970 SLI overkill at 1200p?

[opethdisciple]

Thinking of getting another G1 970 if the price drops when the new AMD cards launch.

I only game at 1200p tho. How is 970 SLI perf in the Witcher 3?

I'm guessing a game like Batman Arkham Knight will be another to tax a single 970.

 

[OLDPHART]

I would upgrade your monitor 1st to say 1440p and get the most out of your single 970.

You can always add a 970 or sell that one and get a 980TI.

 

[opethdisciple]

My monitor is old and does suffer form terrible tearing.... so a new monitor is on the cards. But then if I did go 1440p would want ideally a 980ti, but thats gonna cost the best part of 1k!

 

[Efour]

Why don't you get a fairly good 144hz or decent res monitor 1st ?

Its frankly bonkers to have a decent card then a crappy display ?

That makes no sense at all.

Then SLI them in a few months when people dump them....

 

[opethdisciple]

Why don't you get a fairly good 144hz or decent res monitor 1st ?

Its frankly bonkers to have a decent card then a crappy display ?

That makes no sense at all.

Then SLI them in a few months when people dump them....

Well my monitor is not totally crap, but I do find I need to have adaptive vsync on as it does like to tear.

I could get a decent 1440p monitor, but theh nat that res Im going to be noticing the lack of horsepower even more.

 

[OLDPHART]

Well my monitor is not totally crap, but I do find I need to have adaptive vsync on as it does like to tear.

I could get a decent 1440p monitor, but theh nat that res Im going to be noticing the lack of horsepower even more.

A must 1440p

From a 970 review Guru3D>
Performance-READ BOTTOM LINE.

A nice advantage for the cards is that they now come standard with 4 GB of DDR5 graphics memory, this means gaming sweetness in even the highest resolutions. All games play perfectly at up-to WHQD at 2560x1440. The GeForce GTX 980 is a nice Ultra HD card that certainly offers a nice chunk of performance in that massive resolution, albeit it will fall short here and there. Overall you can play all the modern and latest games with nice AA levels and excellent image quality, the PC gaming way. GTX 980 I would recommend with Ultra HD, especially with MFAA (pending a driver release) you'll be able to play games quite well. *The GeForce GTX 970 I'd call a very solid WQHD card, e.g. it is perfect for gaming up-to 2560x1440.*

 

[a66as]

A must 1440p

From a 970 review Guru3D>
Performance-READ BOTTOM LINE.

A nice advantage for the cards is that they now come standard with 4 GB of DDR5 graphics memory, this means gaming sweetness in even the highest resolutions. All games play perfectly at up-to WHQD at 2560x1440. The GeForce GTX 980 is a nice Ultra HD card that certainly offers a nice chunk of performance in that massive resolution, albeit it will fall short here and there. Overall you can play all the modern and latest games with nice AA levels and excellent image quality, the PC gaming way. GTX 980 I would recommend with Ultra HD, especially with MFAA (pending a driver release) you'll be able to play games quite well. *The GeForce GTX 970 I'd call a very solid WQHD card, e.g. it is perfect for gaming up-to 2560x1440.*

what about the 3.5gig memory problem? rather than spending another £280+ or so he would be better of selling his 970 and just going for a 980ti would he not?

 

[opethdisciple]

I would upgrade my monitor but would want a gsync one surely and that's too expensive for the moment.

 

[mahius]

Considering 980ti isn't exactly overkill at 1080p (you can get >60fps with all settings maxed on most games), I'd say it's perfectly fine going for another 970. If you already have a G1 970... then go for another one and say goodbye to your eardrums (windforce cooler x2). Or if it was fairly quiet with one, expect it louder with 2, since temps will be higher too. If you aren't afraid to mix and match, then go for the MSI Gaming since that is probably the quietest 970. All I've really said only is of concern if you care about noise. The G1 is the joint best 970 (the other being the MSI Gaming).

 

[nails666]

Tearing shouldn't be anything to with the monitor though, that's a sign of running without vsync. To eliminate tearing you need some kind of synchronisation between gpu and monitor, either normal VSync or GSync.

 

[opethdisciple]

Tearing shouldn't be anything to with the monitor though, that's a sign of running without vsync. To eliminate tearing you need some kind of synchronisation between gpu and monitor, either normal VSync or GSync.

I have adaptive vsync turned on, and it still tears in some games.

I think buying a new monitor is not something I'm going to do right now. I would rather spend the money on new hardware. Plus ideally I would buy one of those Gsync monitors and they are still a little too expensive.

I think the question is, do I buy a another 970 for SLI? Is SLI performance relative to the cost of buying a second card?

 

[LambChop]

Thinking of getting another G1 970 if the price drops when the new AMD cards launch.

I only game at 1200p tho. How is 970 SLI perf in the Witcher 3?

I'm guessing a game like Batman Arkham Knight will be another to tax a single 970.

I sli 980's at 1200p.

If you want to sli 970's then you do it, prob is here is that everyone will have an opinion and you'll end up more confused than before you started.

 

[nails666]

I have adaptive vsync turned on, and it still tears in some games.

I think buying a new monitor is not something I'm going to do right now. I would rather spend the money on new hardware. Plus ideally I would buy one of those Gsync monitors and they are still a little too expensive.

I think the question is, do I buy a another 970 for SLI? Is SLI performance relative to the cost of buying a second card?

An NVidia user may be able to correct me on this but I think the driver level adaptive sync on NVidia cards effectively enagages v-sync while the frame rate is above your monitors refresh rate (60Hz I presume?) and then if the frame rate drops below that level then it turns off v-sync so you don't get the stuttering of v-sync and the drop to 30fps, the side effect being that tearing then comes back. So if you are seeing tearing it means that your current setup isn't able to maintain 60fps all the time and so adding a second 970 may well give you the extra performance needed to keep a locked 60fps.
Whether that improvement is worth the ~£260 it'll cost for the extra card is up to you. It does also show that if you are thinking of moving to either 1440p or 144Hz (or both) in the future then the 2nd card will definitely come in handy

 

[opethdisciple]

I sli 980's at 1200p.

If you want to sli 970's then you do it, prob is here is that everyone will have an opinion and you'll end up more confused than before you started.

What would you say is your overall experience of SLI with your 980's?

 

[opethdisciple]

An NVidia user may be able to correct me on this but I think the driver level adaptive sync on NVidia cards effectively enagages v-sync while the frame rate is above your monitors refresh rate (60Hz I presume?) and then if the frame rate drops below that level then it turns off v-sync so you don't get the stuttering of v-sync and the drop to 30fps, the side effect being that tearing then comes back. So if you are seeing tearing it means that your current setup isn't able to maintain 60fps all the time and so adding a second 970 may well give you the extra performance needed to keep a locked 60fps.
Whether that improvement is worth the ~£260 it'll cost for the extra card is up to you. It does also show that if you are thinking of moving to either 1440p or 144Hz (or both) in the future then the 2nd card will definitely come in handy

Yes you are correct.

 

[OLDPHART]

I would upgrade your monitor 1st to say 1440p and get the most out of your single 970.

You can always add a 970 or sell that one and get a 980TI.

what about the 3.5gig memory problem? rather than spending another £280+ or so he would be better of selling his 970 and just going for a 980ti would he not?

From my 1st reply above.