4K Build: 2x 1080 or 1x Titan X

[Arachnotronic]

A friend of mine is looking to have me help him build a no-holds-barred system to power a 4K 60Hz display. The two choices for graphics cards that I am weighing are 2x1080 or a single Titan X. In games that scale, the 1080 should be faster but in games that don't scale, the Titan X should be measurably quicker.

If I had confidence that games going forward would scale nicely w/ mGPUs this would be an easy choice but so many games just aren't scaling these days.

What would you guys pick?

 

[Unreal123]

Titan X for 4k of course. SLI or CF is waste of time and very game support now a days. Even if the game supports then still scaling dam shame.

 

[Face2Face]

What games is he playing or looking to play?

 

[NTMBK]

I presume the Pascal Titan X, right?

I would always take a single GPU over multi-GPU. Developers will optimize for the use case which fits 99% of their user base, i.e. single GPU. The only time you see a developer care about multi-GPU is when NVidia or AMD pays them to do so.

 

[Chaotic42]

I'd go Titan X(P). Just make sure he's paying the right price. I've seen people charging $2,000 for them.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Go for a single card, and have him just upgrade whenever the latest and greatest come out. Either a 1080 or a Titan X will hold its value fairly well, as there are tons of people buying second-hand Nvidia flagship cards for a good price.

If I had to guess, I'd say the 1080 will hold its relative value better. Grab an overclocked version to close the gap to current Titan X performance, and then by reselling the card next year he'll get something faster than a Titan X and probably end up spending less than splurging on a Titan X now.

Or if he loves this hobby and is not strapped by funds, get a Titan X now, resell it next year when the next Titan comes out. Rinse and repeat.

 

[Arachnotronic]

I think I'm going to tell him to buy the Titan X.

 

[poofyhairguy]

New Titan X is the 4K card everyone has waited for years to have.

 

[4K_shmoorK]

Or save $550 and turn a couple settings down a bit. Or reallocate that $550 saved to a G-Sync equipped 4K display to pick up the slack.

Won't be running games max'd (whatever qualifies for max'd these, so many performance killing superfluous settings IMO) at 60 FPS with the Titan XP either. Maybe run most games near max settings for a year, but by next year you can bet it'll fall short. My .02

 

[crisium]

Make sure he knows about upgrade cycles. Does he plan to always own the single fastest GPU? Or does he plan to space out the upgrades?


If he does not intend to always stay bleeding edge then Pascal Titan X is a more expensive, temporarily fastest card in the world.


What I mean is, someone who goes GTX 980, GTX 1080, GTX 1180 will also temporarily have the best graphics card in the world, but for less money. At times this user will be ahead of the Titan user since they will wait for the next cycle.


If he throws down $1200 for a Titan X instead of ~$650 for a 1080, what is he going to do when a faster Volta GTX 1180 is released? If he buys it, then fine, he’s not on a cycle but demands the best. If he doesn’t and waits, then he is on a cycle to temporarily have the fastest GPU for $1200+ each time instead of temporarily having the fastest GPU for $600-$700 each time (assuming similar GTX 1180 prices).


Titan X is amazing for those that constantly demand the best, but otherwise it gets you into a similar cycle of the xx80 but for more money. If he intends to wait several years before upgrading he would be be better off spreading out that ~$1200 over GTX 1080 and 1180, imo. It'll cost you similar cash, but you'll easily be ahead of the Titan X once Volta 1180 hits. And with reselling the 1080 you will probably spend less money overall.


If my logic makes sense. Nvidia spaces out their flagships (although Titan X was only 2.5 months away from the 1080 this time) so you can have a different flagship cycle for far less cash.

 

[Thinker_145]

Titan X 2016 is only 25% faster than a factory OC 1080 at 4K. Max OC vs max OC won't change much. Games that scale would give you around 40% more performance than the Titan X. In my opinion it cannot really be justified to get a Titan X unless you get 2 of them.........

The price difference between two 1080's and Titan X is only $100 and you are likely to get that back upon resale. Now with 4K gaming you have to remember that you have to "plan" ahead as you will be upgrading GPU(s) fairly often. Will you be upgrading anytime soon? If the answer is no then I would actually agree that buying a single 1080 would be the better option. You only dump so much money on GPU(s) if you can continue to do so every year.

 

[happy medium]

I'd get him the Evga gtx1080 FTW for 680$ on Newegg or the Gigabyte 1080 extreme for 680$. They are nice cards.

For ~30% more performance the 1,200$ Titan is just too much money.
Turn down a setting or 2 and keep him on the xx80 cycle.
The 1180 will be faster than the Titan, late next year.
Save the $500+ dollars for a VR headset..

Don't buy 2 1080's. Sli / crossfire still suck

 

[Phynaz]

Friends don't let friends SLI.

 

[alcoholbob]

The issue with the Titan X is the stock cooler.

