Professional opinion needed. 1060 FE vs 2x960s

[SomeTeenThatLovesComputers]

I decided it was about time I sign up for a forum where I can finally get opinions on what I should do with my hardware, since I love Linus Tech Tips I thought this would be the best place to start. So hello! 

I have an issue; I have two 960s (2GB each) one EVGA FTW 960 and an EVGA SSC 960 just laying around, haven't used them since the 10 series cards came out. Currently I have a 1060 Founders Edition (6GB) installed. Which would be better? The two bridged 960s, or single 1060?

Originally I had the FTW in my PC since mid-2015 and they SSC in my brothers computer since 2016.

(Power consumption is not an issue for me)

 

[Dreaper]

1 minute ago, SomeTeenThatLovesComputers said:

I decided it was about time I sign up for a forum where I can finally get opinions on what I should do with my hardware, since I love Linus Tech Tips I thought this would be the best place to start. So hello! 

I have an issue; I have two 960s (2GB each) one EVGA FTW 960 and an EVGA SSC 960 just laying around, haven't used them since the 10 series cards came out. Currently I have a 1060 Founders Edition (6GB) installed. Which would be better? The two bridged 960s, or single 1060?

Originally I had the FTW in my PC since mid-2015 and they SSC in my brothers computer since 2016.

(Power consumption is not an issue for me)

 

What are you doing? like gaming? 

[SomeTeenThatLovesComputers]

1 minute ago, Dreaper said:

What are you doing? like gaming? 

mostly yes

[Crunchy Dragon]

Just now, SomeTeenThatLovesComputers said:

mostly yes

Welcome!

 

I would just keep the single 1060 if you're just gaming, SLI is more or less dead.

[Dreaper]

3 minutes ago, SomeTeenThatLovesComputers said:

I decided it was about time I sign up for a forum where I can finally get opinions on what I should do with my hardware, since I love Linus Tech Tips I thought this would be the best place to start. So hello! 

I have an issue; I have two 960s (2GB each) one EVGA FTW 960 and an EVGA SSC 960 just laying around, haven't used them since the 10 series cards came out. Currently I have a 1060 Founders Edition (6GB) installed. Which would be better? The two bridged 960s, or single 1060?

Originally I had the FTW in my PC since mid-2015 and they SSC in my brothers computer since 2016.

(Power consumption is not an issue for me)

 

SLI is pretty bad tbh especially in gaming since most games have ditched it. 

[SomeTeenThatLovesComputers]

Just now, Crunchy Dragon said:

Welcome!

 

I would just keep the single 1060 if you're just gaming, SLI is more or less dead.

Ah alright, that's kinda sad I was hoping to use these. I'll just sell them to put towards a 1070 Ti or 1080

[Dreaper]

1 minute ago, SomeTeenThatLovesComputers said:

Ah alright, that's kinda sad I was hoping to use these. I'll just sell them to put towards a 1070 Ti or 1080

Send me a DM

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 minute ago, SomeTeenThatLovesComputers said:

Ah alright, that's kinda sad I was hoping to use these. I'll just sell them to put towards a 1070 Ti or 1080

You could still have them on hand for various uses.

 

Troubleshooting that requires a different GPU for example, keeping one on display to look cool, maybe an HTPC, and so forth. Maybe you decide to do a budget build in the future for some reason. Boom, a GPU you can use.

[Dreaper]

I would also like to add a idea. Maybe for a mom/dad/special someone you could do a build with one in it and maybe like a cheaper i5 or something just a idea

[Evanair]

Having SLI myself, unless the games are specifcally supporting SLI, it hinders performance a tad. 

One thing you CAN do is offload the physix processing to a second card, so the 1060 is installed and the 960 is installed as well non-SLI.  In Nvidia control panel you can set the 2nd card to process the Physix.  It doesn't help in all games, but it's something to do besides gather dust.  IIRC LTT did a video on this with the 750ti as the 2nd card a while back.

[SomeTeenThatLovesComputers]

On 6/23/2018 at 6:33 PM, Crunchy Dragon said:

You could still have them on hand for various uses.

 

Troubleshooting that requires a different GPU for example, keeping one on display to look cool, maybe an HTPC, and so forth. Maybe you decide to do a budget build in the future for some reason. Boom, a GPU you can use.

True but where I live everyone in a 100 mile radius will only offer me about $50 for any build I could make. But I will keep that in mind, thanks

 

On 6/23/2018 at 6:37 PM, Evanair said:

Having SLI myself, unless the games are specifcally supporting SLI, it hinders performance a tad. 

One thing you CAN do is offload the physix processing to a second card, so the 1060 is installed and the 960 is installed as well non-SLI.  In Nvidia control panel you can set the 2nd card to process the Physix.  It doesn't help in all games, but it's something to do besides gather dust.  IIRC LTT did a video on this with the 750ti as the 2nd card a while back.

I had seen the clock speed of these is just a little lower than my 1060. Im still having trouble understanding SLIs but I had thought bridging them would mean they combine clock speeds. I think im wrong there.

