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Is it worth buying a 970 2nd hand for sli

kinger8938

kinger8938

kinger8938

Soldato
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Basically as title, i currently have a single 970 and run at 1440p but would like to make that a more solid experiance at high settings. Not got a great deal to spend right now but i imagine 970s are quite obtainable preowned

How are these in sli and what can i expect? I only ever experianced crossfire with 6950s and found crossfire to be a bit hit or miss when it came to support at game launches etc

How does sli compare and what sort of psu would i need? Currently using the one i used on my 6950 xfire set up
 
I wouldn't, because if nothing else the Vram won't be able to keep up with the grunt (particularly at 1440p). There's also been issues reported by people using 970s for SLI if they aren't the exact same model.
 
I did and it's great, gives roughly 1070 performance in games that support SLi. You just have the extra heat to contend with, and relying on support.
 
I bought my 980 Ti to replace 2 x 970 SLI. Less power, noise and driver hassle and I was only playing 1080p then as well on the 970s.

So sell 970 and buy a 980 Ti or 1070 would be my choice.
 
I think singlecard solution trumps all then, just need to try and afford it :D just thought sli may be a mkre affordable alternative. See theres some mixed opinions here!

Will have a think
 
I ran SLI'd MSI 970's before the big RAM fiasco.
They ran really cool and quiet and I had no issues at all running at 1440p.

If it was me I'd work out which was the cheaper option. Another 970 or sell and buy a 980ti. But I doubt you'd be disappointed with the SLI 970's.
 
kinger8938 said:
Basically as title, i currently have a single 970 and run at 1440p but would like to make that a more solid experiance at high settings. Not got a great deal to spend right now but i imagine 970s are quite obtainable preowned

How are these in sli and what can i expect? I only ever experianced crossfire with 6950s and found crossfire to be a bit hit or miss when it came to support at game launches etc

How does sli compare and what sort of psu would i need? Currently using the one i used on my 6950 xfire set up
Click to expand...

i've had 2 x 970's in SLI - They perform simmilar to a single 980 Ti in most games that support SLI in the testing i did.
 
If you can go single card then that's the better option overall.

SLI is good when it works, sometimes you will have to wait for drivers to be updated - some games just don't end up being supported properly and require you to go searching for workarounds.

Ignore the whole "you will run out of vram" brigade - it's on a limited number of games and nothing that turning settings down from high to medium wouldn't solve.
 
you could argue its going to save you money and then wait for a newer product for similar performance.

so if you already own a 970 pick another up for total sum of about 100-120.

so 120 outlay for 1070/980ti performance.

or sell your card for 100-120 then you have to atleast put 180 to it for a 980 ti.


980 ti will probably be as hot use as much power or more than sli 970s.the 980 ti does have the extra vram.though.the pricing though and dropping price of 2nd 980tis would put it inline with the same as 2 x 970 gtx.

so there wont be any price difference there.

at 1080 2 970s would actually be pretty good for a few years.so a cheap option.

going to a 1070 which realistically 350 plus = 250 plus sales of card for same performace you can have for a extra hundred you already have.

vram is the only thing lacking that puts the 970s a issue.at 1080 as said its a decent idea really.should be okay for a year to two years.then if you sold both you would get the same as a 980 ti anyway.
 
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