SLI GTX 970 G1 Gaming vs GTX 980 Ti Strix OC vs GTX 1070 Dual benchmarks

[headik]

This is why i dont trust in reviews anymore.They test 980TI at 1050-1100Mhz and same with GTX970 at 1200mhz so new cards like GTX1070 looks much better beating both.But reality is both 980TI and 970SLI are faster when using aftermarket cards.

 

[Artas1984]

This however, is wrong, the average performance difference between the 1070 and 970SLI in your test is:
170 / 156 = 1,0897 approximately 1,09
the 970 SLI solution is therefore 9 % faster than a 1070, wile a 1070 is 56% faster than a 970, and 970 SLI is 70% faster than a single 970

Hey! Thank's a lot for noticing this! I will correct the comments right away!

If you want more data on this, I have a 2560 x 1440 monitor myself.

Sure! I'd like to know very much how do SLI GTX980 Ti scale! Which games can you test?

For me the GTX 1080 is a high FPS / high Hz 1440p or ultrawide card, not 4K. 4K is still kinda irrelevant, at least for me, because it's limited to 60 Hz. And 60 Hz? Well no thanks.

You are right in your opinion. GTX980 Ti and GTX1070 could not run many games at 120 - 144 FPS on 2560x1440 res., so GTX1080 would be the card to do that. I myself would rather enjoy 2560X1440 resolution 144 FPS & 144 Hz experience than 4k resolution 60 FPS & 60 Hz.

thats mainly because reviews on new gpus always make performance comparisons with older cards set at reference speeds.. a new 1070 at whatever its factory overclocked speed is plus any reviewers added overclock will always get put along side a 980TI clocked at the nvidia reference clock which can be around 20 % slower than the average factory 980TI clock speeds.. more so with the later offerings..

this does paint a false picture and make newer generation cards seem better then what they really are.. a 1080 will out perform a 980TI but a 1070 will not.. on average they are about the same..

Yes indeed! I myself wanted to say these lines, you spared me the bother!

Please msg me each time when you have done a new review like this, that for me is great

You are most welcome! I really hoped i did not do this test just for myself.

 

[Ithanul]

Sure! I'd like to know very much how do SLI GTX980 Ti scale! Which games can you test?

I will have to check.

Just did a fresh install on everything since I drop a 5960X into the main computer.

I don't have most of the games you have though (not big into FPS games anymore).
Most are simulation games like Cities: Skylines or in the RPG range of Skyrim and Witcher.
I do have one or two racing games. About the one game I saw on your list I have is L4D2.

 

[Artas1984]

Here is an important update in Watch Dogs 2

I've heard that temporal filtering increases FPS even more than no AA so i have decided to check out myself.

As you can see enabling temporal filtering (which enables 2X MSAA by itself) greatly improves performance. SLI GTX970 for whatever reason does not support it. So it turns out that single GTX970 with TF pulls the same FPS as SLI GTX970 with no AA. SLI NVIDIA does not make any sense in this game so far.

I will have to check.

For me personally the most important result would be SLI GTX 980 Ti in Crysis 3 and Far Cry 4 with some SMAA, as i will play these games again on higher settings and resolution, and they demand a lot of GPU power anyway. Even though in my benchmark there are lots of games, i play only several of them. L4D2 (which i play A LOT with my friends) does not matter as single GTX980 Ti pulls 300 FPS even with 8X MSAA, which is the maximum in this game anyway.

"Trog100 owns SLI GTX980 Ti"

Trog100, as a SLI GTX980 Ti owner, can you do some tests?

 

[trog100]

Crysis 3 scales well with a pair of 980TI cards or a pair of 970 cards come to that.. Far Cry 4 or primal dosnt.. in fact i dont think it shows any gain at all over just one card.. Just Cause 3 dosnt ether..

having said that i run a 1440 resoloution with a frame rate cap of 75 fps.. i have got paste the stage of feeling i have to be able to max everything out and usually run low or no AA settings..

my sli set up is still overkill by current standards and even if a game dosnt have sli support i only get to know when i read it somewhere.. he he

sli works best when you dont rely on it.. my 980TI sli set up gives me nice benchmark scores and plenty good enough gaming frame rates.. mostly more than i need hence my 75 fps frame rate cap..

