4790K and GTX1080Ti SLI?

S

Skott

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Aug 12, 2006
Messages
4,291
I hope I'm asking in the right thread... anyway a 4790K cpu should be enough cpu power to run two GTX 1080Ti in SLI right? I'm thinking of moving up to 4k later this year and if I do I'll ditch my two 290x CF for 1080Ti SLI. I could do a cpu and mobo upgrade in addition to it but if I don't have to then that would be better. Or is it too early to tell yet with the new GPU?
 
I have a 4790K and a Titan XP (which should be more or less the same as the 1080Ti). It works great at 4K. Most games can be maxed out at 4K, even new ones like Resident Evil 7. Deus Ex MD had some performance issues, but it may just be the game is not optimized.

IMO a single 1080Ti would be fine for 4K. You could max out most games (especially slightly older ones) and a few newer games probably bumping down to High settings will work.
 
This questions has been asked a bazillion times dude.....If you are gaming at 1080P, 1080Ti, especially in SLI, you will run into a CPU bottleneck. Benchmarks have proven that even gaming with a 7700K overclocked to 5 GHz is a CPU bottleneck at 1080P with some games. When you move up to true 4K at 2160, the CPU is less of an issue.... I game on a Samsung JLS9000 at 4k. That is why I still run with my 3770K overclocked..... I still will upgrade to 1080 TI's in SLI and then Skylake-e hopefully in August
 
This depends on the resolution. If it's for the 1200p display that's in your sig I would say SLI 1080 ti's are overkill.

From the number's I've seen, the 4790K is behind the 7700K frame rates for most games. Isn't that a 3 year old cpu or older? I'm unsure. Update, I looked. It was released in Q2'14. So 3 years coming up.

I would suggest that you use that $770 dollars assuming you pay tax and update the motherboard, CPU and ram.

There is some killer new stuff out there.

7700K @ 5ghz, DDR4 3600 Ram, New 270x based Motherboard paired with your new 1080 Ti ..... You're going to be running very high to ultra settings on that 1200p display with 1 card. If you move up to 4K your still going to be at very high or ultra settings.
 
As far as a single 1080 ti for 4k goes, we are close but not there. I have the new 1080ti and game at 4k. Very high to Ultra settings is just at 60fps or under. Still pretty damn good.
 
Yeah, I understand. I certainly find some games that are more intensive (like Far Cry Primal, which I have to lower to High settings) but overall it still looks great and is fine.
 
Totally disagree with the suggestion to ditch your 4790k for a 7700k CPU, mobo, ram upgrade. At this point I'd just get one 1080ti card and see how it performs before jumping into SLI.

IMO it's not worth upgrading to Kaby Lake from Devil's Canyon.
 
cybereality said:
I have a 4790K and a Titan XP (which should be more or less the same as the 1080Ti). It works great at 4K. Most games can be maxed out at 4K, even new ones like Resident Evil 7. Deus Ex MD had some performance issues, but it may just be the game is not optimized.

IMO a single 1080Ti would be fine for 4K. You could max out most games (especially slightly older ones) and a few newer games probably bumping down to High settings will work.
Click to expand...

To echo this guy I'd try a single card before you get involved with the extra complexity of SLI. You might be satisfied.

If you do go through upgrading your CPU I would make it something that can run 2x 16 lanes of PCIe 3.0. If you're just targeting 60Hz your current CPU could be ok depending on the game.
 
Single Ti would be fine. Although I think you would see a bigger performance boost going sli and staying on 4790k than 1 Ti and moving to Kaby. Theres like 15% difference in gaming oc to oc.
 
Yeah even those on 3770k's it would be smarter to spend the $7-800 upgrading their gpu than switching to Kaby unless they really really need the new platform tech.
 
There is a very easy solution to all of this that will satisfy not only your needs but the arguments being made by all on this tread.

If you were to list your current Motherboard, CPU and Memory on craigslist ( Remember this is tax season and many people have extra cash in March, April and May ) or eBay this would most likely fund your ability to buy a 7700K, DDR4 and a Motherboard.

This will also allow you to purchase 2 x 1080 ti's.

This will give you the best of both worlds and will certainly give you one of the most powerful gaming rigs in the word.

Personally speaking, I suggest you look at the bigger picture. Don't go into 2018 with a 4 year old system which is a short 8 months away nearly. I sense many are biased in regards to Kaby Lake. A lot of guys here have unrealistic expectations about what performance 'should' be. Intel should do this and Intel should do that, etc. So there is some hate from one cpu tech / year to the next. Haswell this, Skylake that, Kaby Lake this. Ignore the biased opinions and instead fall back on common sense and logic. A new Motherboard, DDR4 and CPU along with a new 1080 ti is going to give you one hell of a system. That's exactly what I have. I came from a 5820K 6 core / 12 tread system and these guys on here could have used the same argument against me. But guess what, the Kaby Lake @ 5ghz beats my old 5820K running at 4.5ghz.

