SLI or Crossfire

[HacknThaHelix]

I'm trying to make a 4K gaming/workstation(AutoCAD) build and need help with finding the right GPU. I have done plenty of research on both AMD and NVIDIA and while it's possible I could go with a single card like the Titan X it seems like a more practical solution to run two cheaper cards in SLI/CrossFire. Although I'm not sure how good some of the lower high-end cards are when it comes to SLI/CrossFire in 4K. As I'm rather new to a lot of this I thought I'd ask the techxperts.

[Bajantechnician]

1 hour ago, HacknThaHelix said:

I'm trying to make a 4K gaming/workstation(AutoCAD) build and need help with finding the right GPU. I have done plenty of research on both AMD and NVIDIA and while it's possible I could go with a single card like the Titan X it seems like a more practical solution to run two cheaper cards in SLI/CrossFire. Although I'm not sure how good some of the lower high-end cards are when it comes to SLI/CrossFire in 4K. As I'm rather new to a lot of this I thought I'd ask the techxperts.

dual 390x, or dual 980.

 

cx scales much better than sli

[verydogesuchwow]

Actually, one higher end card will perform better than two lower end ones in CrossFire/SLI, it has to do with power consumption, and a lot of other detailed stuff, but it works out that way

 

Just get one Titan X if you can

[DXMember]

just look up what the AutoCAD prefers - OpenCL or CUDA

[DXMember]

1 minute ago, verydogesuchwow said:

Actually, one higher end card will perform better than two lower end ones in CrossFire/SLI, it has to do with power consumption, and a lot of other detailed stuff, but it works out that way

 

Just get one Titan X if you can

oh, yeah get a Titan X for $1000 and get bitch slapped around by a 295x2 that costs about half

[Moonzy]

10 minutes ago, HacknThaHelix said:

4K gaming/workstation(AutoCAD)

not sure about work stations

but for gaming, its best to go with one high end cards rather than two low/mid-range cards

 

i recommend a single 980Ti, dont go for titan unless you need 12gb vram for some reason

 

but if possible, wait for the new gpu to launch in 2 or 3 months `-`

[Darel321]

for 4k gaming there's no question its amd who win.. for autocad probably its nvidia with cuda... but with sli/crossfire I doubt there will be much of a difference.. soo.. just go with the cheaper.. probably the best idea

[Naeaes]

If you don't need the extended VRAM for your CAD work, go for a GTX980Ti. More often than not, it outperforms the Titan X in gaming.

You should double check this, but a Geforce will clearly outshine a Radeon in CAD too.

Lastly, the scaling on SLI and CFX is awful. You should definitely go for a single card. If it's just one specific game, you plan on playing, you can make a decision based on the scaling for that but all in all, the scaling also varies widely. Not many rules of thumb for this one but to my experience, SLI is only worth it for DirectX 9c games. 

[BrightCandle]

The last benchmarks I saw for Autocad were a very long time ago and showed a big advantage for Nvidia and a preference for the bigger cards. They didn't contain any advantage for SLI however it wasn't using it at the time. Problem is that was literally years ago.

[HacknThaHelix]

Honestly Autocad doesn't concern me because if the system can play games chances are good it can run CAD no problem. The problem is I know I could buy a Titan but $400-$500 less I could get 980 Ti that runs pretty much the same or for about $240 more than 980 TI I could get two 980's that do better than both the Titan and 980 Ti. Right now I'm just not sure what has the most bang for the buck.

[BrightCandle]

1 hour ago, HacknThaHelix said:

Honestly Autocad doesn't concern me because if the system can play games chances are good it can run CAD no problem. The problem is I know I could buy a Titan but $400-$500 less I could get 980 Ti that runs pretty much the same or for about $240 more than 980 TI I could get two 980's that do better than both the Titan and 980 Ti. Right now I'm just not sure what has the most bang for the buck.

The trade off with SLI is its cheaper for a given performance level but not all games scale 100%. Typically games that are very graphically intense do scale well but its not always true and every year I hit a game which runs poorly and doesn't scale well and its mighty irritating. Take a look at VR now, my 2x970's ought to be awesome but nothing supports SLI at all so I have minimum spec instead of above the normal maximum. Sometimes you are waiting on driver releases as well. SLI doesn't quite work as well as a single card, its not as consistent in bringing performance but when it works its better bang for the buck and when it works is usually when you need it, but just not always.

[HacknThaHelix]

What about overclocking? How much of an increase in performance will it give the GPU?