GTX 970 SLI

[callmeoldsport]

I'm getting a free 970 from a friend, and I was planning on using SLI when the price goes down. It's an MSI 970 4G, and I was wondering if SLI is a viable option and is it future proof. I understand that VRAM does NOT stack, but will two GPU's lessen the load on the VRAM at all in 1080p? Also, what is the wattage you'd recommend for a PSU? Thanks in advance, I'm not very new to PC's I just was wondering since the 3.5gb of VRAM worries me a bit. I will ONLY be gaming in 1080p, if that helps. 

[roylapoutre]

3 minutes ago, callmeoldsport said:

I'm getting a free 970 from a friend, and I was planning on using SLI when the price goes down. It's an MSI 970 4G, and I was wondering if SLI is a viable option and is it future proof. I understand that VRAM does NOT stack, but will two GPU's lessen the load on the VRAM at all in 1080p? Also, what is the wattage you'd recommend for a PSU? Thanks in advance, I'm not very new to PC's I just was wondering since the 3.5gb of VRAM worries me a bit. I will ONLY be gaming in 1080p, if that helps. 

Honestly, I think it's not really worth it. It won't change anything on VRAM consumption, and a lot of games won't support SLI or will scale pretty badly. Multiple GPU is a bad solution. Why not try selling it and spend what you would've spent on the second 970 on a better GPU like a RX480 / GTX 1060 ? It's the obvious choice, you won't have the same raw performance as the SLI setup, but it will be more than enough for 1080p 60Hz. Plus, no VRAM problem  

[Jaqen]

I can speak from experience that in SLI for whatever reason my 970's could handle a greater VRAM load than one 970 on its own, in any game I played at 4k where VRAM was above 3.8GB on one 970 I would loose fps, with two cards though at the same settings I would not suffer fps loss.

 

in the SLI information guide that is pinned at the top it is stated that even though the VRAM does not stack the memory bandwidth does, this may be the reason why I experienced this.

 

Also I only discovered this recently as one of my 970's died and even though I had the same amount of VRAM as before I had to reduce texture quality in battlefront and ROTTR to maintain decent FPS and VRAM usage went up in battlefront by 500mb which is also interesting

[callmeoldsport]

2 minutes ago, Jaqen said:

I can speak from experience that in SLI for whatever reason my 970's could handle a greater VRAM load than one 970 on its own, in any game I played at 4k where VRAM was above 3.8GB on one 970 I would loose fps, with two cards though at the same settings I would not suffer fps loss.

 

in the SLI information guide that is pinned at the top it is stated that even though the VRAM does not stack the memory bandwidth does, this may be the reason why I experienced this.

 

Also I only discovered this recently as one of my 970's died and even though I had the same amount of VRAM as before I had to reduce texture quality in battlefront and ROTTR to maintain decent FPS and VRAM usage went up in battlefront by 500mb which is also interesting  

 

Exactly what I was asking, and is this completely future proof for 1-3 more years in 1080p? Also, what power supply do you recommend? 

[callmeoldsport]

5 minutes ago, Jaqen said:

I can speak from experience that in SLI for whatever reason my 970's could handle a greater VRAM load than one 970 on its own, in any game I played at 4k where VRAM was above 3.8GB on one 970 I would loose fps, with two cards though at the same settings I would not suffer fps loss.

 

in the SLI information guide that is pinned at the top it is stated that even though the VRAM does not stack the memory bandwidth does, this may be the reason why I experienced this.

 

Also I only discovered this recently as one of my 970's died and even though I had the same amount of VRAM as before I had to reduce texture quality in battlefront and ROTTR to maintain decent FPS and VRAM usage went up in battlefront by 500mb which is also interesting

My response is within the quote, I apologize as it was spazzing out.

[Jaqen]

I don't think anyone could say for certain and there is a big difference between 1 year and 3 years but the facts with VRAM are that there are a few games which can use over 4GB at 1080p right now Shadow of mordor and Tomb raider are two, however a dual 970 set up is nothing to scoff at as it is more powerful than a single 980ti at 1080p (OC for OC)

 

Forgetting about VRAM for a second though in every other way dual 970's are enough horse power for 1080p right now and still should be 1.5years from now.

 

How good SLI will be in the future though is very much a big question mark

[callmeoldsport]

2 minutes ago, Jaqen said:

I don't think anyone could say for certain and there is a big difference between 1 year and 3 years but the facts with VRAM are that there are a few games which can use over 4GB at 1080p right now Shadow of mordor and Tomb raider are two, however a dual 970 set up is nothing to scoff at as it is more powerful than a single 980ti at 1080p (OC for OC)

 

Forgetting about VRAM for a second though in every other way dual 970's are enough horse power for 1080p right now and still should be 1.5years from now.

 

How good SLI will be in the future though is very much a big question mark

Well thank you, this is exactly the answer I needed. 

[Jaqen]

I currently game at 1080p now through my tv as my 4k display makes my lonely 970 cry without its twin RIP.

