Would it be worth it to SLI my 970?

[Davin Schmitt]

I just built my PC, and though I am very happy with my EVGA GTX 970 FTW, I feel like adding another one would be cool. I am a frame-whore, and whenever I'm getting below 60, I kinda get ticked off lol. I'm just curious as to if adding another 970 in my build would make a significant performance boost. Here is my build:
(I know I would have to upgrade the PSU as well)
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (Purchased For $216.99)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (Purchased For $34.99)
Motherboard: Asus Z97-A ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (Purchased For $139.99)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (Purchased For $36.99)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($0.00)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card (Purchased For $220.00)
Case: NZXT Phantom 410 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $88.99)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA GS 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $69.99)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (Purchased For $39.99)
Total: $847.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-12-02 12:38 EST-0500

 

[RCFProd]

Nice build, but as you said you need atleast 650 watts while 750 watts is recommended, for something like SLI GTX 970.

But you don't have to upgrade your power supply. Sell your GTX 970 and buy 1 GTX 980 Ti and just run that in your system.

(Much) better performance and it won't cost you more than SLI GTX 970 I think.

You don't have an SSD by the way? Dissapointing!

 

[Tommy_Ledge]

It does make a large impact on fps at 1080p and 1440p, and your PS is enough (close but enough) so i don't see any issue.

 

[toddybody]

Hey Friend,
Congrats on the plans for a new card...

YES, SLI 970s will give you some great performance. Not sure what resolution youre at now, but anything above 1080p would greatly benefit from a 2nd card (where titles scale as needed). Your other option would be to sell your 970 and go for a single 980ti. I went from SLI 980s to a single Ti a few months back and overall enjoyed the single card "easy factor". Peace!

 

[HEXiT]

in some games yes in others no.
so it will depend on what games your playing.
or instance gta5 would see a 70% jump in fps while starcraft 2 wouldnt see any increase.

 

[Davin Schmitt]

Nice build, but as you said you need atleast 650 watts while 750 watts is recommended, for something like SLI GTX 970.

But you don't have to upgrade your power supply. Sell your GTX 970 and buy 1 GTX 980 Ti and just run that in your system.

(Much) better performance and it won't cost you more than SLI GTX 970 I think.

You don't have an SSD by the way? Dissapointing!

The only reason I have a 970 is because my friend sold it to me for only $220 😀 and really I live in the middle of nowhere, I dont think anyone would want to buy it. And yes I know SSD is missing, Planning on buying one for christmas 😀

 

[Davin Schmitt]

in some games yes in others no.
so it will depend on what games your playing.
or instance gta5 would see a 70% jump in fps while starcraft 2 wouldnt see any increase.

Alright, would you recommend either SLI my 970 or buy 980? 980 TI is a little out of price range 😛

 

[RCFProd]

Wow so if you went for SLI GTX 970 you would simply keep the EVGA GS 550w but never use it anymore most likely? Sounds like a shame.

 

[Tommy_Ledge]

Nice build, but as you said you need atleast 650 watts while 750 watts is recommended, for something like SLI GTX 970.

But you don't have to upgrade your power supply. Sell your GTX 970 and buy 1 GTX 980 Ti and just run that in your system.

(Much) better performance and it won't cost you more than SLI GTX 970 I think.

You don't have an SSD by the way? Dissapointing!

Not good advice my man.. 970's SLI on that setup draw less than 500w.. amazing, i know but true. You could even run 2 980's but i wouldn't suggest that be done. Also 2 970's get higher framerates than a single 980ti most of the time (unless you get into 4k), and cost half as much (or less than half).

 

[RCFProd]

Nice build, but as you said you need atleast 650 watts while 750 watts is recommended, for something like SLI GTX 970.

But you don't have to upgrade your power supply. Sell your GTX 970 and buy 1 GTX 980 Ti and just run that in your system.

(Much) better performance and it won't cost you more than SLI GTX 970 I think.

You don't have an SSD by the way? Dissapointing!

Not good advice my man.. 970's SLI on that setup draw less than 500w.. amazing, i know but true. You could even run 2 980's but i wouldn't suggest that be done. Also 2 970's get higher framerates than a single 980ti most of the time (unless you get into 4k), and cost half as much (or less than half).

