SLI or not to SLI that is the question

[Rifter]

So im building a new rig, i have been running 2 GTX 460's for years, like alot of years. I have had little to no issues with SLI sure it doesnt work in all games but does in the vast majority, it did take a while to setup correctly though. I took peoples whining about multi GPU to be baseless and completely unwarranted after so many years of no issues, as most people crying about it had never even put in the time to try it and work the bugs out.

However i see people posting now that new games dont support multi card like they used to, and that multi card performance just isnt what it used to be. This seems strange that technology would go backwards.

So for my upgrade im planning in a few months i was going to go best bang for buck without taking into consideration weather that is single card or dual.

My question is in the current state of affairs is that a good idea? I was thinking CF RX480 should i write off the rx480 and get a single 1080?

Wanting to future proof a upgrade path to 1440p or 4k monitor in the near future. So any card will be 8GB.

Thanks.

 

[garagisti]

Possibly tide over with r9 480 till Vega or big Pascal is released. Exactly what i'm going to do. Or, you could buy a 1080 now and upgrade again in a couple of years. That said, please find out that if the pascal chips support hardware acceleration/ decoding of 4k video/ hdr etc. r9 480 does, and it's a safe bet to say that whatever comes from AMD hereafter will do so too.

Vega's supposed to come around q4, i don't quite know if the dates have slipped for the same. Big Pascal was supposed to come first half of '17(sometime second quarter), but i wonder if it is being pulled in, and we may see a limited release with founder's edition of the same.

good luck.

 

[LTC8K6]

Seems like 1070 cards in SLI might be a lot of bang for the buck?

 

[Headfoot]

I ran 8800 GTS SLI back in the day and I run 290 Crossfire today. I can tell you right now that day 1 support for SLI and CF is the worst it's been since the early days. If you're a day one gamer, go with a single faster GPU instead.

If you're playing games 6 months+ after it comes out, then you'll probably see roughly equivalent SLI support as you've seen in the past, in DX11 games.

SLI and CF don't work on DX12 in the same way, so the future is very unclear as to how much a dual card set up will be supported in the future.

As for people like me "crying" about it. The issues are real. Very real. Especially the uncertainty with DX12. The last 3 games I bought day 1 didn't work right with crossfire (Fallout 4; took 6 months, The Division; took 6 months to get a seizure inducing texture flicker bug fixed, Overwatch; supposedly supports Crossfire but my frame rate turned to sludge using 2 GPUs) But go ahead and buy an RX480 crossfire and see for yourself. Not my money.

 

[Rifter]

I ran 8800 GTS SLI back in the day and I run 290 Crossfire today. I can tell you right now that day 1 support for SLI and CF is the worst it's been since the early days. If you're a day one gamer, go with a single faster GPU instead.

If you're playing games 6 months+ after it comes out, then you'll probably see roughly equivalent SLI support as you've seen in the past, in DX11 games.

SLI and CF don't work on DX12 in the same way, so the future is very unclear as to how much a dual card set up will be supported in the future.

As for people like me "crying" about it. The issues are real. Very real. Especially the uncertainty with DX12. The last 3 games I bought day 1 didn't work right with crossfire (Fallout 4; took 6 months, The Division; took 6 months to get a seizure inducing texture flicker bug fixed, Overwatch; supposedly supports Crossfire but my frame rate turned to sludge using 2 GPUs) But go ahead and buy an RX480 crossfire and see for yourself. Not my money.

I generally wait until games are onsale cheap on steam nowadays, i find it is usually beneficial to give the devs time to release a few patches and work the bugs out anyways.

I did not however realize that DX 12 was screwing up SLI/CF so thank you for bringing that to my attention, leave it to MS to screw up SLI/CF...

 

[RussianSensation]

Seems like 1070 cards in SLI might be a lot of bang for the buck?

I agree. If someone has a fast enough CPU (3770K OC or similar), 1070 SLI is a solid option for 1440p.

The OP never specified his gaming resolution though. 1080 is a worthless videocard for 1080p 60Hz gaming (Russian YouTuber had only 76% GPU usage in the Witcher 3 maxed out) and will also lose to 1070 SLI for 1440p/4K. To me the 1080 only makes sense under 2 scenarios: (1) when buying 2 of them right away, (2) miniITX case that simply cannot fit 1070 SLI.

