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780 SLI vs 980TI review

tintin82

tintin82

tintin82

Associate
Joined
27 Aug 2009
Posts
712
Hi Guys, received my MSI Gaming 980TI this morning and wanted to share my experience if there is anyone out there with a similar set-up to what I used to have, and thinking about upgrading.

I have used SLI for about the last 2 years as I really needed the grunt for my 1440p monitor. However this noise and heat was a really pain so the 980TI was very appealing. Not to mention the pain and pure frustration when certain tiles don’t work with SLI!

I had 2 Gigabyte Windforce 780, on stock clocks as the things would never be stable with the slightest over clock in SLI.

Over clocked the MSI to +200 memory, and +150 on the core. Core sits at around 1530 most of the time.

So a few quick an dirty benchmarks

Firestrike Firstrike extreme Metro Last light bench
780SLI 13629 7663 46fps 12min fps
980TI 14115 7681 42fps 14 min fps
980TI (OC) 14744 8226 46fps 14min fps

So performance wise at stock it is not much better than the SLI, however the stable OC does push this ahead.

Most importantly though for me this system is now so much quieter its unreal. The heat so dramatically reduced also. I have a temp probe at my case exhaust fan that would hit 45C with the SLI, now it hovers around 33C.
Added to the fact that I can now utilise the power in ALL games, makes a big bonus. I have been putting of playing Wolfenstien waiting for this as the SLI was not supported.

Another plus is that everything just feels smoother. Witcher 3 feels so much better, no mini stutters. Shadow of Mordor used to drop to 30fps when I ran out of VRAM, not any more, fluid as can be.

I opted for MSI over Gigabyte which I used to have all the time, and am glad I did, so quiet and the coil whine is very very minimal. I had a few clicky fans with the Gigabytes, and some bad cases of coil whine, so decided to give them a miss this time.

So overall very happy with the card, expensive yes, but for a simpler more hassle free system that just feels way better I am happy. Now to sell the 780’s!
 
tintin82 said:
Hi Guys, received my MSI Gaming 980TI this morning and wanted to share my experience if there is anyone out there with a similar set-up to what I used to have, and thinking about upgrading.

I have used SLI for about the last 2 years as I really needed the grunt for my 1440p monitor. However this noise and heat was a really pain so the 980TI was very appealing. Not to mention the pain and pure frustration when certain tiles don’t work with SLI!

I had 2 Gigabyte Windforce 780, on stock clocks as the things would never be stable with the slightest over clock in SLI.

Over clocked the MSI to +200 memory, and +150 on the core. Core sits at around 1530 most of the time.

So a few quick an dirty benchmarks

Firestrike Firstrike extreme Metro Last light bench
780SLI 13629 7663 46fps 12min fps
980TI 14115 7681 42fps 14 min fps
980TI (OC) 14744 8226 46fps 14min fps

So performance wise at stock it is not much better than the SLI, however the stable OC does push this ahead.

Most importantly though for me this system is now so much quieter its unreal. The heat so dramatically reduced also. I have a temp probe at my case exhaust fan that would hit 45C with the SLI, now it hovers around 33C.
Added to the fact that I can now utilise the power in ALL games, makes a big bonus. I have been putting of playing Wolfenstien waiting for this as the SLI was not supported.

Another plus is that everything just feels smoother. Witcher 3 feels so much better, no mini stutters. Shadow of Mordor used to drop to 30fps when I ran out of VRAM, not any more, fluid as can be.

I opted for MSI over Gigabyte which I used to have all the time, and am glad I did, so quiet and the coil whine is very very minimal. I had a few clicky fans with the Gigabytes, and some bad cases of coil whine, so decided to give them a miss this time.

So overall very happy with the card, expensive yes, but for a simpler more hassle free system that just feels way better I am happy. Now to sell the 780’s!
Click to expand...

Do you have project cars? I'd like to know if it's stable at that clock. I can bench at 1500...but pcars my max is 1414.
 
I just moved from SLI inno3d ichill 3GB 780's to a single Titan X... (no not a 980ti... but...)
The improvement and stability of a single powerhouse card over paired lower-end cards in SLI is instantly noticeable...
Hopefully DirectX12 will improve SLI performance in the near future and I can afford to get my hands on another TX shortly! :D
 
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I currently run 2x 780Ti in SLI. I switched to a Titan X for a few weeks but it had a few issues with my system (certain games locked up on loading - v weird) so I sent it back for a refund.

I was a little underwhelmed by the TX to be honest. My 780Tis in SLI were/ are actually more powerful. I was getting exasperated with SLI issues in a few games which led me to make the move, but now I'm back on my 780Tis I've resolved most of the SLI issues in a few games, and I'm really glad I'm sticking with them for now.

Vram limits at 1440p with 3GB? - not an issue. I notice a lot of hot air about lack of Vram seems to have dissipated recently too with the release of the 4GB Fury X.

Also, I have reference cooled 780Tis but at the weekend got a corsair HG10 n780 bracket and a H55 AIO water cooler. My top card now doesn't break 55 degrees in intense games and bechies whereas before it would hit 84 degrees and throttle, unless I turned the fan up high which is too loud for me.

I'm going to buy the same corsair bracket and AIO for the bottom card soon and then try some serious overclocking. I may wait til I get a new case and rest of system though to make it all nice and shiny.
 
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wunkley said:
I currently run 2x 780Ti in SLI. I switched to a Titan X for a few weeks but it had a few issues with my system (certain games locked up on loading - v weird) so I sent it back for a refund.

I was a little underwhelmed by the TX to be honest. My 780Tis in SLI were/ are actually more powerful. I was getting exasperated with SLI issues in a few games which led me to make the move, but now I'm back on my 780Tis I've resolved most of the SLI issues in a few games, and I'm really glad I'm sticking with them for now.

Vram limits at 1440p with 3GB? - not an issue. I notice a lot of hot air about lack of Vram seems to have dissipated recently too with the release of the 4GB Fury X.

Also, I have reference cooled 780Tis but at the weekend got a corsair HG10 n780 bracket and a H55 AIO water cooler. My top card now doesn't break 55 degrees in intense games and bechies whereas before it would hit 84 degrees and throttle, unless I turned the fan up high which is too loud for me.

I'm going to buy the same corsair bracket and AIO for the bottom card soon and then try some serious overclocking. I may wait til I get a new case and rest of system though to make it all nice and shiny.
Click to expand...

I was hitting a very definite VRAM issue with my 780 SLI on Shadow of Mordor. Now with the 980TI it is smooth as silk, and uses 5.5GB of VRAM! Poorly optimised no doubt, but it needs the VRAM or crawls to 30fps.
 
wunkley said:
Vram limits at 1440p with 3GB? - not an issue. I notice a lot of hot air about lack of Vram seems to have dissipated recently too with the release of the 4GB Fury X.
Click to expand...

2 aspects to this - I'm definitely coming close to the limits on 3GB @ 1440p - though have to do something crazy usually to exceed it i.e. ultra+ settings combined with 8x MSAA. However in the long run 3GB VRAM is likely going to be a bottleneck before core performance is with SLI 780(ti) setups - especially if your trying to run higher resolution or multi display setups that might require the power of multiple cards.

Which is why I've not gone SLI with my 780 setup and saving the money to splash come something sub 28nm.
 
Made the same switch myself. X2 windforce 780's in sli chucked out quite a lot of heat, and got pretty loud. VRAM wasn't an issue in what I play but handy to have more now.
 
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