1080 Sli Vs 980 Ti Sli Benchmarks

JMCB · February 26, 2019

Being that I was on the fence for the longest time, and the upgrade problems finally made me itch, I am now the proud possessor of a brand new Nvidia Geforce RTX 2080 Ti Founder's Edition. Previously, I was running 2 Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1080 Tis in SLI, and this was giving me awesome performance at 2k with Gysnc. I knew this was going to be a slight downgrade in some applications, but with SLI seeing less back up, and the resale of 1080 Tis still maintaining their value, this was the perfect time to upgrade. To fully convince myself I decided I would do a graphics card comparison between the 1080 TI, 1080 TI SLI, and 2080 TI. Let's expect at the 2 cards nosotros'll be comparing:

Gigabyte Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Turbo
VRAM: 11GB GDDR5
Retention Bus: 352-bit
Memory Bandwidth: 484 GB/s
Base of operations Clock: 1480Mhz
Boost Clock: 1620Mhz
TDP: 250W

Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 TI Founder'southward Edition
CUDA cores: 4352
Giga Rays/sec: 10
RTX-OPS: 78T (76T)
VRAM: 11GB GDDR6
Memory Jitney: 352-bit
Retentiveness Bandwidth: 616 GB/s
Base Clock: 1350Mhz
Heave Clock: 1635Mhz
TDP: 260W

Here is the system specs for the system we'll exist testing on.

Exam Arrangement:
CPU: Intel i7 8700K (stock speed @ four.7ghz on watercooling EKWB EK-Supremacy EVO CPU)
Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix Z370
RAM: 32 GB DDR4 G.Skill TridentZ RBG 2400mhz
SSD: Samsung 960 EVO 500GB Thousand.2
Hd: WD 4TB Blue
Power Supply: Corsair HX1200
OS: Windows 10 Pro
Monitor: Asus PG279Q 2K 165hz
Nvidia Driver - 419.17

Programs Used:
Fraps (for In-game benchmarking)
3dMark Time Spy Benchmark
Apex Legends
Battlefield V
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4
Overwatch
Star Wars Battlefront two (2017)

Testing methodology:
All games and benchmarks were washed with the latest Nvidia driver release, which is 419.17 as of 2/25/2019. All in-game settings were set to their highest possible settings at 2k resolution (2560 x 1440), with Gsync disabled so that it doesn't affect our FPS in any way. Fraps was used to measure iii minutes of game time which was in one case started in-game. Each game uses multiplayer on a server with lower ping, whenever possible, and each game was tested with the aforementioned multiplayer mode and map.

For the game and benchmark choices, these are games I regularly play.

3dMark Time Spy Criterion
Developed with input from AMD, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and the others, 3DMark Time Spy is one of the first DirectX 12 apps to be built "the right manner" from the ground up to fully realize the performance gains that the new API offers. With its pure DirectX 12 engine, which supports new API features like asynchronous compute, explicit multi-adapter, and multi-threading, 3DMark Time Spy is the platonic benchmark for testing the DirectX 12 functioning of the latest graphics cards.

Results:

Gigabyte 1080 TI Turbo
Score: 8443
Validation Link: https://world wide web.3dmark.com/3dm/33897012?

Gigabyte 1080 TI Turbo SLI
Score: 14,210
Validation Link: https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/33897209?

Nvidia 2080 TI FE
Score 12,607
Validation Link: https://world wide web.3dmark.com/3dm/33974203?

I knew going in that the 1080 Ti SLI setup would outperform everything else, although single carte vs single card, the improvement was nearly 50%.

Apex Legends
Apex Legends is a free-to-play Battle Royale game where legendary competitors battle for glory, fame, and fortune on the fringes of the Frontier.

Results:

Gigabyte 1080 TI Turbo
Min: 76
Average: 113.82
Max: 145

Gigabyte 1080 TI Turbo SLI
Min: 37
Boilerplate: 89.vi
Max: 143

Nvidia 2080 TI Fe
Min: 82
Average: 118
Max: 146

Between the single carte and SLI 1080 TI setups, we can meet that SLI scaling is broken, despite NVIDIA saying it received back up for SLI in this title with the latest driver version. While playing it in SLI, it seemed like a hot mess – stutters, inconsistent frame drops. Switching to one carte du jour greatly improved the experience. In addition, we weren't getting a whole lot amend performance from a 1080 Ti vs a 2080 Ti. I'thousand guessing this is also due to newer drivers that aren't optimized for this championship at all. I'm sure future updates will bring some improvements.

Battlefield V
Enter mankind's greatest conflict with Battlefield V as the series goes dorsum to its roots with a never-before-seen portrayal of Earth War 2. Atomic number 82 your team to victory in all-new multiplayer experiences like the multi-map Grand Operations. Fight beyond the globe in the single-player War Stories campaign. Assemble your Visitor of customized soldiers, weapons, and vehicles – then take them on an expanding journey through Tides of War. This is the nearly intense, immersive, and innovative Battlefield all the same.

Game was played in DirectX 11, as DirectX 12 does not back up SLI.