Even though PC gamers love the x80 cards, I can only say the same now about the Ti series (GP102). Right now to me in a normal case, 1080 makes no sense again 480/1070 for 1080p 60Hz or 1070 SLI for 1440p. Then again I don't buy $80 Canadian AAA PC games and then $30-40 more of DLC on Day 1. Most games have SLI/CF support as long as one waits. In the case of 1070 vs. 1080, 1080 won't outlive the 1070 either because the $$ saved now can just be used to upgrade to Volta/GP102.

 

[RussianSensation]

I generally wait until games are onsale cheap on steam nowadays, i find it is usually beneficial to give the devs time to release a few patches and work the bugs out anyways.

I did not however realize that DX 12 was screwing up SLI/CF so thank you for bringing that to my attention, leave it to MS to screw up SLI/CF...

What's your monitor and CPU, current videocard is only 460 SLI?

 

[Rifter]

What's your monitor and CPU, current videocard is only 460 SLI?

Currently 24" 1080P, i7 930@4.2Ghz. runs great but....

Am planning a upgrade to skylake and VR and 1440p or 4K monitor.

 

[MBrown]

I went from 780sli to a single 980ti. Even though on paper and in benches, the 980ti is not much faster than my old 780sli setup, the gameplay experience was so much smoother. I'll never go back to a multi card set up again.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I tend to get the best single card and be done with it. 680ti when it was released, 980ti late last year for Fallout 4. Probably an 1180ti next year(?) or 1280ti down the road. Or AMD if they manage to compete better at the high end.

I want to spend my time gaming, so not worrying about CrossFire / SLI driver problems works better for me. Of course YMMV.

In a few months there should be an MSI 1080 Lightning LE for a fast yet super quiet card. In your shoes that's what I'd get.

 

[Rifter]

I tend to get the best single card and be done with it. 680ti when it was released, 980ti late last year for Fallout 4. Probably an 1180ti next year(?) or 1280ti down the road. Or AMD if they manage to compete better at the high end.

I want to spend my time gaming, so not worrying about CrossFire / SLI driver problems works better for me. Of course YMMV.

In a few months there should be an MSI 1080 Lightning LE for a fast yet super quiet card. In your shoes that's what I'd get.

For a single card solution it does appear the 1080 will be the only option for the foreseeable future.

 

[Headfoot]

A 1070 would crush your 460 SLI set up, for that matter, even a RX 480 or R9 390 probably would. Future proofing for GPUs doesn't exist other than not buying a stupidly low amount of RAM (e.g. 960 2gb). You'd be better off buying a 1070, holding, then upgrading again in 12 months rather than trying to spend more and hold longer from a purely economic point of view. I dont think the 1080 is the only option at all. Be advised as well that Vega and Big Pascal will likely come out in the next year, for what that information is worth. I would anticipate one or both of those GPUs to be 40-50% faster than the 1080.

 

[Rifter]

A 1070 would crush your 460 SLI set up, for that matter, even a RX 480 or R9 390 probably would. Future proofing for GPUs doesn't exist other than not buying a stupidly low amount of RAM (e.g. 960 2gb). You'd be better off buying a 1070, holding, then upgrading again in 12 months rather than trying to spend more and hold longer from a purely economic point of view. I dont think the 1080 is the only option at all. Be advised as well that Vega and Big Pascal will likely come out in the next year, for what that information is worth. I would anticipate one or both of those GPUs to be 40-50% faster than the 1080.

You can only play the waiting game for so long, ive been playing it for 6-7 years now since i built this machine. Its time to upgrade, and that's happening in a few months with whatever hardware is available at that time, im done waiting.

You may be right in that a 1070 might be a better option economically then upgrade in a year, the issue i have with this is i plan to upgrade to 1440p or 4k monitor in about a years time, i dont want to have to drop 1k on a video card(s) and 1k+ on a monitor at the same time. I plan to buy now in anticipation of the resolution jump, and adding VR, thats why im budgeting so much for my GPU on this build. I have traditionally gone with the $200-300 range for GPU's on almost all my previous builds(i got these 460's for $160 each if i recall correctly). For this build i can double that or even push it up to $800 if needed.

It will all come down to performance for me, i need it, and ill pay whoever has it what i have to to get it. If RX480 CF is faster than 1080 or not in a wide range of games will be deciding factor. If it is i may go that way, if it isnt well then 1080 is where its at. Unless AMD pulls off a miracle and the Big Pascal launches in next 2 months.

 

[wilds]

Wow, a GTX 460 SLI setup still being used!
460 SLI is slower than a lot mid range notebook GPU's!

