gtx 980 SLI 4k Gaming

[axell]

So I've bought myself a samsung 40in 4k TV and i'm using it as a monitor. It supports 4k @60hz but sadly I can't really play any of the new games on decent framerates at 4k. I don't mind 1080p, they still look good enough but 4k really does make a difference on the games I can run decently.

So question is should i fork out for another gtx 980 ( i have a single one atm) and use them in SLI ? Would that give me good results at 4k? Would it be enough?

[Kagthul]

Would it help? Most of the time, yes. SLI, though, is an imperfect solution in a lot of ways - a lot of games dont support it well, some not at all, and in some games (rare) it can actually cause worse performance. Youre almost -always- going to be better off with a more powerful single card solution. Only issue here is going to be that even a GTX 980Ti cant reliably do 4K/Ultra/60fps in all games (but turning down to "High" will still look better than 1080p and is do-able)...

I have two recomendations:

1 - if this is an "I have to have it now" situation, then my reccomendation is to sell the GTX 980 and put that towards getting a GTX 980Ti. You should be able to easily get 350-400 for the 980, which would make getting the 980Ti actually more affordable than adding a second vanilla 980.

2 - if you can wait.... Wait for Pascal next year. Then sell the 980 for whatever you can get for it and go for the top-end (Non Titan) enthusiast Pascal card, which should be able to handle 4k.

[axell]

Would it help? Most of the time, yes. SLI, though, is an imperfect solution in a lot of ways - a lot of games dont support it well, some not at all, and in some games (rare) it can actually cause worse performance. Youre almost -always- going to be better off with a more powerful single card solution. Only issue here is going to be that even a GTX 980Ti cant reliably do 4K/Ultra/60fps in all games (but turning down to "High" will still look better than 1080p and is do-able)...

I have two recomendations:

1 - if this is an "I have to have it now" situation, then my reccomendation is to sell the GTX 980 and put that towards getting a GTX 980Ti. You should be able to easily get 350-400 for the 980, which would make getting the 980Ti actually more affordable than adding a second vanilla 980.

2 - if you can wait.... Wait for Pascal next year. Then sell the 980 for whatever you can get for it and go for the top-end (Non Titan) enthusiast Pascal card, which should be able to handle 4k.

I think you're overselling the 980 Ti a bit. I mean sure it runs better but it won't double my fps which is kind of the thing i need for the new games. I might go for 30 avg to around 40 but will only go 60 if i reduce the details quite a lot, which is meh. So even if I do go for a 980 ti i'd still need 2 of them to handle the new games.

But regarding pascal, I admit i haven't been following the news but is there a good chance of a single card suitable for 4k? If it's something that has a good chance of happening I would be willing to wait , but if I still have to get 2 in order to handle 4k then there's no real point in waiting.

[Mythbredor]

This very much depends on what games your trying to run. If you're trying to run the latest games like Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 in 4k you're going to have a hard time getting above 30 fps if even that with a 980. Heres the truth to the matter. You aren't going to run the newest games smoothly at high settings on 4k. At best you'll be looking low-medium. You can lookup the specs for cards on 4k.
And the only chance you've got for 1 card to run 4k at "decent fps" is next year we are getting a new nvidia card with 2 gpus supposedly I haven't read much on it but I heard sometime around Q2. But honestly you're best bet for 1 card 4k is a Titan X but even then that's wishful thinking for the latest games. You can look up the card specs for yourself to make an informed decision but yeah you'll probably need 2 980tis to run most 4k games. But some games just straight up don't support SLI so that could also screw you.

But honestly this is up to you my best suggestion is to lookup the fps in 4k with what games your playing and what GPU you can afford.

[Kagthul]

I think you're overselling the 980 Ti a bit. I mean sure it runs better but it won't double my fps which is kind of the thing i need for the new games. I might go for 30 avg to around 40 but will only go 60 if i reduce the details quite a lot, which is meh. So even if I do go for a 980 ti i'd still need 2 of them to handle the new games.

I think im not.

