Pascal verses Maxwell SLI

[App4that]

OK, I've been looking at upgrading my 980ti Hybrid to ether a Pascal Titan X, or 1080s in SLI. But, now I'm not sure.

 

The Pascal Titan X is 1200us, and 120us for the AIO I'd want. That's 1320us.

The 1080s in SLI is 1300us for the EVGA FTW DT.

A second 980ti would be 400-450, a new powerspupply would be under 200us, and I'd upgrade my system RAM to help in non gaming applications for under 150us (32g) 800us

 

I know the Pascal Titan X would have the highest relative performance, and that the 1080 SLI would have the highest peak performance, but could a 980ti SLI hang for the max 800us investment for at least a year? Or would I find myself with not enough VRAM in 8 months, or not able to drive my 1440 144hz monitor without major settings sacrifices? Giving up on Deep learning because nether the Titan or 1080 are as good at it as Nvidia would have your thinking. I know no one here is a fortune teller. Just looking for other opinions.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Is the 980ti not fast enough?

 

Id wait a gen. No reason to upgrade every time there is a new product.

 

Most deep learning seems to be fp16, so the fastest card would be a tesla p100, by a lot(20+ tflops fp16, compared to 2 on the titan x)

[youmanyousef]

Just now, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id wait a gen. No reason to upgrade every time there is a new produck.

I dont hear many people saying that tho.

[App4that]

A single 980ti has trouble keeping a 1440 monitor fed in some titles. And I'm still looking at doing some heavy compute. So by going SLI with the 980ti I might be able to get by. Not sure though. It's way cheaper than going to Pascal, but if in 8 months SLI support sucks and the 980ti is not getting driver support in general I could have my **** in the breeze. Reason I made the topic.

[iDeFecZx]

8 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id wait a gen. No reason to upgrade every time there is a new product.

But then why not wait for the gen after that, since thatll be better.

I hate people that say to wait for next gen, its a never ending cycle.

[Bhav]

If youre in the US you know about EVGA's massive sales on the 980 Ti right?

 

Check their website.

[Techicolors]

i am a bit concerned about the 6gb vram. i guess you could sell your 980ti and put it towards a 1080?

 

Just now, iDeFecZx said:

But then why not wait for the gen after that, since thatll be better.

I hate people that say to wait for next gen, its a never ending cycle.

it all depends on what setup you have now, and whether you're happy with what you get out of it. that, and if you're willing to shell out more money to upgrade 

[App4that]

Yeah, that's why I'm saying 400 on the second card. Might consider B stock too.

[iDeFecZx]

3 minutes ago, App4that said:

A single 980ti has trouble keeping a 1440 monitor fed in some titles. And I'm still looking at doing some heavy compute. So by going SLI with the 980ti I might be able to get by. Not sure though. It's way cheaper than going to Pascal, but if in 8 months SLI support sucks and the 980ti is not getting driver support in general I could have my **** in the breeze. Reason I made the topic.

Getting a second Ti would be substantially cheaper, but like you say SLI support could get worse, which would also apply to the 1080 too. Having seen your many post's on the Titan X, I'd say go for that, since performance will always be there, plus you're also saving on power and have reduced heat output compared with an SLI setup. What good is spending £1400 on 2 cards if they won't always work.

[Bhav]

7 minutes ago, Technicolors said:

i am a bit concerned about the 6gb vram. i guess you could sell your 980ti and put it towards a 1080?

 

it all depends on what setup you have now, and whether you're happy with what you get out of it. that, and if you're willing to shell out more money to upgrade 

Tbh 6 Gb isnt at all bad, and isnt going to be much worse that 8 Gb if you turn the AA down as needed.

 

Also if 6 Gb isnt enough for 1440p, then how would the 8 Gb cards be enough for even higher resolutions?

[App4that]

9 minutes ago, iDeFecZx said:

Getting a second Ti would be substantially cheaper, but like you say SLI support could get worse, which would also apply to the 1080 too. Having seen your many post's on the Titan X, I'd say go for that, since performance will always be there, plus you're also saving on power and have reduced heat output compared with an SLI setup. What good is spending £1400 on 2 cards if they won't always work.

One of the considerations is by going with the second 980ti it would mean getting a stronger CPU once I upgrade my 4790k to what Skylake X has in store. And then I'd upgrade my graphics cards once Volta hits.

