980ti or SLI 970

[warpath2k]

As per title. I am looking to build a new PC, i7k, 16g ram

Is the 980 ti worth it over it 970's sli as the website i use is working out roughly the same price (970 sli slightly cheaper).

Current games GTAV Tomb raider, wow, FC4 various other new releases but all on a dated laptop.


Also with one gpu or another would it be worth getting a 4k monitor?

Im very out of touch.

[Butler to Baby Sloths]

If you have the choice between a single card and two cards, go for the single card option. Multi-GPU configurations still have too many issues; be it low to non-existent driver profiles on game launches, poor scaling if there is an SLI profile, microstutter or simply sub-par driver support. You have more noise because you have twice as many fans spinning, you have another source of heat inside the case and of course the increased power consumption of your PC.

[Evildeffy]

As per title. I am looking to build a new PC, i7k, 16g ram

Is the 980 ti worth it over it 970's sli as the website i use is working out roughly the same price (970 sli slightly cheaper).

Current games GTAV Tomb raider, wow, FC4 various other new releases but all on a dated laptop.


Also with one gpu or another would it be worth getting a 4k monitor?

Im very out of touch.

Do you need to make a decision right now?

If not wait till the 16th when the new AMD card line is released, we can assist you further then because a new contender (and hopefully reviews) will be on the field.

I would prefer a single card regardless, less buggy and generally always works.

Regarding the monitor:
If you want to get a new monitor.. get a 2560x1440 27" monitor really, 4K is too high for high end 60FPS gaming on all current cards.
The lighter games work fine on 4K regardless of 970 or 980 Ti (of course better on the 980).

I prefer iiyama screens but they aren't easy to get if you're from the US f.ex.

[Artorius]

What they said /\

Always go for 1 card setups when in doubt between SLI/CFX and one single stronger card. Less problems is good.

[zehzao]

The 970 SLI will perform slightly better in some games, even tho more unstable, only two scenarios i would advice a 970 SLI, and they are, budge limits or you already have a 970. I get a couple more fps in games like GTA V than my friend with a 980, but i don't like to judge based on raw FPS, 980 has more vram and i can see being better in the long run.

Again, thats my opinion based on my experience (2x 970), i would go for a 980 and get some OC, i'm not a big fan of SLI support atm, even tho "most games has it".

Wait until a couplel more people throw their opinions tho ^^.

ps: And like some people said it already, it doesnt kill to wait a couple weeks to see what AMD has in stores, if you're not an AMD fan tho, carry on.

[Drunkenfinn]

I'd say go with the 980 Ti, that's what I'm doing.
Even if you SLI the 970's if you happen to go above 3,5gb VRAM usage you'll start stuttering... Wont have that problem with the 980.

And in the future if you need more power you can just get another 980 Ti and SLI them.

EDIT: Though I might check out the upcoming AMD release as I wont be getting my new computer until August.... Though I've heard that the AMD cards tend to heat up more and need a better PSU.

[Deleted]

My brother has Zotac 970 SLI, I have evga 970 SLI, we both use them for over 6 months. I have yet to encounter any issues, the cards are still amazing and allow playing Project Cars, Witcher 3 and GTA V for example at ultra settings in 1440p around 60 fps. My borther will skip the 980 TI as well.
As far as the benchmarks go, in a game with good SLI scaling (and the recent games do have this) the 970s will outperform a TitanX or 980TI.

The 970s overclocked are as fast as stock 980 SLI.

The next step and only real fps upgrade for me would be 980 TI SLI, but this is not worth a 1200 Euro upgrade (1550 for the 980T customs + new PSU - 500 Euro for the 970s) just to geht another 30 or 40 frames at 1440p.

http://media.gamersnexus.net/images/...bench-3dm1.png

My setup pushes the slight overclocked 970s to 10200 in fiestrike extreme and 19150 in firestrike, I can play all current games maxed and I did not even test the stable oc limit of my cards.

I won't upgrade within Maxwell again and skip until Pascal in summer or autumn 2016.

[Drunkenfinn]

Good to hear that you've had no issues with the 970 SLI.

So I'm guessing you havent ran into any issues described in this reddit-post?
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrac...40p_and_above/

I was kind of going for a 970 SLI at first, but after reading that I decided to go for the 980 Ti instead. Who knows how much VRAM some of the upcoming games (next year or the year after) will use at high settings 1440p?

