980 Ti SLI owners, what are your opinions?

Frraksurred

2[H]4U
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I haven't run SLI in a long time and frankly, haven't missed the headache. That said I'm moving to 4k @ 60hz and Witcher 3 on Ultra is more important to me then headaches right now. ;)

So, what has been your experience with drivers, fps, good / poor SLI support in games, etc? I want to hear the good and the bad. Anything that would help me make an educated decision. Thank you up front.


These will be going into the rig in my sig, running a Seiki SM40UNP via DP 1.2 and be spaced rather then stacked for better air circulation.
 
At 4k to maintain 55-60fps range with Titan X SLI @1400mhz I have all settings on Ultra except grass density. AA off and Hairworks off. Either of those settings will cost you about 20% performance, although with both on the hit is only about 30%.

The game is CPU limited in big cities though due to peasant density. Hairworks and AA almost has no effect in fps there, according to FRAPs although it still feels a little smoother with them off. But in the wilderness it's GPU bound, so with either AA or Hairworks on it drops your fps to 40-50 range.

SLI only works with Fullscreen mode with W3. You have to go into the graphics menu every time you load the the game to make sure that it didn't start in borderless Windowed mode.
 
At 4k to maintain 55-60fps range with Titan X SLI @1400mhz I have all settings on Ultra except grass density. AA off and Hairworks off. Either of those settings will cost you about 20% performance, although with both on the hit is only about 30%.

I'm currently running it at 2560x1600 with similar settings. Grass density and Foliage distance are set to "High" instead of Ultra. Since I'll only be running at 60Hz, maybe I'll be able to keep HairWorks, but I doubt AA will even be needed at this res (we'll see).


The game is CPU limited in big cities though due to peasant density. Hairworks and AA almost has no effect in fps there, according to FRAPs although it still feels a little smoother with them off. But in the wilderness it's GPU bound, so with either AA or Hairworks on it drops your fps to 40-50 range.

I'm guessing I'll be stretching my poor old 3770k, even at 4.3Ghz, so I'll be keeping an eye on this, thanks.

SLI only works with Fullscreen mode with W3. You have to go into the graphics menu every time you load the the game to make sure that it didn't start in borderless Windowed mode.

Excellent info all around, thank you. After I buy the cards I'll have to recoup some $$$ before I pick up the panel. I'm hoping they have the next revision out by then as it is supposed to add HDMI 2.0 and DP1.3. I may run tests with each to see if one performs better then the other.

Again, thanks for the input. Much appreciated.
 
it really just depends on the game you are playing. This generation of cards in dual SLI can have amazing scaling, or it can be sh!t. If only companies spent the money to make their games SUPER SLI friendly.
 
it really just depends on the game you are playing. This generation of cards in dual SLI can have amazing scaling, or it can be sh!t. If only companies spent the money to make their games SUPER SLI friendly.

Agreed, and we all know when that will happen. Same time AMD and Nvidia start working hand in hand to help each other out.

For now Witcher 3, Project Cars and BF4 are my games for the foreseeable future. Eventually Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Fallout 4, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mirrors Edge 2, SW Battlefront and Ghost Recon Wildlands are in my sites. Can't know anything about them yet, but I see a lot of Frostbite 2 engine in my future and they usually optimize fairly well for SLI. The Ti's seem like the best-bang / future proof route atm.
 
I haven't played much of the Witcher 3 with my 980 TIs in SLI, but it seems to run smoothly with Hairworks on. I have disabled depth of field and AA, but everything else is on Ultra. I've got a 3rd card I'm putting into the mix soon.
 
Yeah. SLI is so hit and miss. Some times it's awesome, other times it sucks. I keep seeing games with titan xs in 3 way SLI and the 2nd two cards are running at like 50%. It's to volatile for me. 1 beast card IMO (or at max dual sli)
 
I like the replies I'm seeing in this thread.

I just dropped the bomb on a pair of EVGA 980 Ti's and Koolance water blocks.

Going to be owning my first set of Nvidia cards after watching this Fury X flop. I've been on CrossFire 290X's under water for nearly 2 years now and they have done me great but I need more performance for 5760x1080 resolution at higher graphics settings.

From the feel of it I don't think I'll run into any more SLI issues than the ones I had with Crossfire (which were minimal in my opinion and completely manageable).
 
Been using SLi for 3 years now. Only had issues with 3 out of eleventy billion games I played in the 3 years. All those 3 games are now fixed and running like a champ.

I can't go back to not having SLi. Worst case scenario I turn off SLi in a game and enjoy it still. Turn it back on in the next driver iteration.

Even Witcher 3 is running awesome now. I am pretty sure, so will Batman in a week or two. No big loss given the amount of time I have to play games.

Next up 980 Ti SLi. Now if only newegg.com would let me order 2 of the same brand cards then I am golden. :mad:
 
Been using SLi for 3 years now. Only had issues with 3 out of eleventy billion games I played in the 3 years. All those 3 games are now fixed and running like a champ.

I can't go back to not having SLi. Worst case scenario I turn off SLi in a game and enjoy it still. Turn it back on in the next driver iteration.

Even Witcher 3 is running awesome now. I am pretty sure, so will Batman in a week or two. No big loss given the amount of time I have to play games.

Next up 980 Ti SLi. Now if only newegg.com would let me order 2 of the same brand cards then I am golden. :mad:

Have you tried buying the card off of newegg buisness?
 
