Power Usage and Final Thoughts

If you didn’t look at any of the benchmarks on the previous page, a quick look back at least at the 3DMark results of the GTX 1070’s in SLI should be a good indication of what you missed. The two overclocked GTX 1070’s stomped everything I have tested previously, especially in the 1080p and 1440p testing. So I was especially curious where it would fall in our power testing. The 1070’s only have a TDP of 150 watts, similar to the recently introduced RX 480. Paired up they did top our refreshed chart with a peak of 346 watts but if you look, the two cards actually come in very close to the GTX 980 Ti and not far from the older GTX 780 as well. I was a little concerned that the issues I had with Valley Benchmark in performance testing also caused problems here as well, but even though the results weren’t very good both cards were under load when I checked. Another good indication is that this result is about 100 watts more than a single GTX 1070. All in all the 1070’s aren’t going to need a monster power supply, but you are going to put down crazy numbers.

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So is going SLI on a pair of GTX 1070’s a good decision? Well, there is no doubt that pairing two GTX 1070’s up is going to perform really well, well above the performance of a single GTX 1080, especially in 3DMark. Currently, the cheapest you can pick up a GTX 1070 for on Newegg is $430, so you would be looking at $860 plus taxes and shipping to double up. Most of our in-game performance numbers with the GTX 1070’s in SLI though aren’t really reaching that level of performance. A single GTX 1080 is going to get you very close in game and leave you open for the SLI upgrade in the future when card prices go down.

That said I do think that GTX 1070’s in SLI is a good option for people who are currently running 1440p but plan on going to an ultrawide, 4k, or multi-monitor configuration down the line. In that situation, you can save money now but you won’t have to sell off your card in the future. Plus, I’m sure the GTX 1070 will be cheaper at that point as well.

TLDR: If you are running 1440p or 1080p stick with a single GTX 1070, if you are running 4k or an ultrawide go with a single GTX 1080. If you pick up a single GTX 1070 now and move to the higher resolutions in the future you can pick up a second GTX 1070 at a cheaper price and play anything.

Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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garfi3ld replied the topic: #38003 13 Jul 2016 18:03
Today I take a look at the SLI performance of the GTX 1070

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