Is 250 dollars a good deal for 2 gtx 970s?

[ilostmyjello]

I have been told by a few people instead of running sli 970s to just get a 980, but I have had the 970s for a little now and I got them for 250 for both (a gigabyte and a reference) so is that a good deal for 2 of these cards?

[Jurrunio]

It's a very good deal. Each goes for $150 to $170.

 

Also, 970 in SLI is nearly 980ti performance, though performance isnt as consistent across all games due to SLI scaling. You will need a PSU capable of powering 2 cards and a mobo that supports SLI as well

[partymarty]

Yes. It's definitely a really good deal!

[faziten]

id buy them both and sell one.

[ilostmyjello]

Well I just ordered a sli compatible motherboard and I have a EVGA 850w psu

[gbergeron]

2 hours ago, ilostmyjello said:

Well I just ordered a sli compatible motherboard and I have a EVGA 850w psu

sli useless unless you play bf4 bf1

 

sell one if not

[JoostinOnline]

I'd buy both and sell one for $200.

[Ankit Saiyan]

Deal is great man! But you can't compare the performance you will get with a single 980. SLI, more heating more power requirement, inconsistency. But two 970s can match up with 980Ti in some games! And if you can do SLI with ease, without hurting ur power supply then it's a heck of a deal! 

[Frankenburger]

2 hours ago, gbergeron said:

sli useless unless you play bf4 bf1

Not really. lol

 

eighty percent of our 50 games – 40 games – generally scale positively with SLI and most of them give solid performance increases depending on the resolution. 4K often sees the most benefit where it is mostly needed.

 

https://babeltechreviews.com/the-50-game-gtx-1070-ti-sli-review/3/

[gbergeron]

8 percent lol

 

Yeah SLI sucks.. unfortunately but it has been like that since day 1 they released SLI

[Frankenburger]

28 minutes ago, gbergeron said:

8 percent lol

80%, not 8%.

 

Try again.

[Gaming_Groove]

25 minutes ago, gbergeron said:

8 percent lol

 

Yeah SLI sucks.. unfortunately but it has been like that since day 1 they released SLI

80%

[Damascus]

38 minutes ago, gbergeron said:

8 percent lol

 

Yeah SLI sucks.. unfortunately but it has been like that since day 1 they released SLI

When you don't click on the article

[JoostinOnline]

8 hours ago, gbergeron said:

8 percent lol

 

Yeah SLI sucks.. unfortunately but it has been like that since day 1 they released SLI

You need to replace your CMOS battery, because apparently you're stuck in 2007.

[ilostmyjello]

13 hours ago, Ankit Saiyan said:

Deal is great man! But you can't compare the performance you will get with a single 980. SLI, more heating more power requirement, inconsistency. But two 970s can match up with 980Ti in some games! And if you can do SLI with ease, without hurting ur power supply then it's a heck of a deal! 

Yeah i have a really good airflow case and an 850w psu!

[gbergeron]

12 hours ago, JoostinOnline said:

You need to replace your CMOS battery, because apparently you're stuck in 2007.

 

20 hours ago, Frankenburger said:

80%, not 8%.

 

Try again.

SLI works, guys, don't get me wrong.

It just not worth it at the end because :

 

1- not all games suport SLI

2- even games that support SLI sometimes have issues 

3- The gain ratio you get is horrible in most cases for your $$$

 

It works, but it sucks. Always been since day 1 just saying.

 

Sorry, look at the gpu usage, often it just doesnt work well

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Go for it, even if the sclaing isn't great new you'll only get a 1050 Ti for that price and two 970s ~~ 1 1070

[BluJay614]

@gbergeron Dude, you clearly don't get it.... People aren't listening to you. You are sitting here screaming it's shit while everyone else is pointing out that while it does have it's downfalls, it's an option that is there. If in some situations it can match a 980ti, which is roughly equal a 1070, at only $250, then it's a hell of a deal.

[stealth80]

40 minutes ago, gbergeron said:

 

SLI works, guys, don't get me wrong.

It just not worth it at the end because :

 

1- not all games suport SLI

2- even games that support SLI sometimes have issues 

3- The gain ratio you get is horrible in most cases for your $$$

 

It works, but it sucks. Always been since day 1 just saying.

 

Sorry, look at the gpu usage, often it just doesnt work well

you speaking from real experience or internet experience? Most people pipe up about SLI that haven't actually ever used it. Heres the thing, people only post on things when they have issues.

 

18 months I had 970s in SLI and they were great, played every game with positive scaling, except Just Cause 3, one game in my 60 - 70 game library

 

go figure huh

[JoostinOnline]

45 minutes ago, gbergeron said:

 

SLI works, guys, don't get me wrong.

It just not worth it at the end because :

 

1- not all games suport SLI

2- even games that support SLI sometimes have issues 

3- The gain ratio you get is horrible in most cases for your $$$

 

It works, but it sucks. Always been since day 1 just saying.

