Can I SLI?

[thewipyk]

Hello guys. Simple question:

I have a Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 gaming, the tripple fan monstrosity (Not the windforce, the gaming edition. Not that I saw any difference, but might be important). I recently found a Gigabyte gtx 970 mini. 
I dug through the SLI information guide here, and found out that my 970 G1 is kinda delicate when it comes to choose an SLI partner. The question is:
Can I SLI theese 2 cards to get good performance? I both will run with the slower's clock, but 2x fast should be beetter then 1x faster..
Thanks in advance

[themctipers]

can you afford the extra power consumption, the heat in your room, and can your PSU handle it? 

[thewipyk]

1 minute ago, themctipers said:

can you afford the extra power consumption, the heat in your room, and can your PSU handle it? 

Obvioulsy, else I wouldn't ask this question. 
But let me widen my question:
Which 970s can I do SLI with? In case I find some other 970 cheaper and closer.

[Simon771]

Any GTX 970 can SLI with another GTX 970.

[SlaughterSmurf]

I mean it will perform at about a 1070 level or a bit faster if the game supports SLI well. If not it will be the same. It can't hurt. I would recommend selling your 970 and getting a 980ti though. And yes any 970 can SLI with any other 970.

 

 

[VolkA]

4 minutes ago, thewipyk said:

Hello guys. Simple question:

I have a Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 gaming, the tripple fan monstrosity (Not the windforce, the gaming edition. Not that I saw any difference, but might be important). I recently found a Gigabyte gtx 970 mini. 
I dug through the SLI information guide here, and found out that my 970 G1 is kinda delicate when it comes to choose an SLI partner. The question is:
Can I SLI theese 2 cards to get good performance? I both will run with the slower's clock, but 2x fast should be beetter then 1x faster..
Thanks in advance

They are able to run in SLI provided your motherboard supports it. Just FYI, 2 970 in SLI does not means 2x faster for performance. Maybe around 20ish to 40ish percent better than now (also depending a lot if the program / application / game supports SLI).

 

Any 970 can be SLI with other 970. I believed they will both run at the same speed. If one of them is faster (in terms of speed) than the other, then both will run at the slower speed.

[thewipyk]

2 minutes ago, Simon771 said:

Any GTX 970 can SLI with another GTX 970.

Really?
 
I really hope mine isn't affected with this bullcrap

[Simon771]

1 minute ago, thewipyk said:

Really?
 
I really hope mine isn't affected with this bullcrap

As far as I know, you can SLI the same chip. So 970 with 970. Regardless of brand.

As long as it have same memory size and core count, there shouldn't be any problem.

[SlaughterSmurf]

1 minute ago, thewipyk said:

Really?
 
I really hope mine isn't affected with this bullcrap

I hadn't heard of that issue. However I've only seen 4 GB GTX 970s for one, and two you are using 2 cards from the same company. I would say they can probably SLI, but don't sue me if it can't. 

[thewipyk]

19 minutes ago, SlaughterSmurf said:

I mean it will perform at about a 1070 level or a bit faster if the game supports SLI well. If not it will be the same. It can't hurt. I would recommend selling your 970 and getting a 980ti though. And yes any 970 can SLI with any other 970.

 

 

Unfortunately using the money I would have bought the new 970 with and selling my own would barely get me a 980Ti and wouldn't a 1070. The 10 series cards are really expensive right now. 

[SlaughterSmurf]

Just now, thewipyk said:

Unfortunately using the money I would have bought the new 970 with and selling my own would barely get me a 980Ti and wouldn't a 1070. The 10 series cards are really expensive right now. 

I know. I said 980ti for a reason. Besides, the 980ti performs like within 5% give or take depending on the game of a 1070. For all intents and purposes it's as fast as a 1070. If you can squeeze it, a single GPU solution (980ti) is always better than a dual GPU solution. SLI 970 and a single 980ti perform pretty similarily (The 980ti is a bit slower) but you won't have to deal with the extra power draw, cables, and general pain in the ass that is SLI. 

[ATFink]

I'm pretty sure that not all motherboards support SLI, so you might want to make sure your motherboard supports that feature before dropping money on another GPU.

 

Maybe I'm wrong, I've never looked into it for myself. Someone correct me if this is the case because I thought only z and x series motherboards for Intel and x series motherboards for AMD supported SLI.

[thewipyk]

I have an ASUS MAXIMUM VIII HERO, i usual planned to do SLI, my system is fully SLI ready, otherwise I won't ask those question. 

[bomerr]

1 hour ago, thewipyk said:

Unfortunately using the money I would have bought the new 970 with and selling my own would barely get me a 980Ti and wouldn't a 1070. The 10 series cards are really expensive right now. 

 

1 hour ago, SlaughterSmurf said:

I know. I said 980ti for a reason. Besides, the 980ti performs like within 5% give or take depending on the game of a 1070. For all intents and purposes it's as fast as a 1070. If you can squeeze it, a single GPU solution (980ti) is always better than a dual GPU solution. SLI 970 and a single 980ti perform pretty similarily (The 980ti is a bit slower) but you won't have to deal with the extra power draw, cables, and general pain in the ass that is SLI. 

I 2nd this. I was considering SLI'ing my 980s but chose to purchase a 1080 Ti instead. It was a great decision. I would recommend selling the 970 and picking up a 980 Ti used instead of SLI. The 970 SLI might bench higher than the 980 Ti but real world performance will favor the 980 Ti. You won't need to deal with SLI drivers, power consumption will be lower and no chance of micro stutter. 

[xsimplyjosh]

Given some games have compatibility issues with SLI (not all but some note the keyword) i wouldnt gamble with SLi its not guaranteed a double in performance but more of a 40-50% boost depending, mind you

 

that being said any gtx 970 will work with sli (if your games allow to be compatible with that feature . As long the chipset is the sam with the vram, otherwise the limiting factor will be the "lesser" card.

[thewipyk]

Ok, thanks guys, I'll reconsider my life choises

[Kevo05s]

I had a pair of 970 G1 gaming in SLI, and they worked flawlessly, though expect the top card to run in the 70s C. (took me 2 weeks to block them and watercool them because of that)

[BirdyTheMighty]

7 hours ago, thewipyk said:

Really?
 
I really hope mine isn't affected with this bullcrap

mate i had sli a strix gtx 970 and a ref galax GTX 970 and have no issues what so ever

[jjohnthedon1]

Depends on mobo amd psu