Right now I'm waiting on a Hybrid Cooler order. But generally a Titan X will only maintain around 1600MHz on stock fan curve.

Even on an open bench (which is what I am running now) with a 70% fixed fan speed you can only maintain around 1800MHz.

Unless you can deal with 100% fan speed + open bench, for a 2-2.1GHz OC you will need to put it on water.

The shroud cut-out is a little different so I don't believe the Titan X ACX cooler will fit unfortunately, otherwise that was a fantastic air cooler.

 

[Headfoot]

I'd skip the Titan X(P) as its a total rip off. I'd get a 1080 for now, and put aside the cash leftover from a Titan X(P) purchase for when a 1080 Ti or equivalent from AMD shows up and upgrade at that time. That way he'll get the benefit of comparing both competitors once both have their full 1st gen 16nm high end lineup out while still being able to game high-end today on the 1080.

 

[Carfax83]

As someone that recently ditched SLI after using it for about 7 years, I can't emphasize enough to go with the single card solution! I'm going to be going 4K myself next year, so I will personally wait on Volta since it looks like Pascal will skip out on HBM2.

 

[Golgatha]

I'd go Titan X(P). Just make sure he's paying the right price. I've seen people charging $2,000 for them.

Or MSRP for several days now.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/10series/geforce-store

 

[moonbogg]

At this point I'd go with the single card solution. SLI is sucking hard lately. If he's rolling deep, just have him get two Titans.

 

[pj-]

The issue with the Titan X is the stock cooler.

Right now I'm waiting on a Hybrid Cooler order. But generally a Titan X will only maintain around 1600MHz on stock fan curve.

Even on an open bench (which is what I am running now) with a 70% fixed fan speed you can only maintain around 1800MHz.

Unless you can deal with 100% fan speed + open bench, for a 2-2.1GHz OC you will need to put it on water.

The shroud cut-out is a little different so I don't believe the Titan X ACX cooler will fit unfortunately, otherwise that was a fantastic air cooler.

You are doing something wrong or you got a dud and a half.. My Pascal Titan X runs a constant 2000 mhz (exactly) in games. 120% power / 90C temp targets, +221 on the core. My case is a Fractal Define S and the titan's fan is in the 70-80% neighborhood. It is not any louder than my previous evga acx 2.0 980ti which I ran at ~1480mhz.

I know someone else with a titan and theirs also runs in the upper 1900s in a case with a non full blast fan curve.

 

[HumblePie]

You are doing something wrong or you got a dud and a half.. My Pascal Titan X runs a constant 2000 mhz (exactly) in games. 120% power / 90C temp targets, +221 on the core. My case is a Fractal Define S and the titan's fan is in the 70-80% neighborhood. It is not any louder than my previous evga acx 2.0 980ti which I ran at ~1480mhz.

I know someone else with a titan and theirs also runs in the upper 1900s in a case with a non full blast fan curve.

Not according to many review sites out there. The Titan X (pascal) throttles under load from those reviews measuring it. As an example:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-titan-x-12gb,4700.html

or

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-nvidia-titan-x-pascal-review

or this trying to fix it

http://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2568-titan-x-pascal-hybrid-results-clock-throttling-on-reference

 

[AdamK47]

I don't know why people call it throttling. Throttling would be going under the base clock. What you are talking about is a reduction of the boost clock. Anything above base is boost.

 

[HumblePie]

I don't know why people call it throttling. Throttling would be going under the base clock. What you are talking about is a reduction of the boost clock. Anything above base is boost.

Anytime the GPU goes slower for any reason is throttling by definition. It doesn't matter if it is the "boost" level that is being throttle. It a card was going 1900 MHz one moment and the next is going 1800 MHz that is a 100MHz throttle. If it went below 1417 due to throttling then it would be a completely defective card.

Because the Titan X throttles with the stock cooling, it leads to very inconsistent performance results for the card overall.

 

[AdamK47]

That's not throttling. That's GPU Boost 3.0 doing its job.

 

[alcoholbob]

You are doing something wrong or you got a dud and a half.. My Pascal Titan X runs a constant 2000 mhz (exactly) in games. 120% power / 90C temp targets, +221 on the core. My case is a Fractal Define S and the titan's fan is in the 70-80% neighborhood. It is not any louder than my previous evga acx 2.0 980ti which I ran at ~1480mhz.

I know someone else with a titan and theirs also runs in the upper 1900s in a case with a non full blast fan curve.

I have my card set a temp target of 85C with 70% max fan. I'm trying not to push it too hard before I get my hybrid cooler

(Also even tho the side of the case is open, it's a pretty cramped NZXT H440 so there isn't that much volume of air. And I replaced all my case fans with Noctua SB12As which run at like 300rpm so there isn't much case airflow.

 

[Headfoot]

That's not throttling. That's GPU Boost 3.0 doing its job.

GPU Boost 3.0 does its job via throttling from peak clocks based on heat and power