980ti bored, sli for the fun

[Phil2008]

Nothing wrong with SLI. I've been running dual 1080s for the last 3-4 years, no problems at all. If you can add a second 970 cheaply to tide you over till Ampere hits, I'd say go for it.

I had SLI years go and it had me tearing me hair out, but I couldn't go to 1 card as I had spent a fortune on it.. All I can say is I wont be going back there ever EVER again. When I eventually Switched to 1 card, it was like heaven as all the annoying problems just disappeared and the pc just worked.

I like my pc's just to work with no faffing around

 

[LePhuronn]

But at this time I was only tempted by the 2070 super and 2080's. Pc's are for tinkering with...

Should've got a 5700 XT then Plenty of tinkering fun to be had tuning the voltages, clocks, fan curves, etc.

 

[Bazippy]

Should've got a 5700 XT then Plenty of tinkering fun to be had tuning the voltages, clocks, fan curves, etc.

It was really tempting

 

[ArmitageShanks]

You sure it was a 2080Ti?

I’ve had both 1080 and 1080Ti SLI and neither performed how I wanted even after hours of messing around, various HB bridges, inspector profiles. BF1 for example was running at 92%/92% on both cards but I was still seeing slightly worse performance than a single card.

Good for you if that’s the performance you are seeing but since going to a single powerful card I haven’t looked back.

I actually bought 1080SLI on release which performed worse than my old 980Ti SLI.

It sure was a 2080Ti - I had two FEs that developed artifacts and died so went back to my dual 1080s.

The 2080Ti performed like a champ in VR where SLI support is thin (which was my main motivation for upgrading) but in 2D gaming on stuff like BF1 and FC5 it lagged behind my 1080s. A few benchmarks I did confirmed my suspicions - 2x1080s still outperforms a single 2080Ti (if you ignore RTX).

 

[tyler_jrb]

It sure was a 2080Ti - I had two FEs that developed artifacts and died so went back to my dual 1080s.

The 2080Ti performed like a champ in VR where SLI support is thin (which was my main motivation for upgrading) but in 2D gaming on stuff like BF1 and FC5 it lagged behind my 1080s. A few benchmarks I did confirmed my suspicions - 2x1080s still outperforms a single 2080Ti (if you ignore RTX).

Shame . I’ve had a number and must have been super lucky. Have had 2 FE which were artefact free.

Just been too much messing around for me in the past. I’d take slightly less performance for a single powerful card which is going to perform to its fullest no matter the situation. I can see it being worth it to some on a cost standpoint. But nowadays I’d rather have a single card that works 100% of the time.

RDR2 for example I’d have regretted immensely had I still had SLI and a slower card.

 

[ArmitageShanks]

When the 3080Ti hits the shelves I'll dip my toe back into the single-card pool. It's really the VR performance that I need these days and SLI (which you'd assume would be the ultimate use case) is tragically being ignored.

 

[Phil2008]

SLI would still be with us, If it just worked like a single card setup. So thats why its being ignored and if you can spend like £600+ on 2 cards, you might as well get 1 top of the range card, that will do the same job as 2 but without all the headaches.

 

[ArmitageShanks]

SLI would still be with us, If it just worked like a single card setup. So thats why its being ignored and if you can spend like £600+ on 2 cards, you might as well get 1 top of the range card, that will do the same job as 2 but without all the headaches.

At the time I got them, two 1080s would dramatically outperform a 1080Ti. It's not what I'd call the same job. Even now it's still slightly ahead of a single 2080Ti. I would have stuck with the 2080Ti if I hadn't kept receiving duds from nVidia.

 

[Jacky60]

I enjoyed my 980ti SLIs and my 1080ti SLIs are still doing great work. Best performance boost you'll get for the money.

 

[Jacky60]

SLI would still be with us, If it just worked like a single card setup. So thats why its being ignored and if you can spend like £600+ on 2 cards, you might as well get 1 top of the range card, that will do the same job as 2 but without all the headaches.

When SLI is supported it usually outperforms the single car equivalent e.g. 2070S vs 2080TI etc. Obviously that's not the case with many titles but if the games you play support SLI it's usually worthwhile if you favour maximum eye candy.

 

[chaparral]

SLI would still be with us, If it just worked like a single card setup. So thats why its being ignored and if you can spend like £600+ on 2 cards, you might as well get 1 top of the range card, that will do the same job as 2 but without all the headaches.

Think a lot of what killed off SLI is the price of GPU's these days
Hell of difference paying around £800 for 2 GPU's compared to around £1600

My last SLI setup cost me around £700 for both of the GPU's (two GTX 780ti)

 

[Bazippy]

It feels like sli is needed at the moment, VR and 4k then to 8k. There is more of place for it then the last few years when everyone was stuck at 1080p, it died out then as a single card could max things. The price of new sli would be crazy and itll never re-appear like it did. However right now it would be a good idea if it worked perfectly imo

 

[BigBANGtheory]

Never understood why SLI wasn’t made to work at the hardware level

 

[markoboyo11]

I would love to sli my 1080ti, never had sli and always wanted it but never had a reason that made sense.
Now with 4k and vr it could be of real use and its gone.

 

[Jay85]

I did this but quickly sold both and bought a 2070 super while it was cheap then side stepped to a 2080 with a waterblock already attached as the 2070 super was non existent. Did work in some games but didn't scale particularly well in the games i played unfortunately.

 

[Jacky60]

I would love to sli my 1080ti, never had sli and always wanted it but never had a reason that made sense.
Now with 4k and vr it could be of real use and its gone.

Gone where??

 

[markoboyo11]

Gone where??

You know what I mean.

 

[Jacky60]

You know what I mean.

You mean SLI isn't supported by every game? I genuinely don't know what you mean, please clarify?
Unless you mean your mobo doesn't support it? That makes sense
Put it this way, my experience in games (the ones I play the most)that support SLI is vastly, immediately and tangibly superior to a single card experience.
Those who say "it doesn't work" haven't experienced the difference it makes in games such as GTA5, The Witcher 3, Arma 3, Kingdom come deliverance, RDR2 etc.
'Gone' is a nonsense peddled by those who've never experienced it.

 

[ArmitageShanks]

Agreed with the above. It's not gone, never has been. If I could afford two 3080Ti's (whenever they get released) and provided Nvidia don't ditch it, I'd go for it. Sadly I think I'll be restricted to one card in future given GPU prices these days.

 

[Cooper]

I ran two Asus Strix 970's in SLI for 4yrs on my previous rig and hardly had any trouble with it...

It meant I could play Witcher 3, Project Cars, Battlefield IV and many others maxed out 1440p/1620p@60fps (or 4K in older titles).

IMO, 95% of the people who crap on SLI....have never actually tried it.

Having said that it's not something I'd do thesedays because the economics of GPU's have changed so much since 2014, my two 970's cost me £600, to do the equivalent today would be a hell of a lot more and just not worth it to me. I'm more than happy with a single 2080 and will be until the 40xx line of GPU's land in 2022 (I'll be skipping the 30xx cards this year)