GXT 980 Ti in SLI Compared to RTX 2080 Ti

Bomberh · 21 Apr 2020 at 11:09

I am considering, replacing my Two ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti STRIX in SLI for One ASUS GEFORCE RTX 2080 TI ROG STRIX OC.

Obviously I would sell the 980's on Fleabay, and possibly recoup about £400-£500 for the two, but is it worth it money wise and also, (which might be a stupid question), would the 2080 Ti out perform the two 980's Ti in SLI??

Arcane · 21 Apr 2020 at 11:22

As you've waited this long I'd hang on a while longer and get a 3 series card, be more of an upgrade I would have thought.

Radox-0 · 21 Apr 2020 at 11:23

Yes a 2080Ti does out perform a pair of 980Ti's in SLI it seems:

not totally unexpected given SLI scaling (saying this as someone with SLI right now also) and where some games do not support it at all.

As to if its worth it, depends what your trying to do really and if the 980Ti's are falling over tbh.

Personally, if the 980Ti's are still doing okay for yourself, then I would keep them and wait for 3xxx or whatever AMD brings given the 2080Ti is a year and half old now.

The Old School Gamer · 21 Apr 2020 at 11:36

You would notice a nice improvement, but money wise it's probably not worth it.
I'd just wait for the new cards to drop, I think you will get a better deal on performance and price.
Plus you have held on to your 980ti's this long, what's another 6 months or so.

varkanoid · 21 Apr 2020 at 11:37

Unless its essential and preventing you from playing a game I wouldnt bother. Better off waiting for the release of the 3xxx sometime next year gives you more chance to save up. I still think you would get a few hundred for the 980ti's.

KillBoY_UK · 21 Apr 2020 at 12:08

SLI doesn't work in the majority of new games anyways

RusstheDroog · 21 Apr 2020 at 12:18

I'm in a similar position as I used to have a SLI 980Ti set up which I sold about 2 years ago in readiness for the 20 series. I didn't commit because of the price inflation issues / NVidia Tax and have since resigned to waiting for the 30 series.

If its any help, I sold both for around £300 each, albeit 2 years ago now.

If I were you (because this is exactly what i'm doing anyway) I'd wait for the 30 series, particularly as they're likely to have HDMI 2.1 which opens up a few more possibilities as to display options and refresh rates.

Anecdotally, again this is 5 years back, but the same problems were being touted with SLI and I always had great results. Not 100% scaling, but in the vast majority of games, it was up in the 90%. At the time, 2 980Tis at 500 quid each, was a good buy particularly given the state of the market today and the price performance ratio. Basically had =< 2080Ti or 2080 Super performance in Sli in 2015.

Has SLI really died / gone that far off track?

Cheers.

Tommy_Here · 21 Apr 2020 at 12:52

Keep the 980 Ti's the 30 series will be a nice upgrade in terms of overall performance and much better day tracing compared to Turning... it's not as if the 980 Ti's can't game even today they're a cracking card at least once you get them clocked high

Radox-0 · 21 Apr 2020 at 12:54

RusstheDroog said:
I'm in a similar position as I used to have a SLI 980Ti set up which I sold about 2 years ago in readiness for the 20 series. I didn't commit because of the price inflation issues / NVidia Tax and have since resigned to waiting for the 30 series.

If its any help, I sold both for around £300 each, albeit 2 years ago now.

If I were you (because this is exactly what i'm doing anyway) I'd wait for the 30 series, particularly as they're likely to have HDMI 2.1 which opens up a few more possibilities as to display options and refresh rates.

Anecdotally, again this is 5 years back, but the same problems were being touted with SLI and I always had great results. Not 100% scaling, but in the vast majority of games, it was up in the 90%. At the time, 2 980Tis at 500 quid each, was a good buy particularly given the state of the market today and the price performance ratio. Basically had =< 2080Ti or 2080 Super performance in Sli in 2015.

Has SLI really died / gone that far off track?

Cheers.

