To SLi or Not

[Andy_8]

Every 3 to 4 years I spend around 2k to 2.5k on a Laptop (thanks to a 1k donation from work)

I work exclusively overseas and when at home I don't have access to the 50" screen until the family have gone to bed.

Upgrade time is here and i'm looking at options for a new machine.

So is SLI worth it to cover 4 years or should I hang on a couple of months and get one of the GTX 980 (without the M) notebooks.

I like the Aorus range (egonomincs, style, weight) so for comparsiion it would be X7 Pro V5 (2) or impending X7 DT (top end of budget)

My current 3.5 year old machine with 16GB DDR3, 512GB SSD an i7 3630QM and overclocked Nvidia GT630M is grinding hard gaming even on medium settings.

Currently Online gaming is World Of Tanks and offline gaming is Assasin's Creed tiltes. (Other titles available)

*been on the forum (on and off) for 16 years although not highly active for 10 when my Overclocking addiction gave way to cars and an Evo VIII addiction which gave way to married and family..... which forces work addiction.

Rgds Andy

 

[Andy_8]

Scouring around there is not much info.

Did find this http://www.notebookcheck.net/Nvidia-GeForce-GTX-980-Notebook-Review.153013.0.html

Seems like (Desktop) CPU and (DeskTop) GPU GTX980 in a notebook a near match for (Mobile CPU) and Mobile SLI 2*GTX970M.

Bear in mind i'm looking at getting nigh on 4 years form my next machine I'm just concerned about SLI support and continuation of the same. Don't want end up with a redundant card sitting there gathering dust and suffering grind of a single lower spec card.

That Said I've come across the ************ Octane II Pro which for around the same price as the AORUS X7 Pro V5 (2) can have the i7 6700K (Desktop chip) and GTX 980 (Desktop chip) + 1 x USB 3.1 Gen2 / ThunderboltTM 3 combo port (Type-C)

Hmmmm more research required and wait for some more examples of these new Desktop chipped notebooks to get reviewed.

 

[linktoinsanity]

I would suggest going for a single card solution myself, less cooling issues and less driver software support issues.

It is probably also cheaper and your money could go elsewhere (in the CPU or a bigger SSD).

 

[Andy_8]

I would suggest going for a single card solution myself, less cooling issues and less driver software support issues.

It is probably also cheaper and your money could go elsewhere (in the CPU or a bigger SSD).

Thanks for the reply.
I've now been hunting the net for several hours finding several recent reviews of the GTX980 Desktop chip in Notebooks and I'm zeroing in on a spec but yet to find the machine.

17" G-Sync 1080P (I doubt I'll notice the difference in 4k on a 17" screen?)
Intel i7 6700K (Desktop chip) 4ghz
Nvidia GTX 980 (Desktop chip) *MXM format in case it starts to struggle in a couple of years.
16GB DDR4
PCI Gen3 NVMe SSD
HDMI 2.0 (HDCP)
USB 3.1 Gen 3 Thunderbolt combo port
Killer Lan

That's basically going to breeze through all current titles @ 1080P (where I'll sped most of my time) on Ultra settings and have playable 4k potential (50 - 60fps) when our TV gets upgraded in a year or so.

I've been finding a +4% to +12% advantage in most real world gaming between 2xSLi GTX970M and a GTX980 (Desktop chip) on 1080P.
Get in to 4k (probably going be about 5% of my future gaming) and the 2x GTX 970M and GTX 980 (Desktop chip) are not too far apart either.

VR is another consideration and I think it will be some time / a long time before SLi issues are fully sorted out as I expect focus will be on getting single chip cards running fast and smooth as that's is where most all of the market will be.

Interesting article here that pretty much made my mind up re SLi or not for my current and 3 - 4 year future needs. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/nvidia-sli-faq,review-33182.html

Now I just need to find the machine with the options I'm looking for.

Rgds Andy

 

[Mariusz]

I would go for the fastest single card you can afford, especially as you plan on keeping the laptop a long time. Get the desktop 980 in a 17" 1080p G-Sync laptop and enjoy

Don't bother with 4k on a laptop, pixels are already tiny and the graphics grunt to drive the screen at native resolution is high.