980 or 980m sli for P870dm

Hi guys,
I recently want to get a P870dm, 4k screen.
I use 4k to do picture editing or watch movies. and change it to 1080p to run games.
So my question is which Nvidia card should I choose for p870dm?
Thanks!

 

with 4k i'd say go up to the 980m SLI as the extra power would be good for pushing the 4k monitor if you want to get into 4k gaming (while it is still sometimes not enough power).

 

SLi support has really been lacking the last time. If SLi support would have been better, double 980ms would have more power.

I would go for single 980 if i were you.

 

thanks for your reply.. that's the main issue.. I know 980m sli is not power enough for 4k game. So I don't want to play game in 4k in the first place. 1080 for game is good enough for me.
Just need the 4k to do picture and video editing..
in this case, will a 980 meet the need?

 

Thanks for your reply.. I currently agree with you

 

yes a 980 will meet your needs and perform well for what you are wanting to use it for right now.

 

Thanks!!

 

980M SLI is more powerful, although SLI support is hit or miss. A single 980 will treat you well enough.

 

I currently have the same dilemma. I don't want to end up regretting not getting the SLI setup if SLI support gets better this year. Plus with Pascal on the way, I want to go for the most powerful solution currently available..

Its a really messed up situation. What I have noticed is with the exception of Batman AK and JC3, the games that need the extra SLI boost actually have SLI support.

ughh:/

 

Just in general, if you are using any programs for editing, it might be worth to check to see if they support SLI. Same thing with games, if that is being factored in to your purchase. Some games don't optimize well, or even have SLI support. So if you had certain games in mind that you plan to play a lot, it would be worth doing some research first to factor in to your decision making. Wouldn't want to get the 980m SLI and have one card not usable for games or programs.

 

You really can do fine with the 970M at 1080P but maybe 980M keeps it future proof or a tiny bit longer but being proportionally more expensive.

 

Nvidia's searchable list of SLI supported games, sorted newest to oldest:
http://www.geforce.com/games-applications/technology/sli?title=&sort_bef_combine=created+DESC

There are 30 pages, 12 per page, 357 games.

Here is another list, that's incomplete according to the feedback - no note as to which Nvidia driver version the list was pulled from, so if you find lists like this online, be sure to take into account it might be inaccurate.

Complete List Of Compatible NVIDIA SLI Supported Games
Written by Joffy S on 01 January 2014 at 16:00
http://www.game-debate.com/news/?news=10694&game=None&title=Complete List Of Compatible NVIDIA SLI Supported Games

