GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 2-way FCAT SLI review - Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

We don't do a lot of SLI or Crossfire articles anymore, the install base is on the decline and even Nvidia and AMD themselves are limiting Multi-GPU, most towards a maximum of 2-way SLI/CFX. It is for the same reason as always, in certain scenarios the cards scale fantastic, in others things will be way more difficult.

No Multi-GPU Bueno

That is mostly the result of the dreaded CPU or more specific CPU driver overhead bottleneck (two cards require a lot more CPU cycles from the CPU hence you sometimes even see negative scaling in say 1080p). However, if you are and a WQHD or Ultra HD gamer, that's where the benefits kick in big-time if multi-GPU mode is working/supported. And yes, we tested a dozen or so games, but Hitman, Formula 1, Resident Evil and a few others all are no-bueno. 
 

 
Right, lame pun video aside. For the titles in this article that did work, scaling is pretty okay once you get to the higher resolutions; but you need to be at least at 2560x1440 and preferably at Ultra HD as only there scaling makes sense. In some tests, the SLI setup really starts to shine, in other scaling is a little so-so. Our recommendation as always, with a single monitor setup up-to, say 1920x1080 to 2560x1440 you'd be more than okay and perhaps better off with just a faster single graphics card. Now, if you have that nice Ultra HD monitor with a 3840x2160 resolution or a three monitor surround screen setup, that's where a 2nd card would actually make sense. Processor power then. We use a X99 / Core i7 5960X Extreme processor clocked at 4200 MHz. With SLI I recommend faster and more cores. The new six-core i7 8700K (review) for example would be downright terrific. 

With multi-GPU gaming these faster clocked 6 or 8 core puppies will show an increase in performance. You do need to wonder though if the 10~15% performance increase in lower resolutions really justifies that money, but obviously, if you can afford two cards in SLI, you probably will go for the best and fastest infrastructure as well. 
  

Noise & Heat

Depending on your configuration the temperature target protection of the reference GeForce GTX 1070 Ti founders edition cards hover in the 80 to 85 Degrees C at maximum. We used MSI GTX 1070 Ti Gaming editions with the TwiNFrozr VI cooler. Temps sit at roughly 70 Degrees range. If you go SLI, an AIB card with proper cooling is preferred and recommended over the founder editions as not only will it cool better and be more silent, you'll prevent throttling at that 80 Degrees C marker as well. Do take good care of proper airflow in your PC case though.

In closing

As we have seen often, multi-GPU remains to be challenging especially with high-end and enthusiast class cards. There's a lot CPU limitation in the lower resolutions that will affect SLI scaling, in 1080P for example that mostly NIL or even negative scaling due to driver overhead. And as such IMHO SLI is mostly advised with Ultra HD screens or multi-screen configurations. We do have to say that over the previous driver things improved a bit, the GTX 1070 or 1070 Ti does make much more sense money wise (in SLI) over the 1080 and 1080 Ti SLI, obviously. We are and you will run into issues with some multiple games whether that be the lack of SLI support or some weird frame time stuff happening. This is unfortunate and something any multi-GPU will run into at one point with certain games. Small note, we tested performance in-between HB and regular SLI bridges, we cannot detect any FPS differences or significant enough frame pacing differences, even at 4K and run insane framerates. They might matter more with triple screen 4K output though. In closing, SLI or multi-GPU can be fun and make sense if you need the raw horsepower in say Ultra HD. It comes with the typical compatibility issues and usual quirks, always. Some don't care, others do, it is with articles like shown today that we show you the weak and strong points for you to make an informed decision and inevitably purchase.

That's it for this update. 

 - H

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