Hi all!
 
I am thinking about getting a second GTX 780 Ti but i'm wondering if micro stuttering is still an issue these days. I used to have a 295 FTW back in the day which drove me nuts because of its micro stuttering, and I haven't used a dual gpu card or SLI setup since then. Hopefully, things have changed over the years.
 
Also, placing both reference cards directly on top of each other (no spacing between them, just using PCI-E 16x slot 1 and PCI-E 16x slot 2) makes me worry about the temps of the top GPU.
At idle, temps of my single 780 Ti are around 43°C now and at full load the maximum temp i have measured is 83°C. (it's almost 30°C outside, and temps in my room are easily +25°C at the moment)
 
PSU is a be quiet! Dark Power Pro 1000W by the way, which i guess should be enough for SLI should i take the plunge. GPU's will not be overclocked.
 
Any advice/info/help is welcome.

Same here, haven't had a problem with it for the past 2 builds I have had with SLI within the last 4 years. Though, looking at your current temps you may have a problem with throttling with SLI. Any way to improve air flow or possibly think about water cooling? Your top GPU is always going to run higher temps than the bottom one (on air at least, not with water). If it is already hitting max stock temp target then it will definitely hit it more quickly with a second GPU directly below it. If it is the blower cooler, the best thing to do is place a fan directly in front of it so it receives constant cool air. Custom coolers just require high airflow in general. A side exhaust fan can also help since the exhaust on the GPUs is usually blowing in that direction.

Alright guys, thanks for your input so far. I've been searching the net for the past hour or so, and it looks like using slot 1 (16x) and 3 (8x) seems to be the best option to prevent the top card from overheating. This way i can also still use my X-Fi soundcard and performance loss seems to be negligible, as Hemi stated above.

HeavyHemi
However, there are still games that suffer from hitching and pauses as always...Fallout series, Oblivion games...Watchdogs being a recent example of this also.

We're still talking micro stuttering, right? Or just bad optimisation? Any experience with Euro Truck Simulator 2 or Sniper Elite v2/3, perhaps?
Last but not least, can you tell me if your Titans are being bottlenecked @3,6 - 3,7GHz? I'm also still using X58 but my CPU is clocked at 3,66Ghz and i wonder if i'm eventually going to run into a bottleneck. At this moment i have tested a few games with 4xSGSSAA/4x SuperSampling and GPU usage is 99%. I hope to crank up the FPS by adding a second card and using the same settings.

Jonathan@EVGA
Alright guys, thanks for your input so far. I've been searching the net for the past hour or so, and it looks like using slot 1 (16x) and 3 (8x) seems to be the best option to prevent the top card from overheating. This way i can also still use my X-Fi soundcard and performance loss seems to be negligible, as Hemi stated above.

HeavyHemi
However, there are still games that suffer from hitching and pauses as always...Fallout series, Oblivion games...Watchdogs being a recent example of this also.

We're still talking micro stuttering, right? Or just bad optimisation? Any experience with Euro Truck Simulator 2 or Sniper Elite v2/3, perhaps?
Last but not least, can you tell me if your Titans are being bottlenecked @3,6 - 3,7GHz? I'm also still using X58 but my CPU is clocked at 3,66Ghz and i wonder if i'm eventually going to run into a bottleneck. At this moment i have tested a few games with 4xSGSSAA/4x SuperSampling and GPU usage is 99%. I hope to crank up the FPS by adding a second card and using the same settings.

If you're asking if an X58 platform limits the performance of TITANS in SLI, the answer is yes. They will perform better on newer architectures. Clock for clock around 15%. The amount depends upon whether the title is GPU or CPU limited. The higher the resolution and the more AA you use, the less the CPU become the performance limiter. At this point it hasn't bothered me enough to update. But I'm running a 980X at 4.3ghz so that somewhat compensates. Personally on games that support it, I like using SGSSAA myself. I've got the rendering power, why not use it? As far as the stuttering and hitching issues, I wasn't talking about microstutter, which is a variation in timing between frames but actual pauses and hitching either from poor game optimization or data transfer streaming textures which are more related to hard drive and or caching issues.

I had 4way sli Titans, and 4 Way sli 780 TI Stock,s   and now 4 way sli 780 TI classified,s
 
And yett there is no microstuttering,
 
Only stuttering and tearing Cause the  Monitors and GPU,S  is nott in sync,  Same as everyone around here,   Thats where  Nvidia have come whit G-sync, To eliminate Tearing and stuttering
 
You cant see Microstuttering,  But normal stuttering and tearing can we see, But that dosent give anny effect on SLI
 
Im waiting for the asus rog swift pg278q whit G-sync,  its soon on the marked :)

I still use a gtx-295 plus , dual gpus no stuttering(you) had problems. I play MWF2 MWF3 no problems.