Is SLI worth it anymore?

[Austin Borg]

Hey! 

 

As I’m building my new rig, I’ve started to realize that not many games support SLI anymore. I want to go with one 1080 Ti, but is it worth it to get a second? 

 

I know that this depends on which game I’m playing, but with decreasing support for SLI I just wanted to ask y’all to get a definitive answer.

 

thanks!

[Zando_]

It looks cool.... but considering a single 1080 Ti is plenty for 4K gaming, you only need SLI for triple 4K or something. But since when has the PCMR been based off what you need?

[fairnode]

if building major gaming PC, i think i would buy 2 1070TI , i got a MSI Lightening X 1080TI and a red dragon 1070TI, this is my situation. can't sli them, and one 1080TI sure not working well on SLI Supported game as two 1070TI doing SLI.

[stealth80]

it really depends on:

 

a) the games you play (not just SLI but how demanding they are

 

b) Your budget - are you crippling your system elsewhere to fit it in?

 

c) Your system and monitor resolution

 

 

I had 2x 970's for 18 months and found SLI support great and around 40- 60% scaling

 

But in my opinion with all this ray tracing talk right now and the fact it only works on Volta + i would stick with a single 1080ti

[Zando_]

Just now, stealth80 said:

it really depends on:

 

a) the games you play (not just SLI but how demanding they are

 

b) Your budget - are you crippling your system elsewhere to fit it in?

 

c) Your system and monitor resolution

 

 

I had 2x 970's for 18 months and found SLI support great and around 40- 60% scaling

 

But in my opinion with all this ray tracing talk right now and the fact it only works on Volta + i would stick with a single 1080ti

He can always buy another 1080 Ti and send it to me.... 

[stealth80]

Just now, fairnode said:

if building major gaming PC, i think i would buy 2 1070TI , i got a MSI Lightening X 1080TI and a red dragon 1070TI, this is my situation. can't sli them, and one 1080TI sure not working well on SLI Supported game as two 1070TI doing SLI.

no! never buy 2 mid range cards from the off if you have the budget for a single more powerful card, SLI is an upgrade path aka you can afford a single 1070 now and have the money for a second in 6 months time

[Austin Borg]

Thanks guys

 

I will be playing 4K at 60 FPS trying to get on ultra settings ... hopefully trying to get under $3,500 (preferably $3,200)

[Austin Borg]

3 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

no! never buy 2 mid range cards from the off if you have the budget for a single more powerful card, SLI is an upgrade path aka you can afford a single 1070 now and have the money for a second in 6 months time

Isn’t a single 1080 Ti the best of the best right now?

[stealth80]

Just now, Austin Borg said:

Isn’t a single 1080 Ti the best of the best right now?

yes

[DeagleMaster]

Just now, stealth80 said:

yes

Or you could try to get your hands on a gtx titan xp

[Austin Borg]

4 minutes ago, DeagleMaster69 said:

Or you could try to get your hands on a gtx titan xp

I thought Titan XP vs 1080 Ti were pretty much the same 

[stealth80]

6 minutes ago, DeagleMaster69 said:

Or you could try to get your hands on a gtx titan xp

that would also be waste of money

[stealth80]

2 minutes ago, Austin Borg said:

I thought Titan XP vs 1080 Ti were pretty much the same 

they are

[DeagleMaster]

Just now, stealth80 said:

they are

Ok than a titan V might do the job

[AngryBeaver]

Sli is rarely worth it these days. Yes it can give you more performance, but the scaling is getting worse and worse these days as less game studios are spending the time to properly code for it.

 

This is a good thing, because it is mostly due to the power of single card solutions. Save your money and use a single TI for now.

[KenjiUmino]

25 minutes ago, Austin Borg said:

Is SLI worth it anymore?

has it EVER been worth it ? 

 

you need two graphics cards - if you have to decide between one top tier card or two budget cards it's not worth it. 

 

you need a beefier PSU and more expensive mainboard - if you have to cut corners somewhere else just so you can fit a SLI capable board into your budget so you can eventually "upgrade" your system with a second card later it's not worth it. 

 

the money you save on PSU and mainboard may be enough to go one step up on the graphics card. 

 

it is not really worth it IMO. 

[Mick Naughty]

Depends on your games and FPS. Needs. Current cards are too weak. If you wonna sacrifice looks, then single card is the way to go. If I had a ride to support 2 1080ti’s I would already have them. Difficult enough as it is to drive to 1080’s with my crap hardware. 

[stealth80]

14 minutes ago, KenjiUmino said:

has it EVER been worth it ? 

 

you need two graphics cards - if you have to decide between one top tier card or two budget cards it's not worth it. 

