meant lower quality and FPS)?
ANSWER: My friend has a 4k monitor but still plays games in 1920x1080 (which is 1080p,) but if you're really going to want those extra graphics, most games let you set your games in 2560x1440 (which is 4k,) but personally, for Half life 2, 2 960's in SLI would be overkill. However, Crysis 3 will need that extra fire power from the SLI, so it's your choice. If you were playing Crysis 3 on a single 960, you would probably get 50fps on average!

I hope I helped and have a great day 😀

So if I set the resolution in game to something lower like 2560x1440 I would be able to use the 4k monitor (gaming) without requiring a huge performance upgrade? I would like to upgrade the monitor for basic things like youtube, netflix, or other things that wouldn't require a huge GPU boost BUT don't want to have to make my 4k monitor my secondary monitor JUST to play games. If I can utilize it (even if it means sacrificing on visual quality) as my primary monitor for everything that would work for me.

Thanks!

Setting it to 2560x1440 will just change the resolution so you can get the true image quality out of your 4k monitor, that's if you get one

 

[RobCrezz]

In your instance, getting another 4gb 960 would give you the best performance for the money. Comparable performance to a single gtx 980 if you check benchmarks. Still not enough for 4k realistically though.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Check above graph... it doesn't even catch the 970.

 

[RobCrezz]

Check above graph... it doesn't even catch the 970.

http://www.digitalstorm.com/unlocked/nvidia-gtx-960-sli-vs-gtx-980-1440p-benchmarks-idnum344/

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e__ffwCLL8g"][/video]

 

[JackNaylorPE]

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_960_SLI/25.html

The GeForce GTX 960 SLI is not just undone by its own shortcomings due to a lack of perfect scaling in some games, but in being a whole $70 costlier than a single GeForce GTX 970. The GTX 960 SLI ends up offering roughly the same average performance as a single GTX 970 across resolutions. You're, hence, much better off choosing a single GTX 970 to GTX 960 SLI; that is, if you plan on buying two of these cards outright. The GTX 970 offers close to 20 percent more performance per dollar than the GTX 960 SLI in 1080p and 1440p.

The narrow 128-bit memory interface per card and low 2 GB per GPU memory let the GTX 960 SLI down, particularly in higher resolutions. In a multi-GPU scenario, an app is dealing with dedicated memory the size of a single card (2 GB in this particular case). This is where a single Radeon R9 290 from AMD with its 512-bit wide memory interface and 4 GB of memory comes in ahead with higher resolutions. The R9 290 is just around 4 percent slower in 1440p, 8 percent slower in 1080p, and 4 percent faster at 4K Ultra HD, but a whole $130 cheaper. Granted, the card has its quirks with temperatures, fan-noise, and power-draw, but at the end of the day, it's still a single-GPU card.

Prospective buyers of a single GTX 960 would be advised to hold off on purchasing their second card until NVIDIA has cut its price by a lot. Given its various components, it wouldn't shock us if NVIDIA can sell this card for half its current price. By then, single GTX 970 cards would have become cheaper as well.