Results:

Gigabyte 1080 TI Turbo
Min: 56
Average: 95.25
Max: 137

Gigabyte 1080 TI Turbo SLI
Min: 89
Average: 109.6
Max: 151

Nvidia 2080 TI FE
Min: 102
Average: 120.xvi
Max: 181

The 2080 TI clears all the other setups and appears to be the best choice. In regards to the 1080 TU SLI, over again, we had issues with SLI, just this time it is because Nvidia has disabled it for this title. This tin can be worked effectually with Nvidia Inspector, a free tool you tin download. Notwithstanding, within the last few Nvidia commuter updates they did something to lock that selection out, and the settings won't salve with Inspector, thus making SLI completely useless. There'south a piece of work around that involves going to the Nvidia driver file folder and making two files – nvdrsdb0.bin and dvdrsdb1.bin read only. After doing this, SLI worked a flake, although with bottomless scaling at only 15%, and I was able to end out the exam. This scaling is probably the event of Nvidia trying to lock out SLI, equally by drivers I've had better framerates with this setup, and it wasn't equally jittery in gameplay.

And because we have to, I had to try this game with RTX ON! Unfortuantly, in the multiplayer levels I saw a very slight operation dip just didn't see much divergence in quality. So, I decided to load up the kickoff level, and you lot could see the difference. Here is how the 2080 TI performed:

Nvidia 2080 TI Iron (RTX at ULTRA Settings with Straight X 12)
Min: 46
Boilerplate: 56
Max: 101

Telephone call of Duty: Black Ops 4
Phone call of Duty: Blackness Ops four features gritty, grounded, fluid Multiplayer combat, the biggest Zombies offer ever with three full undead adventures at launch, and Coma, where the universe of Black Ops comes to life in one massive battle royale experience.

Game was tested in Team Deathmatch.

Results:

Gigabyte 1080 TI Turbo
Min: 56
Average: 95
Max: 137

Gigabyte 1080 TI Turbo SLI
Min: 122
Average: 134.37
Max: 141

Nvidia 2080 TI FE
Min: 82
Average: 135
Max: 189

The 2080 TI barely takes the cake with the best average, nudging out the SLI setup slightly. Notwithstanding, minimum framerate was amend on the SLI setup. In add-on, we also saw much better scaling 1080 TI vs 1080 TI SLI this time around.

Overwatch
The globe needs heroes. Join over forty million players every bit you take your place in the globe of Overwatch. Choose your hero from a diverse bandage of soldiers, scientists, adventurers, and oddities. Bend time, defy physics, and unleash an assortment of extraordinary powers and weapons. Engage your enemies in iconic locations from around the globe in the ultimate team-based shooter.

Results:

Gigabyte 1080 TI Turbo
Min: 113
Boilerplate: 180.37
Max: 208

Gigabyte 1080 TI Turbo SLI
Min: 144
Boilerplate: 172.7
Max: 214

Nvidia 2080 TI Atomic number 26
Min: 129
Boilerplate: 216.32
Max: 276

Overwatch isn't a enervating title, just yet sees a lot of play, and numbers on this game with high-end gaming systems but don't seem to be around. As y'all can see, all of these systems can run this game maxed out at 2K resolution with max settings easily, and with high enough refresh rates to make apply out of these monitors with 144hz+ refresh rates.

The 2080 TI smokes both setups.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 (2017)
Hurtle between the rooftops of Theed in a speeding starfighter, cut swaths through armies of Clones with Darth Maul, and build your legacy on the battleground. Your Star Wars fantasies come to life in Star Wars Battlefront II's multiplayer.

Results:

Gigabyte 1080 TI Turbo
Min: l
Average: 76.45
Max: 99

Gigabyte 1080 TI Turbo SLI
Min: 63
Average: 103
Max: 141

Nvidia 2080 TI FE
Min: 70
Boilerplate: 120.eight
Max: 146

1 1080 Ti felt shine playing at 60fps, just on a higher refresh charge per unit you could for certain feel the delay. Jumping to 2 1080 TI SLI felt like a large improvement, but nosotros were still not striking the target of 120fps+ for the college refresh monitor. The 2080 Ti was finally able to hit that benchmark, and just felt so much better.

Determination:
In real earth applications, the 2080 Ti is either very close in performance or outperforms a 1080 Ti SLI setup. If you lot already have a 1080 Ti, at current market prices of $550, you're amend off selling it and paying the difference for a 2080 Ti vs getting another menu for SLI; it'southward a much better experience. If you lot can pay around $400-450 for the second 1080 Ti, that's where things go interesting – go for the second card. All the same, do note that Nvidia seems to be focusing less and less on SLI scaling, and fifty-fifty a $400 add-on might not help the games you play.

If y'all already have a 1080 Ti SLI set up, this is where things tin get a chip muddier. Information technology just depends on if you lot feel like paying $300 after selling the two cards and getting a slight upgrade. I'k happy with this choice, merely if you can await, it may be better to hold off for the side by side generation of cards.

Overall, I'one thousand very happy with my new card. The 2 Gigabyte Nvidia 1080 Ti'due south have been sold on eBay.

cybereality

Thank you for putting this together.

I concord that single faster card is the best selection, and your numbers show it.

Starrbuck

Thanks for the comparison. The best things well-nigh 1080 Ti SLI vs. 2080 Ti are no SLI profiles to worry about, plus less estrus, power consumption, and racket (if you are non on water).

WBurchnall

Very interesting results. I'thou surprised by the range. Sometimes i 1080ti is like 85 percent of the 2080ti with a price difference of about 100 percent more for the later.

Other times the 2080ti seems to be similar 35 to xl percent faster than a single TI.

