GPU upgrade options

[Ghislandi]

Hey everyone, I'm new to the site but I've been using GPU-Z for many years now, almost a decade matter in fact, so I've been lurking here since then. I currently have a decent gaming PC and I'm thinking which GPU would be the best to go for now. Would it be worth it to grab a second GTX 980 Ti to SLI or just go for a GTX 1080 Ti? These are my specs I currently have for now. I've had very good success with my previous SLI builds dating back to my 8800 GTX/QX6700 build 10 years ago now. What are your thoughts fellow PC gamers? If I go with grabbing another 980 Ti, it would also be another Zotac GTX 980 Ti AMP Extreme to match the one I have and my current motherboard has space for the GPU despite my current 980 Ti being a monster 3 slot cooler. My GTX 980 Ti AMP when overclocked can easily surpass a reference GTX 1070, so it's not a slouch by any means. But would 6GB of VRAM be enough until Volta releases or even the successor to the 1080 Ti (GTX 1180 Ti??)??? Even though the GTX 1080 Ti is a beast but I don't quite feel it's a major jump for my GTX 980 Ti. I also see many Zotac GTX 980 Ti AMP Extreme's being sold on Ebay for about $300 average. I mainly game at 2160p 60hz on a 65 inch Samsung KS8000 HDR TV and for the more demanding games, I game at 1440p 60hz but wish to increase it to 2160p because it's such a beautiful sight on a 65 inch HDR TV. I previously came from a GTX 970 SLI build and upgraded because of VRAM issues more so than the actual performance of both 970 G1's at 2160p. Before the 970 SLI, I had an SLI 680 4GB build and before that, a GTX 560 Ti build, so the 970's were a major jump then but I don't quite feel that way for the 1080 Ti this time around. So those were major jumps, would it be worth it from a 980 Ti to the 1080 Ti or just SLI my 980 Ti? The games I play do benefit from SLI for those wondering about the stigma of single and multi GPU builds.

i7 4790k @ 4.6ghz w/Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO dual fans
ASUS Z97 Sabertooth Mark 1
16GB Corsair Dominator GT DDR3 @ 2300
Zotac GTX 980 Ti AMP Extreme @ 1500/2000
EVGA SuperNOVA P2 1000W 80+ Platinum PSU
Intel 535 480GB SSD w/Windows 10 Pro x64
Toshiba HK3R2 960GB Enterprise SSD (x2) for games and storage.
Cooler Master Stacker 830 full size tower

 

[Kanan]

Hi and welcome,

I'd go with the 1080 Ti and sell the existing 980 Ti. Why, because SLI is a pain and I read about problems with it regularly (I had a Crossfire card myself, it was a mess in part, I wouldn't want to try again). You may want to wait for Radeon RX Vega for prices to drop. CPU etc. is generally good enough for the GTX 1080 Ti btw.

The other option is, you take the risk (and increased power consumption) and go with another 980 Ti - then I'd only recommend you the same model and be aware it's slower than 1080 Ti and won't work in every game, and in every game it works it won't work as good as a single GPU as well. Things to keep in mind is also that the 6 GB Vram is still enough for 1440p and will be for the next few years, but it's better to have more, especially for 1440p Ultra gaming, to be on the safe side, especially because there are a few games that want more than the average games.

 

[Jack1n]

At 4K the 1080Ti is almost twice as fast as the 980Ti and with 11GB of vram you will not need to worry about 4K textures saturating your memory, not to mention you won't have to deal with any multi GPU hassle.
I highly doubt you will get that kind of performance with 980Ti SLI even in the most SLI friendly titles.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Hold out until Vega arrives and a couple reviews have been made.

 

[Liviu Cojocaru]

Hello and welcome,

I would also advise to move away from the SLI but wait a little while longer to get the 1080Ti as now the prices for an aftermarket one are a bit too high. I had GTX970's in SLI and for the most part imo it was not worth the trouble.

