Gaming at 4K: GeForce GTX 970 SLI Performance

[dividebyzero]

Just got my second 970 today (STRIX) but for some reason they don't like my SLI Bridge. Gonna have to get another one before I can take full advantage... for now the second 970 is just a PhysX card.

I noticed this on a few forums. The ribbon bridges seem to exhibit worse characteristics than the solid bridges - I actually had the same issue with my GTX 780's until I swapped out the flexi ribbon bridge for a solid one. Also be aware that GTX 970/980 SLI has some issues with secondary cards undervolting, so keep an eye out for BIOS updates.

 

[LNCPapa]

That's for the info DBZ - I'll keep an eye out. I'll just have to try other flexi ribbons since a solid won't be an option for me.

 

[LNCPapa]

I broke down and ordered another 970 STRIX today - guess my other daughter will inherit this Zotac 970. I did try ordering a couple more SLI Bridges though and that didn't work either - even with double bridges on.

 

[LNCPapa]

Second STRIX came in and SLI is working perfectly now. Guess I'll just put the third 970 in my daughter's machine as I had planned. It's a worthy upgrade from her current 5970.

 

[Guest]

Second STRIX came in and SLI is working perfectly now. Guess I'll just put the third 970 in my daughter's machine as I had planned. It's a worthy upgrade from her current 5970.

Did you try reversing the SLI ribbon? They are infact ONE WAY ONLY, so if you install it upside down it wont work at all or will cause crashes and weird anomilies like hell. I figured that out after wondering why the hell SLI caused every game to flip out and switching it off ran buttery.

Anyone who says current GPUS cant run 4k effectively? from what one article? my friend has the Asus 4k monitor and it runs 60+ in most the games we play with two 980s, and Ill bet if we hook my dual 970s up it runs almost exactly the same.

 

[Guest]

Also I just actually looked at the review, your test system is not a proper system for SLI no wonder you dont get full benefits. Do not try and test SLI or Xfire and give everyone results ifyou are not using X79 or X99 chipsets. You dont even have enough PCI-E lanes to run it right.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Anyone who says current GPUS cant run 4k effectively? from what one article? my friend has the Asus 4k monitor and it runs 60+ in most the games we play with two 980s, and Ill bet if we hook my dual 970s up it runs almost exactly the same.

Nobody is questioning the competence of two cards. The statement about GPU's not running 4K is single GPU performance.

Do not try and test SLI or Xfire and give everyone results ifyou are not using X79 or X99 chipsets. You dont even have enough PCI-E lanes to run it right.

Can you prove that is a concern, with only two cards?

 

[LNCPapa]

I did try reversing the bridges as well as going with double bridges but that didn't work - I also don't think it matters which direction you put them on tbh. I also don't think you need as many PCI-E lanes as you think for dual cards. Several tests have shown there is an extremely small variation in performance going from 16x > 8x.

 

[Dave321]

The drop at 4k makes a lot more sense now that we know the 970 only has 3.5gb of fast vram.