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960 x2 SLI or 980?

walk2k

walk2k

Member
Which is faster?
I currently have (1) Geforce GTX 960 (2gb) should I add another one (~$100 on ebay).
Or get a 980 (4gb) for about $200? Then sell the 960 for $100 and come out even...

Thx.
 
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You're a generation out of date btw, didn't know if you've seen the new Pascal chips out. 980 @ $200 is a pretty solid deal, but I'd personally spend a little more and get a new Pascal chip like the 1060 6GB, or a RX 480 8GB and get the 16nm tech and new features for not much more money (or exactly the same cost). The 980 is probably just a little faster than the 1060 6GB and 480 8GB, but all three will be substantially faster than a single 960. Pascal and Polaris do a lot better in DX12 compared to Maxwell in the 980.

Also forget 960 SLI for sure.
 
walk2k said:
really? ok thanks.

btw is a 430w P/S (384w on 12v rail) good enough for a single 980?
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That should run a 980, 1060 6gb or 480 8gb fine.

Although if your power supply is as old as your CPU (circa 2009) then you might want to think about replacing it with this upgrade. Sometimes when you change the load on old PSUs like this you'll notice issues you didnt before, and if you PSU goes it can take out your whole machine. I'll typically do a preventative maintenance PSU replacement every 7ish years. The rest of the machine should still be respectable if a little aged. The 6GB RAM will likely limit you in a few games too these days.
 
you can get 980 (4gb) performance from the 10x0 series for $200?

I do see the 1060 3gb are around $200, maybe a bit less after rebate. but the 6gb are $250+
 
yes the system is the same, but I upgraded the cpu to i7 980X (6-core Gulftown) at 4.0Ghz and 18gb of ram. the P/S is an Antec should be decent quality unit.
 
Yeah the 1060 6GB will be the same speed (maybe a little slower) but a little more expensive, but it will hold up better in DX12 and be more modern. The 480 8GB will be the same price, maybe a little slower, and will also hold up better in DX12 games and be more modern. It just isnt a good idea to buy 28nm now when its hardly more money to get a modern 16nm chip that will have many more years of driver support before its EOL'd. Also both of those cards have more VRAM which will be increasingly important. I wouldn't want to buy 4GB when I can get 6gb+ for not much more
 
according to 3dmark, the 980 (4GB?) is faster than 1060-6GB, and the 1060-3GB is even slower(?).
980 = 14,100
1060-3 = 12,890
1060-6 = 12,330
(http://www.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu/NVIDIA+GeForce+GTX+980/review)

I'm only running a 24" screen at 1080P (actually 1920x1200) so probably the ram won't make any difference in my case.. but the 980, about $200 used, seems like the better option. I'm not worried about shelf life, I'm still using a 650Ti in my other computer that gets my "hand me downs"... It replaced a 275 (non-DX11) just last year and even that was working fine (just no DX11).
 
3dmark is an artificial benchmark. You will run into the 4GB limit in the lifetime of the card. I dont know why you are set on buying generation old hardware to save a few bucks and have to upgrade sooner, but its your money. Do whatever you want with it.
 
walk2k said:
you can get 980 (4gb) performance from the 10x0 series for $200?

I do see the 1060 3gb are around $200, maybe a bit less after rebate. but the 6gb are $250+
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Maybe it's possible to extrapolate from different comparisons.

This is all I can say, from my recent personal experience and keeping-up reading chores.

I have a single GTX 1070. I have been wondering whether or not to get a second one. But that card with a 1440 gaming monitor and its 8GB of VRAM, 144Hz refresh rate or certainly 60 is no problem.

Further, the card falls behind an i7-4790K and 2x SLI GTX-980 at ~17,000 on Firestrike benchmark by about 800 points or 16,200, both systems overclocked. That's with a fairly easy and safe overclock that proves out in Valley or games I play at a solid 2,038 Mhz core, 4,440 Mhz memory. The temperature in any of those demand or stress situations can go as high as 65C in Windows 10, and about 62C in Windows 7 -- or that's how I remember. I'll have to reboot to recheck.

Maybe I'll take longer to think about it, or maybe I'll move up the schedule for getting a ZOWIE monitor so I can make a solid decision about SLI.
 
Headfoot said:
3dmark is an artificial benchmark. You will run into the 4GB limit in the lifetime of the card. I dont know why you are set on buying generation old hardware to save a few bucks and have to upgrade sooner, but its your money. Do whatever you want with it.
Click to expand...
well it's 20-25% better performance for $50 less.
it was what a $500-600 card? for $200...
the idea was originally to SLI another 960, but looking around realized I could get a 980 and sell the 960 and wind up spending the same amount of $ so...
 
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Seems to me you could take more time as you desire just to think about it, and if there weren't any spare 960's around, you could get a newer card. On the other hand, you want an option to sell the old one at a decent price.
 
You should only think of adding a second card if you have the top-end card or 1 tier below to get additional performance. It's just a bad idea to SLI/Crossfire low-end/mid-range cards as you might as well spend the extra money to get a higher tier card.
 
Thanks for the input folks, I just picked up a 980GTX.. EVGA "FTW" edition (super-mega-mondo-clocked?) for $220 including shipping.. :^:

Uh, will probably also pick up a new psu... was running some stress tests on the pc and the +12v line drops to 11.1v under full load, not sure that's an issue but might as well swap it out while I'm in there.
 
It's never a good idea to buy last gen cards, especially from nVidia. Then again, I'm still rocking a 4GB GTX670 and it has been serving me very well for the past 4.5 years 🙂
 
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