First world problems - 1080SLI or Titan X Pascal?

Ahh, the days I used to keep graphic card spending to sub-£350...

So I'm starting to find 980Ti SLI is just struggling a little at 4K - most games run pretty well but rarely do I max out at 60fps consistently (even with AA off) and I'm also finding in texture-heavy games like ROTTR as VRAM fills up my 6GB (if only it was pooled to 12), performance starts to degrade.

Watch Dogs 2 doesn't get close to 60 - at 4K I'm looking at literally 2fps on this setup.

So I am considering an upgrade but with all the compatibility issues of SLI I am wary of going SLI again - but when it does work well it is frankly glorious. Support for SLI is mixed - Ubi is good for it, as are EA, but many Steam games like Mafia 3, Quantum Break and MS' own Gears of War are not SLI which renders you a £550 paperweight and the inability to have 60fps. Frustrating.

Meanwhile there's the Titan X Pascal - basically the same cost as 1080SLI but with 4GB more VRAM and a guarantee of consistent performance in all games - but always inferior to working 1080SLI.

With the pros and cons, what would you guys go with with that choice?

 

I'd go with a single card. You've given plenty of reasons to not go with that configuration in your own post lol.

Why not wait for a 1080 Ti?

 

SLI is a dying architecture. I wouldn't waste your money on a coin toss if the game you are playing will even benefit from it..

 

I agree with everyone else here. Buy the single most powerful GPU you can afford and be rid of all the quirks associated with SLI.

 

Buy Titan

 

Hi there

As above I would wait on Ti or upgrade to Titan X,but as I know Ti will be similarly fast as Titan X and can OC bit better than Titan X and VRAM size this will depends,from reports 10GB VRAM

Hard to recommend right now,I would wait a bit and then decide,but still I would sell 980Ti because price for them will start to drop and resale value can be low or lower,in my case I've Titan X "Maxwell" selling this card right now i would be lucky if I get £500-£550,friend sold his Titan X over on ebay few weeks back for £425

Hope this helps

Thanks,Jura

 

I will not know much about SLI.
But looking form the cash spent POV...IF i spend that amount on graphics alone, better to be the smoothest experience ever, i don't want any quirks and driver issues..
As above said, SLI turned sometimes pretty sour.
Get the best single card there is and be happy.

 

Thank you everyone for the replies. One winner from all this clearly! To answer you directly Jura, I always sell my old hardware to recoup some of the cost on the new stuff. For two 980Tis I think I could manage between £500-800.

But yes, I agree with the suggestions of waiting - it's not desperation yet to get better performance, so I'm not quite climbing the walls.

As for 1080Ti, I didn't even know it was on its way. From what I'm seeing it's going to be roughly £700-800 but be more or less equivalent to Titan X Pascal in performance.

The only contention I have to all of this is 1080SLI (when it works) will always beat any single card alternative and while a lot of devs are not supporting SLI any more (believe me, I know how support for it is not consistent at best) those who do give us excellent products. Of all the games I am currently playing on PC CoD IW, Anno 2205, Mafia 3, Gears of War and Quantum Break do not support SLI but Deus Ex, Dishonored 2, Watch Dogs 2, For Honor Beta, WRC6, Dirt Rally, Resident Evil 7 (by way of Nvidia inspector) and BF1 to name but seven do. So in the scheme of things it's 50/50 (slight weight towards SLI) as to whether the game in question does support it and when it doesn't, 1080GTX in most of these cases should on its own be able to give me close to 60fps in 4K.

It's like choosing between a Ferrari and a Merc. One is sexy, fast, and amazing to look at but less reliable, more expensive and frustrating, while the other is more conservative, less pricey, and not half as pretty but won't let you down even if it does it all a bit slower.

Meh!

 

Yes indeed we're in another cycle where single GPU doesn't quite have the horsepower to run the latest 'standard' gaming resolution increase. Thus the invention of mGPU many moons ago. It's really too bad support is declining. It would certainly help out as a stop gap until GPU rendering power catches up. I'm in a similar situation. I went from SLI TITAN to single 980Ti (in part because of SLI issues) at 1080p. Then upgraded to 4K. So...here we are...1080Ti (according to rumored specs) isn't really going to be enough to run 4K with all the bells and whistles either...1080Ti SLI?

 

I used to have multi-gpu, and i would never go bac, unless there are significant improvements.

It will be a rarity to have a game that works well with sli or crossfire. Like you said, when it works, there is nothing better, but...you will have issues the majority of the time.

If i had to choose, i would go single gpu. The experience is far more enjoyable.

 

Ha, that would be about £1500! Tasty performance of course (when supported) but I'm not sure I can justify the cost. I can barely justify £1200 as it is!

 

When the game is properly built (GTAV, Witcher 3) to fully support mGPU it's heavenly. And games of that quality aren't that rare (Deus Ex, BF1, Dishonored 2, Doom). But those issues which do crop up really are quite the pain.

Everyone has advised me on Pascal but one issue is buying direct from Nvidia; what is their returns policy? Amazon give you a nice 30 day trial period for anything and if you dislike it you return it at their cost and collection no questions asked. I doubt Nvidia are that generous!

 

Half of those games you listed don't work well with sli.

 

I suggest you compare the Titan X Pascal benchmarks on all the games you want to play. If it hits 60+ FPS @ 4K for you, it would be a no brainer at the same price.

You're wasting more time thinking about potential lost of performance or value by going to 1080 SLI than actually playing. That is time wasted which money can't buy.

The good thing is that if and when Titan XP drops in price, you can get a 2nd one to keep up with even more demanding games. I doubt going to triple SLI 1080 would even get you that kind performance and the headache of configuring all the games to enable.

Easier with 1 to 2, then 2 to 3.

Or wait for Vega since it should be out within the next 5 months or so if you're going to wait that long anyways.

 

If you go with the Titan XP you will need to spend extra on water cooling and do some power limit modding to unlock It's true potential. Otherwise wait for the 1080Ti since SLI Is useless If your target fps Is only 4K 60fps

 

Going for a Titan XP or a 1080Ti is the safest bet. Sorry, but not really feeling your "pain" in struggling with rendering your games at 4K, too early adopted. Basically what Hemi said above.

 

Alas they don't consistently. Mafia 3 and Quantum Break to name two either flirt with 60 or simply don't get to it. On Titan X Pascal.

Ha, I think this is 'first world problem' summed right up. I'm playing plenty, thanks for your concern!

Actually starting to consider Titan X Pascal SLI now as it is.

I do like the idea of it drawing from system memory, but the problem is it will require game devs to support that feature (much like the very under supported DX12 mGPU) rather than it being system side.

 

It isn't, it's the minimum requirement.

 

Once you've seen 4K it's simply not possible to revert back to 1080P IMO. More a dilemma than pain, my friend.

 

Probably so, that's why I keep miles away from 4K
But yeah, I personally would not buy SLI now again, although I don't have problems, being upset to have it not work in BF1 for a month for instance was just a pita... has to be even worse on 4K than 2K (what I'm driving).