SLI GTX 970 or GTX 980?

[Chris Stansfield]

I am building my first PC next month and I am still debating on ever SLI MSI GTX 970's or just a gtx 980?

I am going to be currently playing games at 1080p but in December hopefully upgrading to 1440p. 

Which should I buy?

 

Thanks. 

[Goodman2265]

Just get a 980, with SLI you will experience micro stutter and not all games are optimized for SLI

[AnnoyedShelf]

I am building my first PC next month and I am still debating on ever SLI MSI GTX 970's or just a gtx 980?

I am going to be currently playing games at 1080p but in December hopefully upgrading to 1440p. 

Which should I buy?

 

Thanks. 

Dual 970's will outdo a 980 in games that support SLI scaling, and would be plenty for 1440p.  However, the 980 would be better for games that don't have very good SLI scaling.  So I guess it really depends on the games you will be playing.

[AnnoyedShelf]

Just get a 980, with SLI you will experience micro stutter and not all games are optimized for SLI

There's not always micro-stuttering with SLI you know.

[Equilibrium_FOOL]

Always better to get one better single card, versus two cards in SLI/Crossfire, for stuttering and scaling issues.

[Goodman2265]

There's not always micro-stuttering with SLI you know.

didnt mean to put will, meant to put might

[Guest]

Get a GTX 980 Ti.

[pomaranc]

I am building my first PC next month and I am still debating on ever SLI MSI GTX 970's or just a gtx 980?

I am going to be currently playing games at 1080p but in December hopefully upgrading to 1440p. 

Which should I buy?

 

Thanks. 

You can get 980ti for price of 2 970s

970SLI>980

970SLI<980ti

[RollinLower]

You can get 980ti for price of 2 970s

970SLI>980

970SLI<980ti

was just about to say this, you beat me to it!

[doctorraichu]

There's a post like this every day. A SINGLE CARD IS ALWAYS BETTER.

[AstroBenny]

Hmmm..

Two 970s will set you back about £540 (assuming each is about £270) whereas the 980 is only going to cost about £420. If you are willing to spend that much on two 970s you might as well spend £10 extra and get a 980Ti. 

Using this link: https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_Titan_X/29.html

We can see that a Titan X is virtually the same as two 970s and the 980Ti is very, VERY similar to the Titan X. - But in many scenarios you can overclock a 980Ti to perform better than the Titan X bringing it more on par with the two 970s.

If you get a 980ti you can experience the same kind performance as of two 970s but without dealing the hiccups associated with SLI.

SLI isn't such an issue these days but a single card is always generally a better solution and will GENERALLY result in a more problem free gaming experience. You should also consider that two cards will use more power in the long run - And that does add up after several years.

If you can only choose between two 970s and the 980, I'd opt for a single 980. 

[SPAS-ID]

Get the GTX 980

[Chris Stansfield]

So what is the best make of the 980 TI then?? Im thinking of going with MSI but...

[blueballs]

get a 980 so you can sli later 

[Lays]

970 SLI absolutely wipes the floor with 980, it's faster than the 980 ti by a decent margin as well.

 

If you have the money for that, I'd say get it.

[Sam Z Man]

So what is the best make of the 980 TI then?? Im thinking of going with MSI but...

Zotac has good prices on there 980ti's.

[pomaranc]

So what is the best make of the 980 TI then?? Im thinking of going with MSI but...

Reference ones are all the same, I recommend going with non reference one though.

MSI is good brand, but they are all good, get the best looking one

[AstroBenny]

So what is the best make of the 980 TI then?? Im thinking of going with MSI but...

To be honest they are all pretty good. MSI is a solid choice as well as EVGA. I personally like the Asus Strix cards.

[tomas710]

I am building my first PC next month and I am still debating on ever SLI MSI GTX 970's or just a gtx 980?

I am going to be currently playing games at 1080p but in December hopefully upgrading to 1440p. 

Which should I buy?

 

Thanks. 

Don't get 2 cards unless you already own one or you want 4K gaming. If you can afford 2 970s, get a 980 ti, pretty much same performance without all the SLI issues and almost double the vram. Now, a 980 is a good choice too, it's a very good 1440p card, but like it said, if you are considering dual 970s, the comparable single card solution is a 980 ti.