It seems depending upon the game that sometimes if yous already have ane 1080ti, it might not be with paying double the cost of your card for fifteen percentage more speed... If you have two cards to sell though seems similar a decent upgrade

Stoly

Pretty much what I expected.

This is farther confirmation that SLI is expressionless

Non nvidia/amd nor developers are willing to push mGpu.

noko

I've found sli at 2K weak and a lot of times cpu limiting. If at 2k I use DSR, render at higher resolution and then downsampled. Pushing nearly 100FPS, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, HDR at nigh 4K resolution on the Samsung monitor. Running at 1440p DSR, was the best visual gaming experience I've ever had. Scaling was over ninety%. In this case information technology would accident away a 2080Ti. Likewise bad that is non mutual. I take a bunch of older games I am planning on playing which support SLI well.

Astrodave

SLI, Nvidia 3D and Nvidia environs have been dying for years. They all the same work in older games and in some new games but Nvidia has conspicuously done their easily of anything beyond a vanilla single card/monitor setup.

odditory

SLI, Nvidia 3D and Nvidia environs accept been dying for years. They still work in older games and in some new games merely Nvidia has clearly washed their easily of anything beyond a vanilla single card/monitor setup.

Yeah. SLI's been bleeding out for a long time. But Nvidia fading out from supporting SLI is merely symptomatic of a market fading out from demanding it (it also requires the game's developer to do the major function). Even if every game magically gained perfect SLI support tomorrow, in that location wouldn't be any surge of GPU buys to take advantage of it -- most people don't intendance and then there's no incentive for Nvidia to waste manpower on it.

SLI was a solution to a trouble in a time when games still ran circles around GPU's. And then GPU's caught up, and once a single card could play virtually anything at any res, the die was bandage.

Anyway, JMCB nice writeup.

IdiotInCharge

Yes. SLI's been bleeding out for a long time.

A big part of this is that the render targets have stopped- while more exotic display types are hitting the market, 4k60 or 1440p144 seem to be the height terminate with most aiming for 1080p60.

We're still waiting for stuff like 4k120 and VR to become more 'mainstream', and alongside ray tracing, we'll likely see a resurgence of the demand for multi-GPU.

For now though, I concur with the OP: buy the single fastest GPU you tin.

psy81

It looks similar your CPU bottlenecked at 2k. Battlefield 5 tends to calibration well in SLI.

If you were using a 4k display I think the improvements in SLI will be bigger just notwithstanding a single RTX 2080ti is the better choice

Liquid_Static

It looks like your CPU bottlenecked at 2k. Battlefield V tends to scale well in SLI.
If you were using a 4k display I remember the improvements in SLI will exist bigger but still a single RTX 2080ti is the better choice

Seems nigh right to me, I have a 7820x at 5GHZ westward/ 1080 Ti SLI and get the same numbers equally him. SLI but doesn't calibration well anymore.

psy81

Seems about right to me, I accept a 7820x at 5GHZ westward/ 1080 Ti SLI and go the same numbers as him. SLI just doesn't scale well anymore.

Interesting... I actually don't have Battlefield 5 just have all the previous Battlefields which all scaled well. If its using the same Frostbyte Engine you'd think it would be the same. That said, I'one thousand done with SLI as well. I paid $1,400 CAD for the 2XGTX1070s and virtually games my other card does nothing... It does look nice in my case though

Liquid_Static

Interesting... I actually don't have Battlefield V simply have all the previous Battlefields which all scaled well. If its using the same Frostbyte Engine you'd think it would be the same. That said, I'm done with SLI as well. I paid $1,400 CAD for the 2XGTX1070s and most games my other carte does zip... It does wait nice in my case though

Totally concord, it is foreign. I recall a lot of the engine was reworked when they added DX12.

IdiotInCharge

Totally agree, it is strange. I recollect a lot of the engine was reworked when they added DX12.

DX12 was a trip. They did information technology with BF1, and basically it was a shitshow with SLI. If information technology'southward working in BFV, well cool!

JMCB

I played BF1 with 4x AMD r9 290x cards and it worked better than 1080 Ti SLI. I call back information technology's mainly a driver issue.

lostin3d

Thanks for you hard work on this.

If you should find yourself wanting to go thru all these hoops to add Metro Exodus to the list here'due south an SLI guide I just institute. Guide is in the clarification and in the comments the author posts to an updated link. I originally went looking because someone actually went off the deep terminate with a pair of 2080TI's running at 8k! I'm pretty sure they used this pull a fast one on. I programme to endeavor information technology on a laptop this weekend with a pair of 980m's at 1080p and 4k.

p.s. Nice thing most this video is 4k!

edit: Here's the link for the 8k vid 2080TI SLI test.

cybereality

8K, omg!! I'thou merely finally comfy with my 4K performance, now at that place is something else.

Liquid_Static

DX12 was a trip. They did it with BF1, and basically information technology was a shitshow with SLI. If it's working in BFV, well cool!

It's not, yous need to use DX11 style for SLI to piece of work.

cybereality

It'south non, you lot need to use DX11 mode for SLI to piece of work.

DX11 was working, but last I heard the recent patch removed SLI support. That's the thing with SLI, it may work today may not tomorrow.

IdiotInCharge

It's not, you demand to use DX11 way for SLI to work.

Ah well, that was the case with BF1 also.

lostin3d

8K, omg!! I'g merely finally comfortable with my 4K performance, now at that place is something else.

