you cant argue with the people that claim to have never had a single issue or compliant with SLI. they are completely delusional. no matter how many documented issues are out there they will have an excuse and proclaim how great SLI is. in their fantasy land there has never been flickering or other artifacting of any kind related to SLI.  SLI is always as smooth feeling as single card. all games scale just fine. SLI works right of the box for new games and never gets broken from a driver.  all games they play support SLI just fine and they dont want to hear anything about those games they dont. 

trek554
you cant argue with the people that claim to have never had a single issue or compliant with SLI. they are completely delusional. no matter how many documented issues are out there they will have an excuse and proclaim how great SLI is. in their fantasy land there has never been flickering or other artifacting of any kind related to SLI.  SLI is always as smooth feeling as single card. all games scale just fine. SLI works right of the box for new games and never gets broken from a driver.  all games they play support SLI just fine and they dont want to hear anything about those games they dont. 

I suppose I am "delusionally" happy with 1080 SLI. 
 
Seriously though, just because people are happy with their performance of SLI in games does not mean they are making things up.  I do recall there being more issues back in the day with SLI and I am sure there as still issues however the issues are very minor to me compared to the benefit.  In my surround set-up I would be hurting to get decent numbers with one card.  As others have said driving higher resolutions can require more horsepower.
 
I have not run into a deal breaker yet that would convince me to ditch my SLI setup.  Would one card be better, probably but until they can make a card powerful enough to give me the FPS I want with the eye candy I want at the resolution I want, I will stick with SLI.
 
If you are happy with a single card, good for you but don't just dismiss others experiences, thoughts and opinions as not valid or real.

trek554

mpoffo

trek554
you cant argue with the people that claim to have never had a single issue or compliant with SLI. they are completely delusional. no matter how many documented issues are out there they will have an excuse and proclaim how great SLI is. in their fantasy land there has never been flickering or other artifacting of any kind related to SLI.  SLI is always as smooth feeling as single card. all games scale just fine. SLI works right of the box for new games and never gets broken from a driver.  all games they play support SLI just fine and they dont want to hear anything about those games they dont. 

I suppose I am "delusionally" happy with 1080 SLI. 
 
Seriously though, just because people are happy with their performance of SLI in games does not mean they are making things up.  I do recall there being more issues back in the day with SLI and I am sure there as still issues however the issues are very minor to me compared to the benefit.  In my surround set-up I would be hurting to get decent numbers with one card.  As others have said driving higher resolutions can require more horsepower.
 
I have not run into a deal breaker yet that would convince me to ditch my SLI setup.  Would one card be better, probably but until they can make a card powerful enough to give me the FPS I want with the eye candy I want at the resolution I want, I will stick with SLI.
 
If you are happy with a single card, good for you but don't just dismiss others experiences, thoughts and opinions as not valid or real.

again the people that are delusional are the ones that claim to never have had any issues and that it always works great. that is 100% BS as well documented SLI issues exist.  
 
SLI support is not getting better and if anything is going down. the need for more gpu power does you no good at all in many games so you have a card just sitting there doing nothing. both Wolfenstien games, Just Cause 3, Batman Arkham Knight, Quantum Break and many other games dont support multi gpu at all. neither do most DX12 games as its up to the devs and they are usually not going to fool with it. hell even some game engines such as UE 4 do not support SLI so anything more than a single card is going to do nothing in all those cases anyway. 

To each his own.  There is room in the world for both.  I happen to see many benefits in most of the games I play.  And if one does not support it nothing is lost, I have the option to disable SLI.  Also there are not many DX12  games out there at this point to draw the conclusion that there will be little or no SLI support, time will tell I suppose.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_with_DirectX_12_support
 
For the record here are the games listed as having SLI support:
 
http://www.geforce.com/games-applications/technology/sli
 

EVGA GTX Hybrid
It depends what resolution, refresh rate, preset you are using, games you play and if you are using surround. Maybe one GPU is all you need.
But it's nice to have the option of a 2nd GPU.
I've had SLI for a few years now and I'm sticking with it no matter that anyone says. When I only played 4K games SLI was the only thing that allowed me to play 4K games at 60FPS at near Ultra settings.
I have since got a 3440x1440 widescreen and love the higher fps but even here SLI is sometimes needed. I will definitely be getting another GTX 1080 soon.
There are still older games that the GTX 1080 can't handle on 4K@60fps, most have SLI support so with GTX 1080 SLI it should possible. And in 3440x1440 you can expect even higher fps which is nice.
Then again if you don't agree you don't have to get SLI, no one is force no one.

sigh, no one argues that a single card is not always fast enough at high res and max settings. none of that matters anyway if a game has issues with SLI or does not work at all though.   

GiantAssPanda
I was actually going to opt for an 1080 SLI setup but honestly, it'll probably still make more sense to buy one 1080 now and upgrade to the next best thing (1080Ti probably) when it appears on the market. Even if it means that upgrade cycles will be very short.
 
Decisions, decisions..

 
I have exactly the same thought: one 1080GTX already installed, just 4 fun (nice upgrade BTW), and later on, go for the big brother GP102. Single card upgrade is more applicable/advantageous.
 
