SLI 1070 + 3D Vision
Thinking on the possibility to buy a 2nd MSI 1070, mainly because the beauty of playing 1440p + 3D (my concern was 1080p before, but now I love 1440p). I notice that, even with the well known bottleneck problem that 3D causes on CPU and GPU, usually my GPU is 99% stressed when playing at 1440p+3D, so it seems that the bottleneck is not caused by the CPU at that resolution (no a good idea if with a SLI of 1070 I would have a big FPS improvement really). Normally I can play recent games 1440p+3D at around 40fps (not as smooth as I desdired, but playable anyway) with my current hardware, but this enterteinment is becoming more and more interesting and I spend more time every day than before, so it seems to be worthly to spend some more money to have a better/smoother experience. My doubts: I have never had SLI, and for what I have read it seems to have some problems. Apparently some (maybe a lot of) games don't take advantage of SLI configurations, but I don't know if those games take benefit when talking about using 3D. Not much idea what is really the situation about SLI + 3D Vision.
Thinking on the possibility to buy a 2nd MSI 1070, mainly because the beauty of playing 1440p + 3D (my concern was 1080p before, but now I love 1440p). I notice that, even with the well known bottleneck problem that 3D causes on CPU and GPU, usually my GPU is 99% stressed when playing at 1440p+3D, so it seems that the bottleneck is not caused by the CPU at that resolution (no a good idea if with a SLI of 1070 I would have a big FPS improvement really).

Normally I can play recent games 1440p+3D at around 40fps (not as smooth as I desdired, but playable anyway) with my current hardware, but this enterteinment is becoming more and more interesting and I spend more time every day than before, so it seems to be worthly to spend some more money to have a better/smoother experience.

My doubts: I have never had SLI, and for what I have read it seems to have some problems. Apparently some (maybe a lot of) games don't take advantage of SLI configurations, but I don't know if those games take benefit when talking about using 3D. Not much idea what is really the situation about SLI + 3D Vision.

- Windows 7 64bits (SSD OCZ-Vertez2 128Gb)
- "ASUS P6X58D-E" motherboard
- "MSI GTX 660 TI"
- "Intel Xeon X5670" @4000MHz CPU (20.0[12-25]x200MHz)
- RAM 16 Gb DDR3 1600
- "Dell S2716DG" monitor (2560x1440 @144Hz)
- "Corsair Carbide 600C" case
- Labrador dog (cinnamon edition)

#1
Posted 01/08/2017 04:16 PM   
3D+SLI often works quite well. Not always, but a decent amount of the time. Personally though, I found it a bit frustrating - I play a lot of indie games that don't need SLI to run at 60+fos, so there's little benefit there. When I do play an AAA title where I could use more performance (which is quite often as well), I found SLI would offer a significant benefit about 60% of the time. That's nice, but it made me feel like I was better off just spending more for a better card to begin with, rather than taking a chance that SLI won't work with whatever I'm playing. It's not a bad idea, it's just hit-and-miss. You may want to consider waiting for a 1080ti announcement, then selling your 1070 on ebay.
3D+SLI often works quite well. Not always, but a decent amount of the time.

Personally though, I found it a bit frustrating - I play a lot of indie games that don't need SLI to run at 60+fos, so there's little benefit there. When I do play an AAA title where I could use more performance (which is quite often as well), I found SLI would offer a significant benefit about 60% of the time. That's nice, but it made me feel like I was better off just spending more for a better card to begin with, rather than taking a chance that SLI won't work with whatever I'm playing.

It's not a bad idea, it's just hit-and-miss. You may want to consider waiting for a 1080ti announcement, then selling your 1070 on ebay.

#2
Posted 01/08/2017 04:44 PM   
Yea that is another option, wait until a much better single card, that is what I have always done in the past. Maybe I should be happy with what I have. Thinking on the problems of having two cards, maybe it is a lot of noise when playing (in desktop use the fan is still), more power, and as you say more problems with some games.
Yea that is another option, wait until a much better single card, that is what I have always done in the past. Maybe I should be happy with what I have. Thinking on the problems of having two cards, maybe it is a lot of noise when playing (in desktop use the fan is still), more power, and as you say more problems with some games.

