• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

970 sli or single 980?

Td0g

Td0g

Td0g

Associate
Joined
22 Feb 2015
Posts
196
Hi guys,
Im guessing this is probably a popular question, so I'll give you my use case and situation.
My rig =
4790k (running stock, may overclock later)
16gb 2666mhz trident x
Gtx 970
Z97 asrock extreme 6
Superflower leadex gold 650w psu.

80% of my gaming is playing csgo competitively(not pro lol, just for fun) My setup is built around csgo. And it is my main hobby. The main point of my setup is to run csgo at 300+ fps on my 144hz 1080p benq. My current build does this perfectly. (i run everything on low at 960 4:3 stretched). And the game is super fluid and responsive.

You probably thinking why would i need 970 sli or 980?
Well i want to get into playing all the latest titles at max settings at high frame rates and eventually at higher resolutions (might invest in 1440p monitor) but i defo want to try out DSR on my 1080p monitor, like 1440p and 4k DSR. So basically i want the horse power to hit high frames on max settings at 1080p or power high resolutions at max settings.

So i was wondering should i sli 970 or get a single 980?
I only game on a single monitor, even when i get 1440p one il use only one at a time, using my 1080p one for csgo and 1440 for everything else.

My main concern putting me off sli, is people claim it can cause problems and stuttering. This would be a big problem for me in csgo. Is this true?
I also heard i could just run one gpu when sli is an issue, so i could just set csgo to run on one gpu only. Does anyone know if this solves the issues and how severe issues with sli 970s are?

At the moment I'm leaning towards getting a single 980 like a classified or hof and getting a second in a year or so. Mainly because i wont have to get a new psu right away. (il upgrade to 850w+ if i sli 970 or 980). Also is 650w enough for a single 980?
I'm also concerned about heat on the 970 sli. I have a arc midi r2 with stock case fans.
Im thinking single gpu will be more reliable for csgo and run a lot cooler.

The pros for the 970 sli I'm seeing, is it vastly out performs the 980 on games where sli works. And a 980 doesn't seem to be a major improvemnt on a 970.

I appreciate this is a ramble, so im happy to clarify anything. Thanks for any help you can offer!
 
Last edited:
^
The answer is simple but not correct

Td0g said:
Well i want to get into playing all the latest titles at max settings at high frame rates and eventually at higher resolutions (might invest in 1440p monitor) but i defo want to try out DSR on my 1080p monitor, like 1440p and 4k DSR. So basically i want the horse power to hit high frames on max settings at 1080p or power high resolutions at max settings.
Click to expand...

Why buy a 3gb card if he plans to play the latest titles at max settings on higher resolutions?

If i was OP i would settle for nothing less than a 4gb card at this sort of money, and even then i would be eyeing up cards with more Vram
 
Forget 970 SLI for 1440p gaming. In fact, I have no idea why you want to upgrade from what you have in the first place? Why do you want to push games to almost 3 times your monitors refresh rate? Why not cap at Max refresh rate?

Your current card is fine for 1080p gaming. My advice would be to wait until you're having problems, which might be quite some time to come yet.
 
String said:
Forget 970 SLI for 1440p gaming. In fact, I have no idea why you want to upgrade from what you have in the first place? Why do you want to push games to almost 3 times your monitors refresh rate? Why not cap at Max refresh rate?

Your current card is fine for 1080p gaming. My advice would be to wait until you're having problems, which might be quite some time to come yet.
Click to expand...

I run it at almost 3x times refresh rate because it improved the fluidity and smoothness of gameplay and reduces input lag. I know the monitor can't display those extra frames , but you can certainly feel them when aiming in csgo. With uncapped fps i feel a massive difference with spraying and aiming. Id never run a fast paced shooter capped, but i could well be wrong, so appreciate the input, im just going off what I've tried and what feels good.

I think your right that 970 is perfect for 1080p at 60+fps. But i prefer to hitting in the 100s and i also am planning on getting a 1440p monitor and trying out DSR on my 1080p. im happy to sacrifice frames when trying out the big resolutions. Hope that explains my need for a bigger card.
 
HACO said:
I have 970 SLI but will upgrade to a 980 Ti when it's out.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking this is what i will probably do. Im defo getting a 980ti on release, seems just what im after. Till then il prob sli or just stick to a single card. I was considering just using a single 780ti and overclocking it, as for £250 it will provide some extra performance over a 970, but it doesn't have Dsr and its resale price will probably be really low come the summer, (compared to 970, but I'm not sure)
 
Td0g said:
I run it at almost 3x times refresh rate because it improved the fluidity and smoothness of gameplay and reduces input lag. I know the monitor can't display those extra frames , but you can certainly feel them when aiming in csgo. With uncapped fps i feel a massive difference with spraying and aiming. Id never run a fast paced shooter capped, but i could well be wrong, so appreciate the input, im just going off what I've tried and what feels good.

I think your right that 970 is perfect for 1080p at 60+fps. But i prefer to hitting in the 100s and i also am planning on getting a 1440p monitor and trying out DSR on my 1080p. im happy to sacrifice frames when trying out the big resolutions. Hope that explains my need for a bigger card.
Click to expand...

Can't argue with that, if it works for you then it works.

I'd definitely stay away from 970 SLI at higher resolutions. I've been there and it's not pretty.

You also say that you want to play the latest titles at Max settings, so I feel I should point out that I can't name a single AAA title that I play at 1440p with my 980 SLI that I can say runs 144 fps consistently. It's usually around 100 on average.

If I were you, I'd upgrade the monitor and buy the games first. That way, you'll know what you need from your GPU.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom