Should we get SLI?

[JerryP]

My brother has got a faulty R9 295x2 which he has sent back and still havent managed to get back a working one. My brother decided he wants to go back to Nvidia but he wants SLI this time. I am in strong disagreement with this, the power consumption for one thing along with compatibility being another and heat being yet another also 2x cards != 2x the performance. I know same goes for the R9 295x2 but in this case... I have heard people have had issues launching games with SLI whether or not the second card being disabled. My brother would be doing 2 980s if he did do it. We have a 1k watt PSU right now... Would that be enough? Is it worth stripping everything out his PC (which is ITX) and turning it into a fully fledged ATX system to support 2 GPUs?
 

Am I in the wrong? Should he do SLI? One of the other thing thats a worry to him is that micro lag would play a major factor in his gameplay. He cant stand minor bits of lag and Id imagine what SLI would have in store for him wouldnt be suitable in any way shape or form. 

[RevoltTrain]

Welcome to the forums. He will be fine with SLI almost all the problems with SLI in the past have been resolved. 

[JerryP]

Thanks! What about performance boosts though? Is it really worth it? I have seen some people get barely 12fps improvements with SLI setups, the point of it seems completely redundant to me if this is the case.

[Hecknologist]

I would personally wither get a 980 or wait for more news regarding 980ti or equivalent. If he gets a 980 and is wanting more performance then you can upgrade to an ATX system with another card for SLI. In terms of power 1000w is plenty for SLI especially with the new cards being more efficient. The last time I used SLI (2x GTX 770) I didn't experience any problems at all so I'm relatively confident that there shouldn't be any problems with mainstream games.

[connorpiper]

Thanks! What about performance boosts though? Is it really worth it? I have seen some people get barely 12fps improvements with SLI setups, the point of it seems completely redundant to me if this is the case.

 

If your motherboard is good. It should be from 1.4x - 1.8x performance.  

[Hecknologist]

Thanks! What about performance boosts though? Is it really worth it? I have seen some people get barely 12fps improvements with SLI setups, the point of it seems completely redundant to me if this is the case.

In Battlefield 4 I went from 80 to about 150 fps on ultra @ 1080p, but the performance increase is very much dependant on the sli implementation as some games scale better than others. I would check benchmarks like paul's hardware/newegg vids for single card and sli direct comparisons. 

[JerryP]

Should he try and get another R9 295x2? Or would SLI perform just as well if not better?
 

[Darthmullet]

Dual 980's would probably be better, but that depends on a lot of things.

 

Certainly they overclock better if you have good airflow, but they are also going to cost you more -- and AMD may drop prices again its sort of up in the air. Whatever scaling issues you face will be the same between both options though, as they are both dual GPU.