Upgrade or SLI

[tikker]

I'm awaiting a large sum of money (~€1000) and thought of spending (part of) it on my PC. I thought of adding another 970 to go SLI (thinking about Nvidia 3D Vision), but my concern is the spacing between the cards. I'm not watercooling them and it would mean two 970 HOFs on this motherboard. I'm wondering if

1) the 2nd card will even fit (not to mention the sagging)

2) if the top card won't overheat as it will be so close to the 2nd card.

I will be overclocking so the heat is a major concern if it even fits.

or am I better off upgrading to a 980 Ti for example?

(Pics found by clicking the name in my sig, can upload more if necessary)

[owen.fitzpatrick]

970 is more powerful in SLI supported games, scaling is pretty good now. You may want the 980ti for almost as good performance but more VRAM and no risk of stuttering/un-supported games.

Edit: Unsure if it will fit or not however there is definitely a risk of overheating so you may want a blower style design for the 2nd card.

[Senzelian]

I'm awaiting a large sum of money (~€1000) and thought of spending (part of) it on my PC. I thought of adding another 970 to go SLI (thinking about Nvidia 3D Vision), but my concern is the spacing between the cards. I'm not watercooling them and it would mean two 970 HOFs on this motherboard. I'm wondering if

1) the 2nd card will even fit (not to mention the sagging)

2) if the top card won't overheat as it will be so close to the 2nd card.

I will be overclocking so the heat is a major concern if it even fits.

or am I better off upgrading to a 980 Ti for example?

(Pics found by clicking the name in my sig, can upload more if necessary)

The spacing isn't an issue as long as you have good airflow in your case.

Currently I have pretty bad airflow, which means my two 980s get up to 90°C.

You can definitly expect some high temperatures, but it won't be a problem.

[Nacho Marco Segui]

I would get the 980ti.its always better going for the most powerful card

[tikker]

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 Is it ok to mix brands? I've read  somewhere about people having trouble when SLI-ing different brands of cards.

 

-snip-

 90°C is a bit too high for my comfort. My airflow is not optimal, but also not bad. Currently I have two 140mm intake in the front and a 140mm exhaust in the back.

 

-snip-

The extra VRAM on the 980 Ti is appealing, but SLI looks so cool though , but I might just go with this as I´m not that comfortable with temps approaching 80+ degrees.

[CalebTheEternal]

SLI looks amazing and mine has no problems. I have no sag or anything and my case has garbage airflow and mine don't get too hot, but my room is now an oven since there is another component outputting heat.

[Senzelian]

 90°C is a bit too high for my comfort. My airflow is not optimal, but also not bad. Currently I have two 140mm intake in the front and a 140mm exhaust in the back.

That's already much better airflow than what I currently have.

Anyways, it reached those 90°C after an hour of folding@home which is quite a torture and only on the upper card.

 

When I was still using my Air 540 case it was around 70-75°C. A 970 stays also quite a bit cooler than a 980.

[zafros]

I would get the 980ti.its always better going for the most powerful card

agreed, however going for a new card and ditching the "old" would result in higher expenses for what is roughly the same performance.

 

my vote is on 970 SLI

[tikker]

Thanks for the input guys! I'll be going for SLI then

[owen.fitzpatrick]

Is it ok to mix brands? I've read somewhere about people having trouble when SLI-ing different brands of cards.

90°C is a bit too high for my comfort. My airflow is not optimal, but also not bad. Currently I have two 140mm intake in the front and a 140mm exhaust in the back.

The extra VRAM on the 980 Ti is appealing, but SLI looks so cool though , but I might just go with this as I´m not that comfortable with temps approaching 80+ degrees.

Yes you can mix brands, however it would look aesthetically weird.

The 3.5gb of VRAM could be a bottleneck for the 970s if you are playing at higher resolutions as the cards have enough power to push 1440/2160p.

Personally if I was going to SLI I would water-cool however it isn't cheap. I recommended using a blower style cooler as it won't push hot air into the case although you won't get great temperatures they should stay under 80c at stock clocks. (I used to have my CPU at 94c [modded laptop to use 2500k] when overclocked, nothing bad happened however I see why you wouldn't be comfortable with high temps)

For a simple solution with no possible hiccups I would get the 980ti.

For an interesting, more powerful and fun solution I would get the 970s.