Single 980 vs SLI 970

[Revelle]

I'm planning on building a new watercooled rig soon with cpu and gpu/gpu's in the loop. I was wondering what some of you would think would be the best thing to go for, one single watercooled 980 or two water cooled 970s. with the 980 I'm looking at about $700, with the 970's about $940. Would it be best to go ahead and go all out with the 970s or go light with a single 980?

[TheKDub]

sli 970 > single 980.

[theloveablemoose]

970 SLI

Dual watercooled cards look da bomb.

[othertomperson]

The 980 isn't a card that makes sense right now. Like last year, SLI 780s made far more sense than any number of 780 Tis, it's the same this time around but with two 970s instead of any number of 980s.

[Spev]

I'm planning on building a new watercooled rig soon with cpu and gpu/gpu's in the loop. I was wondering what some of you would think would be the best thing to go for, one single watercooled 980 or two water cooled 970s. with the 980 I'm looking at about $700, with the 970's about $940. Would it be best to go ahead and go all out with the 970s or go light with a single 980?

There is the typical response you will get from posters here, 970 SLI now for better performance than single 980, or you could go single 980 now for a possible 980 SLI upgrade at a later date. Just keep in mind not only will you be playing double the cost for blocks since you'll need 2, you'll also be paying extra cost for fittings for a 2nd card, and I'm not sure how expensive they are but parts to connect the two GPUs for your water loop. I'm not sure if you have incorporated this into your cost but I can easily see SLI 970s costing you $150-200 dollars just for the water cooling supplies you'll need for it.

 

Edit: How are you figuring $940? This doesn't make any sense. Even taking into consideration an average cost for a GTX 970 ($350) that is $700 just for the two 970s! I'm not too familiar with many other block manufactures than EK, but EK sells their 970 blocks for around $135, EACH, that's $270 for two. We are already around $970 now, you will also need to purchase fittings if you don't already have them. Assuming you already have pump/res and everything else you need, decent fittings will at least cost you $20-40, plus that little SLI connector thing, not sure on price. Anyways I would be interested to see the links of your products. I'm guessing this is gonna cost you over $1000.

[Fate]

What resolution?

Two 970s are much better than a single 980, but SLI can have some issues and scaling isn't the best at 1080p.

A single 980 is plenty for 1080p and two 970s are as well, but for the games where SLI doesn't work/has issues, the 980 is better in those situations.

 

For 1440p I'd definitely go two 970s.

 

4k I'd get two 290x's; price/performance of other cards aren't nearly good enough for me @ 4k.

 

 

Just my opinion though, a lot of people swear by two 970s.

[Revelle]

There is the typical response you will get from posters here, 970 SLI now for better performance than single 980, or you could go single 980 now for a possible 980 SLI upgrade at a later date. Just keep in mind not only will you be playing double the cost for blocks since you'll need 2, you'll also be paying extra cost for fittings for a 2nd card, and I'm not sure how expensive they are but parts to connect the two GPUs for your water loop. I'm not sure if you have incorporated this into your cost but I can easily see SLI 970s costing you $150-200 dollars just for the water cooling supplies you'll need for it.

Thanks for the responses, 

Now I'm not real experienced when it comes to watercooling but I feel I understand it for the most part, as far as connecting the two cards for cooling can I just use two compression fittings with a piece of short tube between the cards or will I need a special connector?

[Spev]

Thanks for the responses, 

Now I'm not real experienced when it comes to watercooling but I feel I understand it for the most part, as far as connecting the two cards for cooling can I just use two compression fittings with a piece of short tube between the cards or will I need a special connector?

I'm sorry I can't help you there. I am setting up my next custom water cooling CPU/GPU loop next week, but I have never done SLI, the price is just a little much for me when you add water cooling into it. You would have to ask someone who has run SLI, I really don't know much about the connectors or how they work, sorry. I could only help you will other water cooling questions but not related to SLI.

 

P.S. I added some info to my original post.

[Revelle]

What resolution?

Two 970s are much better than a single 980, but SLI can have some issues and scaling isn't the best at 1080p.

A single 980 is plenty for 1080p and two 970s are as well, but for the games where SLI doesn't work/has issues, the 980 is better in those situations.

 

For 1440p I'd definitely go two 970s.

 

4k I'd get two 290x's; price/performance of other cards aren't nearly good enough for me @ 4k.

 

 

Just my opinion though, a lot of people swear by two 970s.

As of right now I do mostly 1080p, I have triple 1080p setup but typically game on only the center screen and occasionally game at 5760x1080 when I feel up to setting it up.

I don't see myself upgrading to 1440 or 4k anytime soon as I like my triple setup and the cost of 3 1440 or 4k screens seems too much as of now.

[Spev]

As of right now I do mostly 1080p, I have triple 1080p setup but typically game on only the center screen and occasionally game at 5760x1080 when I feel up to setting it up.

I don't see myself upgrading to 1440 or 4k anytime soon as I like my triple setup and the cost of 3 1440 or 4k screens seems too much as of now.

What games are you planning to play? This is also a decent factor when debating SLI or not. For me I play a decent amount of games which could use it like FC4 or Unity lately, but mostly I play stuff like LoL, Heartstone, or TF2, I don't need SLI for that and my 970 obviously smokes them even with 120hz monitor. Should let us know what games you are planning to play as well, and since you are not going past 1080p soon is a good factor too.