[AstroBenny]

970 SLI absolutely wipes the floor with 980, it's faster than the 980 ti by a decent margin as well.

 

If you have the money for that, I'd say get it.

Not really...

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_Titan_X/29.html

 

Using this data we can see that 970 SLI provides 5% more relative performance than the titan x but you can get a 980ti to overclock very similarly to a Titan x or better. This means performance is virtually equal but you don't have to deal with SLI

[Lays]

Not really...

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_Titan_X/29.html

 

Using this data we can see that 970 SLI provides 5% more relative performance than the titan x but you can get a 980ti to overclock very similarly to a Titan x or better. This means performance is virtually equal but you don't have to deal with SLI

 

Are those overclocked results or stock?

 

I tested overclocked 970 SLI vs overclocked Titan X first hand with my friend @MegaDave91 , and in most built in benchmarks in games, and synthetic benchmarks I was ahead by about 10%-15%.

 

Seeing as the 980 TI is slightly slower than a Titan X unless you have a crappy OC'ing titan x, I'd say 10-12% faster with a good pair of 970's isn't a big stretch.

[tomas710]

So what is the best make of the 980 TI then?? Im thinking of going with MSI but...

MSI Gaming, Asus strix, Gigabyte G1 Gaming, EVGA superclocked/hybrid/kingpin, Zotac AMP! All of them are very good. Personally i would be choosing between the G1 gaming or the Asus Strix, don't be ashamed of considering looks into the purchase, if you got a color scheme, why not, they all perform excellent. One thing tho, i wouldn't get a card that strays too far from the 650 bucks pricetag, you won't be getting much for buying an 800 dollar card, so, asus, evga, gigabyte, zotac, evga, msi are the ones i would be considering. Price considered, Zotac AMP!, MSI Gaming and Asus Strix are all pretty close and are all very overbuild (in a good sense) great overclocking cards.

[AstroBenny]

Are those overclocked results or stock?

 

I tested overclocked 970 SLI vs overclocked Titan X first hand with my friend @MegaDave91 , and in most built in benchmarks in games, and synthetic benchmarks I was ahead by about 10%-15%.

 

Seeing as the 980 TI is slightly slower than a Titan X unless you have a crappy OC'ing titan x, I'd say 10-12% faster with a good pair of 970's isn't a big stretch.

It doesn't say but I'm pretty sure they must be stock because the results would be inaccurate due to the varying overclock-ability of each card used.

[tomas710]

Are those overclocked results or stock?

 

I tested overclocked 970 SLI vs overclocked Titan X first hand with my friend @MegaDave91 , and in most built in benchmarks in games, and synthetic benchmarks I was ahead by about 10%-15%.

 

Seeing as the 980 TI is slightly slower than a Titan X unless you have a crappy OC'ing titan x, I'd say 10-12% faster with a good pair of 970's isn't a big stretch.

Assuming you used the reference cooler Titan X, the aftermarket 980 tis actually beat it, and while the 970 SLI does take the edge (it's marginal) many games don't do SLI, many scale terribly, and you can get microstuttering all over, not even considering driver issues, as well as a much smaller memory buffer. Performance is important, but giving up a good memory buffer, consistent performance among different game engines, the extra power and heat and the driver issues you are not getting enough for all those compromises, and if you get let's say a good OC 980 ti and mediocre OC 970s, you may be getting nothing.

[Lays]

It doesn't say but I'm pretty sure they must be stock because the results would be inaccurate due to the varying overclock-ability of each card used.

 

 

Technically the results would be inaccurate either way depending on the 970's they used wouldn't they? Since there are so many 970 models that have such varying boost clocks?

 

Unless they were using reference ones, which IMO would kind of hinder the performance in terms of comparing them.

 

@tomas710 have you ever actually used SLI?  I find a lot of people on this forum like to continue to pound on issues with SLI that are basically a thing of the past, despite never having any experience with it.

 

I had 2 different SLI setups totally about 2 years of use, (780 SLI and 970 SLI) and never had any issues with microstutter, or games scaling improperly. I only play AAA games though, which usually get very good SLI support.  The only issues I ever encountered were a few bad beta drivers, and I've had problems with beta drivers on single cards as well.