Aye initially I wanted to shrug information technology off. I'm nevertheless paying off my 2080TI and all the other things I upgraded during the holidays simply I played that 8k stream on my 1440p 27" monitor and I could sill see quite a bit more than crispness in details. Oh well.

DX11 was working, but terminal I heard the contempo patch removed SLI support. That'south the thing with SLI, it may work today may not tomorrow.

Besides true. Same goes for PhysX. When I upgraded to my 2080TI from 1080 SLI I kept my cards just in example of a space invasion. Didn't happen, thankfully. One of the first things I did afterward install was reinstall one to try and utilise as a PhysX carte for the 1st Metro'due south that I'd had such nifty experiences with in the first of 4k. Barely did anything using the latest RTX drivers even when I manually ready it to the 1080(but NV CP did effort to automatically fix it there anyway). Tried it again with Exodus and turned on the PhysX indicator and it clearly shows it's only using CPU.

JMCB Think you'll part that GPU nether liquid as well? Could have some substantial gains.

Maddnotez

TL

R - y'all have mode too much money.

Jk, kind of. I read and enjoyed the info. I just got a used 1080 ti as an upgrade and I will check out RT in a few years.

JMCB

TLR - you accept mode too much coin.
Jk, kind of. I read and enjoyed the info. I just got a used 1080 ti as an upgrade and I will check out RT in a few years.

We all accept those coin sinks. Luckily I've kept the costs downwards by selling what I've had while it maintained price. Revenue enhancement returns also assist haha.

Sadly, the 1080 Tis have been sold off on eBay. If in the issue my card starts to play space invaders, I've got the integrated graphics on the 8700k to concur my over on videos...

Maddnotez

We all take those money sinks. Luckily I've kept the costs down by selling what I've had while it maintained cost. Taxation returns also help haha.
Sadly, the 1080 Tis have been sold off on eBay. If in the outcome my card starts to play infinite invaders, I've got the integrated graphics on the 8700k to hold my over on videos...

I'chiliad a few gens backside you. Upgrading from the 970 which I am going to put in a second build for my kid. In case mine ever shits the bed I will repossess lol.

vulcan78 · Feb 10, 2020

I made an business relationship just to postal service this, yep kind of fail because that youre using an M.ii PCI-Eastward SSD that takes up a limited number of PCI-Due east lanes on Z370, leaving the 2nd GPU slot at x4 speed. This really has quite a detrimental effect on SLI operation. Yous also only list games that have poor or negative SLI scaling, only even amid them, in BF5 1080 TI SLI is really faster than unmarried 1080 Ti when the 2d card is at x8 or college, way faster in fact (40%):

I'thousand tempted to go through and basically deflate all of the residual of your benchmarks simply yeah, 960 EVO M.2 SSD taking upwards PCI-Due east lanes rendering 2nd GPU limited to x4 bandwidth speed, I'm surprised no-i else caught this.

I found this thread as I'yard with a unmarried 1080 Ti under h2o-block contemplating adding a 2nd used 1080 Ti Atomic number 26 for $400 vs paying ~$1200 for a used 2080 Ti earlier Ampere refresh. I may attempt this out and dump both 1080 Ti's when 3080 Ti arrives early on 2021. Ray Tracing is out of the question for me as I'k @ 3440x1440 and RT maxed has FPS in the 50 FPS range on avg. in all 5 titles that support the feature (/southward) every bit per HardwareCanucks recent RT in 2020 verdict:

Hither's what 1080 Ti vs 2080 Ti actually looks similar without the 2nd menu hobbled at 4x speed and the games compared not carefully curated titles that generally exhibit negative scaling (except BF5, 1080 Ti SLI is forty% faster than single 2080 Ti with both cards at eight/16x speed as per the video above).

Post script:

Not simply that but the 1080 Ti variant you used to compare against the 2080 Ti FE is probably the worst 1080 Ti you could possibly go with in terms of cooling. All of the "Turbo" variants ran as hot as Fe on avg., leading to a loss of 50-100 MHz vs open air cooler design. You probably had both cards at 1800-1850 MHz when in actuality they can do 2000 MHz simply bringing the core down to lx-65C (not 85-90C). This is a zilch statement because y'all have them in SLI and so in this case blower may actually perform better as it's pushing the rut out of the example. But I've seen testing where this doesn't matter if your example has ample airflow, primary GPU may run 5C hotter but on avg both GPU's will run 10-15C (i.e. 65-70C vs fourscore-85C) libation than blower blueprint. Simply in your case, no pun intended, you are trying to compare two GPU's with an junior cooling solution and higher temps to a unmarried carte with a superior cooling solution and lower temps. Non but does 2080 Ti Iron have an open air libation design that allows information technology to run ~10C libation simply it is factory overclocked by 100 MHz to skew things in the other management. When both 1080 Ti and 2080 Ti are running at the aforementioned freq. there is only about a 25% on avg divergence in performance but when you have both 1080 Ti'southward running about 150 MHz under what your 2080 Ti Fe is running at and and so you take 2nd card running at 4x bandwidth, I mean what kind of comparison is this? It'south groovy if yous want to tell yourself that the $1300 "upgrade" was worth it but yeah, really lousy testing methodology and youre not fooling anyone with discernment.

vulcan78 · Feb 10, 2020

Thanks for y'all hard piece of work on this.
If you should find yourself wanting to go thru all these hoops to add Metro Exodus to the listing here'south an SLI guide I merely establish. Guide is in the description and in the comments the writer posts to an updated link. I originally went looking because someone really went off the deep end with a pair of 2080TI's running at 8k! I'm pretty sure they used this trick. I plan to endeavour information technology on a laptop this weekend with a pair of 980m'southward at 1080p and 4k.

p.due south. Nice affair about this video is 4k!

edit: Here's the link for the 8k vid 2080TI SLI test.

