Classic problem (980 vs 970sli)

[KingLich]

I know this has been asked before (on various forums), but I'm about to pull the trigger and I'm still not sure what to go for in my particular situation.

 

Here are the details:

 

- 2 monitor setup (Asus ROG Swift coming soon + Dell 23" 1080 secondary);

- Intel i7 4770;

- Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87

- Corsair RM750

 

I'm aware that 2x970 pretty much trashes a single 980 in most modern titles. The key words here are "most" and "modern".

 

Will I have to jump through any hoops when running a game that does not support SLI (be it old or new and badly ported)?

Given the abysmal track record of some game publishers regarding PC ports, should I expect future titles that can't properly handle SLI?

 

Is the PSU enough for 2x970 OC?

 

Finally, what would you go for? (Going the 980 path and adding a second 980 about a year from now is not out of the question, though I'm not sure there's a point for that in 1440p).

[Archangel1994]

Older games that don't support SLI are more than light enough for a single 970 to achieve 144fps really (99% of the time)

[TheKDub]

I'd go for the 980 then throw another in in the future.

 

the PSU should be enough.

[EmoPolarbear]

Power supply should be fine, but maybe step up to the RM850, only a $20 difference.

[Mr.Reggin]

Power supply should be fine, but maybe step up to the RM850, only a $20 difference.

the 970 has a TDP of 145 Watts. A 500 Watt could handle that in SLI

[MeepLikesToBuildPc's]

that PSU is enough for the new 900 series

[Najuno]

A GTX970 2way SLI or even get a single GTX980 and later SLI that is no problem with that PSU. I have a 140W TDP CPU and run a GTX980 2way SLI and all OCed balls to the wall I get a peak in benchmarks of 641 Watts.

 

As for your RoG Swift, I'd probably go with the GTX970 2way SLI. Awesome price to performance ratio and will have enough horse power to drive that display. Of course the 'big' GM204 in form of the GTX980 will be more powerful in SLI, but for most people it isn't worth the extra 150USD (it was all day long for me though and I'm running 1440p as well).

[Cheddle]

I know this has been asked before (on various forums), but I'm about to pull the trigger and I'm still not sure what to go for in my particular situation.

 

Here are the details:

 

- 2 monitor setup (Asus ROG Swift coming soon + Dell 23" 1080 secondary);

- Intel i7 4770;

- Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z87

- Corsair RM750

 

I'm aware that 2x970 pretty much trashes a single 980 in most modern titles. The key words here are "most" and "modern".

 

Will I have to jump through any hoops when running a game that does not support SLI (be it old or new and badly ported)?

Given the abysmal track record of some game publishers regarding PC ports, should I expect future titles that can't properly handle SLI?

 

Is the PSU enough for 2x970 OC?

 

Finally, what would you go for? (Going the 980 path and adding a second 980 about a year from now is not out of the question, though I'm not sure there's a point for that in 1440p).

 

Personally, I am not a fan of SLI or crossfire. Its great if the games that you play support it well, but then a title comes along that you want to play that has issues with it that could take months for drivers to fix... sure you can dable with custom profiles etc but in my experience going sli/crossfire (in a world where console ports are the norm) just introduces problems that an end user needs to go out of their way to fix. This isnt a big issue at 1080 / 144hz as you can live with 70 fps, but at 4k where you need both cards to hit 60fps, your looking at a 30 fps gaming experience... no good.

 

Your PSU will be good for SLI gtx980's

 

I was almost going to go for SLI gtx970's but decided to for a single more powerful card after my crossfire 290 experiences. the GTX980 is about 20% faster than a GTX970.

 

I plan to sell mine when the 390x (or equiv. with retardo ram) is released if it proves to be very good at high-res (something the gtx9xx series is held back by is memory bus, the 290's scale much better at high res compared to the gtx980, the 8gb version even more so)

 

PS: I would love to see a review of crossfire r9 290x 8gb cards. compared to the other high end configs...

[KingLich]

Thanks everyone for the opinions.

 

I eventually went for 2 Gigabyte 970s. I just couldn't resist those scores.

 

For now I'm very happy with how it's going. For example Crysis 3 gives me 66 FPS in the rain part at the beginning with everything on Very High and SMAA 2x.

 

I had some trouble with the ROG Swift monitor, but that's a different topic.

[Mr.Reggin]

Personally, I am not a fan of SLI or crossfire. Its great if the games that you play support it well, but then a title comes along that you want to play that has issues with it that could take months for drivers to fix... sure you can dable with custom profiles etc but in my experience going sli/crossfire (in a world where console ports are the norm) just introduces problems that an end user needs to go out of their way to fix. This isnt a big issue at 1080 / 144hz as you can live with 70 fps, but at 4k where you need both cards to hit 60fps, your looking at a 30 fps gaming experience... no good.

 

Your PSU will be good for SLI gtx980's

 

I was almost going to go for SLI gtx970's but decided to for a single more powerful card after my crossfire 290 experiences. the GTX980 is about 20% faster than a GTX970.

 

I plan to sell mine when the 390x (or equiv. with retardo ram) is released if it proves to be very good at high-res (something the gtx9xx series is held back by is memory bus, the 290's scale much better at high res compared to the gtx980, the 8gb version even more so)

 

PS: I would love to see a review of crossfire r9 290x 8gb cards. compared to the other high end configs...

i will only buy an amd gpu if they all get at least as efficient as Kepler GK104s