My system looks like more fast with a single Pascal than with my old Watercooled Maxwell 3way SLI before, must be placebo's effect 
 
I had SLI for 2 years, it have more cons than pros, also I like a lot the actual energy efficiency from GP104, less power drain from my PSU.
 
I also kept my watercooler stuff to the future GP102, no need to use it on a 200W less board now that won't take any advantage of it.
 
Cheers

GiantAssPanda

jeppouza
I have exactly the same thought: one 1080GTX already installed, just 4 fun (nice upgrade BTW), and later on, go for the big brother GP102. Single card upgrade is more applicable/advantageous.

Gaming at 1080p @ 60hz would make life so much easier. 
 
I'm still 60hz though, but 3440x1440..

nothing wrong with 60Hz...  as long the FPS stay above 25 ... no biggie  :P  
im still at 2560x1600  :P

jeppouza
I was much more happier before 1440p, just didn't know  

Ditto. Not a care in the world. Life was good. 
 
It was the same thing for me with audio. Back in the day I was perfectly happy with $50 headphones and headsets and now I own freaking 1000€ headphones. 
 
My advice. Stay clear from high end audio. That + PC gaming will ruin your bank account. 

trek554

EVGA GTX Hybrid
It depends what resolution, refresh rate, preset you are using, games you play and if you are using surround. Maybe one GPU is all you need.
But it's nice to have the option of a 2nd GPU.
I've had SLI for a few years now and I'm sticking with it no matter that anyone says. When I only played 4K games SLI was the only thing that allowed me to play 4K games at 60FPS at near Ultra settings.
I have since got a 3440x1440 widescreen and love the higher fps but even here SLI is sometimes needed. I will definitely be getting another GTX 1080 soon.
There are still older games that the GTX 1080 can't handle on 4K@60fps, most have SLI support so with GTX 1080 SLI it should possible. And in 3440x1440 you can expect even higher fps which is nice.
Then again if you don't agree you don't have to get SLI, no one is force no one.

sigh, no one argues that a single card is not always fast enough at high res and max settings. none of that matters anyway if a game has issues with SLI or does not work at all though.   

No one should as it's kinda true...maybe not at 4K or widescreen 60+ fps if you like Ultra.
There are too many variables as I mentioned above which will impact your choice.
 
 
 

jeppouza
hahah I'm also infected by this "high end audio illness", I was completely careless before using a Razer Electra Black, now I can't stay away from my Sennheiser HD598 
 
We can see a pattern here, High End GPUs followed by High end audio necessities, this must be a virus or something 

I also had the HD598s at one point. Then I got hungry for more.


Just don't get deeper into the audiophile scene. It's a bottomless pit. You'll never be satisfied.. 

The reason I buy sli is to future proof my system for newer games. I used to hate buying 1 new card then next year a new game comes out and it's not enough to handle it anymore. Also you can use nvidia inspector to make games that doesn't support sli to make them run in sli.

RandyRick

VeRsUaL
The reason I buy sli is to future proof my system for newer games. I used to hate buying 1 new card then next year a new game comes out and it's not enough to handle it anymore. Also you can use nvidia inspector to make games that doesn't support sli to make them run in sli.

Please explain how/when/why that games that don't have sli support can be made to run in sli using that utility. It appears to just be a gpu-z clone.

you cant if the game does not actually support multi gpu at all it so he is full of it. no one is running SLI in the Wolfenstein games, Batman Arkham Knight, Quantum Break, Just Cause 3 and others like that. 

You can too hold on.

VeRsUaL
Hi here is a game that doesn't support sli and in this video it will show you how to make it run in sli.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcXPb0UwHxM
 
That's one way of doing it. There is other ways of doing it. You just have to experiment.

AGAIN SLI will NOT work if the game itself can not support it. forcing SLI will not work when that is the case and I gave you examples. 

XrayMan

trek554

VeRsUaL
Hi here is a game that doesn't support sli and in this video it will show you how to make it run in sli.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcXPb0UwHxM
 
That's one way of doing it. There is other ways of doing it. You just have to experiment.

AGAIN SLI will NOT work if the game itself does not support it. forcing SLI will not work when that is the case and I gave you examples. 

Doesn't seem like you two will ever agree. I would just give up, and move on.    ;)

he is talking about forcing SLI in game that happens not to officially support SLI but is technically capable of it. I am talking about games that do not support it at all and forcing it will do nothing and can even make performance worse. if you keep up with games then you know what I am talking about and again I gave some known examples. 

trek554

XrayMan

trek554

VeRsUaL
Hi here is a game that doesn't support sli and in this video it will show you how to make it run in sli.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcXPb0UwHxM
 
That's one way of doing it. There is other ways of doing it. You just have to experiment.

AGAIN SLI will NOT work if the game itself does not support it. forcing SLI will not work when that is the case and I gave you examples. 

Doesn't seem like you two will ever agree. I would just give up, and move on.    ;)

he is talking about forcing SLI in game that happens not to officially support SLI but is technically capable of it. I am talking about games that do not support it at all and forcing it will do nothing and can even make performance worse. if you keep up with games then you know what I am talking about and again I gave some known examples. 

He is just saying you can do a workaround for some games that don't officially support it. I guess it's like a hack, type of thing. I'm sure people have done it. If it lowers their performance, they can always go with the non sli option.