Spoiler

All games work with SLI setups of course but this is the complete list of supported game profiles that should see you gaining a significant performance boost when running an NVIDIA SLI gaming PC...
A New Dawn
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
Age of Empires III
Age of Mythology
AION
Alice: Madness Returns
Aliens: Colonial Marines
America’s Army
Anomaly 2
AquaNox 2: Revelation
Armed & Dangerous
Armies of Exigo
Assassin’s Creed
Assassin’s Creed III
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
Auto Assault
Backbreaker
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Batman: Arkham City
Batman: Arkham Origins
Battlefield 2
Battlefield 2142
Battlefield 2: Special Forces
Battlefield 3
Battlefield Heroes
Battlefield Vietnam
Bet on Soldier
Beyond Divinity
Beyond Good & Evil
Bionic Commando
Bionic Commando Rearmed
BIONICLE Heroes
Bioshock
Blacklight:Retribution
Boiling Point
Borderlands 2
Breed
Bridge It
BRINK
Broken Sword: Sleeping Dragon
Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway
Bulletstorm
Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box
Cabal Online
Caesar IV
Call of Duty
Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Call of Duty: Ghosts
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Call of Duty: World at War
Champions Online
Chaos League
Chaos Legion
Cities XL
Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
Civilization V
Codename: Panzers
Colin McRae Rally 04
Colin mcRae Rally 2005
Comanche 4
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Command & Conquer: The First Decade
Company of Heroes
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts
Conan
Conflict: Denied Ops
Conflict: Desert Storm
Contract J.A.C.K.
Crazy Machines 2
Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason
Crysis
Crysis 2
Crysis Warhead
D-Day
Dark Messiah Might and Magic
Dark Void
Darksiders II
Darkspore
Dead Island: Riptide
Dead Rising 2
Dead Space
Deep Black: Reloaded
Delta Force XTreme
Delta Force: Black Hawk Down
Delta Force: Black Hawk Down - Team Sabre
Desert Rats vs. Afrika Korps
Design Garage Ray tracing Demo
Deus Ex: Invisible War
Devil May Cry 4
Diablo III
Dishonored
Doom 3
DRIV3R
Duke Nukem Forever
Dungeon Siege II: Broken World
Dungeon Siege III
Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach
Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale
Empire Earth II
Empire Earth II: The Art of Supremacy
Empire Earth III
Endless City Demo
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Enter the Matrix
EVE Online
Everquest II
Everquest II: Kingdom of the Sky
Everquest: Omens of War
Evil Genius
F.E.A.R.
F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
F.E.A.R. Extraction Point
F.EA.R. Perseus Mandate
Fable: The Lost Chapters
FaceWorks
Fallout 3
Far Cry
Far Cry 2
Farming-Simulator 2011
FIFA Soccer 10
Final Fantasy XI
Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia
Final Fantasy XI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan
FlatOut
FPS Creator X10
Frontlines: Fuel of War
Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers
Fury
Gangland
Gears of War
Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance
Gorky Zero: Beyond Honor
Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Ground Control II: Operation Exodus
GTR
GTR 2
Guild Wars 2
Gun Metal
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Hawken
Hellgate: London
Hitman Blood Money
Hitman: Contracts
Homefront
Indigo Prophecy
Infernal
Joan of Arc: Wars & Warriors
Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising
Joint Task Force
Just Cause
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
kill.switch
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade
League of Legends
Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
Lego: Star Wars
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth II
Lord of the Rings: War in the North
Lords of Everquest
Lost Planet 2
Lost Planet 3
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition Colonies Edition
Madden NFL 2004
Mafia II
Mage Knight: Apocalypse
Mass Effect 3
Max Payne 3
Medieval II: Total War
Men of Valor
Metro 2033
Metro: Last Light
Mirror’s Edge
MKZ (Metal Knight Zero)
MotoGP 08
MU
Myst IV: Revelation
Mythos
NASCAR Thunder 2004
Need for Speed: ProStreet
Need for Speed: Underground 2
Need for Speed: World
Need for Speed: Shift
Neverwinter
Neverwinter Nights 2
Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer
No One Lives Forever 2
Nurien
Oil Rush
Order of War
Pac-Man World 2
Pacific Fighters
Painkiller
Painkiller: Battle Out of Hell
Path of Exile
Perimeter
Pitfall: The Lost Expedition
Planetside
Planetside 2
Portal 2
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Psychonauts
PT Boats: Knights of the Sea
Quake 4
RACE 07
Race Driver GRID
Race On
Rage
RalliSport Challenge
Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad
Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45
Remember Me
Resident Evil 5
Resident Evil 6
Rift
Rise of Immortals
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends
Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown
RoboBlitz
Rome: Total War
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Sacred
Second Life
Section 8: Prejudice
SEGA Rally Revo
Serious Sam 3: BFE
Serious Sam II
Shadow Harvest: Phantom Ops
Shadowrun
Sid Meier’s Railroads!
Silent Hill 3
Silent Hill 4: The Room
Silverfall
SimCity
Sins of a Solar Empire
Soldier of Fortune II
Soldiers: Heroes of World War II
SpellForce
SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars
Splinter Cell
Spore
Star Trek DAC
Star Wars Galaxies
Star Wars: Republic Commando
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
Starship Troopers
Stolen
Stone Giant Demo
Street Fighter IV
Street Fighter X Tekken
Stronghold Legends
Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse
Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition
Supreme Commander
Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance
SWAT 4
SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate
Terminator Salvation
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
The Darkness II
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The Elder Scrolls Online
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
The Matrix: Path of Neo
The Orange Box
The Saboteur
The Saga of Ryzom
The Secret World
The Settlers: Rise of an Empire
The Sims 2
The Sims 3: World Adventures Expansion Pack
The Witcher 2: Assassin’s of Kings
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004
Titan Quest: Immortal Throne
TOCA Race Driver 2
TOCA Race Driver 3
Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Tomb Raider Anniversary
Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness
Tomb Raider: Legend
Torchlight 2
TrackMania
Tron 2.0
Tropico 3
True Crime: Streets of LA
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
Universe at War
Unreal Tournament 2003
Unreal Tournament 2004
Unreal Tournament 3
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
War Front: Turning Point
War Thunder
Warframe
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: SoulStorm
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos
Watch Dogs
World Championship Rugby
World in Conflict
World of Tanks
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
Worms 3D
X2 - The Threat
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
XCOM: Enemy Within
XIII
Xpand Rally

