SLI Question

[Kiro-San]

So I'm currently running a EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Superclock ACX 2.0 and am thinking of adding a second (with a 750w PSU). I play at 2560x1440 and like to try and have everything maxed.

Unfortunately OC don't have the card in stock anymore so I just wanted to know if I only need a card that matches mine clock for clock and if I end up with one that is slightly quicker the quicker card is down clocked to match? And what card would people recommend?

 

[setter]

Any 980 will work in sli. They'll run at their own speeds independently, but its best to have the fastest card as the primary one

 

[zola25]

As setter says, any 980 will be fine but use the faster one as the primary for when SLI isn't supported.

I personally moved away from 980 SLI to a single 980Ti as I'd had enough of unsupported games - it's great when it works, but I was only getting the benefit of the second card in 50% of the games I played. You'll not be able to max all games at 1440p when only one card is in use.

I ran two cards on 760W PSU with no issues at all, but my advice would be sell and replace with a well clocked Ti or grit your teeth and wait for Pascal.

 

[Kiro-San]

Yeh I get that. I'm not desperate for a new card, it's more I couldn't decide what I wanted for xmas, asked for a crap load of OC vouchers and decided on getting a second 980. From the (limited) Googling I just did it looks like Pascal will be 1H2016 so I could just save the vouchers (and then money) and buy whatever the top card they release is, assuming it's not some stupid £1000 monster.

That or grab myself a PG27AQ in preparation for Pascal and live with the down scaling... Ah decisions decisions. Maybe another 16GB of RAM?

 

[zola25]

What do you use the machine for? If you already have 16Gb that's enough for most use cases.

Don't get me wrong, 980 SLI is a massive upgrade but you need to be sure it will work in the games you play, and you need to be patient for driver updates in some cases.

 

[Kiro-San]

If I added another 16 it would be for this: http://virl.cisco.com/

But I'm still trying to decide on if I want to push on with my Cisco certs.

Yeh I know the limitations of SLI, and generally prefer single cards. I hadn't been keeping up on the next gen NVidia and AMD cards so if I was being sensible I'd wait for them. That and given the fact the 980's are still pretty expensive the performance boost/cost probably doesn't cost in that well.

 

[bigmac121]

So I'm currently running a EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Superclock ACX 2.0 and am thinking of adding a second (with a 750w PSU). I play at 2560x1440 and like to try and have everything maxed.

Unfortunately OC don't have the card in stock anymore so I just wanted to know if I only need a card that matches mine clock for clock and if I end up with one that is slightly quicker the quicker card is down clocked to match? And what card would people recommend?

They have one in stock now.
See sig. I am happy with my setup

 

[Randall8686]

Im in exactly the same boat with exactly the same card playing at the same res lol, If you dont already have it G-Sync is AMAZING ! I went for the Dell by far the biggest upgrade i have ever made and my games are much smoother playing at 1440p G-sync than they ever where with the same card on 1080.

Im going to stick out for the next gen cards. the 980 is a beast but imo too expensive now the TI is kicking about for under £500 also he lack of sli support in some games just puts me off.

Dont bother with 16gb ram i upgraded from 8 to 16gb last week... Bugger all difference in any game despite some games hitting 97% usage with 8gb its still make ZERO difference jumping to 16gb. I would get yourself a G-sync monitor if you dont already you will notice that more than an extra 980 imo. But i hate tearing and stutter with a passion.

Edit just noticed they have them back in stock however £420 !!! no way you would notice a bigger difference on a single 980ti imo for another £80 over sli. Sell your 980 and upgrade to the sli if you really need to scratch the itch but seriously consider G-sync and wait for the next gen.