As far as I've seen, the performance with 1X GTX 980 Ti is consistently better than SLI GTX 970. Can you prove with game benchmarks if this is not true?

And GTX 970 SLI could run on a 550 watts actually, yes. But tests show that the workload of your psu is best with a 650 watts or higher power supply.

 

[Davin Schmitt]

Wow so if you went for SLI GTX 970 you would simply keep the EVGA GS 550w but never use it anymore most likely? Sounds like a shame.

My brother is building his own PC, I would just give it to him for Christmas.

 

[king3pj]

It absolutely would. I am running an almost identical setup to what you are considering. I have an i5-4690k with a Hyper 212 EVO cooler. I also have 2 970s in SLI and 8GB of RAM.

This entire SLI 970 review is worth reading but I am linking directly to the first game benchmark it includes so you can get an idea of where a SLI 970 system stacks up in terms of power.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_970_sli_review,11.html

As you can see from these benchmarks, SLI 970s are on par with a Titan Z. It should be similar to a 980Ti as long as a game supports SLI and VRAM isn't an issue.

I play at 1080p so the 4GB of VRAM in my SLI 970 setup isn't a problem but if I was playing at higher resolutions the 980Ti might start to differentiate itself a bit more.

Keep in mind that there are some games that don't support SLI on day one. In those games you would not see any improvement over your current, single 970 setup. In my experience that isn't a problem for most AAA games though and even the ones that don't have SLI support from day one usually patch it in quickly.

All in all I think the problems often brought up when people ask about SLI are greatly exaggerated in this forum though. People always say to avoid it but it has worked very well for my purposes.

 

[Davin Schmitt]

It absolutely would. I am running an almost identical setup to what you are considering. I have an i5-4690k with a Hyper 212 EVO cooler. I also have 2 970s in SLI and 8GB of RAM.

This entire SLI 970 review is worth reading but I am linking directly to the first game benchmark it includes so you can get an idea of where a SLI 970 system stacks up in terms of power.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_970_sli_review,11.html

As you can see from these benchmarks, SLI 970s are on par with a Titan Z. It should be similar to a 980Ti as long as a game supports SLI and VRAM isn't an issue.

I play at 1080p so the 4GB of VRAM in my SLI 970 setup isn't a problem but if I was playing at higher resolutions the 980Ti might start to differentiate itself a bit more.

Keep in mind that there are some games that don't support SLI on day one. In those games you would not see any improvement over your current, single 970 setup. In my experience that isn't a problem for most AAA games though and even the ones that don't have SLI support from day one usually patch it in quickly.

All in all I think the problems often brought up when people ask about SLI are greatly exaggerated in this forum though. People always say to avoid it but it has worked very well for my purposes.

Thank you! I will be playing at 1080p as well. Appreciate it.

 

[RCFProd]

Perhaps I underrate the capabilities of SLI 970, I don't know. I would prefer GTX 980 Ti though. At 1080p you probably won't see the benefit of the 980 Ti's power anyway.

 

[king3pj]

A lot of AAA games don't support SLI at all actually. Looking at many Ubisoft and Origin titles.

I know enough friends where SLI configurations consistently dissapoint.

Titan Z is worse than GTX 980 Ti performance. So it is not really ''So it should be the same'' situation, in my opinion.

I kinda disagree with the solution, but ok. User may decide.

Which Origin and uPlay games are you referring to? I don't have a ton but I can tell you that SLI makes a big difference in the games I do have on those platforms. On Origin the only games I have are Battlefield 4 and Star Wars Battlefront. I can tell you that SLI works beautifully in both of those games. I get 120-160fps in Battlefront depending on which map and mode we are playing.

I have also tested with Far Cry 4 in uPlay. With a single 970 I would get frame drops with all settings maxed including Nvidia Gameworks. With SLI I am locked at 60fps the entire time with VSYNC enabled.

Also I said it should be about the same. They are similar enough to be in the same tier. A 980Ti would be better because it's performance would be great in every game but buying a second 970 would probably cost quite a bit less than buying a 980Ti even if you factor in whatever money he could get from selling his current 970.

If I was starting a new build I would put the money into a 980Ti but if you already have a build with a 970 adding a second one in SLI is a good investment.