 

In cases where SLI doesn't work (which may not be quite as prevalent as some think), you can disable it on a temporary basis to lead off of a single GPU. SLI is a great option with that feature in mind, but it comes at a great premium nonetheless. I can see people opting for a single card with that said.

 

I know what you mean but unfortunately the 980M is not the 980 desktop card. There is a significant difference when opting to run without SLI. I guess its the price to pay.

Oh how I wish I could buy a clevo with 2x 980 desktop cards.

 

Notebook check has a few game benchmark results with 980m SLI, 980 SLI, and 980 single, it looks like there isn't really a big difference between them - sometimes the 980 SLI is even less than 980 Single - likely due to power limit issues.

Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards
"The following list of GPUs is sorted by approximate performance in games. The fields contain average frames per second (FPS) in accordance to Low, Medium, High, or Ultra in-game settings. If frame rates are sufficient for fluent gaming (>25 FPS), then the field is painted green. Otherwise, red and yellow signify low FPS and insufficient data, respectively. Furthermore, all fields without values are interpolated to convey approximate or expected performance."
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html

These results aren't Prema'ized, and maxed out with 2 x 980m + 2 x 330w power supplies.

Even with 1 power supply I have seen the 870m SLI tuned numbers with Prema BIOS/EC/vBIOS surpass stock results significantly, which these NotebookCheck numbers are based on.

 

At this point, I'm most likely going with the 980M SLI.

How significant is the boost from flashing with Prema? As in gaming performance.

 

I went with 970m SLI because everything I want to play maxes out already and will switch to 980 SLI (not m) or whatever two most powerful MXM cards will be in 1-2 years. SLI support is fine, and those few games that don't support SLI run decently well on a single 970m, even better on 980m. Future DirectX 12 games should perform much better due to intergrated multi-gpu support, so IMO no big worries about that.
In your case if you can't wait and want a 4k screen, 980m SLI should do better in average, but you can also wait some time to get a 2x980 setup (120W, will likely be available soon-ish, although I've not been following since I bought my machine)

Depends on how much you overclock. It allows you to do overclocking in a right way though, stock BIOS only allows +135 core/+500(?) RAM, which is something, but still meh.
Also keep in mind that when you have two GPUs you are limited to the worst of those two in terms of overclocking. 980m SLI stock are ~30% better than a 980 stock, but Mr.Fox did some magic with a single 980, it is a great overclocker.

 

Some tests with OC'd(fully unlocked VBIOS) vs default graphics card on laptops http://anandtech.com/show/9087/clevo-p750zm-gtx-980m-overclocking-investigated/3

 

And those results are just with a single 980M right?
Should be golden then

 

Yeah, it was done on the P750ZM, which would only have one 980m in it.

