980Sli or 980ti for 1440p

Hi guys I have decided I am making the leap to a 1440p monitor.
Namely this one:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00S1B99...lid=2KDSVMVV14BKH&coliid=I385QEJAWIODSH&psc=1

I will be getting a G-Sync later on down the line as I normally run a Twin monitor set up so its time to changing my monitors.

Currently I have a single 980 I got with my A51-R2, I am wondering should I get another one and put them into SLI or should I just get one 980Ti and sell my current 980?

I can overclock as I run my current GPU at +125/+300 with a +0.25mv increase. I could push more but that seems rock solid stable for a gaming overclock.

What do you guys think?

 

I am almost as in the same boat as you. I ordered an ORIGIN PC with a Dual 980 Ti setup but just got an ASUS PG278Q and from the benchmarks I've seen, even a dual 980 Ti can barely keep up with 60 FPS on that resolution under max quality settings. My goal is to achieve 100+ FPS on high quality so I am trying to get a third 980 Ti to add to the SLI setup. Forget about the 980, it's out of the question, just google the benchmarks and you'll see what I mean.

 

Your GTX 980 should hit 1.5Ghz core and almos 8Ghz on ddr5 without any voltage increase. With my actual config (SLI 980 at 1557Mhz/7900Mhz, i have no problem mantaining well over 60 fps no matter the game and at maxed out settings (even high ammount of useless AA, just becouse i can). Benchmark shown on different sites doesn't take into account what a properly tweaked card can do. GTX 980 properly overclocked can get really close to 980 ti.

The most demanding game for me at the moment is the witcher 3 and my FPS goes from 68 to >100 depending on the area and what's going on on the screen. This with everything at max settings, including full hairworks.

 

you have yours underwater though where as mine is only using air

 

Well actually i first had them on air at 1.5Ghz... the watercooling has come later on.

 

Cpt in that case I shall take that under advisement and get my over clocking hat on

 

Try with MSI afterburner to rise the clocks. I've yet to see a 980 that is unable to hit 1.5Ghz mark on air. There should be no need to increase the voltage.

 

A single titan x was unable to keep up with my ROG swift, two of them are doing far better.

I ran the same system with 980's in SLI and they performed better than a single titan x with the same monitor.

I would get another 980 unless you plan on getting 2 ti's.

 

True, I wouldn't run a 1440p resolution with anything less than a Dual 980 Ti or Dual Titan X in SLI mode at this time until nVIDIA comes up with a better card than can handle such resolutions on its own.

Source: http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/1970-gtx-980-ti-sli-benchmark-vs-sli-980-titan-x/Page-2

We used Firestrike Extreme, which renders graphics at 1440p instead of the 1080p of the base version.





GTA V Benchmark – GTX 980 Ti SLI vs. 980 SLI, Titan X
GTA V, although optimized in many regards, doesn't do so well on SLI configurations with advanced settings. Despite boasting the highest average FPS, the SLI GTX 980 Ti cards suffer from profoundly low 0.1% FPS (99.9 percentile frames); these are the 'drops' that users will visually see as 'stutter' when gaming, and create a jarring and unpleasant experience. Note that these were the worst when using 'advanced settings' options (as we do at 1080p for alternate load testing), and that disabling advanced graphics options (as shown in the 4K chart) produce more reasonable lows.





As for performance, the 980 Ti in SLI outranks the 980 in SLI, understandably, but only by ~8 FPS average. This 13% boost costs $300 more than the new GTX 980 price ($500, though that is still propagating), making for a rough value argument.

The Witcher 3 Benchmark – GTX 980 Ti SLI vs. 980 SLI, Titan X, 780 Ti
We wrote about the Witcher 3's performance in our day-1 benchmark, remarking about the game's poor optimization and disappointing performance. In our updated graphics optimization guide for The Witcher 3, we found that the game's 1.03 and 1.04 patches significantly bolstered performance, making for a more playable experience.





980 Ti cards in SLI offer another ~19~20% performance gain over SLI GTX 980s, a more sizable difference favoring the Ti cards. Part of this is likely due to driver optimization for the Witcher 3 made by nVidia.

Metro: Last Light – GTX 980 Ti SLI 4K & 1440p Benchmark
Metro: Last Light shows a larger performance disparity at 4K than the previous titles – a ~24% gain – but present almost no difference at 1440p (within margin of error). We're unsure of why this is happening or where the bottleneck is, though it's likely a driver or software side issue. The 4790K could also be choking with such powerful GPU throughput.



GRID: Autosport – GTX 980 Ti SLI 4K
GRID is another such title. As with Metro at 1440p, it appears GRID: Autosport is choking elsewhere in the pipe, as the SLI performance is effectively identical and within reach of the Titan X performance. In our 980 Ti review, we made a note that GRID: Autosport was the only title where the TiX drastically outperformed the GTX 980 Ti.



Shadow of Mordor – GTX 980 Ti SLI 4K & 1440p
Shadow of Mordor produces a 21.6% performance gain at 4K for the 980 Ti in SLI over the GTX 980. For point of comparison, the lone GTX 980 Ti performs 27% better than the lone GTX 980; the gap thins with SLI, but is still noteworthy. Shadow of Mordor is actually playable at 4K with SLI 980 Ti cards using Ultra settings.