 

[wurschti]

Multiple GPUs are nowadays the worst gamer options. They may be good for productive work, but gaming has been lately crippled by SLI/Crossfire. My advice, sell the 980Ti and buy what your heart desires.

 

[Ghislandi]

Thanks everyone, I got to test a friend's GTX 1080 Ti and honestly, I wasn't too impressed with the performance. I was hoping I could finally do 4k gaming with a single card but even the GTX 1080 Ti isn't quite there yet. So I think I'm going to grab a second GTX 980 Ti and SLI for now since it's far cheaper and wait until the next generation of nvidia cards to drop. SLI has been working for me good for all these years, I've had SLI 7900 GTX, 8800 GTX, GTS 450, GTX 560 Ti, GTX 680, GTX 970 and will now do the same for the GTX 980 Ti. I don't know why many are against it when I've had good usage out of SLI setups....

 

[peche]

i7 4790k @ 4.6ghz w/Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO dual fans
ASUS Z97 Sabertooth Mark 1
16GB Corsair Dominator GT DDR3 @ 2300
Zotac GTX 980 Ti AMP Extreme @ 1500/2000
EVGA SuperNOVA P2 1000W 80+ Platinum PSU
Intel 535 480GB SSD w/Windows 10 Pro x64
Toshiba HK3R2 960GB Enterprise SSD (x2) for games and storage.
Cooler Master Stacker 830 full size tower

add that here... and complete fields...

Would it be worth it to grab a second GTX 980 Ti to SLI or just go for a GTX 1080 Ti?

Personally i dont like SLi that much, ill go for a single GTX 1080 ti....

I mainly game at 2160p 60hz on a 65 inch Samsung KS8000 HDR TV and for the more demanding games, I game at 1440p 60hz but wish to increase it to 2160p because it's such a beautiful sight on a 65 inch HDR TV.

65" screen? wow ... thats huge i guess...

Thanks everyone, I got to test a friend's GTX 1080 Ti and honestly, I wasn't too impressed with the performance. I was hoping I could finally do 4k gaming with a single card but even the GTX 1080 Ti isn't quite there yet. So I think I'm going to grab a second GTX 980 Ti and SLI for now since it's far cheaper and wait until the next generation of nvidia cards to drop. SLI has been working for me good for all these years, I've had SLI 7900 GTX, 8800 GTX, GTS 450, GTX 560 Ti, GTX 680, GTX 970 and will now do the same for the GTX 980 Ti. I don't know why many are against it when I've had good usage out of SLI setups....

well, nothing to say here ...

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Thanks everyone, I got to test a friend's GTX 1080 Ti and honestly, I wasn't too impressed with the performance. I was hoping I could finally do 4k gaming with a single card but even the GTX 1080 Ti isn't quite there yet. So I think I'm going to grab a second GTX 980 Ti and SLI for now since it's far cheaper and wait until the next generation of nvidia cards to drop. SLI has been working for me good for all these years, I've had SLI 7900 GTX, 8800 GTX, GTS 450, GTX 560 Ti, GTX 680, GTX 970 and will now do the same for the GTX 980 Ti. I don't know why many are against it when I've had good usage out of SLI setups....

Shame you dont have the patience to wait to even see the Vega vs. 1080 Ti comparison before making a purchase, but i guess we all waste money and do a /facepalm eventually.

 

[Ghislandi]

Shame you don't have the patience to wait to even see the Vega vs. 1080 Ti comparison before making a purchase, but i guess we all waste money and do a /facepalm eventually.