[Revelle]

What games are you planning to play? This is also a decent factor when debating SLI or not. For me I play a decent amount of games which could use it like FC4 or Unity lately, but mostly I play stuff like LoL, Heartstone, or TF2, I don't need SLI for that and my 970 obviously smokes them even with 120hz monitor. Should let us know what games you are planning to play as well, and since you are not going past 1080p soon is a good factor too.

Games like BF4 and I'm looking to get FC4 aswell as I like 3, and as far as price I got to 940 as two cards is 700 and I have found blocks for 120 and I'm not really considering fitting prices as that won't sway me much in my decision.

[Spev]

Games like BF4 and I'm looking to get FC4 aswell as I like 3, and as far as price I got to 940 as two cards is 700 and I have found blocks for 120 and I'm not really considering fitting prices as that won't sway me much in my decision.

Well just consider the prices of fittings. For my entire CPU/GPU loop I spend a little over $100 dollars on Bitspower fittings. But I'm assuming you already have your other loop with CPU currently? Or is this just for your GPUs? Assuming you only need fittings for the GPUs it won't be too bad, I needed like 10 compression fittings so $100+ was cost for me

 

Tbh with you, I haven't tried BF4 on my 970 yet as I played it a lot on XB1, but I think a single 970/980 would run BF4 on max with great FPS. Can't really tell you for Far Cry games, but a lot of the recent Ubisoft titles have been known to not even run max settings with SLI 980s lol. Depending on what other games you are playing, and you don't mind paying a little extra for a 980, I think a single card will be a decent choice. But it's really up to you. If you don't mind paying a premium for the 980, I honestly think it would do you just fine for 1080p, and by the time you might want another you would have the space to upgrade it. What card are you using currently? If I were you this is what I would do. I would buy a card with possible SLI in the future, like a 970 or 980. I would setup my system with just one card for now. If I really wasn't satisfied with the performance, I would add a 2nd card. You would have to drain your loop and everything to add a 2nd one, but assuming you have a drain port it wouldn't be too bad.

 

But look for a variety of opinions, good luck with the loop and you should share some pictures when it's done

[Revelle]

Well just consider the prices of fittings. For my entire CPU/GPU loop I spend a little over $100 dollars on Bitspower fittings. But I'm assuming you already have your other loop with CPU currently? Or is this just for your GPUs? Assuming you only need fittings for the GPUs it won't be too bad, I needed like 10 compression fittings so $100+ was cost for me

 

Tbh with you, I haven't tried BF4 on my 970 yet as I played it a lot on XB1, but I think a single 970/980 would run BF4 on max with great FPS. Can't really tell you for Far Cry games, but a lot of the recent Ubisoft titles have been known to not even run max settings with SLI 980s lol. Depending on what other games you are playing, and you don't mind paying a little extra for a 980, I think a single card will be a decent choice. But it's really up to you. If you don't mind paying a premium for the 980, I honestly think it would do you just fine for 1080p, and by the time you might want another you would have the space to upgrade it. What card are you using currently? If I were you this is what I would do. I would buy a card with possible SLI in the future, like a 970 or 980. I would setup my system with just one card for now. If I really wasn't satisfied with the performance, I would add a 2nd card. You would have to drain your loop and everything to add a 2nd one, but assuming you have a drain port it wouldn't be too bad.

 

But look for a variety of opinions, good luck with the loop and you should share some pictures when it's done

As of now I only have a closed loop cpu cooler so I'm really only comparing prices of the gpu/block and the cost of the rest of the loop will only change slightly based on gpu choice. Also I'm basically buying a whole new system at the same time with this cooling setup , cpu, mobo, ram, plus all the cooling parts, so what I'm really kinda looking at is if the extra couple hundred bucks on the whole system price would be worth it for the SLI setup.

 

 Currently I have crossfired 6870's and with them they have lasted me several years with games and that makes me kinda want to get sli 970s for future proof gaming as I don't want to be buying new gear anytime soon after this.

[Benji_w]

I'm planning on building a new watercooled rig soon with cpu and gpu/gpu's in the loop. I was wondering what some of you would think would be the best thing to go for, one single watercooled 980 or two water cooled 970s. with the 980 I'm looking at about $700, with the 970's about $940. Would it be best to go ahead and go all out with the 970s or go light with a single 980?

 

A single GPU is a better option for compatibility over SLI configs, its been said time and time again, one powerful GPU is far better then buying more lesser cards. Go with the 980 then when you either want another when prices drop when the TI's are released it would "make more sense" are those prices including waterblocks? If not then at a whopping $940 + whatever for the blocks and fittings you're looking at $1000+ I would rather save my cash and just get an air cooled 980 then when the prices drop grab another and some 2nd hand waterblocks...

 

HOWEVER: My advice is from a logical stand point, if you are going for raw GPU power then go for the SLI but it will cost you more and like I said you may or may not run into issues with poorly optimised games.

[Revelle]

Thanks for ya'lls input, I think I've decided that I will go with a single 980 as it will bring my total cost down by almost $300 and give me plenty of performance on 1080 gaming and allow for upgrades if needed in the future.

[Benji_w]

Thanks for ya'lls input, I think I've decided that I will go with a single 980 as it will bring my total cost down by almost $300 and give me plenty of performance on 1080 gaming and allow for upgrades if needed in the future.

 

Wise choice, the 980ti's will drop prices pretty heavily and again, 2nd hand blocks will cost you far far less in the long run. Hope my advice was helpful and good luck with your build.