Far Cry 4 – GTX 980 Ti SLI Benchmark
Far Cry 4 produces a ~16.7% performance delta over the GTX 980 SLI when using the 980 Ti cards in SLI. The gain against single GPUs is massive – nearly two-fold over the TiX – and produces playable 4K framerates. For the first time in my history testing Far Cry 4, I saw fluidity of frame output and playability without awkward choppiness.

 

980 Ti all the way. It's 50% faster than 980 at the same clocks and with the current dire state of SLI, there's no reason to spend more money on 980 SLI and get a worse experience. @TBoneSan and @vulcan78 recently made the switch from 980/780 Ti SLI to 980 Ti and they can tell you all about it.

 

Yep. The SLI experience of late is absolutely atrocious. Sure we see higher frames when they both operate, but the frame metering is up the creek. I often found myself disabling my second 980 in favor of a smoother experience (although the frame rate was lower). Hence I sold them both and moved to a 980ti and couldn't be happier.
I loved SLI but there needs to be a more concerted effort by developers and Nvidia to make it a decent experience. I felt like such a chump having 980 SLI and never being able to leverage the power outside of benchmarking into a smooth gaming experience.
Yes.. Get a 980ti. Factor in loss of scaling, lack of MFAA, and the frame rate feeling about 50% less than the numbers show. Also think about the games it doesn't work well in. At the end of the day it appears to almost be a wash with 980 SLI minus the disappointment.
My feelings are that Nvidia needs to be more encouraging for Developers to want to properly implement it. I don't feel either parties taking SLI seriously and viewing it as a viable hardware configuration. Very annoyed at the state of it right now and the absolute lack of regard for SLI users.

 

980 Ti / Titan X over 980 SLI for sure.

Basically what this guy says:



I know GTX 980 is slightly faster than 780 Ti but coming from GTX 780 Ti SLI I'm about as 90% as fast with the single 980 Ti, both overclocked to the maximum limit.

I'm sitting at nearly 22k GPU in Firestrike with a serious overclock (1551MHz core 8GHz memory @ 1.255v) which is very very close to the max stable overclock of my 780 Ti's 23.5k Firestrike Normal.

Firestrike Extreme is around 10.2k GPU for the 980 Ti vs. 11.6k for the 780 Ti's.

I know that non-reference GTX 980 SLI is faster than 980 Ti synthetic benchmark wise but there are a growing number of games that have really poor SLI scaling, with the number of games where 980 SLI is faster than a single 980 Ti is dwindling.

Then there is the VRAM issue, the heat issue (as in heat being pumped into your room, for me that went from 650W to 350W but for GTX 980 SLI it's a bit less) and the stutter issue.

Let me elaborate on this last one. I finally decided to ditch SLI after I picked up Dragon Age : Inquisition and narrowed down the stuttering, at get this, at 90 FPS, down to SLI. Stuttering at 90 FPS. I didn't even know that was possible! Sure enough, returning to the same scene with the single 980 Ti and the stuttering is completely gone and I'm still seeing 90 FPS. The guy in the video above also mentions this, he calls the phenomenon frame timing.

DA: Inquisition was the final straw, it wasn't Planetside 2, or Titanfall, or Wolfenstein: New Order, or The Evil Within, all recent games within the last year, no, it was DA: I. I finally had enough of crappy SLI scaling and the presence of frame-timing.

Crappy SLI scaling. Check out the scaling for the newer titles:

http://www.maximumpc.com/nvidia-gtx-980-ti-2-way-sli-crushing-performance/

Thats horrible!

150% in the Witcher 3? That's pure rubbish.

SLI only makes sense if you intend to step up to 4k and as of right now 4k is really only do-able with a pair of 980 Ti ANYWAY so you might as well get that single 980 Ti now so that you can add that second one, which youll absolutely need, if you step up to 4K in the next year or two (by then Pascal will render GM200 completely obsolete). 2x 980 Ti SLI is far better than 3x GTX 980 for 4k because of poor 3-way scaling.

SLI scaling is better the higher the resolution, it's like 190% in Firestrike Ultra, 180% for Extreme, and 170% for Normal.

Food for thought, here's Guru3d's benchmarks of reference 2x and 3x GTX 980 SLI:

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_980_sli_review,24.html

20k GPU.

3-Way was 29k GPU.

2-Way 980 Ti SLI is around 35k GPU on default clocks with people pushing 40k @ 1500MHz.

My current daily driver OC and bench is in my signature.

 

YES. I completely forgot about MFAA not working with SLI, this is something that I actually turned on for one of my games, Titanfall, which doesn't have FXAA and whose lowest AA is 2xMSAA. Turning MFAA on basically makes the 2xMSAA look like 4xMSAA but around the same cost.

Going from 780 Ti SLI to single 980 Ti I've been playing a lot more of Titanfall, it feels like going from the same game say on a Playstation 2 to a "remaster" on a Playstation 3. With the required VRAM on tap I've been able to turn ambient occlusion back on (seeing 4.5GB usage) and I've even added SweetFX to the mix and now MFAA: voila "next-gen" Titanfall! Still averaging 90 FPS with everything maxed out.