- Windows 7 64bits (SSD OCZ-Vertez2 128Gb)
- "ASUS P6X58D-E" motherboard
- "MSI GTX 660 TI"
- "Intel Xeon X5670" @4000MHz CPU (20.0[12-25]x200MHz)
- RAM 16 Gb DDR3 1600
- "Dell S2716DG" monitor (2560x1440 @144Hz)
- "Corsair Carbide 600C" case
- Labrador dog (cinnamon edition)

#3
Posted 01/08/2017 06:08 PM   
I have been an SLI gamer for several years, starting with the lowly 450 GTS. I will tell you that I would prefer a single GPU solution. For the last few years I've been running a single 690 GTX, which actually has two GPUs in it and therefore utilizes SLI configuration despite only being one physical unit. What I've found is that SLI benefits several games, while around 1/3 of the time it will not be properly supported by new releases and will actually hurt performance. Unfortunately, there are a few titles that end up NEVER getting a proper SLI profile (Arkham Knight for example). Due to these quirks, I would prefer to have a single GPU that's powerful enough on its own.
I have been an SLI gamer for several years, starting with the lowly 450 GTS. I will tell you that I would prefer a single GPU solution.

For the last few years I've been running a single 690 GTX, which actually has two GPUs in it and therefore utilizes SLI configuration despite only being one physical unit. What I've found is that SLI benefits several games, while around 1/3 of the time it will not be properly supported by new releases and will actually hurt performance. Unfortunately, there are a few titles that end up NEVER getting a proper SLI profile (Arkham Knight for example). Due to these quirks, I would prefer to have a single GPU that's powerful enough on its own.

|CPU: i7-2700k @ 4.5Ghz
|Cooler: Zalman 9900 Max
|MB: MSI Military Class II Z68 GD-80
|RAM: Corsair Vengence 16GB DDR3
|SSDs: Seagate 600 240GB; Crucial M4 128GB
|HDDs: Seagate Barracuda 1TB; Seagate Barracuda 500GB
|PS: OCZ ZX Series 1250watt
|Case: Antec 1200 V3
|Monitors: Asus 3D VG278HE; Asus 3D VG236H; Samsung 3D 51" Plasma;
|GPU:MSI 1080GTX "Duke"
|OS: Windows 10 Pro X64

#4
Posted 01/09/2017 07:51 PM   
Worth reading these: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-asus-strix-gtx-1070-1080-o8g-sli-review http://techbuyersguru.com/4k-gaming-showdown-geforce-gtx-1070-sli-vs-1080-sli-vs-titan-x-pascal?page=0 I haven't done any 3d vision benchmarks in a while. Those reviews only compare 2d performance and I know at one point everyone was saying that the SLI scaling in 3d vision is virtually 100%, because the driver can utitlise the 2nd card much more efficiently when rendering the offset/2nd viewpoint. I've got 1070 SLI and don't regret it at all, but I went into it with my eyes open. When it's supported, it's faster than a Titan X and cheaper. When it's not supported, 1/2 your investment is sitting there doing nothing. I am concerned about the future of SLI but we just need to take every game as it comes. DX12 is the fly in the ointment at the moment, as developers haven't got to grip with it and mgpu seems to be an afterthought. Hopefully then the engines and development matures, SLI and Crossfire will be given a new lease of life, especially as VR is crying out for it, but that might be wishful thinking :-)
Worth reading these:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-asus-strix-gtx-1070-1080-o8g-sli-review
http://techbuyersguru.com/4k-gaming-showdown-geforce-gtx-1070-sli-vs-1080-sli-vs-titan-x-pascal?page=0

I haven't done any 3d vision benchmarks in a while. Those reviews only compare 2d performance and I know at one point everyone was saying that the SLI scaling in 3d vision is virtually 100%, because the driver can utitlise the 2nd card much more efficiently when rendering the offset/2nd viewpoint.

I've got 1070 SLI and don't regret it at all, but I went into it with my eyes open.
When it's supported, it's faster than a Titan X and cheaper. When it's not supported, 1/2 your investment is sitting there doing nothing.

I am concerned about the future of SLI but we just need to take every game as it comes. DX12 is the fly in the ointment at the moment, as developers haven't got to grip with it and mgpu seems to be an afterthought. Hopefully then the engines and development matures, SLI and Crossfire will be given a new lease of life, especially as VR is crying out for it, but that might be wishful thinking :-)

GTX 1070 SLI, I7-6700k ~ 4.4Ghz, 3x BenQ XL2420T, BenQ TK800, LG 55EG960V (3D OLED), Samsung 850 EVO SSD, Crucial M4 SSD, 3D vision kit, Xpand x104 glasses, Corsair HX1000i, Win 10 pro 64/Win 7 64https://www.3dmark.com/fs/9529310

#5
Posted 01/09/2017 09:16 PM   
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