And as suggested, if you don't mind a little footwork to get your old Motherboard / CPU and older DDR3 combo sold, you get upgrade everything along with the 2 x 1080 ti's and have an incredibly powerful system. If you sell your old system innards, you're going to come up short about $150 or so dollars but I suspect you the extra $150. Or well within the budget if you just get 1 x 1080 ti.

Remember, Kaby Lake 7700K is only $269 dollars from Microcenter with a Motherboard purchase. 16gb DDR4 3200mhz is also only $99 for the EVGA 2 x 8 set.

My Kaby Lake / 1080 ti benches in the top 99% percentile. It's also in the 99% percentile in a handful of other benchmarks.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: DPI
like this
SixFootDuo said:
But guess what, the Kaby Lake @ 5ghz beats my old 5820K running at 4.5ghz.
Click to expand...

How much of that is due to the difference in CPU and how much is from the GPU?

If the OP can spend $800 and net, say 50% higher frames from just a GPU upgrade, does it make sense to spend another $500-600 for another 10%?

Arbitrary figures but you take my point.
 
SixFootDuo said:
There is a very easy solution to all of this that will satisfy not only your needs but the arguments being made by all on this tread.

If you were to list your current Motherboard, CPU and Memory on craigslist ( Remember this is tax season and many people have extra cash in March, April and May ) or eBay this would most likely fund your ability to buy a 7700K, DDR4 and a Motherboard.

This will also allow you to purchase 2 x 1080 ti's.

This will give you the best of both worlds and will certainly give you one of the most powerful gaming rigs in the word.

Personally speaking, I suggest you look at the bigger picture. Don't go into 2018 with a 4 year old system which is a short 8 months away nearly. I sense many are biased in regards to Kaby Lake. A lot of guys here have unrealistic expectations about what performance 'should' be. Intel should do this and Intel should do that, etc. So there is some hate from one cpu tech / year to the next. Haswell this, Skylake that, Kaby Lake this. Ignore the biased opinions and instead fall back on common sense and logic. A new Motherboard, DDR4 and CPU along with a new 1080 ti is going to give you one hell of a system. That's exactly what I have. I came from a 5820K 6 core / 12 tread system and these guys on here could have used the same argument against me. But guess what, the Kaby Lake @ 5ghz beats my old 5820K running at 4.5ghz.

And as suggested, if you don't mind a little footwork to get your old Motherboard / CPU and older DDR3 combo sold, you get upgrade everything along with the 2 x 1080 ti's and have an incredibly powerful system. If you sell your old system innards, you're going to come up short about $150 or so dollars but I suspect you the extra $150. Or well within the budget if you just get 1 x 1080 ti.

Remember, Kaby Lake 7700K is only $269 dollars from Microcenter with a Motherboard purchase. 16gb DDR4 3200mhz is also only $99 for the EVGA 2 x 8 set.

My Kaby Lake / 1080 ti benches in the top 99% percentile. It's also in the 99% percentile in a handful of other benchmarks.
Click to expand...

This is bad advice. You are chasing benchmarks scores that have little to do with real world performance.

Look at the video review posted above in this thread even for quick reference. The second half of the review shows overclocked FPS. Apples to apples. All at 4.5ghz. All at 1080p. The four CPUs are very similar at 4.5ghz and if the resolution was notched up to 1440p or 4k those small differences would further, to nearly entirely, vanish.

Benchmark after benchmark shows that the CPU isn't the bottleneck on games. If you can, overclocked that CPU to preferably 4.5GHZ range, then just sit back and enjoy. You'll get way more performance out of a GPU upgrade. If you have extra money buy a nice gsync enabled monitor. That's a way better pairing to a 1080ti than a 7700k upgrade for gaming purposes. I too would recommend you start off with a single 1080ti and upgrade from there if you think you still need SLI.

You'll probably not notice the difference between the 7700k and 4790k in real world use - so I'd consider it pretty much a waste. You WILL however notice the significantly smoother and consistent frame rate experience that gsync or freesync bring to the table --- even when the frame rate FPS number isn't consistently pegged.
 
Last edited:
I'd wait a generation before upgrading the cpu / mobo that Devils Canyon is pretty nice and can oc to around 4.7-4.8 relatively easily. As said before, the ROI just isn't there yet for a platform upgrade.
 
I can't believe people on [H] are recommending he upgrade his cpu, there's virtually no difference above 1080p between a 7700k and a 4790k, it's 2-3 fps. That's a terrible upgrade for gaming. A single 1080ti is good enough for 4K. You want some advice, save your money and just get a single card, and leave your cpu/mobo alone.
 
I don't think he has mentioned 1080p and his signature suggests 21:9@1440p.

However, the point stands...OP doesn't need a CPU / platform upgrade just yet.
 
4790k is still strong in 1440p. Yes in FHD KL is faster, but in 1440p there is little to no difference.

4,5-4,6 is easily reachable by all 4790k, as it goes on 4,4 with turbo. Heck, even the mobo auto OC should get you 4,6 (but with way too high voltage).