i am pretty sure that more and more new games are dropping sli support.. which is a shame.. but it seems the way its going.. having said that sensible reasoning or not i still like good benchmark scores..

trog

 

[Artas1984]

Crysis 3 scales well with a pair of 980TI cards or a pair of 970 cards come to that.. Far Cry 4 or primal dosnt.. in fact i dont think it shows any gain at all over just one card.. Just Cause 3 dosnt ether..

having said that i run a 1440 resoloution with a frame rate cap of 75 fps.. i have got paste the stage of feeling i have to be able to max everything out and usually run low or no AA settings..

my sli set up is still overkill by current standards and even if a game dosnt have sli support i only get to know when i read it somewhere.. he he

sli works best when you dont rely on it.. my 980TI sli set up gives me nice benchmark scores and plenty good enough gaming frame rates.. mostly more than i need hence my 75 fps frame rate cap..

i am pretty sure that more and more new games are dropping sli support.. which is a shame.. but it seems the way its going.. having said that sensible reasoning or not i still like good benchmark scores..

trog

It's strange to hear that you are limiting your self to 75 FPS... You have a 165 Hz monitor and limit yourself to 75 FPS? SLI GTX980 Ti sure can push 120 FPS in most games at least. Can you please explain yourself??? Also, it's very strange to hear that SLI GTX980 Ti does not work in Far Cry 4... As you saw in my benchmark SLI GTX970 in Far Cry 4 scales a super high 93 %! If there is anyone why can do some SLI Far Cry 4 testing please respond.

 

[trog100]

power noise and heat savings..

the main downside to running a pair of 980TI cards is they do generate a lot of heat.. the main plus is they give good benchmark scores.. he he..

they were top end cards when i bought them the equivalent now would be a pair of 1080TI cards.. but knowing what i know now and starting afresh from now i would not buy a pair of 1080TI cards one would do..

i like to experiment and often buy stuff just because i can and not because i need it..

as for my 75 frame rate cap.. its because i am passed the need to run every thing balls out just because i can.. i like power to be there if i need it but just because its there i dont have to use it all the time.. i have experimented with frame rates and refresh rates.. something i can do and reached certain conclusions.. my monitor even though it can do 165 hz is set at 120 hz..

my 75 frame rate cap is because running g-synce i genuinely cant detect any difference between 75 fps and 140 fps.. 75 fps generates far less heat and noise than 140 fps..

sometimes when you can do these things as opposed to dreaming about the day you may be able to do them they all seem less important.. i also know that owning reasonably high end hardware and not using it to its full potential dosnt gel that well with the folks who are still in the dreaming about it phase..

as for buying stuff i dont really need but like to have.. the psychology behind that still has be baffled.. he he..

trog

ps.. i am probably wrong about far cry.. i do remember reading it somewhere but i should never quote what i read most of it is bollocks.. unlike you i have never done much comparison testing.. i dont have far cry installed ready to run any more just primal..

 

[Artas1984]

75 fps generates far less heat and noise than 140 fps..

Seriously? You are talking about SLI GTX980 Ti heat and noise expansion or about other hardware too? I've never heard this before.

i like to experiment and often buy stuff just because i can and not because i need it..

He he, same here.

 

[P4-630]

my 75 frame rate cap is because running g-synce i genuinely cant detect any difference between 75 fps and 140 fps.. 75 fps generates far less heat and noise than 140 fps..

Once I have my G-Sync monitor I plan to do the same, once it's smooth enough IMO I don't need to go any faster and I don't need my card to work at 99/100% all the time.

 

[Ithanul]

power noise and heat savings..

the main downside to running a pair of 980TI cards is they do generate a lot of heat..

O lord, ain't that the truth. These cards can dump heat.

I tend to get a mini sauna sitting by my main computer. And that with a window AC right by the computer.

I don't deal with the noise as much since mine are water cooled with PWM fans on the radiator. Plus, the window ACs louder than any of the fans.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Was someone in this thread mentioning that one of the games tested actually does better with SMAA than with no AA? Can't remember where I saw it but it's one of the games I've been playing lately but don't recall which.