I'm impressed you made it this long! The 1070 or 1080 will be a huge upgrade for you, but are currently a bit underwhelming for 4k and VR performance. AMD's RX 480 will be a lot faster than your setup as well, but be even slower than the 1070.

Because you are set on 4k and/or VR, I would wait for the 1080 ti or AMD's Vega. Both products won't be out in many months time as well as DP 1.3 4k monitors or HTC Vive 2/Oculus Rift v3. We are about to see 4k120hz and 4k HDR hit the market next year as well as really affordable 4k60. 1440p is going to be an irrelevent resolution soon as 4k is usurping the entire market now.

If I were you, the 4gb/8gb RX 480 will be a decent stopgap card if you need more performance now. The big VR and 4k mainstream effect will be in full swing later next year; so it is hard to recommend a GPU and monitor at this time.

Skylake is also not seeing a successor until next year as well. If you live near a Microcenter, you can get an awesome deal on the 6700k and some cheap 3200 mhz DDR4.

What games do you mainly play? I ask because CF/SLI support is a lot more sporadic with DX12 support on newer titles (could be a temporary thing). 1 RX 480 may be fast enough to tide you over until next year; when the big die GPU's hit the market. If using low-medium settings, the 1070 (or even RX 480) will be perfectly fine for 4k/VR. The GTX 1080 is overpriced/isn't worth the price premium over the 1070 imo. Many forum members point out that GTX 1070 SLI is just barely more expensive than 1 GTX 1080 FE.

There will also be a $300 RX that AMD has been holding rather close to its chest. If it is nearly as fast as the 1070, than it may be a better deal.

 

[RussianSensation]

Ok, well if you actually want real beneficial advice, then it makes NO sense to spend $800-1000 on 2016 videocards but only upgrade the monitor to 1440p/4K in 2017. Firstly, by then we should have $800-1000 card setups which are faster than 1070 SLI or a single 1080. What you will be doing is overspending $800+ now on say 2x 1070 cards. It's better to just buy a single 480/1070 now and either add a 2nd cheaper 1070 in 2017 when you actually get a new monitor or sell the 2016 card and get Big Vega/Pascal.

Secondly, what makes it worse is your CPU is already a major bottleneck for even a single 1070! That means if you are buying a 1070 SLI now, you will need to upgrade the CPU to an i7 6700K OC, 6800K OC. But the issue here is the same as above -- you will still be 1080p 60Hz monitor limited so you just overspend on a 2016 CPU upgrade. In 2017 there will be Skylake-X and Kaby Lake X. I don't understand why you cannot just buy a $200-230 RX480 to use in 2016, and then when you are ready for a 1440p/4K monitor, get everything near top-of-the-line in 2017. It's way worse to spend $800+ on 2016 GPUs that will be competent wasted on your CPU/monitor setup.

Thirdly, your entire strategy of buying expensive PC parts and keeping them for 6-7 years is not even an optimal way to keep the system up to date. It's better to upgrade graphics cards more often rather than spend $800+ on 2016 GPUs and keeping them for 6-7 years. Chances are since you've been using 460 SLI for so long, a $200-230 480 would be more than enough for the types of games you will play in 2016.

Anyway, if you have to spend $800 on graphics cards in 2016, then go 1070 SLI then since it sounds like you don't like reselling PC parts or don't have a viable second hand market in your area? 480 CF is ~ 1080 and a single 1080 isn't enough for 4K even in 2016. Therefore, might as well get 1070 SLI. You can get EVGA versions in case you decide you want to step up to 1080 SLI within 90 days.

 

[Rifter]

Ok, well if you actually want real beneficial advice, then it makes NO sense to spend $800-1000 on 2016 videocards but only upgrade the monitor to 1440p/4K in 2017. Firstly, by then we should have $800-1000 card setups which are faster than 1070 SLI or a single 1080. What you will be doing is overspending $800+ now on say 2x 1070 cards. It's better to just buy a single 480/1070 now and either add a 2nd cheaper 1070 in 2017 when you actually get a new monitor or sell the 2016 card and get Big Vega/Pascal.

Secondly, what makes it worse is your CPU is already a major bottleneck for even a single 1070! That means if you are buying a 1070 SLI now, you will need to upgrade the CPU to an i7 6700K OC, 6800K OC. But the issue here is the same as above -- you will still be 1080p 60Hz monitor limited so you just overspend on a 2016 CPU upgrade. In 2017 there will be Skylake-X and Kaby Lake X. I don't understand why you cannot just buy a $200-230 RX480 to use in 2016, and then when you are ready for a 1440p/4K monitor, get everything near top-of-the-line in 2017. It's way worse to spend $800+ on 2016 GPUs that will be competent wasted on your CPU/monitor setup.