"Hard work". OP has second GPU hobbled at 4x speed because boot drive is M.2 SSD occupying precious few PCI-E lanes on Z370 chipset. See my post in a higher place where 1080 Ti SLI is actually 40% faster in BF5 than single 2080 Ti when both cards are at viii/16x. Entire thread should be tossed out purely on these grounds. All of the benchmarks are basically meaningless except for the few titles that have negative scaling, I mean there's a point to be made here, simply not all games have negative scaling. I'thousand non maxim that SLI is a smart move in 2020, but information technology's far from dead:

If youre in my boat with a single 1080 Ti and can pick up a second one used for $400, I mean fifty-fifty if 1 or two titles youre playing doesn't have SLI support that's still far preferable than forking out $1200 before taxes for 2080 Ti that itself shows variable gains (40% in some games sure, just as low as 22% in others, information technology's most as bad as SLI in this regard).

I take my primary 1080 Ti under water block, so oestrus uptake by primary card isn't a concern as both cards would be in a loop with 1kw rad surface area and I accept a 1kw PSU ready to go (I built my system so that I could add together a 2nd GPU down the road if I wanted to).

vulcan78

I forgot to add this, 1000.two SSD is not fifty-fifty worth it considering it takes up PCI-E lanes, I know this from personal feel. I picked up a 970 EVO during black friday of 2018 and was completely underwhelmed. Non only did Windows not actually kicking any faster (until I made fifteen different changes in BIOS) merely games only loaded 1-2 seconds faster on avg:

What OP could have done instead of paying $1300 after taxes for what is in reality a ~25-xxx% bump in performance over single 1080 Ti is they could have purchased two GPU waterblocks, a larger radiator or two, and migrated unabridged arrangement to a larger chassis that is more ideal for watercooling, such as Thermaltake View 71, which is what I'm using. Instead of buying that expensive M.2 SSD (960 EVO) they could have purchased a conventional SSD at half the toll.

2x GPU water-blocks: $200-300
one-2 large radiators: $100-200
Thermaltake View 71: $150

$450-$650

vs

$1200 for 2080 Ti
$250 for 960 EVO

$450-650 vs $1450

Actual 1080 Ti SLI vs 2080 Ti functioning with all cards running at 8/16x (in instance the previous examples weren't enough)

So basically, this is an instance of a misconfigured system and a waste of coin.

Furious_Styles

I forgot to add this, M.2 SSD is not even worth information technology considering it takes upward PCI-Due east lanes, I know this from personal experience. I picked up a 970 EVO during black friday of 2018 and was completely underwhelmed. Non only did Windows non really boot whatever faster (until I fabricated 15 dissimilar changes in BIOS) but games but loaded 1-2 seconds faster on avg:
What OP could have done instead of paying $1300 after taxes for what is in reality a ~25-thirty% crash-land in performance over single 1080 Ti is they could have purchased two GPU waterblocks, a larger radiator or two, and migrated entire system to a larger chassis that is more than ideal for watercooling, such as Thermaltake View 71, which is what I'm using. Instead of ownership that expensive M.ii SSD (960 EVO) they could have purchased a conventional SSD at half the price.

2x GPU water-blocks: $200-300
1-ii large radiators: $100-200
Thermaltake View 71: $150

$450-$650

vs

$1200 for 2080 Ti
$250 for 960 EVO

$450-650 vs $1450

Actual 1080 Ti SLI vs 2080 Ti functioning with all cards running at eight/16x (in case the previous examples weren't enough)

So basically, this is an example of a misconfigured organisation and a waste of money.

You are really reaching hard here. Trying to get open loop is no minor job for someone who has never done it before. Plus how about all those games where SLI merely doesn't work? Yeah you lot're SOL. I'd rather buy the fastest card available than dick around with SLI settings and promise they proceed supporting it in future games.

vegeta535

Y'all are really reaching hard here. Trying to get open loop is no small-scale task for someone who has never done information technology earlier. Plus how near all those games where SLI simply doesn't work? Aye you're SOL. I'd rather purchase the fastest carte available than dick around with SLI settings and promise they keep supporting it in future games.

I don't concur that open water loop is such a daunting task for people that visit this site. Just for most people the cost isn't justifiable. Everything else y'all said is spot on.

cybereality

I get what y'all are saying vulcan78 just I think yous're mistaken.

I've ran SLI for years, even had 2x 2080 Tis at one point, and it'south just not worth information technology.

Many games don't support SLI (espeically newer games in DX12 and Vulkan) and even when it "works" there are bugs and annoying things you lot have to attempt to fix.

I sold my second 2080 Ti and honestly performance seems almost the same (meaning information technology'due south more than fine with ane menu for what I'one thousand doing). YMMV.

vulcan78 · February 10, 2020

You are really reaching hard here. Trying to go open up loop is no minor chore for someone who has never done it before. Plus how about all those games where SLI just doesn't work? Yes you're SOL. I'd rather buy the fastest card available than dick around with SLI settings and promise they keep supporting it in time to come games.

