2 cards in an SLI verus a single card

[kinkladze10]

Hi all was looking for some technical advice.

Am I better off going with 2 of these in an SLI 4GB EVGA GTX 970 SSC ACX2.0, 1190MHz GPU, 1664 Cores, 7010MHz GDDR5
or one of these 6GB EVGA GTX 980 Ti SC ACX 2.0+, 1102MHz GPU, 2816 Cores, 7010MHz GDDR5

I'll be looking to game on this monitor when it's released http://www.scan.co.uk/products/34-ac...40x1440-300cd-
And so I want the best setup with the max detail possible but also something that is easy to configure in the options etc.

thanks

[DDY]

Considering that you're looking to game at 3440x1440, I'd pick the 980 ti because it has more RAM. The 970's 4GB (3.5GB ) may be limiting at 3440x1440.

[kinkladze10]

right thanks, I'm also looking at the 12GB EVGA GTX TITAN X SC, PCIe 3.0 (x16), 7010MHz GDDR5, GPU 1127MHz, Boost 1216MHz, Cores 3072, 3x DP 1.2/HDMI/DVI-I DL
Is the best single Nvidia card on the market today?

I'm looking to get a new Gaming Rig built, my current card is quite old by todays standards, (relic) its an Nvidia GeForce GTX 280 so I'm wondering what level of improvement I would see in terms of performance between the 2 cards? I don't think this card goes past DX9 or 10 lol!

[DDY]

For gaming, both the Titan X and 980ti perform similarly which makes the additional £300 price on the Titan X seem extortionate. The two are the fastest single GPU cards available today.

Between GTX 280 vs GTX 980 ti? Much improvement will be seen.

[aidanjt]

A single ultra high end card is always better than two lower end cards, it's less complicated and performs more consistently and efficiently. That said, if a 970 is in your budget now and you plan on picking up another 970 later, v.s. spending more time saving up for a 980ti, that's perfectly valid. But if you have the money for the 980ti now, drop it on that, a 970 SLI bundle might perform better sometimes, but like I said, it's not consistent or efficient, and it might be subject to the occasional microsutter.

[abaxas]

So, if you are buying a 34 inch monitor, you'll obviously won't be playing twitch reflex games (as the size will be a disadvantage). Then I suppose the question is, what games are you going to play?

[KeyboardDemon]

I prefer going for the single most powerful card that I can afford rather than two less powerful cards that add up to the same value.

[kinkladze10]

Ok thanks guys.
I will look at the 6GB EVGA GTX 980 Ti SC ACX 2.0+, 1102MHz GPU, 2816 Cores, 7010MHz GDDR5
After comparing that card with the 12mb version the difference in cost v performance doesn't really seem worth it.

I mainly play RPGs so things like Skyrim etc but heavily modded with Hi Res stuff, also looking to get Fallout 4 when that's released later.

I'm not sure I understand what the disadvantage is by playing games on a larger screen? Is this a problem as it's not something I've heard of?

[jag272]

Well the general idea about gaming on a larger screen is that stuff like Skyrim won't be affected, and will look better with mods as you have mentioned.

However faster paced, twitch based games will be more difficult to play on a much larger screen. Take Unreal Tournament for example, on a small screen you see the guy in the corner of your screen because you can see the whole screen. On a smaller screen, unless you are sitting further back from it, you're less likely to pick up on details in the corners of the screen unless you are specifically looking there, as you can't focus on such a big area so easily as if it was smaller.

[kinkladze10]

Ah right I see.
I don't really play those types of FPS game and the ones I do play are only single player so I think I'd be ok with it.
So long as that card can power that size of monitor on the highest/ultra settings then I'll be happy