 

[trog100]

slightly off topic but i do think a used 980TI card (ebay) is probably the best value for money card on the market.. or two of them if you are into sli.. my current timespy score of 9880 says better than 96% of all scores presented.. a tad better than what a titan xp does and for half the money.. its true that not all games take full advantage of sli but the ones that dont still play plenty well enough..

i think my 75 frame rate cap gives me the best of both worlds.. nice smooth gameplay with no low minimums and i can always turn it off if i want to.. doing it the pair of used 980TI way is also pretty cost effective which when i bought them new it wasnt.. i cant get accused of wasting money any more..

trog

 

[Artas1984]

Was someone in this thread mentioning that one of the games tested actually does better with SMAA than with no AA? Can't remember where I saw it but it's one of the games I've been playing lately but don't recall which.

I was talking about temporal filtering in Watch Dogs 2, which enables 2X MSAA, not SMAA. Despite that it improves FPS dramatically when compared with no AA. Just move you eyes in this page a bit on top Frag and see the results.

I searched for short answers about TF and it seems that TF does what Sony PS4 does with it's false resolution rendering - rendering the frame at half the resolution and then up-scaling it. This worsens the quality obviously. Anyway this method is needed since you can play Watch Dogs 2 with single GTX970 this way no problem.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

...it seems that TF does what Sony PS4 does with it's false resolution rendering - rendering the frame at half the resolution and then up-scaling it. This worsens the quality obviously. Anyway this method is needed since you can play Watch Dogs 2 with single GTX970 this way no problem.

I think that is also what they do in Quantum Break. Thanks for the info, but I don't think I'm really interested in a gimmicky way of raising FPS by lowering resolution.

Most hated that effect in QB, but the game is so unoptimized without it only beastly rigs can run it well with it off. Anyways, it wasn't the game I thought that was mentioned. Only time I get performance problems with WD2 is within first 30-60 seconds of launching it there's severe hitching, then it goes away completely.

 

[Vayra86]

Thanks for this, nice roundup of games!

And sensible recommendations at the end as well.

 

[EarthDog]

These tests are so random... but thanks!

I'd beg to differ about 3.5GB of memory at 2560x1440 with the highest settings. You will run into more titles than not moving forward that eclipse that "3.5GB" vRAM. It is for that reason, and never 2x scaling, among power use, heat dissipation and noise, I would never choose to go SLI. I'd rather sell the 970, take the 300 and get a 1080 or 1080ti. Sure, it will be a bit slower than 970 in SLI, but, performance is 100% consistent, power use is cut in half, and noise is much less of a concern.

It's strange to hear that you are limiting your self to 75 FPS... You have a 165 Hz monitor and limit yourself to 75 FPS? SLI GTX980 Ti sure can push 120 FPS in most games at least. Can you please explain yourself??? Also, it's very strange to hear that SLI GTX980 Ti does not work in Far Cry 4... As you saw in my benchmark SLI GTX970 in Far Cry 4 scales a super high 93 %! If there is anyone why can do some SLI Far Cry 4 testing please respond.

Don;t go down the Trog hole...

 

[trog100]

down the trog hole is a land where power is adequate.. adequate power being always have some in reserve.. a rule i pretty much apply to everything..

i recon i have one basic rule.. once i need to run stuff balls out its just a sign i need more power.. he he..

as for my 75 fps cap.. how many fps is enough.. the general consensus has been 60 for a long time.. my 75 is 60 plus a bit just to make sure.. it seems eminently sensible to me.. he he..

trog

 

[Vayra86]

Here is an important update in Watch Dogs 2

I've heard that temporal filtering increases FPS even more than no AA so i have decided to check out myself.

As you can see enabling temporal filtering (which enables 2X MSAA by itself) greatly improves performance. SLI GTX970 for whatever reason does not support it. So it turns out that single GTX970 with TF pulls the same FPS as SLI GTX970 with no AA. SLI NVIDIA does not make any sense in this game so far.



For me personally the most important result would be SLI GTX 980 Ti in Crysis 3 and Far Cry 4 with some SMAA, as i will play these games again on higher settings and resolution, and they demand a lot of GPU power anyway. Even though in my benchmark there are lots of games, i play only several of them. L4D2 (which i play A LOT with my friends) does not matter as single GTX980 Ti pulls 300 FPS even with 8X MSAA, which is the maximum in this game anyway.



Trog100, as a SLI GTX980 Ti owner, can you do some tests?