[iDeFecZx]

1 minute ago, App4that said:

One of the considerations is by going with the second 980ti it would mean getting a stronger CPU once I upgrade my 4790k to what Skylake X has in store. And then I'd upgrade my graphics cards once Volta hits.

At the end of the day its up to you, if you plan on waiting for Volta then get a 2nd Ti as its gonna be the cheapest option

[done12many2]

2 minutes ago, App4that said:

One of the considerations is by going with the second 980ti it would mean getting a stronger CPU once I upgrade my 4790k to what Skylake X has in store. And then I'd upgrade my graphics cards once Volta hits.

 

I'd personally get a 2nd 980 Ti.  Don't get me wrong, the 1080s are awesome, but taking into consideration that you are waiting for Skylake X like myself, I'd beef up your current configuration just a bit with the Maxwell SLI and save the big move when the new platform drops.  By that time we'll know more about or will have seen the real Titan.  Skylake X plus full Titan SLI is something worth saving/waiting for.

[App4that]

So I'm 90% on the 980ti. It would let me replace my RM750 with a nicer power supply, which I've been wanting to do. The RM will be reused at a later date in a NAS.

 

What's everyone's opinion on the requires power supply for 980ti SLI and Haswell? I could save a grip of money going with a 850w EVGA P2 over the 1000w. But is a 850w unit enough?

[done12many2]

I'd go 1000w.  If you end up going with a high core count CPU during your Skylake X upgrade, you'll still be able to use that PSU.  

 

With a 980 Ti SLI and a 5960x both overclocked, I had peak draws from the wall just under 1100w.  My CPU draws a ton of juice, but so will Skylake X in roughly the same or more core configuration.  I also have a quite a bit of water cooling parts to power.

[App4that]

58 minutes ago, iDeFecZx said:

Sorry, quoting be crazy lately 

[App4that]

3 minutes ago, done12many2 said:

I'd go 1000w.  If you end up going with a high core count CPU during your Skylake X upgrade, you'll still be able to use that PSU.  

 

With a 980 Ti SLI and a 5960x both overclocked, I had peak draws from the wall just under 1100w.  My CPU draws a ton of juice, but so will Skylake X in roughly the same or more core configuration.  I also have a quite a bit of water cooling parts to power.

Thanks for that info, 1000w it is. Had to ask because it's 80 bucks between the two. OI

[iDeFecZx]

5 minutes ago, App4that said:

Thanks for that info, 1000w it is. Had to ask because it's 80 bucks between the two. OI

850w should be enough for a pair of Ti's and a high end CPU. 

[App4that]

1 minute ago, iDeFecZx said:

850w should be enough for a pair of Ti's and a high end CPU. 

I would agree, but this power supply has to be enough, and last. I mean like until we don't use power supplies last lol. 

[iDeFecZx]

8 hours ago, App4that said:

I would agree, but this power supply has to be enough, and last. I mean like until we don't use power supplies last lol. 

Thats why I bought an Ax860 lol. Esp with modern components becoming more power efficient.

[mlsajpmnyc]

If I say "Not trying to be "that guy"" it means I am not that guy, right?  Oh well....

So, I have two 980 TI, two Titan X (2015), two GTX 1080 Founder's, and two NVIDIA Titan X (2016 Pascal).

 

I have a 5960X, a 6950X, and....a 5930K (have to dig it up), and a 4970K, in addition to the skylake 6700k, with basically any variation of RAM for the applicable platforms...up to 128GB 2666 for the X99 setups and up to 64GB 3200 for the z170 rigs...

 

I am nothing special in regards to hardware kung fu....I can do a few things here and there, make some mods work, but mostly I end up breaking or somehow otherwise neutering my tech splurges....

 

All this to say, if there are some setups you want me to try out and send you feedback for, variations, dual cards in/out of SLI, single cards, multi-gpu of differing specs, different processors with different cards, RAM variations....I'd be game to help you make the best decision for whatever you are trying to do....in as much as I can actually make whatever setups you request work (not that they wouldn't in expert hands, more about ME being a little slow on the uptake if you follow) and provide screenshots, benchmarks, even software specific feedback if I have, or I can find, or you can source whatever programs you would like to have some results for before investing your funds...

