1080 SLI or Titan X pascal?

[R-TYPE]

Hi all, apologies if this is covered specifically elsewhere, didn't see it if it is.

Want to upgrade from dual 980gtx in SLI watercooled (running single monitor 4K 60hz) to either dual 1080s in SLI, or a single Titan X pascal, both options to be watercooled and running same monitor setup for now.

Dual 1080s will be more expensive overall but will yield better FPS I understand, but will apparently have the SLI 'micro stutter', and will generate more heat in the loop. A single Titan X pascal will apparently be slightly lesser in terms of FPS, but obviously only single GPU to cool and no stutter due to SLI.

Would appreciate thoughts and comments on reaching a potential decision on upgrade path, thanks

 

[ToTheMax]

I'd personally go Titan and overclock the nuts off it with water cooling. SLI when it works it works well, it's just those instances where it doesn't can be annoying.

But depends on what you play though, eg Witcher SLI crushes a single Titan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWtqGNmWS3Y

 

[tyler_jrb]

SLI has and always been generally fine for me. There have been a few instances but mainly due to my stupidity. Never had microstutter since my first SLI days GTX 770's.

SLI 1080's will beat a single TXP even fully overclocked by a good margin (around 40%).

But then obviously games that dont support SLI the 1080 will be 20-30% behind. The TXP is a great card but it is overpriced for what it is. Considering its not twice as fast as the 1080 or even close. Its around 20-30% faster depending on the game for a lot more increase money wise.

 

[whiterabbit]

This is something I have been thinking about too. Thanks R-TYPE.

 

[R-TYPE]

Well, have now done a lot of googling on this. No conclusive answers. Some swear SLI is broken, others suggest it works fine for them, some say it's down to either the game, the drivers, or down to the particular configuration of hardware.

There are many videos on youtube showing stutter comparisons between dual and single cards.

A few interesting sites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWtqGNmWS3Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOtre2f4qZs
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_1080_SLI/

Was wondering if OCUK forums would be more informative given the impressive depth of knowledge here

So it makes me think go for titan x single, despite the silly-ish price. (Then a voice in my head says "yeah, then get a second and go SLI later with titan X". ... doh...!). Or maybe just hold out till titan x prices drop some.

 

[stooeh]

If you already have SLI 980s then you should already have experience of the pros/cons of SLI

 

[whyscotty]

Single fastest card you can afford.

 

[R-TYPE]

If you already have SLI 980s then you should already have experience of the pros/cons of SLI

Yes I should have said something on that. I have been testing for it visually. Sometimes it's hard to determine if you do see some 'stuttering' that it is the same as that pertaining to be micro stuttering as seen in the videos.

Occasionally a stutter happens simply due to a texture loading in, or a somewhat heavy environment. I suspect that if I actively look for it I can see some sort of stuttering when a scene rotates fairly fast. But this might also just be the game engine.

So even on my system it's hard to tell. I need to do a bit more testing when time permits!

 

[spikerules]

I've had 670 SLI, 780ti SLI and 980 SLI. With the 980Ti I decided to water cool and wait and see if I needed another 980ti to get faster results.

You know what I found? The single card solution, although slower overall, was much smoother and better for min fps speeds. The SLI was all over place and the difference between min fps and max fps was MASSIVE. Non SLI narrows that margin down and is smoother for it. No micro stutter and all around smoother experience.

However I would NOT buy a Titan XP. No way. Ridiculous money that Nvidia are pricing due to the fact people like yourself are buying the thing. Boycott such ridiculous nonsense and buy one 1080 and OC the nuts off it. To be honest even the 1080 is overpriced. 1070 is more reasonable price.

 

[JunkieXcel]

I've gone SLI for the past 7 years and finally decided to ditch it and go for the fastest single card I can afford route, so I've ordered a Titan XP.

When SLI works it's great but over the past 18 months SLI has definitely worsened in my experience. Almost every major release suffers with SLI issues, some of which are eventually fixed, others increasingly never are. Its becoming rarer and rarer for games to be multicard issue free on launch day.

Just off the top of my head:

Assassin's Creed Unity: scaling issues, flickering, white lines in texture/geometry seams for 2-3 months post launch, eventually fixed.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate: scaling issues not solved for 1-2 months.

Batman Arkham Knight: SLI continues to have negative scaling.

Rise of the Tomb Raider: scaling issues at launch, took a while to clear up.

The Division: scaling issues at launch

Doom: no SLI support

Deus Ex: SLI continues to have major scaling issues, stuttering etc. Perhaps will be sorted with full DX12 build, perhaps not

The above are merely a sample of some of the issues I've experienced and I haven't even touched on Windows 10 store games!

Sure, in some games SLI support is great but my experience is that more times than not, SLI is not worth the hassle and expense.

 

[RanxZy]

If I was going to spend £1100 on GPUs I would rather the solution that is going to give reliable performance. That is hard to come by on the most recent games (particularly DX12) with SLI scaling. I'm looking for an upgrade to push a Ultra HD Samsung tv but would rather wait for the next in line after the Titan XP.

 

[VEGACORTEZ]

I'd personally go Titan and overclock the nuts off it with water cooling. SLI when it works it works well, it's just those instances where it doesn't can be annoying.

But depends on what you play though, eg Witcher SLI crushes a single Titan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWtqGNmWS3Y

Bit pointless though on a 60hz screen, a titan x pascal is enough for the witcher3 at 4k 60hz with hairworks off.

 

[HRL]

Bit pointless though on a 60hz screen, a titan x pascal is enough for the witcher3 at 4k 60hz with hairworks off.

My 480 8Gb manages 45-50 fps @ 4K without Hairworks on mostly medium settings. I'd bloody well hope a TXP could manage Ultra.

 

[hobib_ali]

I would choose 2 1080s over a single titan P

why?

So when I play Fallout 4 on 1440p max settings I get between 70-80fps sli disabled

Now when I enable sli I get 110-120fps and higher sometimes 140+fps

So if a game performs poorly on sli, simply disable it

same goes for Farcry Primal, enabling SLI increases performance by 30% and more

same goes for GTAV Project Cars Witcher 3, sli works very well, If you get poor sli performance just disable it through the Nvidia control panel, ot only takes a few seconds...

Also depreciation, Titan P costs 1100 now, after 2 years or even less when Nvidia announces their new cards next year, you will lose more in selling a 2nd hand titan P than selling 2 1080s,

and not to mention if your card goes faulty, with sli you will still have a working card while the other is in RMA

Thats why you should go:

now do you dig?

 

[whiterabbit]

Makes perfect sense. Very well reasoned.