Or are there some 970 versions where all of the 4gb ram is actually high-quality, instead of just 3,5gb?

[Evildeffy]

Good to hear that you've had no issues with the 970 SLI.

So I'm guessing you havent ran into any issues described in this reddit-post?
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrac...40p_and_above/

I was kind of going for a 970 SLI at first, but after reading that I decided to go for the 980 Ti instead. Who knows how much VRAM some of the upcoming games (next year or the year after) will use at high settings 1440p?

Or are there some 970 versions where all of the 4gb ram is actually high-quality, instead of just 3,5gb?

The quality of the RAM isn't the issue, it's the architecture of the GFX card.
It technically is 4GB but the last 512MB won't be used unless it's forced to by the game/programme because it's 1/7th the speed of the rest of the RAM.

If you want more info I suggest you google it before another nVidia Fanboy War erupts on an otherwise clean thread.

[Eats Compost]

980ti, easily. Single cards are always better than multiple when performance is comparable, and unless I'm mistaken, VRAM won't accumulate across multiple cards; two 4GB VRAM cards running in SLI will still net you 4GB of VRAM. This is especially relevant if you're planning on going 1440p or 4k, where that extra 2GB of VRAM on the 980ti is a potentially big deal.

[Gorgodeus]

I would go with the 980ti

On average, 970 SLI is only 5-10 percent faster than the 980 Ti, but depending on the game it may be as much as 20 percent faster...or 15 percent slower. For such a small overall gain in performance, we’d take the 980 Ti. The added VRAM will likely prove more beneficial with time, with several newer releases already using more than 4GB VRAM at maximum quality and high resolutions, and it leaves the door open to 980 Ti SLI in the future. And single card solutions are almost always better—some games simply don't offer good SLI/CrossFire support, especially with launch drivers.

http://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-geforc...980-ti-review/

You can see the benchmarks across various games comparing a single 980ti vs the 970 SLI there, as well.

[aceling]

I currently have one 970 with a 2500K on a 4k monitor.

The framerates are decent with everything set to ultra, but with AA turned off. Funny thing about AA is it is hard to notice a difference whether it is on or off at 4K.

My frame rates are generally 55FPS+. The lowest fps is around 40-45 on occasion.

If it was me I would go single card with the 980TI, it will be ample.

Infracted - Please do not post identical posts or engage in large thread necro-ing.

[Deleted]

Good to hear that you've had no issues with the 970 SLI.

So I'm guessing you havent ran into any issues described in this reddit-post?
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrac...40p_and_above/

Actually, no. Especially Shadows of Mordor runs fantastic on 1440p. I am not sure if later drivers may have helped to block the 3,5 GB VRAM.

Besides that, Shadow of Mordor has Engine problems and suffers random drops. This is not a 970 problem. You can find videos where where the 290x (which scales better in resolution than the 970) in 1440p and Ultra Settings has serious stutter as well.

My brother was suffering performance problems with fx-8120 and fx-8350 in GTA V and BF4. After switching to an 5930k as well he told me, I quote, playing games now is night vs day compared. So while he thought SLI or the 970s were the problem, the AMD CPUS were simply bottlennecking his system.

FaryCry 4 and Watchgos...well, we know how "great" they are optimimized.


If you have a single 970 and try to cover a year or two, I would go with a second 970 for SLI. They are fantastic for 1080p and 1440p, I don't think they will push 4K enough.
If you are upgrading from Kepler for example anyway, just buy a single 980TI.


Edit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXesr7G3fxY

avg frames:

AC Unity: 970 SLI: 34 / 980 Ti: 30

Far Cry 4: 970 SLI: 54 / 980 Ti: 48

COD: 970 SLI: 65 / 980 Ti: 56

Shadows of Mordor: 970 SLI: 59 / 980 Ti: 57

Ryse: 970 SLI: 44 / 980 Ti: 43

Crysis 3: 970 SLI: 39 / 980 Ti: 52

With overclocking ypu can pull out another 10-15 fps.

We have to see how DX12 will affect the SLI Setups (possible VRAM doubling for example)

[Drunkenvalley]

If you've got a single GTX 970 card already I'd upgrade to two cards. Else I'd go GTX 980 ti. And unless you're going for LGA 2011-3 I'd also go for i5 processor in 9.5 out of 10 instances.