Newegg is where I bought my cards. Both of them are EVGA, I had to buy the reference card and the other had to be the ACX+ 2.0 cooler since they limit you 1 per customer. Both are reference boards so no issues for me considering they're going into a custom loop.
 
Hmmm I went with two different brands, both of the reference model. That shouldn't be a problem, should it?
 
I like the replies I'm seeing in this thread.

I just dropped the bomb on a pair of EVGA 980 Ti's and Koolance water blocks.

Going to be owning my first set of Nvidia cards after watching this Fury X flop. I've been on CrossFire 290X's under water for nearly 2 years now and they have done me great but I need more performance for 5760x1080 resolution at higher graphics settings.

From the feel of it I don't think I'll run into any more SLI issues than the ones I had with Crossfire (which were minimal in my opinion and completely manageable).

From a guy who bought AMD stock Im proud of you lol. no really sli is way better than crossfire because of micro stutter issues and driver related stuff. Nvidia still has the hdmi problem with color so
 
As per the first response in here, I have 3-way Titan X sli (so not quite what you're asking but close enough), and I run 4x Asus PG278Q monitors in 1440p in a 3+1 setup (so again not quite 4k, but these are the cards that could handle it). So far I've been able to keep pretty well everything in ultra across the board.

I haven't had any issues with micro stuttering, most games play in the 80-100 fps range (or higher for older games) @ 1440. I can give an example of Guild Wars 2 World vs World where we had roughly 200-300 players all smacking each other in the same area across 3 screens, my fps never went below 70. With G-sync I can't really see a difference in gameplay but it is nice to see everything in a buttery smooth motion all the time.

I guess bottom line is with what I'm running and playing at, zero complaints from me!

Yeah. SLI is so hit and miss. Some times it's awesome, other times it sucks. I keep seeing games with titan xs in 3 way SLI and the 2nd two cards are running at like 50%. It's to volatile for me. 1 beast card IMO (or at max dual sli)

I've got EVGA cards which I can control through precision x16 software. I'm pretty sure I can get all 3 of them working @ load. It helps to have one of each of my 3 surround monitors plugged into each graphics card (see SLI configuration Titan X 3-way 2D landscape --> option#1 in their config tool). But I will add, it can get hot in that room!
 
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So far I'm loving it. The experience with 2 980 TI's has been far superior to the 3x 780's they replaced. That's due in good part to 3 way SLI not being as efficient or as well supported. Like some of the previous posters have said, the 2nd/3rd card aren't always utilized effectively depending upon the game.

With the Witcher 3, I can completely back up what dragonageinquisition stated; I play with Hairworks and AA off. They're not worth the FPS hit. I do have grass density on Ultra but I'm able to clock my cards a bit higher after putting them on water (1540/8000) which has helped a bit.

I've been SLI'ing since the 8800 series and I'd say the SLI experience with 980 TI's is much better than it was back then, but the scaling % is a bit less than I used to see with the GTX 680 or even the GTX 480 series. That's likely due as much to current games as it is to drivers. It's still SLI though so you're gonna have the occasional headache.
 
Thank you all for the replies. I'm feeling pretty good about the purchase and will likely pull the trigger soon. I wish G-Sync had made it to the 4k, but I don't see that happening any time soon. My current Dell 3011 is only 30hz, so it will be an upgrade from what I'm used too, but I'd love me some 144hz.
 
I just switch from 290x Crossfire to 980 ti SLI and nv surround is buggy at best.

I'm having one hell of a problem to get the nv surround to save after reboot.
It seems like one of my monitor is lost right after reboot so upon reboot it doesn't see the 3rd one so it reverts back to extended.

Help!!
 
Thank you all for the replies. I'm feeling pretty good about the purchase and will likely pull the trigger soon. I wish G-Sync had made it to the 4k, but I don't see that happening any time soon. My current Dell 3011 is only 30hz, so it will be an upgrade from what I'm used too, but I'd love me some 144hz.

If you haven't bought the 4k 60hz monitor yet, I'd strongly recommend going with the XB270HU instead. 1440p 144hz IPS G-Sync is the best combination on the market right now for gaming. I will never go back to a 60hz monitor. There's a huge difference in motion fluidity, even with G-Sync on, when going from 60fps up to the 90+ range.
 
Hmmm I went with two different brands, both of the reference model. That shouldn't be a problem, should it?

As long as the cards are the same model, e.g 980ti, will be fine. 1 will most likely have a higher clock setting so bump the slower clocked card to match it.
 
If you haven't bought the 4k 60hz monitor yet, I'd strongly recommend going with the XB270HU instead. 1440p 144hz IPS G-Sync is the best combination on the market right now for gaming. I will never go back to a 60hz monitor. There's a huge difference in motion fluidity, even with G-Sync on, when going from 60fps up to the 90+ range.

I've not doubt you're right. I've yet to experience it, so I don't know what I'm missing. The 40" is already on the way, so I still won't.

I gave a great deal of thought to going 1440p @144hz, read a lot of glowing reviews. That said, I've had one or more 30" monitors since 2009... can't go back. It's bigger or bust for me. Eventually the refresh tech will catch up (I hope), but 60hz is still an upgrade from what I have, so I'll make the best of it. Appreciate the input nonetheless.

--

More on topic, I just pre-ordered 2 Evga 980Ti Classifieds. Time to pretty up my case for the glamour shoot. ;)
 
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