SLI a GTX 970 or…?

I went with a quality screen of 1440p instead of 4k. IPS, 144hz and so on. Those features seem more important and with 1440p you don't need a monster GPU. I think 4k is only for those willing to spend a fortune on their gaming right now. Which I'd not recommend you to do in your economical situation.

@souha13, Right. But I already own a 4K TV, not monitor, I bought last year and have been using as my gaming and computer screen. So I would like to play ELEX at least in 4k on it. I have played Skyrim and Oblivion and a few others in 4k on it with the GTX 970, but obviously for new games I need to upgrade.

I think I'll get the Vega or 1070 if the Vega is too expensive. Thanks for the posts people.

You can play 1440p on a 4k screen. The difference in resolution is minimal. The big advantage of modern 4k tv is not the extra resolution but HDR. While the choice is yours I personally have found sli a waste of money. In fact if 1080p had supported HDR with some of the other nice features that 4k tv support I would have gone with a 1080p tv.

I'm playing ELEX now in 1440p, but it's not a 144hz TV and I'm trying to shoot for a basic 45-60 fps at 4k with mostly high settings. At least for ELEX and whatever older games I play later.

970 SLI is the cheapest option and seems like it would come close to the 1070 performance, but is also more of a hassle as I have to upgrade my motherboard. And possible bugs, etc.. The Vega is a bit out of my price range right now, so it's either the 1070 and sell the 970 or another 970 and slight mobo upgrade. Not sure really. Probably depends on how eBay breaks and which good deal I find there on whichever card.

Generally I agree to @souha13. The gains from 4k over 1440p should be minimal, but require tons of money to make it happen.

If you can get a really, really great deal for a gtx 970 AND a board it might be worth it, but as pointed out before it's not a very good solution for 4k either, partially because of the limited memory.

PCGamer always does nice Benchmark comparisons which you can find here:
http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/GNn…nDf-650-80.png
(benchmarks on high presets)

There is also a youtube video with some benchmarks comparing 2x970 with one 1080: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TJZsbeQWk0
Just make sure to disable the sound to get rid of the music.

I mean in the end the question is how much you are willing to spend and how much of a performance gain you are expecting.
But on 4k I don't think you will be happy with either result (1070 / 2x970)

And while it might still be fine with Elex, you'd then look around to upgrade again for the next game.

One other thing: If you are into VR, then the new GPU generation also has a huge advantage due to additional performance gain by not rendering everything twice (once for each eye) but creating one "barebone image" which is then rendered individually for each eye (or screen in a 3 screen setup).

Don’t forget games need an sli profile to benefit from sli. Which from a quick (not an extensive search) search elex doesn’t have. So I’d be sure to search for some sli benchmarks before buying anything. Also sli will introduce other problems such as microstutter.

Here’s a link to a work around for sli profile for elex. While they got better framerates it came at the expense of flickering sky and shadow. Not worth it IMO.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/41130…2961051433002/

Seems to me even nvidia has soured on sli as evidence of them dropping official support for anything over 2 cards. I used to be a big sli supporter but support seems to be diminishing. Now I just buy the fastest single card solution and call it a day.

@Fluent, you dable a lot with a wide variety of games and texture mods, etc, while also recording video. Having an SLI setup makes technical issues that much more of a headache. Go with a single card option. You can probably make a decent buck from selling the 970 to help fund your new card.

I personally would go with the Vega myself, as having the option to use Freesync instead of the more expensive gsync monitors is nice, but it's just a frill. Millions of people have been enjoying gaming on LCDs without freesync and gsync for years. A 1070/1080 is going to be a great upgrade from your current card now too.

Originally Posted by Caddy
@Fluent, you dable a lot with a wide variety of games and texture mods, etc, while also recording video. Having an SLI setup makes technical issues that much more of a headache. Go with a single card option. You can probably make a decent buck from selling the 970 to help fund your new card.