 

Then the 980M SLI setup is really really powerful. And to those who say SLI has issues, yes it does. But when it comes to compability, the games that "need" SLI, actually support it. Excluding Arkham knight and JC3(which im pretty certain can be maxed out at 1080p with one 980M)


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Yeah, in those cases the 980m is still a good card. But SLI can just be an inconsistent experience I think is the core message.

 

Well if you have g-sync too, that might get rid of the occasional microstutter anyway.

It all comes down to whether you have the patience to wait for an SLI profile and trust nvidia to do better in 2016.


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nVidia isn't going to have a choice but to step up their game in 2016 because AMD is coming out swinging. nVidia will only do their job again when AMD makes a fool of them.

 

I personally think SLI support will be fine this year. I don't get the people who choose the 980 over 980m sli, the 980m is enough to 60fps most games this year and most probably the next..

 

The 980 is the first laptop card to be certified ready for Oculus, that's why. VR SLI is going to take awhile to get off the ground.

Oculus has said that anything in their store will run perfectly on a 970 desktop card so the 980 exceeds that spec.

 

That's possibly the only reason to be honest.. I was hell bent on going for the 980 myself but after spending hours on youtube benchmarks and seeing what the 980m sli is capable off, i think i would have been disappointed with the desktop card in my case.

 

That was one of the main advertised points of the 980 to be honest.

As you can see here, when forced to single GPU, my 980M falls a good bit short of the recommended machine for the Oculus.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/10305506?

 

I'm pretty sure Nvidia can pull of the SLI if they want to. They already have a plugin in the works if im correctly informed.

 

The problem is they still haven't fixed microstutter with SLI... Its only going to get worse with VR.

 

For VR yes it will be a problem if I had to assume..
But I think G-sync fixes the microstutter for now, not a real solution, but better than nothing i guess

 

G-Sync fixes screen tearing, not microstutter. Two entirely different beasts.

 

So SLI stutter is still visible with g sync?

 

Yes it is. Stuttering is caused by differences in frametime. It doesn't matter what framerate you're running, if the frametime gets messed up for some reason it will stutter. Check out the UFO test site and play with the options and you can see the difference between stutter and tearing.

Start with smooth and then move to micro and then full on stutter then the tearing options. There's a big difference.

http://www.testufo.com/#test=stutter&demo=smooth

 

Oh i see, thanks for this, I know about microstutter and tearing, just didn't know g-sync didn't resolve it..

 

I actually got a perfect example of it when I went and ran the Gsync simulation... when it dropped into the 30s, the stutter reared its ugly head on my laptop.

 

fyi I love my SLI 980m's I never had any problems in any game, and I don't even know what all this micro studdering is about or whatever because I don't see any of that stuff...right now my 2 980m's are way over kill easily run any thing on ultra

 

I thought VR SLI is supposed to handle one eye per card. Shouldn't this solve microstutter which is the trouble with AFR?

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I wouldnt ever buy SLI GPUs anymore after my previous 980Ms and my previous 980 Tis in my Origin PC Millennium Desktop.

SLI = headaches

 

What was wrong with your 980 ti's?

 

They were the EVGA 980Ti, when SLI is enabled, the boot was slower in Windows, secondly, micro stuttering which can be easily noticable from time to time, and now recently, very bad SLI support. Look at Crysis 3 for example, SLI support is so bad as if you are running on a single GPU. So if I were to run a game with a single GPU, I want the fastest GPU out there, which leads me to the point that a single desktop 980 is much better than SLI. Sure, in benchmarks, the SLI 980Ms would win every time, but in real world usage which matters the most, it's a matter of luck depending on how well a game supports SLI, and with recent nVIDIA crappy drivers, things have been going downhill since more than 6 months and I don't expect it to get better.

SLI is great on paper, sucks in the real world

just my 2 cents worth

 

You still have two frames being rendered at the same time passing over the same bus that causes microstutter with AFR rendering. If anything it would be worse I'd think.

 

Very nice video showing how much better is the Desktop 980 vs the 980M, specs, benchmarks, etc.

I know it is for the MSI Dominator Pro laptop but what matters here is the GPU comparison.