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Time to ditch SLI

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thedarkdad3

Registered
Joined
Dec 1, 2016
I am so torn...it seems like the games just have more issues under sli vs performance gains.

I am about ready to get a 1080ti and sell my 1080's

Displays As Follows



x1 Samsung 28inch 4K, 3840x2160 //4K resolution (what I game on)
x2 Dell UltraSharp 22 Multimedia Monitor | UZ2215H



my rig as of 04/05/2017
*Storage 1 OS/Samsung EVO 1TB m.2
*Storage 2*=x2 IronWolf NAS 3TB Seagate
*Storage 3*=x1 SSD Corsair Force Series, 960GB
*GPU* x2= nVidia GTX 1080 Founders Edition
*CPU*=Intel Core i7 5820k Overclocked @4.4ghZ/H320 X2 Prestige
*MB*=MSI X99A GODLIKE GAMING CARBON
*RAM*=Crucial Ballistix\64GB\DDR4 2200mhz [Custom Painted Headspreaders/Green]
*PSU*=eVGa #750 BQ, 80+ BRONZE 750W,Modular
*CASE*= Enthoo Luxe Full Tower Chassis(WHITE)
*NAS*=QNAP TS-509 Pro/RAID5/(5)Seagate Barracuda #ST3000DM001 3TB @ 10.5 TB
*NZXT Hue+ Lighting Kit*
https://www.thedarkdad3.com/
 
Its always been a trade off going SLI / Crossfire / Dual Cards +. If it works and works good you might get 100%, though typically getting 50-75% seemed to be the norm for the second card, less with the third. I'd say its improved these days for performance but still have to wait to those drivers get released for the proper performance.

Way back I sported 2 cards for a bit. It was sweet, great times with them, but didn't last long. Between all the hassle of making sure the drivers where up to date with the latest games or waiting weeks for it to update to take advantage of the second card was bad enough.

I'm happy these days with the single card, and I can run VR (decently) and even drive my 4k screen relatively well, course like you I think an upgrade to the GPU will be highly beneficial. Though for you dumping the 1080's for a 1080TI. Clock to Clock you'd get roughly 30-35% gain in performance increase over the single card.
 
50-75%?? You're dreaming there bro. I ran SLI for several years and not once did I ever get an extra 75% in any game. I would say more realistically it's 10 - 50%. I dont think I've ever seen more than a 50% increase in FPS, and most games was around 40%. In some cases SLI was worse than a single card, although that's not usually the case. I too ditched SLI two builds ago because I had problems with it in about 50% of games, even AAA titles that have been out for months and patched over and over. It's just not a sound technology. It's something that was released more to make money and through marketing hype than actual functionality. Literally 50% of the games out there have an issue with SLI depending on what your specific config is and I was always having some form of problem with at lease one or two games on my computer. I cant imagine running 3- or 4-way SLI. The number of problems with a setup like that must be through the roof.

SLI is a great way to increase performance for less money when you're okay with it not actually working correctly half the time. However, if you favor reliability and comparability, a single card is always the way to go.

As far as dumping the 80s for a Ti, you will lose FPS. Two 80s in SLI is more powerful than a Ti. However, again this assumes we're talking about a game that is well optimized for SLI and runs well with it and many games dont. If I was starting fresh, I would get a Ti over two 80s, but that's mostly because it would cost far less and a 1080Ti will run any game out there on all max settings effortlessly.
 
Agreed. I did crossfire awhile ago with 7950s and sli back with 680s. It was great but in the end sli/xfire just didn't work in the games that I wanted to play. It was worth it though when the company's supported them. Now it's obvious, nvidia brought sli back and is killing it off again. Just not worth it.
 
I made the decision to go with SLI only because it scales better with 3D Vision and I suppose VR too. I don't know if I find the test again but basically the scaling was 15%-20% better than without 3D Vision.
 
well i did it




I made the decision to go with SLI only because it scales better with 3D Vision and I suppose VR too. I don't know if I find the test again but basically the scaling was 15%-20% better than without 3D Vision.
 
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