Hi Guys, So with the recent release of all the reviews coming out for the 980Ti, I'm pondering over buying one of the beasts! I'm currently running a 980 G1 which is a fantastic card but does not quite cut the mustard for 3440x1440 gaming for games like GTA V and Project cars if you wish to run at max graphics with no AA. Looking at benchmarks for the 980 SLI it looks like it would be most beneficial to pickup a second 980 at some point and probably more price efficient. But the 980Ti has some significant advantages. (I think) For one it's a single GPU card. Now as much as I love SLI I have found it can run pretty hot.. and my card is non reference design, so the air flow would just be all over the place. The 980Ti also runs a beefy 6GB VRAM, meaning it would allow me to max out some of those more demanding GTA V settings. I also have run into issues with SLI in the past, the main one being games just not scaling very well with SLI or at all. Although I believe this is partially dictated by how the game is designed to use HW resources. And finally it's new and shiny! Anyway would really appreciate some feedback and advice, let me know if you think I'm talking complete rubbish. It has been known! Thanks as always guys!
Personally I've not had issues with SLI other than some games not supporting it so you're only effectively running 1 card :/ SLI 980s will beat any single GPU now or soon - if I was in your position I'd take the advice in the BT review
980 sli here with 3440x1440 monitor and so far 4gb of ram has caused no issues, I think if I was at 4k I would look to cards with more ram. I think we might see some price reductions on the 980 so sli could be the cheapest option for you
Thanks ever so much for the quick response and comments guys. Do you think there would be any issues caused with running SLI with non reference cards on my setup? I have a Fractal Design Define R4 case with 2x 140mm intake fans and 1x 140mm Exhaust. And there is adequate spacing between the cards themselves on the motherboard.
Personally I would go for blower style cards if given the choice (i.e. if I was buying both at the same time) but non-reference isn't the end of the world if you have good spacing between the cards. The only thing that might put me off SLI in your case however is your case (pun intended) as the Define R4 isn't the best for cooling GPUs (source)
Hi George, Thanks allot for the information, really appreciated! I feel SLI would definitely be the best choice especially from a price/ performance perspective. That being said though I am very concerned about GPU temps. As you stated my case is probably one of the worst for SLI and I have ran 2x 680's in SLI in the past and they ran ridiculously hot. In fact I believe I made a post on BT about it. http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=274611 So with the above being said, do you think it would be best to pick up a new case like the "SilverStone FT02R-W" which I really like because shiny! Or do you think I should risk running the 980 in SLI in my case. or option 3 go with the 980Ti. Thanks again for all the advice!
Or Option 4: Pick up a new case and go GTX980Ti SLI, lovely jubbly! Jokes aside, as George has mentioned, I tend to go with GPU's with stock cooling, well ones which vent out the rear of the card as opposed into the case, so you could say I'm not a fan of aftermarket coolers.
There is always one.... But still very tempting. I completely agree with you though allot bigger fan of the stock coolers than the aftermarket. (Pun also intended)