I had same choice - upgrade my DC to KL or get 1080 ti for my 1440p 144hz screen. Yep, went with GPU.

It's always easy to spend money :) just get single 1080 ti, see how it goes and if you need "moar powers" get 2nd. If not stay with one card :)
 
From what I'm reading, these guys don't have a lot of money to invest in a PC in one setting very often. I guess that's the disconnect for me. But I appreciate seeing guys making the most out of older hardware. For me, I am always buying and selling. it's a sin to me to build a beautiful $2,500 system, do it right, no plastic chrome or blue led's ... no bs parts and not list it right away. I've never built a system that was comprised by a cheap budget. While I never throw money to the wind so to speak, I do not have a problem spending smart money even when it's going to cost me more.

While many others here wouldn't upgrade to a 1080 ti over an older 1080 .... I would and did. I bought 2 x 1080 ti's the other morning. Well, around noon since that's when Microcenter could sell them. The 2nd one is just me planning ahead. Smart money I call it.

It's true, you can keep using your nearly 4 year old system. What these guys aren't telling you is you can use a lot of other older CPU's still as well. I've seen where a 2700K from years ago is still keep pace. There are older i5's and i7's than what you have that are keeping pace as well. So using that logic, yes ... keep your platform and rock it out dude.

As soon as I build a system it goes right on Craigslist and eBay. I mark it up $400 to $500 over my parts cost an let it sit. Sometime it sits for month, other times a week or two. I sell an average of 13 or 14 'personal' builds a year with an average profit of about $425 per box. This is a small part of my business but this small part alone made me around $5,500 in 2016.

This is the main reason I am suggesting you bring your system current and or sell your older Motherboard, CPU and Ram then at least upgrade those components. I think it's important to maintain a fresh system. Others here, maybe not. Their older hardware is 'good' enough.

I build 2 free systems a year using my own advice. I think it's very good advice and really think others should follow. But, I have a lot more hustle in me than most. That's why for the last 15 years I've been able to work from home.

Hope this explains my "bad advice" .... hahahha . sorry ... I'm coughing here. You guys really keep your systems for 3 and 4 years? Seriously? That's like ... throwing money away. You guys do know that right?

Good luck :)
 
That's one point I would agree on. If you do plan on selling your system at some point, might as well sell when it is still worth something.
 
SixFootDuo said:
As soon as I build a system it goes right on Craigslist and eBay. I mark it up $400 to $500 over my parts cost an let it sit.
Click to expand...

So is it a business or just a hobby? Are you selling these systems "as is" or with warranty and support?

SixFootDuo said:
I sell an average of 13 or 14 'personal' builds a year with an average profit of about $425 per box.
Click to expand...

So you're building a new system, on average, once a month...sometimes more?

SixFootDuo said:
You guys really keep your systems for 3 and 4 years? Seriously? That's like ... throwing money away. You guys do know that right?
Click to expand...

Throwing money away in what respect? Just because the parts depreciate over time does not mean it was wasted money.

Generally speaking, it's not as simple as you make out and, assuming one is NOT a system builder (i.e. providing support / aftersales services), it's not as simple as flipping systems on craigslist.

If you are doing this an ongoing business concern then why are you buying parts at retail? Surely you should be sourcing direct from distribution channels?
 
Yea I'm not exactly sure what's being suggested here by the wall of text above.

The OP asked if his 4790K CPU would be powerful enough for a 1080ti or two. And it is, no debating that.

And just because we can plainly see that upgrading to KL will bring diminishing returns, does not mean that we cannot afford to buy new computer parts. I originally planned on upgrading to KL but decided to wait to see how 2017 plays out between AMD and Intel. I'm also waiting for the 1080ti Stix so that I can upgrade from my 1080.

So yea, some of us do run three or four year old hardware because it just works. And Intel hasn't really advanced much since Haswell. For gaming buying new hardware is a sidegrade.

*Cough*
 
NeloDiavolo said:
Yea I'm not exactly sure what's being suggested here by the wall of text above.

The OP asked if his 4790K CPU would be powerful enough for a 1080ti or two. And it is, no debating that.

And just because we can plainly see that upgrading to KL will bring diminishing returns, does not mean that we cannot afford to buy new computer parts. I originally planned on upgrading to KL but decided to wait to see how 2017 plays out between AMD and Intel. I'm also waiting for the 1080ti Stix so that I can upgrade from my 1080.

So yea, some of us do run three or four year old hardware because it just works. And Intel hasn't really advanced much since Haswell. For gaming buying new hardware is a sidegrade.

*Cough*
Click to expand...
Exactly that. Cost of new platform to get 2-3 FPS more is not worth it. Yes, if I'd need features of KL - nvme x4 and such, I'd upgrade in no time. But right now, I'm waiting for next year for Ryzen 2 / Coffee Lake as maybe they will bring some meaningful progress. Hell if August upgrade of x299 will bring progress, I'll switch in no time. But till then 4790k even at turbo 4,4 ghz is just a tiny bit slower than KL.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top