Hey all, I was looking at getting either a GTX 1080ti or another GTX 1070 (already have one). I looked at blenchmark (http://blenchmark.com/gpu-benchmarks) and was amazed at the scaling, 2 GTX 1050 TI’s handily beat a GTX 1080TI. other than the memory difference, it seams much more viable to go SLI rather than get the GTX 1080ti. everyone’s thoughts on this?
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SLI plays no role in this game
from my experience, it’s about management & economics, efficiency - better having two workers with smaller shovels versus one stronger & larger
Having multiple cards doesn’t automatically indicate SLI. Outside of games, you’ll find there is little to no use of it.
As burnin noted, you’re distributing work over more workers, and you’ll get better speed from multiple cards over a single higher-rated one from the same general category. The main reason for getting the higher rated card is the larger memory, as it doesn’t stack with multiple cards i.e. if you can’t GPU-render the scene with one 1050 Ti, adding more isn’t going to help. In general, a single card will also consume less power, require fewer slots/power connectors, and generate less heat than multiple cards of the same class.
So if you are already ticking along on a 1070 without hitting memory limits, considering a second one is an excellent idea. Just ensure you have the power supply, open slots, and cooling to support it.
The actual SLI connection will make renders slower. If you use two or more cards for rendering they should NOT be connected to SLI. They just need to be installed and left unconnected to each other. They render separately. You may also want to get a 1080TI, but use the one you have as well.