And just as you said, some games I would rather turn down the settings and turn SLI off to run, Titanfall was one of those games. With SLI on there is STILL flickering through walls and stuttering! Both of which made for a completely unplayable experience. If you try to run the game on one single 780 Ti at 2560x1440 with the same settings you get like 50 FPS, so youre forced to choose from either SSAO on and lights flickering through walls and stutter OR SSAO off and running the game smoothly on a single card. SSAO looks so good though, without it the game looks like a glorified console version running at 2560x1440, there are NO shadows, AT ALL.

Many many games the above is a similar dillema. Turn the bells and whistles on and up and have stuttering and other graphical oddities or turn them down or off and run the game on a single card with slightly lower frames but no stuttering.

I'm done with SLI, fortunately Pascal, at least according to Nvidia's road-map, promises Titan X SLI / 980 Ti SLI performance on one card with HBM memory to top everything off:

http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/2...mance-gains-from-upcoming-pascal-architecture

I'll be fine with my single, overclocked-to-the-hilt 980 Ti until top-tier Pascal sometime in 2017. At that point I will only consider upgrading if I can afford to go 4k. I don't anticipate the games getting much more demanding in the next two years (Crysis 2 from 2011 is still more demanding than 80% of the recent releases, mostly console ports lol). If I stay with my ROG Swift I should be fine with this card at least for the next 5 years.

Correction: Titan X SLI / 980 Ti SLI performance on one single card, corrected above.

Also, for those that have missed it, here's my MSI 6G Hybrid running GTA 5 in my rig with thoughts on SLI in the video following, as an update I am replacing both the Corsair H60 on my CPU and the H55 on the GPU with pair of NZXT Kraken X41's which should arrive before the weekend. Radiator surface area is going from 120x150x25mm to 140x170x36mm with more fluid and fans with like double the CFM (going push pull as well).

I'm shooting for GPU load temps of 40-45C at 1551MHz with 1.255v (currently 50-55C, ambient dependent, at this voltage). Right now with the heat I'm having to run more voltage to lock down 1526MHz. With GM200, and my sample in particular, I can get away with 1513MHz on default voltage as long as the core doesn't get over say 47C. Once it gets up to and hangs out at 50C it is no longer stable. I'm hoping that bringing the core down a good 7C, which is what I anticipate an x41 in push pull to bring, that I can get away with 1526MHz with no additional voltage and 1551Mhz with only 1.255v.



Concluding remarks (thoughts on SLI etc.)

 

Octiceps I made a correction and updated my last comment.

 

And that is where the graphs posted by @Matrix Leader fail in illustrating the true SLI experience because they only show FPS, not frame times. Sure, SLI looks great strictly based on FPS and synthetic benchmark scores, but the gaming experience belies the high FPS numbers because of the microstutter caused by inconsistent frame pacing and high frame time variation that is inherent to AFR. You need much higher FPS in SLI for games to feel as smooth as they do at a lower FPS in single GPU. I'd guesstimate the actual perceivable improvement of SLI when taking into account the above factors is only about 50% even if it doubles FPS.

@vulcan78 I know what you meant. With both a die shrink and architectural change, hopefully Pascal does deliver 2x the perf of Maxwell.

Ah yes, graphical artifacts and incompatible features (MFAA, SMAA T2x, G-Sync + DSR, etc.), I almost forgot about those. Remember the alternate SLI bits I had you try that improved scaling in PS2 but caused HUD flickering?

 

I can't wait till nVIDIA released a new GPU that can handle the latest games at max settings on a 1440p resolution to get rid of the SLI headaches.

 

Max settings are overrated and tank performance without offering much if any in the way of perceivable visual improvement over much more performant near-max settings. A single overclocked 980 Ti is already a very viable 1440p GPU. @vulcan78 has his ROG Swift hooked up to one and can attest to that.

 

Well some people just like being able to max it anyways. I would much prefer to be able to just set everything to max now and not have to take extra time to look for the best settings. But that's just because I'm lazy.

 

I'll third (or forth?) that SLI on Maxwell is just dogshit. Scaling is terrible, averaging to 50%, with even the best case scenarios not much beyond 70%. Frame pacing also feels borked, and on more than one game, turning SLI off and running with 50% less frames still felt smoother.

Oh and DSR still doesn't work with SLI+GSync, not even if I disable SLI. Good job nVidia, goddamn.

 

Couldn't agree more. The frame pacing is the offender. It's a deal breaker for me right now. Hopefully there will be a time where SLI works as it should.

 

Well, to be more specific, SLI scaling in games that've come out in the Maxwell release window is dogshit, and it's far from being just Ubisoft. I've still got my Kepler SLI setup and basically no game that's come out since the end of 2013 is worth a damn in SLI. BF4 is the last game I can remember that had great SLI support from day 1.

 

I can also add to this. I now have a single 980ti with a 1440p monitor I couldn't be happier with this. SLI is a drain on your wallet which really doesn't net the returns.