 

On 6/23/2018 at 6:35 PM, Dreaper said:

I would also like to add a idea. Maybe for a mom/dad/special someone you could do a build with one in it and maybe like a cheaper i5 or something just a idea

Yeah my dad wants a build with a 1070 or 1080... to play Quake and DOOM... I'm trying to convince him

[Evanair]

18 minutes ago, SomeTeenThatLovesComputers said:

I had seen the clock speed of these is just a little lower than my 1060. Im still having trouble understanding SLIs but I had thought bridging them would mean they combine clock speeds. I think im wrong there.

Nothing like that.  Your 1060 is will better in almost all newer titles than SLI 960s, notably because of 6gb of video ram vs 2gb (sli wouldn't double it) and the software support isn't there for about 80% of the titles.

 

Then there is the ghosting issue with SLI and non-gsync monitors, as well as lack of software support.  It's one of those "cool idea but bad in practice" ideas TBH.  

[SomeTeenThatLovesComputers]

On ‎6‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 7:02 PM, Evanair said:

Nothing like that.  Your 1060 is will better in almost all newer titles than SLI 960s, notably because of 6gb of video ram vs 2gb (sli wouldn't double it) and the software support isn't there for about 80% of the titles.

 

Then there is the ghosting issue with SLI and non-gsync monitors, as well as lack of software support.  It's one of those "cool idea but bad in practice" ideas TBH.  

oh damn

thanks

[O9B0666]

On 6/23/2018 at 6:27 PM, SomeTeenThatLovesComputers said:

I decided it was about time I sign up for a forum where I can finally get opinions 

Welcome! First things first you will get many opinions here and the majority of people hate sli and will try to brainwash you into thinking it's dead when infact its not. They get butt hurt cuz it's not double the performance so they say it's not worth it but in most not all cases sli is good. In your case though yes I'm a sli CF fan boy but in your case your better off with your 1060 rather then the other two cards. The crew two just came out and scales awesomely and the list goes on. When it comes to sli go to YouTube and look sli up example "gtx 960 sli vs gtx 1060" and watch people show proof with the gear you have of performance. These guys sit here saying it's dead its dead it don't work etc yet most games if you search say "gtx1080 sli *enter game name here* and search. Who you gong to believe these parrots or your eyes watching YouTube? 

 

On 6/23/2018 at 7:02 PM, Evanair said:

Nothing like that.  Your 1060 is will better in almost all newer titles than SLI 960s, notably because of 6gb of video ram vs 2gb (sli wouldn't double it) and the software support isn't there for about 80% of the titles.

 

Then there is the ghosting issue with SLI and non-gsync monitors, as well as lack of software support.  It's one of those "cool idea but bad in practice" ideas TBH.  

This for example is horrible advice the only true part here OP, is two cards vram don't double. 80% of games don't work? It's more like 80% work with sli 20% no. How you going to sit here and say this Ludacris shit to someone who runs two cards and other people on here with sli? 

[Evanair]

1 hour ago, O9B0666 said:

This for example is horrible advice the only true part here OP, is two cards vram don't double. 80% of games don't work? It's more like 80% work with sli 20% no. How you going to sit here and say this Ludacris shit to someone who runs two cards and other people on here with sli? 

Really now?  Unless the official list of games supported has grown exponentially in the past 6 months, then it's still short as hell.  Sure, things will RUN, but unless they run well it's usually worse.  Fallout 4... Worse with SLI on than a single 1080, Witcher 3... More glitches and graphic errors with SLI enabled, Grand Theft Auto 5... Neither card gets NEAR 100% and barely gets any improvement with multiple glitches in graphics throughout with SLI enabled. Go to the "Officially Supported Games" page, it looks long until you realize it's got games listed from the launch of SLI, which takes you back years.

Now moving on to games that DON'T support SLI, such as PUBG, Fortnight, or most other games on the market. Your other card sits doing nothing the entire time, or worse, gives you graphical glitches.  Sometimes you have to disable SLI to run them successfully.  

 

As for your "dual cards", you're running dual RX470's, which is a completely different driver and software set to run.  Apples to Oranges.

[O9B0666]

6 minutes ago, Evanair said:

Really now?  Unless the official list of games supported has grown exponentially in the past 6 months, then it's still short as hell.  Sure, things will RUN, but unless they run well it's usually worse.  Fallout 4... Worse with SLI on than a single 1080, Witcher 3... More glitches and graphic errors with SLI enabled, Grand Theft Auto 5... Neither card gets NEAR 100% and barely gets any improvement with multiple glitches in graphics throughout with SLI enabled. Go to the "Officially Supported Games" page, it looks long until you realize it's got games listed from the launch of SLI, which takes you back years.

Now moving on to games that DON'T support SLI, such as PUBG, Fortnight, or most other games on the market. Your other card sits doing nothing the entire time, or worse, gives you graphical glitches.  Sometimes you have to disable SLI to run them successfully.  

 

As for your "dual cards", you're running dual RX470's, which is a completely different driver and software set to run.  Apples to Oranges.

Oh you were going by the list I wasn't so that maybe right but it works in games not on that list. Disabling a card isn't a big deal you make it seem like a huge deal. Gta v runs fine and had over 30fps improvements and I can load that game up now and prove that. Both cards won't hit 100 cuz you don't get double performance and you said it yourself. None the less your taking to someone who's ran multiple gpus for the past going on five years running two gpus and cousin does the same. It either works or not and works more so then not. You can say gtav don't work yet go to YouTube and see different.