What's so shameful about buying another Zotac GTX 980 Ti AMP Extreme for $250???? I just bought it earlier today from a local guy and he only had it for a month, now that's wasted money because it was more impulse until he realized the 1080 Ti was released. How many 980 Ti's are being sold for $250, much less an overclocked model that's easily up to 25% faster than a base 980 Ti??? I even had the guy test the card at his apartment before I paid him. Both the 1080 Ti and Vega that's closest to it won't be at this price point for a few years. I feel it was a smart decision when it was really cheap and the games I play most often do support SLI and now can achieve 60fps 2160p for the more demanding games instead of having them at 1440p. Mass Effect Andromeda looks awesome at HDR 2160p Ultra. Though, I'm using my ribbon SLI bridge that came with my mobo, so I'll have to swing by my local Microcenter to buy me a HB SLI bridge to really take advantage of my cards. Not bad when I paid $500 for both cards (Ebay and local).

 

[Ghislandi]

add that here... and complete fields...


Personally i dont like SLi that much, ill go for a single GTX 1080 ti....


65" screen? wow ... thats huge i guess...


well, nothing to say here ...

Just did that, thanks for directing me to post my specs there.

I've been using SLI since the 7900 GTX days and have been good to me since, I guess all the cards I bought have been great so far including used cards such as my GTX 680 SLI and now my current Zotac GTX 980 Ti AMP Extreme SLI.

It truly makes 4k shine and worth it, I feel 4k is wasted on any display smaller than a 55 inch and truly is a beautiful sight when your TV is properly calibrated. Also, the Input Lag is very low and fine for my gaming needs and since no monitors have HDR, that's a bonus. The blacks are excellent for an LCD model, has great contrast, has uniform black/grey (no clouding), has great picture for sports/fast scenes and is perfect for gaming. I bought it for $1,500 at my local Microcenter a few months ago and the picture is actually a bit better than even Samsung's new overpriced QLED tv's.

I actually prefer to game from my recliner about 6 feet away and use a diner tray for my KB/M and an XBOX One Elite controller w/chatpad (makes using Fallout 4/Skyrim PC commands and MMO chatting easy without KB). Long story short, a car accident nearly a decade and a half ago left my right wrist not feeling the same, so I can't game for long periods with a mouse like I used to be able to as I get older now, so the controller with Pinnacle Game Profiler (for games that don't support controllers) has been great so far.

 

[RealNeil]

Thanks everyone, I got to test a friend's GTX 1080 Ti and honestly, I wasn't too impressed with the performance. I was hoping I could finally do 4k gaming with a single card but even the GTX 1080 Ti isn't quite there yet. So I think I'm going to grab a second GTX 980 Ti and SLI for now since it's far cheaper and wait until the next generation of nvidia cards to drop. SLI has been working for me good for all these years, I've had SLI 7900 GTX, 8800 GTX, GTS 450, GTX 560 Ti, GTX 680, GTX 970 and will now do the same for the GTX 980 Ti. I don't know why many are against it when I've had good usage out of SLI setups....

I haven't had any problems with 980Ti SLI either.

 

[Ghislandi]

I haven't had any problems with 980Ti SLI either.

So far, my latest SLI build is working great, for the games that do support SLI, it works awesome and even at the factory overclock is still more powerful than a 1080 Ti. It works on Mass Effect Andromeda with the Battlefield 1 SLI profile, but now that the official SLI profile for Mass Effect Andromeda came out, I'm having awesome performance and most of the time it's at 60fps ay 2160p Ultra. I'm taking all sorts of screenshots and also Ansel screenshots too. I did play around with the Resolution Scaling at 2160p and set it at 2.00 and it brought my PC to its knees similar to how the first Crysis did to my old 8800 GTX SLI/QX6700/8GB DDR2 1000 build 10 years ago, lol. So I guess it's rendering at 8K or even 16K since 2.00 at 1080p seems to downsample 2160p since performance is similar to native 2160p. I guess 6GB of VRAM on both my cards may be why it's overloaded, lol.

 

[RealNeil]

I have to be honest here. Crossfire works pretty darn fine too. This is my score with two 8GB RX480 cards and it comes in at the 95 percentile of all scores. My 980Ti cards are much better, but nothing wrong with this at all. SLI and Crossfire seem to be fine for me almost always.