Thanks for the review. I can't see myself getting 9xx SLI setup. The 4k results are disappointing, and below that point a single card is more than enough. So if one's gaming on 2560x1440 or 1920x1080, a single 970 or 980 should be a nice card to get. 4k - we'll have to wait for the next offerings from NV or AMD.

Thanks for the review. I can't see myself getting 9xx SLI setup. The 4k results are disappointing, and below that point a single card is more than enough. So if one's gaming on 2560x1440 or 1920x1080, a single 970 or 980 should be a nice card to get. 4k - we'll have to wait for the next offerings from NV or AMD.

Depends on your monitor, those of us with Korean 1440p overclockable monitors would disagree (or pretty much any 120/144hz monitor). Mine will do 118hz but the 7970 can't keep up. Now if only the wife would let me drop some $$$ on a new build.......

Thanks for the review Hilbert.

Depends on your monitor, those of us with Korean 1440p overclockable monitors would disagree (or pretty much any 120/144hz monitor). Mine will do 118hz but the 7970 can't keep up. Now if only the wife would let me drop some $$$ on a new build.......

That's a good point. Thank you for this valuable comment. Now when I think about it, 970/980 SLI would be great for ASUS Rog Swift... dang... is it time to change my monitor?

That's a good point. Thank you for this valuable comment. Now when I think about it, 970/980 SLI would be great for ASUS Rog Swift... dang... is it time to change my monitor?

It would certainly help driving 1440p / higher refresh rates, at the moment I can pretty much only run @ 118hz on the desktop / light games, anything else is too much.

Hmmm, I might end up going 2x970s in the end for my 1440p monitor after reading this, but then again I still want to wait for the 980 Lightning and then decide if it is worth it.

Also on page 2 the load temperature bar graph, I see 680 2x sli is highlighted instead of the single 980?

Ah fixed, thanks.

Hi Hilbert if possible could you do the 970`s in 3 way sil bench please.

Hi Hilbert if possible could you do the 970`s in 3 way sil bench please.

Not possible, the initial cards are returned and the other I have are all AIB cards with different coolers , e.g. the 3x SLI connector will not fit with three difference boards.

Nice review, thanks for doing both 3way and 2way gaming! I still think I'll go 980SLI rather than 970, because of the horsepower behind it. And probably for the TitanX, or 980Ti... 🙄

Aah, a quick word on AMD Gaming Evolved titles. Its not that I choose these deliberately, but most triple A titles have AMD plastered all over them these days. Secondly, I try to use scripted benchmarks as much as I can for the best measurements. So that's Metro, Hitman, Tomb Raider, BioShock, Thief and then the two 3DMark's already. I would like to exclude it, but have to BF4 as everybody wants to see the results, I throw in MOH, Crysis 3 and Metro to balance things a little. I ditched Ubisoft titles for their DRM issues and the impossible to use UbiPlay. EA / Origin is getting on my nerves as well (an update each day these days) but a necessity. next to that I try and use as much Steam titles as I can use the games on multiple machines, that saves this office a lot of cash opposed to re-purchasing the game for every test system. I will look out for a couple of pre-NV games as well, but I just hate Batman, I purchased Titanfall but that was online only ... well and so on. AMD is all over the AAA games, NVIDIA not that much. So the Gaming Evolved titles are not a deliberate choice, it's just the most popular AAA games that people use + they need have ability to be scripted or measured with FRAPS/FCAT in a fast enough session (benchmarking takes a lot of time).

Ive checked most online shops in Holland like mycom alternate coolblue informatieuq And price of 980 is avarage 619 euros not 500 so sli config is 1240 euros not 1000 euros thank you.