OP already has a loop, look in the paradigm, I run across a D5 pump / reservoir and a CPU block.

I get what you are proverb vulcan78 but I think you're mistaken.
I've ran SLI for years, even had 2x 2080 Tis at one point, and it'due south merely non worth information technology.

Many games don't support SLI (espeically newer games in DX12 and Vulkan) and even when it "works" at that place are bugs and annoying things you have to endeavour to fix.

I sold my second 2080 Ti and honestly performance seems almost the same (meaning it's more than fine with ane card for what I'm doing). YMMV.

I ditched SLI years ago as well (680M SLI replaced with a single 980M, Alienware M18xR2 and 780 Ti SLI replaced with a single 980 Ti, now I have a single 1080 Ti) but looking for more performance if one is with a single 1080 Ti in a loop with plenty radiator surface calculation a second 1080 Ti may really be a preferable culling to getting price gouged with "2080 Ti" (in authenticity the entire Turing stack was renamed ane GPU higher, i.eastward. "RTX 2070" is in authenticity the 60 card: TU-106 SKU, no SLI, merely every bit fast as the outgoing 80 carte, non the 80 Ti card like every new 70 carte going back to Kepler).

Correct now I can pick upward a used 1080 Ti FE with an EK block for $400. Add another $thirty for a final and I'k at functioning that is easily 50% faster than single 2080 Ti in a vast majority of titles.

Looking at my Steam library, the games that are the almost demanding at the resolution I play at (3440x1440) all have SLI support:

Assassins Creed: Odyssey
Watchdogs two
No Mans Heaven
Kingdom Come: Deliverance (AFR 2)
The Witcher iii
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (near perfect scaling, see video above)
Fallout 4
Fallout 76 (should I ever elect to selection this championship up)
Forza Horizon 4
Far Weep 5
Resident Evil 2 (and upcoming 3)
Devil May Cry 5
Project Cars 2
GTA 5
Rage two
Wolfenstein: New Colossus

And a slew of titles I don't fifty-fifty have but may choice up in the hereafter:

The titles that aren't listed higher up are not demanding plenty to require more GPU compute. I can run them with one GPU.

Additionally, I mine crypto (NiceHash), solely to heatt my flat at this point @ $ .lxx a day with the 1080 Ti I accept @ 65% PT (200W). It gets cold here (San Francisco), and I find that I'one thousand oft using a space-heater at the foot of my desk in addition to the ambience estrus my PC is producing (like when I'm perusing the spider web and typing comments such as this during the day, I primarily game for 2-3 hours during the evening). I could beginning my heating beak with an boosted 1080 Ti by most $xv a month. $400 purchase becomes a $300 purchase six months hence and at that signal I will probably sell both 1080 Ti's and upgrade to a unmarried 3080 Ti.

Yeah, in that location will always be that 1 demanding title or two that doesn't support SLI but I can live with that vs spending $1200 before-taxes for 25% bump on avg. up and over 1080 Ti and Ray Tracing that I can't even turn on because RT is too demanding at 3440x1440 (encounter HardwareCanucks recent appraisal of RT in 2020, where they were averaging fifty FPS @ 2560x1440 with a unmarried 2080 Ti with RT maxed).

I'1000 but tired of waiting to upgrade and I'thou not virtually to "upgrade" (sorry, ~25% isn't an upgrade) to 2080 Ti. But from an ethical, moral perspective I'1000 disgusted with the entire Turing line-upwards and want no part in providing fiscal positive feedback to NGreedia for their determination to essentially double the price of their products with their rename scam.

In fact I'm downright disgusted with them and I do honestly promise AMD gives them a serious run for their coin this year with Big Navi. Hell if I wasn't in beloved with my UW console (AW3418DW @ 120 Hz) or if annihilation should happen to information technology I may get with a Free-sync panel and merely ditch NGreedia altogether. I might go with an all AMD build next year. Tired of both Intel and NGreedia, this is what a monopoly in the manufacture looks and feels like: $1300 80 card, $900 70 bill of fare, and $600 lx card when one acknowledges they simply renamed the entire lineup one GPU higher and 14+++++++++++++++++ iterative garbage where 9900k has same IPC as 6700k some 4 years on. Zero incentive to actually innovate, just double the prices and milk the mindless consuming public. No thanks.

Anyhow, still mulling over adding a second 1080 Ti for $400 and some alter for 50% more performance up and over unmarried 2080 Ti, the last vid above nearly pushed me off the debate in that direction. Scrutinizing that video, it seems that 1080 Ti SLI (stock clocks) is on avg 25-xxx% faster than single 2080 Ti (overclocked). Considering 1080 Ti tin can OC another 15%, if there is perfect scaling 50% faster isn't unreasonable.

Anyhow, I may wait until the 5th of March to come across whether or not AMD volition announce Big Navi (leak shows an RX card 17% faster than 2080 Ti in VR benchmark), if they do, and then NGreedia volition definitely follow suit and announce Ampere at GTC later that month. At present way is NGreedia going to let AMD sell a carte faster than 2080 Ti for $700 until Computex in June, the expected announcement window for Ampere. Remember, both manufacturers probable accept their respective cards ready to become now (AMD just received Korean certification for a new GPU and that happens 1-2 months before releasing a new GPU historically).