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

Live benchmarking of a Titan X. "But it's a Titan X!" you cry - yeah, a Titan X that is outperformed by overclocked 980Ti's that he reviews as well. At no point does any game ever run over the 6GB Frame buffer of the 980Ti (in a later matchup review, he had to deliberately TRY to get games to even get near 5GB). The 980Ti will perform as well as a Titan X, unless you're willing to replace the stock cooler on the Titan X (as OEMs are not allowed to ship a Titan X with anything but the referrence cooler) with liquid or something. And even then.. there's a 980Ti Hybrid from EVGA with a hybrid water block that still blew a Titan away.

Notice - 60fps Ultra BF4, 45+fps Ultra with super texture pack on Shadow of Mordor. All perfectly playable, at 4k Ultra settings. If you stepped things down, shut off the AA alone (which is absurdly not necessary at 4k anyway), you'd probably be able to get 50+ fps on most games at 4k with a single factory OCed 980Ti. In a later review hes got benchmarks from Witcher 3 - upper 40 to 60fps, 4k Ultra. Again, step back the settings just a little (like turning off AA which is superflous at 4k), and you should be able to get 60fps. And even 4k running at merely "high" settings will still look a lot better than 1080p.

But regarding pascal, I admit i haven't been following the news but is there a good chance of a single card suitable for 4k? If it's something that has a good chance of happening I would be willing to wait , but if I still have to get 2 in order to handle 4k then there's no real point in waiting.

Pascal is supposed (at the high end) to be 35-50% more powerful than the Titan X, according to the people who have had hands on time with the engineering samples nVidia shipped. Since a Titan X/980Ti can handle most games at 4k all-but-Ultra now, i dont see why Pascal's top enthusiast card wouldnt be able to do better.

[axell]

I think im not.

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

Live benchmarking of a Titan X. "But it's a Titan X!" you cry - yeah, a Titan X that is outperformed by overclocked 980Ti's that he reviews as well. At no point does any game ever run over the 6GB Frame buffer of the 980Ti (in a later matchup review, he had to deliberately TRY to get games to even get near 5GB). The 980Ti will perform as well as a Titan X, unless you're willing to replace the stock cooler on the Titan X (as OEMs are not allowed to ship a Titan X with anything but the referrence cooler) with liquid or something. And even then.. there's a 980Ti Hybrid from EVGA with a hybrid water block that still blew a Titan away.

Notice - 60fps Ultra BF4, 45+fps Ultra with super texture pack on Shadow of Mordor. All perfectly playable, at 4k Ultra settings. If you stepped things down, shut off the AA alone (which is absurdly not necessary at 4k anyway), you'd probably be able to get 50+ fps on most games at 4k with a single factory OCed 980Ti. In a later review hes got benchmarks from Witcher 3 - upper 40 to 60fps, 4k Ultra. Again, step back the settings just a little (like turning off AA which is superflous at 4k), and you should be able to get 60fps. And even 4k running at merely "high" settings will still look a lot better than 1080p.



Pascal is supposed (at the high end) to be 35-50% more powerful than the Titan X, according to the people who have had hands on time with the engineering samples nVidia shipped. Since a Titan X/980Ti can handle most games at 4k all-but-Ultra now, i dont see why Pascal's top enthusiast card wouldnt be able to do better.

Hmmm You might have a point on that 980 Ti and I've seen that the pascal is about a year away which is quite far for my tastes so I might just see if I can snag a good ti under 500 pounds and look to sell the 980 afterwards.

[Denpepe]

Pascal is rumored to be out q1-q2 2016 so 3 to 6 months but ofc this is not official.

[axell]

Would this do?

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/6gb-z...z-cores-2816-3

From what i've read it's the fastest 980 Ti on the market.

[Shinzai]

Would this do?

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/6gb-z...z-cores-2816-3

From what i've read it's the fastest 980 Ti on the market.

From what I've seen about the card, games at 4K vary between 40~60FPS average on it. If you are going down this route, be aware, that as you initially thought, a single 980Ti is not powerful enough for constant 4K 60FPS results, without knocking other details/settings down. I think that the second 980 route is preferable, but as noted, SLI is not perfect. Check which games you're going to play on the setup and which ones are fully compatible with SLI beforehand.

Beyond this, keep in mind that the Nvidia Pascal cards are releasing most likely around March~June at the very latest. They're only a few months away now. The 980 was a solid purchase a year ago, but with a complete generational upgrade and overhaul around the corner, I wouldn't be able to recommend it myself.