 

I have Samsung 950 512GB for most of my system drives, but I can swap into your hypothetical builds any number of Intel 750 1.2TB PCI SSD drives, a 400GB variation of the same, the new Toshiba/OCZ 1TB NVME PCI SSD, along with a pretty good collection of 256GB to 512GB Samsung 850 pro drives, a few Intel SSD, and a couple of others...

 

I can do 1600W PSU, 1200 PSU, 1000 PSU...and I  might have an 850 somewhere in my office....

 

You might have guessed that pc hardware config is not my profession...I am way on the amateur side of the equation...so it might take me a day to two to get back to you with results, make changes, apply, and back to you again...but I am game if you are....if you have the time to wait around for me to build and test the variants.

 

I have water coolers for the 980 TIs and the 2015 titan x cards, not for the 1080s or NVIDIA Titan X (pascal) cards...though I have run the 1080s single, sli, double and not sli, and the pascal titans as single, double with sli, without sli, one dedicate to phys, and both 10XX setups as single/sli with a 2015 Titan dedicated for physx, all air cooled (in good cases with premium fans, setup to the best of my knowledge, or open case, fans, but generally open...and have not had any heating issues....that is to say, I can do some requests for water/air cooled in the various builds, but would have to pick up AIO water systems for the two newest sets of gpus....but if you wanted to know that Id order some and see if I can mash them together correctly....

 

To recap - please don't take as humble brag...not that type of dude really....just have some extra funds for the most part, and with no fashion taste, no kids, my own business, and the only two trucks I could ever reconcile owning at the same time....my splurge in life (other than the wife of course) is tech/hardware....mostly pc, but I have some nice Apple products, and I haven't setup my HTC VR yet....but I'll get around to it,.....*man...that all reads like a "look at all the shiny shit I have*...it is meant to be an inventory in case anyone wants to know what my experience has been, either to laugh at me publicly/privately, or to use to make informed purchases of their own...anyway, let me know if I can help you make your final call, and Ill do what I can to get something up and running to get you some feedback, single, system/setup vs. alternate system/setup and so on.

 

If no interest, no worries....good luck in your pursuits either way.

 

All the best brother,

 

MLS

[mlsajpmnyc]

Apologies, for what its worth.....

 

"brother" as a phrase if you will...the USMC Scout/Sniper cemented to the harder parts of my soul, that which will always be gung-ho, hard charging, motivated, motivating, gun-slinging body slaying, stubborn, thick skulled, misinformed, largely oblivious and hypervigilliantly aware....loyal to a fault, and occassionally accidentally insensitive to all types of constructs and variations, my self included...for which I profusely apologize in advance and historically....can't teach a dumb grunt new tricks...or any tricks for that matter...so...

 

please insert sister, guy, dude, madam, compadre, person now weirded out all together....or however else you prefer/care to be referred to.....that is to say, never meant as a speculation on what the situation might actually be, and much more the residuals on the compounding interest of muscle memory from my previous adventures....

[jjohnthedon1]

12 hours ago, App4that said:

One of the considerations is by going with the second 980ti it would mean getting a stronger CPU once I upgrade my 4790k to what Skylake X has in store. And then I'd upgrade my graphics cards once Volta hits.

U don't need a new cpu for sli 980tis because I have my 4790k at 4.7 and it maxes both cards in everything and never goes over 50 percent usage while gaming 

[jjohnthedon1]

11 hours ago, iDeFecZx said:

850w should be enough for a pair of Ti's and a high end CPU. 

850 is plenty I have everything oced and it all day ins more that fine

[HKZeroFive]

Here's my thoughts...

 

I'd rule out the GTX 1080 SLI setup from the beginning because SLI is going to be a pain to deal with - lack of stability, drivers issues, the microstuttering, the lousy SLI support in the certain amount of games... and so forth. In most cases, the Titan XP is going to be the better buy for the most part.

 

Here's a video of an overclocked Titan XP against two GTX 1080 in SLI. The difference is 10 FPS which isn't that bad if you consider that this is a single GPU stacked against two GTX 1080s.

And here's a strawpoll that contains the opinions of multiple reddit users on the matter: http://www.strawpoll.me/10929734/r

 

Now, I might sound hypocritical after yapping how SLI is bad and so and so, but two GTX 980Tis as a cost-effective solution doesn't seem like a bad idea at all. If you were to follow through on your plan of upgrading to Skylake-X + whatever Volta offers, I'd opt for another GTX 980Ti.