 

you need a beefier PSU and more expensive mainboard - if you have to cut corners somewhere else just so you can fit a SLI capable board into your budget so you can eventually "upgrade" your system with a second card later it's not worth it. 

 

the money you save on PSU and mainboard may be enough to go one step up on the graphics card. 

 

it is not really worth it IMO. 

none of this really relevant, the majority of boards on intel support SLI (X370 on Ryzen) and you wouldn't be planning to SLI with 2 budget cards - As always you would go with the single most expensive card you can afford, and the fact you cant SLI below 1070 now makes this a non point. You either have the money to go with a 1080ti, if you don't you go for the most powerful you can afford and HERES WHERE SLI SHINES - in 6 months time, when you have a little $$$ you can add a second card to get yourself upto 60% extra grunt in games - probably a cheaper out lay than selling the card and paying for a more expensive single card.

 

PSU and mainboard cost to support SLI? lets look

 

Using a Ryzen 1600 as a basis - non compatible SLI system

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  ($156.07 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus - STRIX B350-F GAMING ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($102.29 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($69.89 @ OutletPC)
Total: $328.25
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-30 15:22 EDT-0400

 

Again Ryzen, this time a 750w PSU and X370 board

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  ($156.07 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock - X370 KILLER SLI/ac ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($123.88 @ OutletPC)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $379.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-03-30 15:23 EDT-0400

 

Now lets look at GPU cost (remember current cards only 1070+ support SLI)

 

EVGA ACX 1070 = $554

EVGA ACX 1080 = $679

 

So ye, not quite, you could argue a 1070ti ($614 for the EVGA ACX) from a 1070 but it still isn't quite enough, also in the scenario the X370 normally offers better VRMs etc for overclocking so its not quite as simple as saying you pay more for a board with SLI as there is normally additional features to be had.

 

But i stand by initial statement, if SLI-ing from the set off, it should be two of the best cards available or near as, i would never advise someone to SLI 2x 1070ti from the set off over a single 1080ti with the potential option to add another 1080ti further down the line

[KenjiUmino]

24 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

- snip - 

gotta hand this one to you. i really thought the difference would be bigger.

 

seems like everything else except ram and the actual graphics cards came down in price significantly since last time was interested in SLI. 

 

i built a SLI system for my brother once and wanted to build one for myself too but i stopped caring about it years ago when i realised i will never ever be able to buy a high end graphics card again anyways - let alone two of 'em. 

[Toysrme]

There are lots of games where a single 1080Ti is not close to being 4k60fps or 1440p144 (or just max effort frame rates) at anything near max graphical setting BEFORE AA is applied. I've run SLI since the 9800GT's; AFR generally runs well. Most games that look great, SLI will work. 75-85% of them depending on the generation in question. Microstudder was eliminated with Kepler.
The key to SLI is that it generally takes much more CPU horsepower to pull big-framerates than is generally available with the graphics generation. (It's not the SLI overhead itself, which is only 10% and only in the driver) it's simply generating the higher frame rates is difficult.


Scaling is generally very good. Most game engine graphical pipelines have been around for years & nvidia long ago (Maxwell 2.0 days) had them very well optimized. Just gotta bring new CPU designs (Skylake+) and big-boy clock rates.

[Daniel644]

only if the game you play scales well and you do 2 of the BEST GPU's you can get, SLIing anything below top of the line is pointless

[Mick Naughty]

Don't see how its pointless if its still a better option.

[Jay Deah]

I had a second 1080ti sat in a box that I planned for SLI in a new build.

 

the single 1080ti impressed me so much that I jus sold the other 1080ti, adding it to the system would have given me nothing extra I needed.

 

this is a 1440p system tho

[andrewmp6]

To me i would run a single card,And i would think hard on running 1440p on a nice big ultra wide monitor if you care more about game play then looks.4k is prettier but theres no monitors over 60 hz yet and the 120hz coming out is a 27 inch.To really enjoy 4k you need 32 inches or bigger and sit back 2 or 3 feet plus.If your the sit at the desk right in front of a monitor type go 1440p and enjoy a faster fps and cheaper set up vs 4k.I'm not anti 4k gaming just its not up to par for me to be worth the extra money and 1440p vs 4k if you have two amazingly good monitors for both its kinda hard to tell them apart.

[blake86]

On 30/3/2018 at 8:34 PM, Austin Borg said:

Thanks guys

 

I will be playing 4K at 60 FPS trying to get on ultra settings ... hopefully trying to get under $3,500 (preferably $3,200)

lol, you are wasting 3500 on a gaming pc but you regret more 300?