Thanks - I may go with an 8GB 480 if I can find one for roughly the same price when I get to that point.
When I finally tried SLI, it worked but I was not satisfied.
Most of the time SLI works well with good scaling. Sometimes it acted strange and some titles (Like my favorite game Just Cause 3) do not support it at all. I had 2x GTX 660 ~ a GTX 970. I was getting 80FPS in GTA V, but in JC3 (with no SLI profile) I got 20FPS. Just for JC3, I sold the two SLI 660's and got a single 970. I don't plan to SLI the 970. I want a 1070 next.
The only questions with SLI you need to ask yourself are:
-1. Is money limited?
-If yes, no to SLI
=Else go on.
0. Do I need more performance or is it just nice to have?
-If no, then no.
1. Is this a top tier card?
-If No - then don't SLI, get a better Card instead.
-If already have best card, get SLI. SLI for lowend cards is SCHTUPID.
2. Does a second card cost more than saving up an extra month for a newer card.
-If yes, then no to SLI
3. Do I care about power consumption, global warming and the heat death of the universe?
-If No then SLI
4. Has whatever you're trying to do (except gaming) already maxed the latest and greatest single card solution?
-If Yes, then SLI - lots
-If SLI for gaming, find better things to do with your cash than burn in on burning time, most games aren't SLi optimized at all. Run Blender Renders, HashCat or Folding@Home instead. ;)
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It will also depending on the games you play and how you play them.
And then i mainly point towards the resolution you gonne play at.
At 1080p there isnt really that much of a reason to do sli or crossfire,
Unless you have two lowend cards.
But with something like a sli GTX1070´s at 1080p, your cpu will still be,
the limmited factor in allot of games.
its not like you allways gonne see double the performance wenn putting 2 cards,
in sli what so ever on lower resolutions.
The scaling wont allways be optimal, even on 1440P.
Allthough games do get better and better optimzed nowdays.
At 4K gaming, it would make a bit more sense, because the cpu will be less of a limmited factor.
But never the less, i would still recommend a more higherend single card,
over sli / crossfire two lowerend cards regardless.
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Depends on use case.
SLI is decidedly NOT a value option. Nvidia removed the capability on the 1060 to further cement this fact, as others have mentioned.
The Requirement for title specific support, inability to use it as a homogenous device for compute, and other drawbacks really only make it "practical" if you want more than what high end devices can offer for whatever reason, and you have the spare cash to make that happen.
All of these also apply to crossfire on the AMD side, but at least you can still crossfire their bargain bin chips.
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So much SLI hate here...
Where SLI makes sense to me is when your GPU is at least one generation old, and people are selling off their old cards for cheap.
This is exactly what I did - added a cheap second hand 970, and in some cases I can enjoy almost double the performance I had before.
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I ran SLI way back in the day with two GTX
260s. It was okay, but overall, it seemed like more of a novelty to me. I haven't missed it, especially the larger PSU requirement and added heat.
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I dont see any Sli hate atall, people just share their experiances and honnest opinions.
Well if you have an older card it can be great.
Or a 9800GT like my mac (will be doing SLI because a newer card will be bottlenecked in a MP1,1). If you have the need to do it that way, go ahead if its in your Margin. If you could sell your current card and get a 480 8GB then def do that instead.
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Having run configs with both single gpu and sli gpu setups before, I would have to say to for the highest end single card you can afford right now. SLI is interesting and can net you extra performance in some cases but there are some minor annoyances that you have to deal with. My setup often disabled it's SLI seemingly at the drop of a hat. It also had a habit of kicking the framerate of my benq monitor from the 120hz I usually keep it at back down to 60hz also for seemingly no reason. Also like others have said scaling is not perfect if it's implemented at all which is hit or miss depending on the game. SLI is a very viable upgrade option for cheap down the road but for right out of the gate I would go with a single higher end GPU.
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When I first built a PC I went the two 770s route. While it was cool...I wished I would have just spent the money on a top tier GPU. Because of the scaling issues, driver performance. Games didn't perform as they were supposed to. So I sold one upgraded to a 980. I put the other 770 in my steam machine.
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Two 480s would be pretty good. Don't listen to the noobs. If you got the money get a 1080ti, no need to sli, or you could get a 1080 which is similar to two 980's. Depending on if you can get a good deal on two gpu's should be the deciding factor.
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