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SLI
Even though the Zotac GTX 980 Ti AMP! Extreme takes up 3 PCI-E-slots it still supports dual-card SLI. No SLI-bridge is included so you need to supply your own. In our case we even had to go and buy one as we for some reason could not find our stash of old SLI-bridges. If you buy one make sure it is one of the longest variants as it will need to bridge a big gap.
An almost comical image of two GTX 980 Ti-cards. Notice how much longer and thicker the Zotac GTX 980 Ti AMP Extreme is compared to the eVGA GTX 980 Ti SC which is based on the reference design. Still, with the right motherboard it will fit. But make sure you have enough room around the cards.
Note that each card runs at its own clockspeed. This is something we could verify also while running the tests.
Note: All SLI-results were done with the CPU running @ 4.2 Ghz.
While we would love to see a 200% higher score (100% increase) when using SLI this is not what you realistically can expect, especially since the cards are running at different clock speeds. At the lower resolutions where the GPU is not the limiting factor we do not see a lot of improvement in performance but as we move up in resolution the extra card starts to show its use and at 2160p we get around 160% of the single-card performance. This for example means that the average framerate in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor increases to 90 fps. You might note that Metro Last Light is missing in the charts. This is due to us not managing to get SLI working for that game at all. We even got a decrease in performance at 2160p.
How are you providing SLI results with a slower card in the pool? The Zotac clocks down to match the slower card to create equal performance. Essentially you posted results of the eVga card in SLI mode, not the Zotac. Also, the system you are benching on appears to be gen 2 not gen 3 pcie. You’re not getting the full 40 lanes out the Zotac… I assume these things will have an effect on your test results, no? i have this Zotac card and feel with the configuration and testing method you didn’t do it justice, it’s my first Zotac, coming from eVga 780 then 980’s all in SLI and find the new AMP Extreme a mind blowing experience. Extremely curious to see a what a “real” real-world test of two AMP! Extremes running in SLI with full gen 3 support active.
Well, until I get two of these cards to play with any SLI-tests will be affected by the difference in clockspeed. That said I could follow the clock speed in GPU-Z and each card was actually running at their relative speeds so it doesn’t seem it is clocking down – however it needs to be in sync so yes, we do get a bit slower SLI-results than we could get. The SLI numbers though is more to show what SLi can do for you. you are correct that I am rocking on an older gen mobo/CPU which I noted in my test-rig info and I am in the process of swapping everything out for Skylake the coming days so unless Zotac needs the card back ASAP i hope to get some new SLi-testing in during next week.
I just picked up a Skylake i7-6700K and the ASUS Z710 Deluxe (http://www.asus.com/US/Motherboards/Z170-DELUXE/) and will instalkl everything and then do some SLI-testing to see if the scaling changes.
Might be powerful, but I don’t trust Zotac 😛
Zotac is a more reliable edition compared to the plain but you’ll never get anything special and you’re likely to pay more. Then again if you’re looking for a more stable version of a unit where the special things like the 20th edition 980 for example mean nothing, zotac is the way to go.
I’ve tested a bunch of Zotac cards and their AMP! edition cards always worked well and provided nice overclocking featrures and good cooling. Still, even the “reference” cards of the 980 Ti overclock well so in the end you have to see how much you value factory overclocking and different coolers.
A fan of Zotac. They get the most out of their GPU’s but as a result, suffer limited longevity. I’ve had 2 of their cards die on me, roughly as I was just about to upgrade to the next version. Meanwhile all stock frequency cards I have from other brands (as far back as GeForce3) live to this day. On most cards the fans will wear out after about 3-4 years of regular use. In Zotac cards the GPU has a similar lifespan, which shouldn’t be an issue if you’re chasing high frequencies and tend to upgrade often.
May as well buy reference card
At that price I’d rather get a FuryX…