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970 SLI vs. 1080

HazardO said:
The VRAM is an issue in a few games at 1440p, however a 1070 would have solved that issue at a more reasonable cost. Anyway, enjoy your new card.
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The 1070 was a consideration but from the few bench's i have seen comparing the 1080 to 970s there seems to be around a 15% increase in performance. My guess would be a 1070 will at best be equal or less than the performance of 970 sli.
I feel that would certainly be classed as a side grade.
May consider swapping for a 1080ti at the end of the year if i feel the 1080 isn't quite cutting it.
 
Bigminimus said:
You also need to consider that you have to replace both cards when you upgrade. A 1 card solution is simpler.
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Barely any difference unless your case requires a disk cage to be removed or suchlike. You only need to open the case once.
OK, you've got two boxes to open and an SLI bridge to attach, but the difference is going to be about 1-2mins of your time. ;)

Custom water cooling would a much bigger pain as you'll need more tubing, fittings and probably larger rads, but for an air cooled system the difference is negligible.

CalmB4Storm said:
The 1070 was a consideration but from the few bench's i have seen comparing the 1080 to 970s there seems to be around a 15% increase in performance. My guess would be a 1070 will at best be equal or less than the performance of 970 sli.
I feel that would certainly be classed as a side grade.
May consider swapping for a 1080ti at the end of the year if i feel the 1080 isn't quite cutting it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, my take is that 970SLI is ~ 1070 performance. Anyway I'm not here to criticise, enjoy your new purchase. :)
 
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As a 970 SLI user I have to admit the temptation was there for me until I saw how little the gain would be for me and then I saw the price and ruled it out completely.

Honestly, the 970's are serving me very well at 1440p and I'm not really having to lower that many settings. Witcher 3 for example runs maxed out (except for hairworks) constantly above 60fps. Many other titles run fully maxed out too, think the only one I had to play as a mix of high/ultra is The Division but that isn't a great example of good SLI performance. Hell, Doom runs above 60fps on ultra on one card. When they add SLI support that'll be even better.

Basically, I've used SLI 670's and 970's and neither setup has given me any issues. And as has been pointed out, when SLI doesn't work on a game you usually find that you don't need it anyway. I'd say the onbly drawback of sticking with these cards is the VRAM but it really hasn't been an issue for me yet.

If it becomes an issue in the near future I'll assess the inevitable 1080ti on release. No doubt there'll be another overpriced Titan on the horizon too. Think I can hold out for the next lot of cards though. However, I don't think there's a right or wrong answer here. All depends on the user and current gaming situation. I personally don't mind dropping a few settings if I have to as many barely make a difference anyway between high and ultra.
 
I've had 5750CF, 6870CF, 680 SLI and now 970 SLI.

I'm looking to move the 970s on and bag a new 1080 once reviews for the aftermarket cards start coming in. Though dual GPU has been fine most of the time, there have been instances where it's really made me hate my setup. Two examples would be Arkham Knight (an Nvidia game which will never support SLI) and the new Total War which at the time of this post, still doesn't support SLI. Fallout 4 had a pretty big wait for SLI compatability too.

Personally I'm looking forward to getting rid of that weak point in my rig.
 
Just noticed the EVGA GTX 1080 FTW can be had for £590, or the SC for £560.

I'm currently running SLI 970s (MSI gaming editions), and in general SLI has been great. Those people talking about tweaking clearly haven't used SLI for a while, as often it gives a great experience. However, for every good experience (eg BF4) there's something like Rainbow 6 Siege which just doesn't scale well.

Then when you throw VR into the mix where you have to switch one of your cards off....well this really got me thinking about upgrading. I've just got my Rift and playing Elite Dangerous and pCars...and I'm finding the lure of the 1080 to be growing.

For 2D gaming I run the X34 predator, so 3440 X 1440 gsync.

Any ideas as to what the EVGA FTW 1080 will likely deliver over my mildly over locked SLI 970s?
 
If the 1080 was £100 cheaper then I might have swapped my 970s over. I think I can wait for the Ti. As for VR I haven't had to switch any cards off and I'm hoping for some VR SLI support in something sometime :p
 
Can any one who knows comment on folding points per day between 970sli and either 980ti Titan x or indeed 1080?
Folding and benching if that's your thing will influence the purchasing decision and I'm realy unsure which way to go with my purchase.
 
Smurfin said:
Just noticed the EVGA GTX 1080 FTW can be had for £590, or the SC for £560.

I'm currently running SLI 970s (MSI gaming editions), and in general SLI has been great. Those people talking about tweaking clearly haven't used SLI for a while, as often it gives a great experience. However, for every good experience (eg BF4) there's something like Rainbow 6 Siege which just doesn't scale well.

Then when you throw VR into the mix where you have to switch one of your cards off....well this really got me thinking about upgrading. I've just got my Rift and playing Elite Dangerous and pCars...and I'm finding the lure of the 1080 to be growing.

For 2D gaming I run the X34 predator, so 3440 X 1440 gsync.

Any ideas as to what the EVGA FTW 1080 will likely deliver over my mildly over locked SLI 970s?
Click to expand...

The 1080 would probably be 20-25% faster when you aren't VRAM limited by the 970s. If you're not worried about SLI, you should be able to pick up a pair of 1070s for less than £800 shortly which would be a lot faster ~90%

Smurfin said:
I wouldn't hold your breath for VR SLI support!
Click to expand...

I expect there will be SLI support, although I'm not aware of any VR headsets supporting GSYNC, so microstutter might be an issue.
 
Anyone else changing from SLI 970s to the 1080?

Chopping in my MSI Gaming Edition 970s, and I've ordered the EVGA 1080 FTW edition. I've been debating the move because despite what a lot of people say, SLI isn't broken and generally works fine.

However, I've got a Rift so VR performance is key, and SLI VR doesn't exist and I wouldn't be surprised if it never does. Despite SLI working fine most of the time for 2D games, there's always the odd game which isn't optimised and it really bugs me! - hence my decision.

The only thing that sticks in the throat is that for well optimised games, the 1080 only looks to be around 10% better than my SLI 970s, and that's a tiny gain for what will cost me £260 once I've sold my 970s.

Anyone else doing the same?
 
I have a pair of SLI MSI GTX 970 in my VR PC and its rubbish. Half the good Vive games barely run and even then at low detail thanks to lack of VR SLI support which I don't expect to see much of any time soon. I have a ASUS Strix GTX 1080 on its way to replace them, if it ever turns up.
 
I must admit, the 970 isn't really up to it for intensive VR games. In Elite Dangerous I have to run VR low and even then ATW kicks in too much when @ Res sites with all those asteroids.

Aliasing is really obvious, and SS1.5 makes a massive difference - it just makes the game unplayable with a 970.
 
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