Thirdly, your entire strategy of buying expensive PC parts and keeping them for 6-7 years is not even an optimal way to keep the system up to date. It's better to upgrade graphics cards more often rather than spend $800+ on 2016 GPUs and keeping them for 6-7 years. Chances are since you've been using 460 SLI for so long, a $200-230 480 would be more than enough for the types of games you will play in 2016.

Anyway, if you have to spend $800 on graphics cards in 2016, then go 1070 SLI then since it sounds like you don't like reselling PC parts or don't have a viable second hand market in your area? 480 CF is ~ 1080 and a single 1080 isn't enough for 4K even in 2016. Therefore, might as well get 1070 SLI. You can get EVGA versions in case you decide you want to step up to 1080 SLI within 90 days.

As i said above, the time to upgrade is now, we can always play the well in a year this will be out game, but sooner or later you need to just buy something. I dont understand how you can think buying either a RX480 CF or 1070SLI/1080 setup now can be a bad idea, they are all brand new to market cards at this time. Sure better cards will be out in 2017, guess what after that even better cards will be out in 2018, and 2019 after that.....

 

[guskline]

These forums show there are as many theories as theorists.

My goal for both of my machines was to go to single high end cards and avoid the CF/SLI issues. Does DOOM support multi gpu setups?

To each his own. I am replacing my 2 R9 290s with a single GTX 1080 which I will move to the 5960x rig and move the GTX 980 TI SC to the 4790k rig.

My 5960x rig is using a 3440 x1440 ultrawide Dell U3415W while my 4790k rig uses a BenQ 2560x1440 monitor.

 

[Rifter]

These forums show there are as many theories as theorists.

My goal for both of my machines was to go to single high end cards and avoid the CF/SLI issues. Does DOOM support multi gpu setups?

To each his own. I am replacing my 2 R9 290s with a single GTX 1080 which I will move to the 5960x rig and move the GTX 980 TI SC to the 4790k rig.

My 5960x rig is using a 3440 x1440 ultrawide Dell U3415W while my 4790k rig uses a BenQ 2560x1440 monitor.

This trend of ditching SLI/CF has me thinking im going to end up with a 1080 too. I just found out Nvidia isnt even supporting 3/4 way SLI anymore? seems like dual GPU's really are going to become a thing of the past.

I just wish AMD had some competition for Nvida 1080.

 

[IEC]

That CPU is going to bottleneck you, hard for a GTX 1080. Especially if you are CPU bound at 1080p resolution...

You'd be better off upgrading to 6700K + DDR4-3200 or higher + RX 480 or GTX 1070 for now. That'd cost less than buying a single 1080 and sticking with your current CPU, and probably give you better performance...

 

[imaheadcase]

At 1440p you won't need sli.

 

[Rifter]

That CPU is going to bottleneck you, hard for a GTX 1080. Especially if you are CPU bound at 1080p resolution...

You'd be better off upgrading to 6700K + DDR4-3200 or higher + RX 480 or GTX 1070 for now. That'd cost less than buying a single 1080 and sticking with your current CPU, and probably give you better performance...

Already said in post 8 i am switching to skylake as well as a GPU upgrade.

 

[Rifter]

At 1440p you won't need sli.

I would tend to agree, 1440p has been out for a long time, people seemed to do fine with this resolution and 9xx series cards. Im sure a 1080 will be good enough. Only reason for SLI or CF would be if using 2 mid range cards instead(RX480,1060/70).

 

[TemjinGold]

I understand you are tired of waiting but the main issue is, if your goal is VR, nothing you buy today in the price range you listed will make you happy with the VR performance you would get next year. Whatever you spend now is basically money pissed away.

 

[rchunter]

That's the main reason i'm not running a 4k monitor. Don't want to have to deal with sli. 1440p is good enough for now...

 

[garagisti]

Already said in post 8 i am switching to skylake as well as a GPU upgrade.

Consider this:
https://www.dealsofamerica.com/Cybe...o-SE-Gaming-Desktop-wIntel-Core-i7/347735.htm
for about $1500 + or - customisations you'll make x99 platform with broadwell six core processor, 16gb ddr4, and a GTX1080.

That is, unless you want to build your own rig, and consider pre-built systems an anathema

The only questionmark for me would be support for decoding h265 with HDR.

good luck