 

I have not played a game other than witches 3 where I get less than 60fps on Ultra settings at 1080p

 

MY card is however water cooled with a custom bios which makes it measurably more powerful than any 970 you can buy..even the really expensive ones. In benchmarks it outperforms OC'd 980's. Fortunately for you the MSI card can OC very well by comparison to ASUS strix and other brands

[Jaqen]

4 minutes ago, callmeoldsport said:

Well thank you, this is exactly the answer I needed. 

You are very welcome, glad I could help. (always easy when someone is asking a question that is specific to your own rig)

[Jaqen]

4 hours ago, callmeoldsport said:

4 hours ago, Jaqen said:

I can speak from experience that in SLI for whatever reason my 970's could handle a greater VRAM load than one 970 on its own, in any game I played at 4k where VRAM was above 3.8GB on one 970 I would loose fps, with two cards though at the same settings I would not suffer fps loss.

 

in the SLI information guide that is pinned at the top it is stated that even though the VRAM does not stack the memory bandwidth does, this may be the reason why I experienced this.

 

Also I only discovered this recently as one of my 970's died and even though I had the same amount of VRAM as before I had to reduce texture quality in battlefront and ROTTR to maintain decent FPS and VRAM usage went up in battlefront by 500mb which is also interesting  

 

Exactly what I was asking, and is this completely future proof for 1-3 more years in 1080p? Also, what power supply do you recommend? 

Sorry I did not notice you query re-power supply, I have an 850W power supply and can't speak for anything less than that. Would depend on other factors but I can confirm that 850W is plenty

[DarkSmith2]

5 hours ago, Jaqen said:

MY card is however water cooled with a custom bios which makes it measurably more powerful than any 970 you can buy..even the really expensive ones

With the clock speeds in your sig? 

[RyGuy99]

6 hours ago, roylapoutre said:

Plus, no VRAM problem  

The Vram actually has never been an issue for my card at all. I've seen full usage of it with no frame drops. 

 

6 hours ago, Jaqen said:

I can speak from experience that in SLI for whatever reason my 970's could handle a greater VRAM load than one 970 on its own, in any game I played at 4k where VRAM was above 3.8GB on one 970 I would loose fps, with two cards though at the same settings I would not suffer fps loss.

 

in the SLI information guide that is pinned at the top it is stated that even though the VRAM does not stack the memory bandwidth does, this may be the reason why I experienced this.

Yeah the memory bandwidth is most likely what helped because I can get into that last 0.5GB of vram with no performance dips. 

[DarkSmith2]

20 minutes ago, RyGuy99 said:

The Vram actually has never been an issue for my card at all. I've seen full usage of it with no frame drops. 

The real problem isnt frame drops anymore. Its image quality. Without a certain amount of VRAM some games deny graphic settings, they just dont get shown at all. Textures cost minimal to no performance as long as you have memory.

 

Examples:

Doom: Only allows the "virtual pages" setting to be on "nightmare" with 6GB VRAM and above

CoD Black Ops3: Doesnt allow maximum Details with 4GB Cards.

Rise of the Tome Raider: Texture setting "very high" does produce stuttering with 4GB and even sometimes 6GB VRAM.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst: Doesnt show all settings since "Ultra presets" with a 4GB card, While "Hyper" is the highest preset.

 

Source (German): http://www.pcgameshardware.de/AMD-Radeon-RX-4808G-Grafikkarte-264637/Specials/4-GB-vs-8-GB-vs-6GB-1202557/

 

But whelp as owner of a GTX970 myself, im confident saying i dont need Ultra settings in every Game, and my Graphics Card will last for 1080p gaming until Volta release no matter what. Even if i have to set the games to "Medium Settings" i dont really care too much, Im still not willing to upgrade my GPU every single GEN. Its becoming a real waste of money. Some people are still playing with GTX670's without having any problems. Maybe ill be upgrading with Volta into a " GTX 1180" and switch to 4k, if we finally reach the performance needed to maintain a 60FPS lock with a single GPU at 4k.

 

[Jaqen]

4 hours ago, DarkSmith2 said:

With the clock speeds in your sig? 

Yes, baring in mind I said "you can buy" as in off the shelf without further user manual oc'ing, I am fully aware that cards by other manufacturers can hit much higher speeds than that after the user oc's them further than stock however.

 

It was not my intention to 'brag' in any way, I mentioned it for the op's benefit to put into context my personal experiences with 970's and their performance vs what he might experience depending on what decision he comes to.

 

The clock speeds in my sig though are your every day 'burned in' speeds with gpu boost disabled, it maxed out at 1630mhz  stable-ish when benchmarking a year ago again with no gpu boost which I thought was pretty good, at one point I had the fastest registered score in 3dmark ultra for a 4690k 2-way sli 970 based rig but that was a year ago and some one has beaten it now.

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/5644816

[DarkSmith2]

1 hour ago, Jaqen said:

Yes, baring in mind I said "you can buy" as in off the shelf without further user manual oc'ing, I am fully aware that cards by other manufacturers can hit much higher speeds than that after the user oc's them further than stock however.

 

It was not my intention to 'brag' in any way, I mentioned it for the op's benefit to put into context my personal experiences with 970's and their performance vs what he might experience depending on what decision he comes to.