Prices started going up again due to high demand and low availability. But if you seek a little better, you can spot them at the 560 EURO marker: https://maxict.nl/product/4434477/evga-geforce-gtx-980-4gb-gddr5-dvi-hdmi-3x-dp-dual-bios-grafikkarte-retail

Hilbert, I would like to ask something, if you can ever do this particular benchmark at a given time in the future: I notice the 3 way scaling ain't great and I probably see the reason why, aint putting enough stress to it see real good scaling, To a certain degree? Yes, but Try this and more then likely you will see BIG difference between the 3x gpu scaling. Usually nvidia inspector helps tons when comes to gpu scaling, to a degree. Within nvidia inspector, try this: Use the Infamous Sonic 3d all star racing hex code: antialiasing compatibility: 0x00411245 Then to, Antialiasing - setting: 32xS [Combined: 2x2 SS + 8x MS] + other settings mentioned below: Antialiasing - Transparency Multisampling - Enabled Antialiasing - Transparency Supersampling = 8x Sparse Grid Supersampling If the game has aa then under antialiasing - mode = (Enhance the Application settings). Some games does not work with application settings turned on, therefore, have to turn off aa within the game then under aa mode = (Override any application settings). Try 2560X1600 and to 4k resolution with the above settings, guaranteed, you will be out of frame buffer, especially @ 4k, 4gb vram at this incredible intense setting aint enough, especially when everything is maxed out in the game. 3X scaling, I think will be alot more better then what the review has given if above setting is used, but non the less, great review as always. I would love to see heat differences, oh my, I do know, with this sick intense aa settings, heat comes out like you all wouldn't imagine. LOL, it buries my overclocked gtx 690 with 3dmark06 @ maxed settings @ 1920X1200 resolution, If you all dont trust me, lol, do it for yourself, try 3dmark 06, everything maxed out @ 1920X1200 resolution, then under nvidia inspector aa (Enhance the application settings), then use the above mentioned aa settings. Absolutely INSANE... I wouldn't even attempt @ 4k with today's games, oh my. 🙂!! Once you have tried this setting, you all will never go back, even @ 1920X1200 resolution, it looks absolutely SICK!!!, Everything is basically flicker free, no matter the distance, basically near perfect image quality, 🙂 Basically in other words, with today's games and with today's resolution with today's gpu's, with the above mentioned settings, it would basically devour it, completely, but nontheless, I would love to see a X3 980 gtx sli with this setting, 🙂.

Lol.... that ... was the saying : benchmark those real things.... Another example if i were you .... i would rather ...benchmark the loopholes of my girlfriend... because the API are gameready..... __________________________________________________ Nothing personal...guru..... __________________________________________________ this post is worldwide......

Okay that was officially your last nonsense post here, bye.

Glad to see my Tri-fire beats Tri-sli 980's still 🙂

Well I personally get the feeling that the 980-SLI is a quite nice setup for 1440p gaming, yet we have to see what the TitanXs bring. With their vram bus I guess they will get 6GB, and that could probably make them the winner at 4k again. But I'm not that sure they will necessarily do much better than the 980SLI at 1440p. What to get, questions over questions... 😕

No I'm referring to the FCAT spikes to 0ms they represent a dropped/skipped frame enough of them within a second can be seen as micro-stutter. I hope this is just a driver issue as these are the first Maxwell based cards that have supported SLI. Most people will not see them as they game at 60Hz but I play at 100Hz so it may be noticeable. http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?ct=articles&action=file&id=12866

dropped/skipped or runt frames FCAT should be able to distinguish between them, but the review doesn't focus much on this what seems to be the main issue atm with GTX 970 SLI no such issues with 980 SLI

oops even I can make a mistake 🙂

This is BS. Why don't you test these cards with more than one monitor. You know like what most people are likely to have instead of one big fat ridiculously expensive monitor. And no, it isn't about the resolution because the resolution of one big fat monitor is likely to be as high or even higher than 2 or 3 smaller resolution panels. It's about the compatibility of those cards in SLI with multiple monitors. That is something Nvidia seems to have forgotten or abandoned lately. How suddenly with the latest WHQL drivers for these cards, vision surround no longer works with more than one monitor but if I reload my older driver it works perfectly.

This is BS. Why don't you test these cards with more than one monitor. You know like what most people are likely to have instead of one big fat ridiculously expensive monitor. And no, it isn't about the resolution because the resolution of one big fat monitor is likely to be as high or even higher than 2 or 3 smaller resolution panels. It's about the compatibility of those cards in SLI with multiple monitors. That is something Nvidia seems to have forgotten or abandoned lately. How suddenly with the latest WHQL drivers for these cards, vision surround no longer works with more than one monitor but if I reload my older driver it works perfectly.

The smallest minority are those who run more than one monitor...