Ghost Recon: Wildlands also performs best with Temporal AA. Use any other form of AA and performance is slightly reduced while it looks far worse. And with no AA it looks absolutely crappy. Too bad TAA also introduces a lot of visual errors.

 

[Kanan]

down the trog hole is a land where power is adequate.. adequate power being always have some in reserve.. a rule i pretty much apply to everything..

i recon i have one basic rule.. once i need to run stuff balls out its just a sign i need more power.. he he..

as for my 75 fps cap.. how many fps is enough.. the general consensus has been 60 for a long time.. my 75 is 60 plus a bit just to make sure.. it seems eminently sensible to me.. he he..

trog

he he he

you're like a laugh-o-matic. The general consensus for enthusiast gamers is, 100Hz or more btw. You have the GPU power, you're just not using it, wasting it instead. he he

 

[trog100]

i have experimented with various frame rates.. 75 or 144 i really cant tell the difference.. all i know is that running 144 as opposed to 75 generates a lot more heat and fan noise plus it uses a lot more energy..

why buy it.. well its the only way to find out if you need it or not.. buy it and try it.. i bought it tried it and found out i didnt (mostly) really need it.. he he..

to be honest i like buying and trying stuff.. just to see..

i run 1440 with g-sync.. is there anybody on here that would make the claim that they can tell the difference between say 75 fps and 100 fps.. i aint talking twitch competition game playing here.. just normal gaming..

plus of course the odd game tests my 75 fps cap.. most others dont..

i did once ask the question "how many frames per second is enough".. the answers i got were pretty much nonsense..

trog

ps.. i have cameras that are better than i need.. i have RC toys that are better than i need.. i have a PC that is better than i need.. tis just the way i am.. most of what i have is well and truly "under-used" my PC aint any different than all the other junk i own.. he he

 

[Artas1984]

Trog, i am like you in a way - buying and trying things, but then selling them. But now i can clearly see that you don't need a second GTX980 Ti If you are concerned about power consumption, then sell you secondary GTX980 Ti. 75 FPS with single GTX980 Ti is a real deal.

 

[trog100]

I have toyed with the idea of selling both of them and buying a single 1080TI.. nothing to buy and try there though.. i know exactly what it would do for me.. i would save on heat and power.. my benchmark scores would go down and my game playing would stay about the same.. not really worth the trouble and the £300 quid or so it would cost me to make the change over

if i was building from scratch now a single 1080TI is the way i would go.. a lesson learned from buying a pair of 980TI cards.. without that lesson i would probably be daft enough to go for 1080TI sli again.. he he..

i am currently wasting money on toy RC cars.. i am past the buy and try PC stuff for a while.. i am in the just get on with using it phase..

trog

ps.. my last just get on with using my PC phase lasted over six years.. i wonder how long this one will last..

 

[Kanan]

i run 1440 with g-sync.. is there anybody on here that would make the claim that they can tell the difference between say 75 fps and 100 fps.. i aint talking twitch competition game playing here.. just normal gaming..

Yeah "normal gaming", whatever that is, you can see it in fast games such as your everyday shooter, racing games and you can see it on the desktop when you move things. You can pretty much see it everywhere, the difference is big. If you can't see it, you're blind. he he Shooter players know this for decades now, they used to play on low resolution on a CRT monitor to have high FPS and 100 Hz. Are you seriously doubting this? Go and try it again.

 

[trog100]

dude i dont think i am blind and i cant see it for normal gaming.. but i do know why competitive shooters use low resolutions and its for more reasons than just frame rates..

what i am saying is that i cant detect any difference between 75 fps and 100 fps play at normal resolutions.. .. its possibly that g-sinc may have something to do with this i dont know.. and i can only go on what i see not on what you see..

more opinions would be welcome.. for normal gaming how many fps is enough.. i am curious..

trog

 

[Kanan]

Why would anyone waste his time giving you his opinion - I already wasted mine. You're extremely stubborn anyway and ~never accept what other people say. And yes, indeed, you're blind then. Sorry for you man. If you can't see the difference between 75 and 100 or even 75 and 120Hz, you're blind or just extremely ignorant. Low resolutions in shooters are also used to make the picture bigger, yes, but the main reason was higher frame rates and higher Hz settings on the CRT monitors, which could simply drive higher frequencies by lowering resolution, believe it or not.