GTX 970 SLI

[NirK]

Is Nvidia SLI still a lot worse than a single card? I want SMOOTH framerates, no microstuttering etc. Would I be disappointed if I upgraded to 970 SLI? It would cost me slightly less than a 980ti or a AMD fury card and in DX12 it should be able to use all the memory (7Gb) and possibly run smoother, but I don't know I have never used SLI.

I read a lot about microstuttering and not as smooth as a single card, but is that improved now or will it have microstuttering or lagging etc. ? If it is going to have microstuttering in every game then I will not get SLI, but if it is as smooth as a single card 99% of the time then it would be worth getting.

Can anyone who uses these cards in SLI tell me how close it is to a single card, obviously FPS is much better but how smooth is it?

 

[africanos23]

Sell your card IMO as you are allowed access to the MM and top up for a GTX980Ti. What resolution are you playing at (what monitor)?

My GTX970s were ok in SLI up to 1440p, 4K didn't cut it though.

 

[NirK]

Sell your card IMO as you are allowed access to the MM and top up for a GTX980Ti. What resolution are you playing at (what monitor)?

My GTX970s were ok in SLI up to 1440p, 4K didn't cut it though.

I have a 1080p TV and will be getting a 1440p monitor very soon... Single 970 overclocked is good for 1080p but I would like to run 1440p and also 1080p with MAX settings + AA + DSR which needs more than a 970 in some games.

970 SLI has very high FPS numbers... 20% better than a single titan X... But I am more interested in how smooth it is, 1000000fps is useless if you get microstuttering and lag etc. I want to know from anyone who has used 970 SLI if Nvidias SLI is as smooth as a single card or if it is obviously worse. Do all games have microstutter when using SLI? I don't know if this will improve with DX12, but DX12 should allow SLI to use all the memory which would be 7Gb for 970 SLI.

 

[llamadal]

Forget DX 12 and focus on the now, if you can get a decent price for your 970 get yourself a 980ti.

Most games are good with sli, but some do have the odd issue.

 

[africanos23]

I have a 1080p TV and will be getting a 1440p monitor very soon... Single 970 overclocked is good for 1080p but I would like to run 1440p and also 1080p with MAX settings + AA + DSR which needs more than a 970 in some games.

970 SLI has very high FPS numbers... 20% better than a single titan X... But I am more interested in how smooth it is, 1000000fps is useless if you get microstuttering and lag etc. I want to know from anyone who has used 970 SLI if Nvidias SLI is as smooth as a single card or if it is obviously worse. Do all games have microstutter when using SLI? I don't know if this will improve with DX12, but DX12 should allow SLI to use all the memory which would be 7Gb for 970 SLI.

20% against a stock TX maybe. Single card will always be smoother but it depends, if you are going to run MAX settings + AA + DSR you are going to need 2 cards (or a GTX980Ti/TX) at 1440p.

I had SLI 970s, its hit and miss in some games (Ubisoft is the top culprit). Depends what type of games you play. Some games have better profiles than others. 1440p was ok but 4K for me wasn't that smooth in a few titles (hitting the 0.5GB ram maybe?).

Moving to a single TX was way way smoother @ 4K with better minimums. Just got my second TX yesterday and SLI in GTA V, COD AW and Witcher 3 are great and I didn't feel any sort of stutter/microstutter even with crazy settings @ 4K.

 

[blasterbolt]

You can't use DSR with sli atm

 

[RanxZy]

For the reasonable cost difference between 970 SLI and 980Ti I would go with the single powerful card every time. Don't look at "20% higher fps numbers than the Titan X" look at the minimums. You will find the 980Ti will keep better minimums almost all the time vs 970 SLI and that's one of the main reasons you will see a smoother experience with the 980Ti. Obviously the vastly superior memory bus on the Ti and vram helps too and can hold the 970s back at 1440p+ resolutions.

 

[opethdisciple]

I'm sort of in the same position but at 1200p.

Unless I can get a 970 uber cheap, I dont think it will be a great way to upgrade.

The way I see it unless you go two cards from the start, upgrading later on when you need a boost is actually a false economy. As most likely there will be a faster single card out at this time and the cost of the second card coupled with your expectations will only leave you disappointed.

At my resolution maybe 970 SLI is OK, but at 1400p if you can bite the bullet and get the 980ti. You wont be disappointed.

 

[NirK]

Thanks for replies.. pretty much confirmed what I already thought, but I have not looked at SLI for a few years so I thought it might be better now with no microstuttering. I will see what the AMD Fury cards are like first.

 

[rtho782]

People keep going on about DX12 and "unified memory". It is using all the memory at once now, it's just keeping two copies of everything to scale memory bandwidth with computational resources.

I wouldn't rely on "being able to use all 7gb". It's unlikely it will work how people think (yay pulling data over PCIe!). It's possible we will get closer to such a scenario with Pascal (nVlink) but at best there will be some reduction in duplication due to an SFR rendering style rather than an AFR rendering style, but if we do that then I doubt we'll see the 80-100% FPS boosts from SLI we currently enjoy (hence why SFR died in the first place)

I don't have any problems with SLI but I'd probably go with 980ti in your scenario.

 

[NirK]

IDK... I have a 970 which is quite good when OC... 980ti is £600... But then pascal is coming out in a year with HBM and will probably give 980ti a whupping, I might just hold out until that, or possibly get a fury (non x) or 980 if I can upgrade cheap to hold me out until pascal. That pascal looks niicccee I want one now not in a year!