RTX 3080 will probably be 25-thirty% faster than 2080 Ti, solely in rasterization, and possibly 50% or faster in RT for $800.

$400 for 1080 Ti SLI is very tempting though, but I may wait, I have an all-encompassing back-log of less demanding titles to play through that I should probably become out of the way now and salvage the more demanding titles for subsequently I upgrade my GPU.

Furious_Styles

OP already has a loop, expect in the image, I see a D5 pump / reservoir and a CPU block.
I ditched SLI years ago every bit well (680M SLI replaced with a single 980M, Alienware M18xR2 and 780 Ti SLI replaced with a single 980 Ti, now I have a single 1080 Ti) only looking for more than performance if ane is with a single 1080 Ti in a loop with enough radiator surface adding a second 1080 Ti may actually be a preferable alternative to getting price gouged with "2080 Ti" (in authenticity the entire Turing stack was renamed i GPU higher, i.eastward. "RTX 2070" is in actuality the threescore card: TU-106 SKU, no SLI, merely as fast every bit the approachable 80 card, not the 80 Ti carte du jour like every new seventy carte going back to Kepler).

Right now I can option up a used 1080 Ti FE with an EK block for $400. Add together another $30 for a last and I'm at operation that is easily 50% faster than single 2080 Ti in a vast majority of titles.

Looking at my Steam library, the games that are the nearly demanding at the resolution I play at (3440x1440) all have SLI support:

Assassins Creed: Odyssey
Watchdogs 2
No Mans Sky
Kingdom Come: Deliverance (AFR two)
The Witcher three
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (virtually perfect scaling, see video above)
Fallout iv
Fallout 76 (should I ever elect to pick this title up)
Forza Horizon iv
Far Cry v
Resident Evil two (and upcoming iii)
Devil May Cry 5
Projection Cars 2
GTA v
Rage 2
Wolfenstein: New Colossus

And a slew of titles I don't even take just may selection upwardly in the future:

The titles that aren't listed above are not demanding plenty to require more GPU compute. I can run them with ane GPU.

Additionally, I mine crypto (NiceHash), solely to heatt my flat at this betoken @ $ .70 a day with the 1080 Ti I take @ 65% PT (200W). It gets cold here (San Francisco), and I discover that I'm often using a space-heater at the foot of my desk in addition to the ambient oestrus my PC is producing (like when I'1000 perusing the spider web and typing comments such as this during the day, I primarily game for 2-iii hours during the evening). I could offset my heating beak with an additional 1080 Ti by about $15 a calendar month. $400 buy becomes a $300 purchase 6 months hence and at that bespeak I volition probably sell both 1080 Ti'south and upgrade to a single 3080 Ti.

Yeah, there will ever be that i demanding title or ii that doesn't support SLI simply I can live with that vs spending $1200 before-taxes for 25% bump on avg. upwardly and over 1080 Ti and Ray Tracing that I can't even turn on because RT is likewise demanding at 3440x1440 (see HardwareCanucks recent appraisal of RT in 2020, where they were averaging fifty FPS @ 2560x1440 with a unmarried 2080 Ti with RT maxed).

I'1000 just tired of waiting to upgrade and I'yard not near to "upgrade" (distressing, ~25% isn't an upgrade) to 2080 Ti. Merely from an ethical, moral perspective I'thou disgusted with the entire Turing line-up and want no role in providing financial positive feedback to NGreedia for their decision to essentially double the price of their products with their rename scam.

In fact I'g downright disgusted with them and I do honestly promise AMD gives them a serious run for their money this year with Big Navi. Hell if I wasn't in dearest with my UW panel (AW3418DW @ 120 Hz) or if annihilation should happen to it I may go with a Free-sync panel and just ditch NGreedia altogether. I might go with an all AMD build side by side year. Tired of both Intel and NGreedia, this is what a monopoly in the manufacture looks and feels similar: $1300 80 card, $900 70 card, and $600 60 card when one acknowledges they merely renamed the entire lineup 1 GPU higher and 14+++++++++++++++++ iterative garbage where 9900k has same IPC equally 6700k some 4 years on. Zero incentive to actually innovate, just double the prices and milk the mindless consuming public. No thank you.

Anyway, yet mulling over adding a 2d 1080 Ti for $400 and some change for 50% more operation upward and over single 2080 Ti, the terminal vid in a higher place nearly pushed me off the fence in that direction.

Wow, laissez passer the bud my friend!

vulcan78

Wow, pass the bud my friend!

Nice jab, where exercise you feel that I'1000 mistaken with the data that I've presented or are you some other 2080 Ti owner who feels the need to justify how stupid a $1300 for 25% performance bump decision is?

Hither you go buddy, go ahead and light upwardly on your end with your 2080 Ti, youre going to need it:

Delight remind yourself while youre puffing away that the 2080 Ti is overclocked to 2200 MHz and the 1080 Ti'due south are at stock clocks. Imagine the performance difference with the 1080 Ti'south under full h2o cake running at 2000 MHz instead of 1800 MHz.