 

The clock speeds in my sig though are your every day 'burned in' speeds with gpu boost disabled, it maxed out at 1630mhz  stable-ish when benchmarking a year ago again with no gpu boost which I thought was pretty good, at one point I had the fastest registered score in 3dmark ultra for a 4690k 2-way sli 970 based rig but that was a year ago and some one has beaten it now.

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/5644816

This is quite nice Jaquen.

 

Im an owner of a Gigabyte GTX970 G1. I bought it because buying a 980 was a full waste of money since most GTX970 pre oc'ed cards are quite close to the performance of a GTX980 reference. I can go 1500mhz cc/2000mhz mc 100% stable by just increasing the powerlvl in msi afterburner. With modded bios i can go 1580mhz/2000mhz on air. Since im a little paranoid im not really using the overclocks even while i tested them a really really long time to be stable. Im just afraid that it'll cut off the lifetime too much.

 

Lately i removed the thermal paste and added Liquid Ultra, saved me 3°C - 4°C  but hey better then nothing.

[Jaqen]

7 hours ago, DarkSmith2 said:

This is quite nice Jaquen.

 

Im an owner of a Gigabyte GTX970 G1. I bought it because buying a 980 was a full waste of money since most GTX970 pre oc'ed cards are quite close to the performance of a GTX980 reference. I can go 1500mhz cc/2000mhz mc 100% stable by just increasing the powerlvl in msi afterburner. With modded bios i can go 1580mhz/2000mhz on air. Since im a little paranoid im not really using the overclocks even while i tested them a really really long time to be stable. Im just afraid that it'll cut off the lifetime too much.

 

Lately i removed the thermal paste and added Liquid Ultra, saved me 3°C - 4°C  but hey better then nothing.

I have always thought the G1 would be the one to own with its better power phase design. 

 

I was lucky with the lottery. The card that is still running in my system is 87% ASIC quality the one that bricked was 68% I can understand why you wouldn't want to game at your max clock speed even just to keep it from sounding like a jet taking off!

 

I was really looking forward to playing forA horizon 3 in 4K but cannot afford to replace/upgrade my graphics cards right now so I am hoping my 979 will be enough to max it out at 1080p on my living room tv. Who knows right? The dynamic rendering system in forza apex would help if they use it in horizon. Certainly I can see how that sort of game setting can be very useful in VR 

[DarkSmith2]

3 hours ago, Jaqen said:

I have always thought the G1 would be the one to own with its better power phase design. 

 

I was lucky with the lottery. The card that is still running in my system is 87% ASIC quality the one that bricked was 68% I can understand why you wouldn't want to game at your max clock speed even just to keep it from sounding like a jet taking off!

Well im actually pretty fine with the noise levels of the G1, it might be a little bit louder in idle as other GTX970's on presettings because its set to be on a minimum of 35% fanspeed and you could damage the fans running them on lower RPM speeds, so running them on 35% is the lowest you should set it when the fans are spinning. But with a custom bios you can use them in NoFan design in idle thats fine. 

 

But in the end the 3fan design and really big cooler is helping alot getting low temperatures, If i run it @stock 1392mhz boostclock it reached max. 61°C with the liquid Ultra on it (28°C ambient) while gaming. And i havnt noticed any difference in soundlevels while overclocking. But i wouldnt ever use this card in SLI without Watercooling, it needs air to breath. My ASIC quality is only 71,9% so i wasnt that lucky but its also not horrible i guess its average. 

4 hours ago, Jaqen said:

I was really looking forward to playing forA horizon 3 in 4K but cannot afford to replace/upgrade my graphics cards right now so I am hoping my 979 will be enough to max it out at 1080p on my living room tv. Who knows right? The dynamic rendering system in forza apex would help if they use it in horizon. Certainly I can see how that sort of game setting can be very useful in VR 

good luck ^^

[Jaqen]

50 minutes ago, DarkSmith2 said:

Well im actually pretty fine with the noise levels of the G1, it might be a little bit louder in idle as other GTX970's on presettings because its set to be on a minimum of 35% fanspeed and you could damage the fans running them on lower RPM speeds, so running them on 35% is the lowest you should set it when the fans are spinning. But with a custom bios you can use them in NoFan design in idle thats fine. 

 

But in the end the 3fan design and really big cooler is helping alot getting low temperatures, If i run it @stock 1392mhz boostclock it reached max. 61°C with the liquid Ultra on it (28°C ambient) while gaming. And i havnt noticed any difference in soundlevels while overclocking. But i wouldnt ever use this card in SLI without Watercooling, it needs air to breath. My ASIC quality is only 71,9% so i wasnt that lucky but its also not horrible i guess its average. 

good luck ^^

I have read that anything above 80% is quite rare but don't quote me on that. I had my 970's with stock coolers and they throttled from temps all the time. Once I stuck the water blocks of course they never went over 50c with the pump and rad fans at 40-50% the first card was always 5-10c hotter than the second so would highly recommend water cooling as a necessity for good performance/noise in an sli build