 

Sorry, look at the gpu usage, often it just doesnt work well

You're totally ignoring what he's paying. You get up to 1070 performance while paying a quarter of the current price. Even when you are stuck using one card, at current costs that's a great deal. 

[Crunchy Dragon]

That is an amazing deal, I would definitely go for it

[Frankenburger]

2 hours ago, gbergeron said:

 

SLI works, guys, don't get me wrong.

It just not worth it at the end because :

 

1- not all games suport SLI

2- even games that support SLI sometimes have issues 

3- The gain ratio you get is horrible in most cases for your $$$

 

It works, but it sucks. Always been since day 1 just saying.

 

Sorry, look at the gpu usage, often it just doesnt work well

Ah yes, the old Joker Productions video

 

There's a number of glaring issues in this video

1.  Joker isn't the brightest crayon in the box. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure he's a good guy, but for someone who's been "Using SLI since 2013", his testing methodology is horrible.
2. His sample size of games tested is extremely small
3. Many other people were getting much better scaling in the games he tested
4. His video is not representative of the progress made with SLI on newer graphics engines
5. His SLI 1080Ti setup is being CPU bottlenecked
6. He is running his SLI setup at 16x/8x, which fails to supply sufficient bandwidth to the SLI system, as noted in @D2ultima's stickied SLI Information Guide in this forum
7. He fails to compensate the lack of bandwidth caused by 16x/8x by not dropping incompatible rendering techniques, such as TAA
8. While he does mention it, he fails to test scaling using manual fixes, which are often quick and easy to apply

So I'll repeat myself - Try again.

[Darkseth]

On 28.2.2018 at 6:25 PM, ilostmyjello said:

Well I just ordered a sli compatible motherboard and I have a EVGA 850w psu

Sli with older cards is a stupid idea.

Sli with weaker/midrange cards is a stupid idea.

Combining both will not suddenly turn into a good idea.

Especially, when you still be limited with 3.5gb Vram total.

 

If Sli with midrange / older cards were a good idea, everyone would do it.^^

 

Instead of 2 GTX 970, buy a 980 ti instead. Sell those 2 for a bit higher for profit, and get a 980 ti instead.

 

SLI is garbage, and is dying out. Less and less games support it well, Nvidia dropping Sli for more than 2 cards, Game devs drop it.. Don't use 2 970s. Out of all recent generation GPUs, GTX 970 is the worst GPU you could do Sli with - mainly because of the Vram.

 

 

Still, 250 for 2 970s is a decent deal.

[JoostinOnline]

8 minutes ago, Darkseth said:

Snip

Read the above posts 

[stealth80]

15 hours ago, JoostinOnline said:

Read the above posts 

 

+1

 

16 hours ago, Darkseth said:

Sli with older cards is a stupid idea.

Sli with weaker/midrange cards is a stupid idea.

Combining both will not suddenly turn into a good idea.

Especially, when you still be limited with 3.5gb Vram total.

 

If Sli with midrange / older cards were a good idea, everyone would do it.^^

 

Instead of 2 GTX 970, buy a 980 ti instead. Sell those 2 for a bit higher for profit, and get a 980 ti instead.

 

SLI is garbage, and is dying out. Less and less games support it well, Nvidia dropping Sli for more than 2 cards, Game devs drop it.. Don't use 2 970s. Out of all recent generation GPUs, GTX 970 is the worst GPU you could do Sli with - mainly because of the Vram.

 

 

Still, 250 for 2 970s is a decent deal.

Haha I particularly like this part:

 

"Don't use 2 970s. Out of all recent generation GPUs, GTX 970 is the worst GPU you could do Sli with - mainly because of the Vram."

 

Right ok, cause they're isn't worse cards you could CF/SLI from the recent generations (considering you can't SLI below a 1070), like I don't know, a 770 or 960 ......

 

Lets get to the point:

 

In the current market you would find it incredibly difficult to find this level of performance for $250, you have raised some valid points that are good if grounded/informed, aka the 3.5gb vram (4gb actually it takes very specific circumstances to expose the slow 0.5gb DDR and it is still 4GB! I never seen it occur in 2 years) is only an issue if playing games over 1080P, even rarely an issue at 1440P. I know this cause I'm speaking from experience of owning 1x 970 for 2 years and 2 in SLI for 18 months .... I didn't read it, watch it on YouTube, I have experience.

 

Yes you should buy the single most powerful card, but we aren't in a good place right now with the market, from what i've seen a 980ti will set you back $400, new 1070's pfft LOL, what $600? Remember this is the performance bracket you're playing at for $250. 

 

Yes not all games support it and sometimes you have to wait a little longer for SLI support, but support is still very good, I had one game that offered zero support ...