Okay So tell me the truth is SLI worth it????

[xgeniusxprodigy]

i have 1 gtx 980 and thinking about getting another. 

[Aruxx]

Do you need the extra power?  At the high end where you're are there isn't much further up you can go so I'd suggest SLI as long as the games you plan to play support it without problems (google searches for the specific games should be able to answer that question).

[stealth80]

I got a big boost and haven't encountered any problems (yet) with support

[Matty2hatty]

In short, No, if you video edit then maybe, is everything running smooth? A cpu upgrade may gain more performance?

[xgeniusxprodigy]

Just now, Matty2hatty said:

In short, No, if you video edit then maybe, is everything running smooth? A cpu upgrade may gain more performance?

well cpu is 6700k overclocked to 4.6. just trying to get all games over a constant 60 fps all the time at 1440p 

[GeorgeKellow]

For gaming?  No for editing potentially 

[Bensemus]

It's hit and miss. Like someone else said google the games you play and see if sli has good support. Having two cards can net you zero improvement while adding lots of heat and power draw to your system. If you like playing games the moment they come out sli also isn't the best idea as launch titles can have unresolved issues. A good example is RofTR. Currently it has pretty bad scaling and you need to use a work around to get sli working to any real degree. 

[JJBtch4EXG]

For better 1440 gaming yes. I SLI 2 950's and it was worth it but not for 1440 just because I wanted too. Its kind of like the silicon lottery I think.

[EthanJ0795]

Honestly, no.
I had previously had two 780's (FTW edition) running in SLI that powered a triple 1080 monitor array (5760x1080) that I used for gaming. 

At the time I did the build, probably 2 or 2.5 years ago, it was an almost necessity to have two dedicated GPUs to run big flagship title games with decently high quality settings at this resolution (assuming the game scaled well).

While SLI will work occasionally, it is not a good solution for gaming purposes.
> First - The game needed to be able to compute well with both cards. Typically this wasn't an issue with big title games (Except for DICE who still can't produce quality SLI compatibility on launch day... (you think they'd get the hint.. They have to see their games being tested on major sites using SLI configurations but they still have terrible support on launch day..)). In all fairness, DICE usually releases patches to improve FPS for SLI configurations.

But that's the thing, the game needs to be able to communicate well with both cards. Meaning that the dev team has to include support for it.
If you play other games that aren't big flagship titles, then you may start running into some issues.
Even if the developers have designed the game to support both cards well, you STILL may run into issues.
Far Cry 4 had flickering shadows and then shadows became too dark to see anything. By revering back to the GPU compatibility for Far Cry 3, this issue disappeared. (This was done with some extra Nvidia software). Bugs like this are honestly rare, but they're out there.

However some games were awful. On launch day for Battlefield 3 I had to disable SLI (the entire game was flickering terribly) and the game basically ran a single card for my setup. It was shameful (imo).

> Second - To truly optimize both cards Nvidia needs to release patches to improve the cards capabilities.

How often do you read the patch notes when Nvidia releases an update? If you have two cards and your setup depends on it, you read through every single one hoping support for the next biggest title is released or improved upon. 

 

EVEN STILL.. There are scaling issues.
You've probably come across things like this before, but here's a google article to check out: http://www.maximumpc.com/nvidia-gtx-980-ti-2-way-sli-crushing-performance/

Granted, Jarred here tests a pair of 980 Ti's. But it provides us with a good idea of how well GM200 scales on modern flagship titles.
Mind you, these are games that probably have great SLI support from their respective dev team and Nvidia. So, personally, I would consider these scaling results to be optimal. 

 

Bottom-line: Adding a second card will improve your FPS in most games. There's no question there.

However you may have compatibility issues and the magnitude of performance increase may be questionable.

 

My Recommendation: Sell your card and upgrade to a 980 Ti.

 

Okay, yes a pair of 980's in SLI will outperform a single 980 Ti..
However, with a single card you avoid the software compatibility nightmare of depending on two cards to deliver desirable frame rates.

Also..
980's in SLI: http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_980_sli_review,16.html

        980 Ti: http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/gigabyte_geforce_gtx_980_ti_g1_gaming_soc_review,14.html

In the game Thief this guy, Hilbert Hagedoorn, achieved an average of 86 frames while a single 980 Ti (Gigabyte G1) achieved 85!

Granted, there's a difference in the SSAA quality setting and other hardware of the PC. Nonetheless, it still provides us with a fairly general understanding of the performance of the cards. Try flipping through these reviews and see what conclusion you come to based on the numbers.

From this review we can see that Gigabyte's G1 edition of the 980 Ti performs pretty closely to a pair of 980's in SLI.

 

My experience: I swapped my 780's in SLI out for a single 980 Ti recently (the G1 edition actually! :D). I absolutely love having the system be dependent on a single card. Plus this card is a monster.

 

Hope this helps some!

 

[Mick Naughty]

I always run two. I run three screens so no one card is gonna give me the frames I need like that. Thinking of going 1440 ultra wide. 980ti gets decent frames on it. Can't sync to 144hz so I'd rather run 2 980's.  Guess it depends on your wants/needs. 

[JJBtch4EXG]

SLI is like any other software or hardware feature. There is always gonna be bugs. Minor bugs, major bugs, and game breaking bugs. Bugs and glitches are everywhere no matter what you run or what you use. You will eventually run into an issue and have to troubleshoot it to fix it. SLI is no different from that. SLI is more a want over need thing. If you want to looks of a beast system, then SLI is the way to go. You get the benefits of better performance and the awesome looks of 2 cards, which is if the games you play support SLI. I personally recently started using SLI and have not run into any issues yet. Everyone else seems to keep having issues but it seems the issues and/or problems they have are from the past. Technology grows with time and with that comes better support for hardware/software. In the last decade that SLI has been out it has gone from shit to gold in terms of usage and support. Yes most games on day one release will not support SLI but hey eventually it will/might. Speaking of DICE and EA. Some games you will just be using 1 card while the other sits idle but if you know this before you venture down the road of SLI then that's ok. Before doing anything new its best to research into what you are wanting to do and see if it will be of any benefit towards your goal. In my case I wanted the power of a 970 and I did have the 300+$ to fork out for a 970 but I'm a very cheap bastard. LOL Also I always just wanted to give SLI a try. The EVGA 950 FTW is the top notch budget card right now at 170 bucks, IMO. So I bought 1 950 1 week and the other the next week. I am still satisfied thus far with my choice and do not regret it. Not saying that later on down the road I will have a change of heart but right now I am satisfied. I get 90-99% scaling in all the games I play that support SLI and the ones that don't well the 950 FTW handles them flawlessly with high to ultra settings with 40-60 FPS.

 

With that SLI is more a want over need thing. If you want support for higher resolution gaming its the way to go. If you want to just have the awesomeness of 2 GPU's side by side in your system. Hey why not? So SLI isn't perfect and don't expect any double performance increase but it will be damn close to that. So if you want to SLI more power to you. If you don't well that's cool too man, that's really cool...... To each their own.

[Trikein]

I don't know..this kid seems pretty hyped about it. Must be good. 

 

Spoiler