AltTabbins · February 10, 2020

I ran 1080 (non ti) and 2080ti's in SLI for a while and while I don't take numbers, I think the overall experience with just 1 of each was better than with 2. For titles that supported and scaled well with SLI, it was great. For titles that didn't, sometimes I would really have issues like lower frame rate than a single card, or stuttering, or frame dips. Functioning might accept averaged to be better with SLI when you considered the ups and downs, but the overall feel for me is ameliorate with a single card. It might exist the mistake of SLI, it might be the fault of just have 16 pcie lanes talking to the CPU at i fourth dimension.. I don't know the tech details of it. I but know that I have a better overall experience on a unmarried card.

cybereality · Feb 10, 2020

Correct AltTabbins . FPS numbers don't tell the full story, I was actually tricked as well looking at the FPS meter not realizing the whole experience sucked.

I had read nearly microstutter before, and knew it was an issue, but didn't realize exactly what it was for a while. My eye-opener was when I got a Radeon VII to replace 2x Vega 64 cards.

On paper, the Vega Crossfire was no question getting college FPS. But the VII bill of fare was leaps and bounds smoother, even with a lower FPS. That is not even because problems like the shadow flickering in Far Cry five, which was now gone.

Though Nvidia was not as bad, that is a proficient example of how college FPS does not hateful smoother or a better feel. Fifty-fifty M-Sync/FreeSync does not overcome the event. After that I sold my second 2080 Ti and haven't looked back.

Unless there are some huge redesign with how SLI/Crossfire works (I idea that was coming with mGPU, but that hasn't panned out) then I don't think I'd e'er consider multi-GPU again.

As well, don't you lot think it'due south strange to be calling the company "NGreedia" however you lot run their hardware and are promoting people to buy their production? I hateful, you can but buy AMD if you don't like their practices.

I mean, I have a 2080 Ti, but I'll probably go AMD adjacent round if their ray tracing solution pans out. Also might consider running Ryzen on my main machine, even though everything is working fine now so I won't upgrade until necessary (or I tin't fight the bug whatsoever longer).

serpretetsky

I made an account just to post this, yeah kind of neglect

Hi vulcan78! Welcome to these forums!

I mean what kind of comparison is this? It'south bully if you want to tell yourself that the $1300 "upgrade" was worth information technology but yeah, actually lousy testing methodology and youre not fooling anyone with discernment.

What OP could have done instead of paying $1300 after taxes for what is in reality a ~25-thirty% crash-land in performance over single 1080 Ti is they could ...

So basically, this is an example of a misconfigured organization and a waste of coin.

People might be more receptive to y'all if y'all don't insult and then continuously betoken out perceived failures of the OP in their personal test.
The OP is non, later on all, a professional reviewer.
A simple asking if he could rerun the test with a SATA drive, for case, might work. Or any other recommendation you might take.

(I'g non an admin, and this is simply a suggestion)

cybereality

And worth is in the mind of the buyer. If I spend $i,300 and I am happy with the results, and then the exchange of money was worth it. That'south all there is to information technology.

Furious_Styles

Dainty jab, where exercise you lot feel that I'm mistaken with the information that I've presented or are you lot some other 2080 Ti owner who feels the need to justify how stupid a $1300 for 25% performance bump decision is?
Hither yous become buddy, go ahead and light up on your end with your 2080 Ti, youre going to need it:

Please remind yourself while youre puffing away that the 2080 Ti is overclocked to 2200 MHz and the 1080 Ti'southward are at stock clocks. Imagine the performance difference with the 1080 Ti's nether full h2o block running at 2000 MHz instead of 1800 MHz.

No, I'thou not justifying annihilation, and I did not spend 1300 on a 2080 ti, or even 1000 for that matter. You lot're the one jumping through hoops to justify 1080 ti SLI with the "ngreedia" comments for added effect.

Dayaks

SLI isn't even an option in my listen so the choice was easy for me. The last affair I need is the inconsistency of a second GPU. My gaming time is limited enough.

Armenius

I was big into SLI for a skilful while. My last SLI setup was a pair of GTX 970. I went to a single GTX Titan 10. In pure FPS the Titan was a little slower but the feel was a lot better. With the declining SLI support I accept non even considered doing it over again since.

"Hard work". OP has 2nd GPU hobbled at 4x speed because boot drive is Thousand.two SSD occupying precious few PCI-East lanes on Z370 chipset. Come across my mail service above where 1080 Ti SLI is really xl% faster in BF5 than single 2080 Ti when both cards are at 8/16x. Entire thread should be tossed out purely on these grounds. All of the benchmarks are basically meaningless except for the few titles that have negative scaling, I mean at that place's a point to be made here, but non all games have negative scaling. I'm not proverb that SLI is a smart move in 2020, but it'south far from dead:
If youre in my boat with a single 1080 Ti and tin can pick up a 2nd one used for $400, I mean fifty-fifty if one or two titles youre playing doesn't have SLI support that'south still far preferable than forking out $1200 before taxes for 2080 Ti that itself shows variable gains (twoscore% in some games sure, merely as low every bit 22% in others, information technology's almost as bad every bit SLI in this regard).

I accept my primary 1080 Ti nether h2o block, and then heat uptake by master card isn't a business organization equally both cards would be in a loop with 1kw rad surface expanse and I have a 1kw PSU fix to get (I built my system so that I could add a 2nd GPU down the route if I wanted to).

That's not how PCI-E lanes on Intel work. The video cards get sixteen lanes dedicated to them from the CPU. The M.two slot go 4 lanes from the PCH. Running 2 video cards and an Thou.ii NVME drive gives x8/x8 to the video cards and x4 to the SSD.