GeForce GTX 980 2 and 3-way SLI review - Product Showcase

Product Showcase

For today's article we make use of GeForce GTX 980 cards, two reference and one AIB card. Let me show you.
 

Each GeForce GTX 980 will come with 4 GB of graphics memory, that's enough if you are a hardcore gamer with a monitor resolution of 1920x1200 and upwards to Ultra HD. If you plan to game on triple monitors then actually 4 GB starts to make a bit more sense as this will definitely help you out in the uber high resolutions and with hefty AA combinations.
 

The GeForce GTX 980 has a maximum power consumption of 165 Watts, you'll need to power the card with two PCIe PEG leads from your power supply per card (for the reference cards). Above the two reference cards for 2-way SLI.
 

Above the two reference cards and an added Gigabyte G1 gaming GTX 980 for 3-way SLI, all these cards will run default/reference clock frequency settings. You can mix brands these days, clever software based SLI limiters will clock the cards the same. Though we will talk about power supply recommendations in the next pages, make sure you add little extra reserve Wattage for efficiency, but you also want a little reserve if you plan to overclock processor or the GPUs. Extra voltage can really eat away in your power consumption fast. 

Like any high-end GeForce graphics card, Nvidia will allow you to opt for the multi-GPU road as you may pair two or three cards in one PC -- heck even four if you are up for a daunting task of course. We always recommend a maximum of two cards, this will give you the least driver hassle whilst maximizing your performance scaling. Not to mention things like heat and power consumption, albeit the last one for this generation GPUs really isn't bad.