I personally would go with the Vega myself, as having the option to use Freesync instead of the more expensive gsync monitors is nice, but it's just a frill. Millions of people have been enjoying gaming on LCDs without freesync and gsync for years. A 1070/1080 is going to be a great upgrade from your current card now too.

Thanks man. I have to sell the 970 I guess. I'd love the Vega but that thing is really pricey. Going to try and make it happen somehow.

Thanks for the info everyone. Going to try and swing a Vega. Peace!

There might be some decent deals black friday/cyber monday. Hard to tell. When I purchased a 1070 a year ago it was a lot cheaper ($100+) then when I checked prices a month or two ago. Something about bit miners raid on supply. I'm too lazy to check prices right now. Still historically (if there is supply) that period around thanksgiving has some decent deals esp if you are near a micro-center or frys.

Originally Posted by you
There might be some decent deals black friday/cyber monday. Hard to tell. When I purchased a 1070 a year ago it was a lot cheaper ($100+) then when I checked prices a month or two ago. Something about bit miners raid on supply. I'm too lazy to check prices right now. Still historically (if there is supply) that period around thanksgiving has some decent deals esp if you are near a micro-center or frys.

Cool, I'll have to keep my eyes open then. Maybe around Xmas too, you'll see kids selling their old cards, etc.. Good idea thanks!

I would never go with SLI unless you are a real tech guru ready to spend time tweaking and enjoy that stuff. Otherwise it is a major headache. All the research I did was pretty much everyone saying single card is best unless you have a real need for SLI outside of gaming and know what you are doing.

I have a GTX 1080ti and very happy with just one of them

@wolfgrimdark, Shoot, I'd be thrilled with just one of those too! SLI was more of a budget restriction for me, i.e. it was cheaper to get another 970 since I already have one. But I'm going to try and get at least the 1070, hopefully a 1080 or Vega. No SLI for me at this point, too much trouble, and since they aren't supporting it in the future it's just not a great idea.

Which country do you live in Fluent?

Originally Posted by Damian
Which country do you live in Fluent?

U.S. I usually order stuff online though, either Amazon or eBay.

If you are in the US, you should buy from newegg.com, they are the cheapest. They even have Black Friday deals so you should wait for that.

The AMD Vega 64 is $570 USD there:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ…-300-_-Product

The NVidia 1070 GTX is $420 USD:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ…-893-_-Product

The NVidia 1080 is $510 USD:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ…-_-Product#top

You should buy the 1080 from there. Seems like a great deal. I mistyped 1080 previously in there so the 1080 is cheaper than the Vega 64 there.

Originally Posted by Damian
If you are in the US, you should buy from newegg.com, they are the cheapest. They even have Black Friday deals so you should wait for that.

The AMD Vega 64 is $570 USD there:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ…-300-_-Product

The NVidia 1070 GTX is $420 USD:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ…-893-_-Product

The NVidia 1080 is $510 USD:
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ…-_-Product#top

You should buy the 1080 from there. Seems like a great deal. I mistyped 1080 previously in there so the 1080 is cheaper than the Vega 64 there.

Thanks man. I know we had our differences in the past but I appreciate the help. That said, I would probably spring for a secondhand 1080 on Ebay and try to score one for $400-ish if I can, by scoping out deals and being patient, etc.. But we'll see. In the meantime I'm going to play some other game until I can restart ELEX and do a 4K Let's Play of it on YouTube.

Newegg is rarely the cheapest these days; been that way for a while. They do, however, have really easy customer service. I usually buy my stuff from Amazon unless it's something with a high failure rate.

Also, another vote for SLI is a crapshoot unless you enjoy constantly troubleshooting.

Ugh, I do enough constant troubleshooting when I torture myself to try and get ancient games to run well, so I'm good on that.

Going to try to at least get a few hundred together and then check out my options then. I've narrowed it down to either a 1070, 1080 or the Vega.

Well, there is also the 1070ti soon

Might be a bit out of my price range if it's over $600.