Support is lackluster. There are few games now and then SLI works well on, but these days, getting single strongest card is way to go. With that said, I hate way single card looks in main rig so will likely get multiple GPUs still though my excuse is I also do workloads that scale well

With that said, another frustrating element, is some games which do get SLI profiles only seem to do so for Turing. Not sure if this is down to possibly a difference in NVlink, or Nvidia would rather avoid people picking up a second GPU and force them to get a new one, but sad to see. Good example of this is there 445.75 drivers, launched last month. Had a bunch of SLI profiles added, but only some for non-Turing based GPUs for example.

Game Ready Driver New Features and Other Changes

Added or updated the following SLI profiles for NVIDIA Turing GPUs:

ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN
Blacksad: Under the Skin
Blair Witch
Close to the Sun
Hell Let Loose
Journey To The Savage Planet
Monster Energy Supercross 3
MotoGP 19
MXGP 2019 - The Official Motocross Videogame
eFootball PES 2020
World War 3

Added or updated the following SLI profiles for all supported NVIDIA GPUs:
- Druidstone: The Secret of the Menhir Forest

Phoenix Point

Tamarin
Will To Live Online
Yakuza Kiwami 2

ArmitageShanks · 21 Apr 2020 at 13:02

SLI still works, and works well. It's just getting too expensive these days to buy two high-end cards IMO. I run dual 1080s in SLI and it either equals or slighty outperforms a single 2080Ti in most games and benchmarks I've tried at 3440x1440.

But when the 3080Ti drops, I will be ditching it. I can't afford two of them, and SLI is tragically underused in VR.

CuriousTomCat · 21 Apr 2020 at 13:12

I dont see the point in buying a high end card and keeping it for so long. Either buy regular high end cards or change to buying mid range cards in my opinion.

After having a high end card for two years, you effectively then have mid range performance for a high end price. You could have bought a mid range card instead and have the same performance.

So either buy a 2080ti and then a 3080ti followed by a 4080ti etc. If you cant justify that, buy a 2070 Super instead. That's my opinion.

Arcane · 21 Apr 2020 at 13:15

I had 980ti SLI and it was a beast, Witcher 3, GTA5, COD, Metro Last Light, Tomb Raider, all worked really well.

pugheaven · 21 Apr 2020 at 16:16

I've just in the last 2 weeks moved from Tri-Fire to a single card... so I had a a 295X2 with a 290x and it was emmense (although around 800W plus on full chat hahaha), however I'd found the same less and less games using it and cause more and more problems as time grew on, so just sold them both for £300 and picked up a 5700XT.

Like said earlier though, I hate not having a load of GPU power taking up slots in my case as it looks "normal" now... but I can't even pick up another 5700XT as they removed Xfire from them... there will be a point when they do that with nVidia and that'll be game over for any games.

However in answer to OP quesiton, personally I'd keep the 980's for now until the proper next gen unless you're really needing the upgrade and just hold fire a little longer...

Bomberh · 21 Apr 2020 at 17:14

Thanks for everyones help and information, its much appreciated.
I think the best advice is to wait for the next gen cards 3×××. My 980s are still good cards and are still quite fast and really nothing wrong with them......
The £1400 for the 2080 Ti could be put away for the 3080Ti that will come out at some point. If my 980s have problems, then I'll have to re-evaluate this, but the Asus build quality of the 980s is so good, I can't see them failing to be honest.
Not sure what AMD will bring out next, as its 'their turn' to release the next card? I dabbled years ago with AMD cards and always purchased Sapphire cards. The cards were good, but the drivers were rubbish, so I really can't see me going back to them really.
So we'll see what Nvidia come up with next year and I'll continue with my 980s for the time being....

Guest2 · 21 Apr 2020 at 18:01

Bomberh said:
would the 2080 Ti out perform the two 980's Ti in SLI??

Yes

I would go with another option and sell both 980Ti's and buy a 1080Ti. Much more reliable performance and works with all games.
I say this having myself gone from 780Ti SLI to a single 980Ti then getting a second 980Ti, then ditching both for a single 1080Ti. I ended up using it more like a hobby changing things and getting things to work rather than actually playing games stabally. Too much messing around, trying to avoid microstutter and crashes. If you like fiddling around with settings though by all means stick with SLI

If you can get £400 - £500 for the two 980s, a single good quality 1080Ti can be had for that. I've never had problems with EVGA cards - all EVGA above. Single cards work great, SLI not so much unless its benchmarking and the few games that work well with SLI

Jacky60 · 21 Apr 2020 at 19:08

Radox-0 said:
Yes a 2080Ti does out perform a pair of 980Ti's in SLI it seems:

not totally unexpected given SLI scaling (saying this as someone with SLI right now also) and where some games do not support it at all.

As to if its worth it, depends what your trying to do really and if the 980Ti's are falling over tbh.

Personally, if the 980Ti's are still doing okay for yourself, then I would keep them and wait for 3xxx or whatever AMD brings given the 2080Ti is a year and half old now.

That Benchmark has Assassins Creed Odyssey with SLI working. Pretty sure AC:Odyssey doesn't support SLI so that makes me doubt rest of 'benchmarks' I know it can be made to work on AC:Odyssey but there's loads of unplayable flickering. I'd keep 980TI at least until 3080ti drops.

gpuerrilla · 21 Apr 2020 at 19:16

As many have said, wait for 3000 series to launch and pick the best you can afford at the time.

Radox-0 · 21 Apr 2020 at 19:31

Jacky60 said:
That Benchmark has Assassins Creed Odyssey with SLI working. Pretty sure AC:Odyssey doesn't support SLI so that makes me doubt rest of 'benchmarks' I know it can be made to work on AC:Odyssey but there's loads of unplayable flickering. I'd keep 980TI at least until 3080ti drops.

More then likely if anything benchmark was simply added in and ran without checking usage and confirming everything supports SLI as there is no numbers / usage showing, though I do agree those numbers for a single 980Ti do look higher then a what it should muster at 4k.

Though not sure why your posting to me though to keep the 980Ti until the 3080ti drops. That is a position I outlined in my post.

Bomberh · 22 Apr 2020 at 11:34

Guest2 said:
Yes

I would go with another option and sell both 980Ti's and buy a 1080Ti. Much more reliable performance and works with all games.
I say this having myself gone from 780Ti SLI to a single 980Ti then getting a second 980Ti, then ditching both for a single 1080Ti. I ended up using it more like a hobby changing things and getting things to work rather than actually playing games stabally. Too much messing around, trying to avoid microstutter and crashes. If you like fiddling around with settings though by all means stick with SLI

If you can get £400 - £500 for the two 980s, a single good quality 1080Ti can be had for that. I've never had problems with EVGA cards - all EVGA above. Single cards work great, SLI not so much unless its benchmarking and the few games that work well with SLI

I can see where your coming from, but I am always a bit hesitant when buying second hand (when it comes to selling my cards, I know how my cards have been treated and how they have been used)
if you know what I mean?

I am a bit of a ASUS ROG STRIX fan and tend to purchase from new. However, having looking on Fleabay, I can see a few 1080ti going for between £450 and £550, and some on auction at £450 with a few days to go.

So now that other question, is a 1080ti, better than two 980ti in SLI??? this just opens up more questions.....buy a 1080ti now......next year when the 3080ti come out, the 2080ti drop in price... then buy a 2080ti and so on etc.....????

or of course just wait for the 308ti to come out at some point????

BigBANGtheory · 22 Apr 2020 at 11:39

Bomberh said:
So now that other question, is a 1080ti, better than two 980ti in SLI??? this just opens up more questions.....buy a 1080ti now......next year when the 3080ti come out, the 2080ti drop in price... then buy a 2080ti and so on etc.....????

or of course just wait for the 308ti to come out at some point????

In some cases yes a 1080Ti is stronger its not one size fits all answer.

The 3080Ti (still unconfirmed but we know Ampere is coming) is likely to come out after AMD Big Navi imho i.e. 2-3months after so possibly not in 2020 unfortunately buy hey that's just conjecture on my part