![GTX 970 SLI Vs GTX 1070 [Which one is Best Choice]](https://www.ingameloop.com/wp-content/uploads/GTX-970-SLI-Vs-GTX-1070.jpg)
Based on the aftereffects of engineered and gaming tests, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 is our preferred choice because of the cost and power draw factor to the performance. Still, if you want a couple more hardware and more computing power than what a single 1070 is capable of, you can go for GTX 970 SLI for better results in some aspects rather than gaming.
Key Takeaways
- GTX 970 SLI is a configuration that uses two GTX 970 graphics cards in tandem, while GTX 1070 is a single card that offers similar performance.
- Both options have advantages and disadvantages, depending on the game, resolution, power consumption, and budget.
- GTX 970 SLI can outperform GTX 1070 in some games that support SLI well, such as Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Witcher 3, and GTA V.
- However, GTX 1070 is more consistent and reliable in most games, especially those that do not support SLI or have poor scaling, such as Fallout 4, Doom, and Overwatch.
- GTX 1070 also consumes less power, generates less heat and noise, and has more VRAM than GTX 970 SLI, making it a better choice for future-proofing and VR gaming.
The Good Points of GTX 970 SLI
The Nvidia Maxwell series is an excellent leap of success for Nvidia in history. Nvidia Corporation has broken the barrier of performance and power consumption which was a fantasy until Nvidia released its Maxwell architecture lineup with GTX 980 as its flagship GPU. Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 and 980 were released together, breaking all the stereotypical believes and chains of limitations. AMD released its RX 4xx series on the counter side, which was relatively cheaper yet not surpassing the great advantage that a single Maxwell GPU can. All through 2015, the GTX 970 was ordinarily the puncher GPU, and with a large number of value AIB models to pick from, it effectively beat the R9 290. Anyway, many individuals who bought the R9 290 were bouncing all over about how it would be superior speculation down the track.

This is one region where the Maxwell GPUs had a significant bit of leeway over the AMD rivalry, and it’s a favorable position Nvidia still holds today. The R9 290 drove up framework power utilization by 30% for a comparable degree of execution. This is why GTX 970 graphic cards typically run cooler and calmer than R9 290 cards. It’s the equivalent GM204 center that is conveyed inside the range-beating GTX 980, even though that card has a much progressively great particular: 2,048 stream processors and a higher base clock of 1,126MHz. Maxwell isn’t just about ultimate performance; it’s also about proficiency.
Nvidia has invested energy in reconfiguring the association of its stream processors right now; presently, they’re rendered into littler, increasingly large squares. The GTX 970’s memory specs are equivalent to the GTX 770s; however, the GTX 970’s Maxwell GPU has more CUDA centers, with 1,664 contrasted with 1,536. The GTX 970 is likewise confirmed good with DirectX 12. So you’ll have the option to exploit the most recent highlights of games supporting Microsoft’s up-and-coming designs API.
The Good Points of GTX 1070
The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 is the sibling of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080. Fueled by a Pascal GPU chip with 8 GB of GDDR5 VRAM, the card should win, particularly in the lower top-of-the-line go. Nvidia has accomplished this, and where there may be shortcomings. NVIDIA has decreased the CUDA processor depending on the GTX 1070 from 2560 to 1920, a drop of 25%. This is a more significant drop than the GTX 970 withstood originating from the GTX 980 (~19%), so there is the potential for a more extensive exhibition dissimilarity this age. The 1920 center check is higher than the GTX 970 (1664), and with an altogether higher clock speed, there is no uncertainty about which card will be quicker.

Talking about the memory controller, even though it is compositionally indistinguishable from the two Pascal items, the GTX 1070 utilizes 8GB of GDDR5 instead of the more up-to-date, quicker GDDR5X found on the GTX 1080. Recurrence is decreased from 10 Gbps to 8 Gbps, and memory data transmission drops from 320 GB/s to 256 GB/s. That being stated, this is the first GPU to send with 8.0 GHz GDDR5 memory, so that is, as yet, an expansion over the information rate the GTX 980 delivered at stock. Couple that with the improved memory pressure on Pascal, and there shouldn’t be any worry over the memory plan on the GTX 1070.
Out-of-the-box clock speeds on the reference/Founders Edition of the GTX 1070 is set at 1506 MHz base and 1683 MHz Boost. Despite being marginally lower than the GTX 1080, the expansion over the GTX 970 is significant – about half! Figuring it out in your mind should provide you with some insight into execution: a 15% more substantial number of centers and half higher clock rates than the GTX 970 should give the GTX 1070 a significant advance forward at the cost fragment contrasted with Maxwell. As to control utilization, the GTX 1070 utilizations 30 watts, not precisely the GTX 1080, with a TDP of 150 watts, as indicated by NVIDIA particulars. That is 5 watts higher than the GTX 970; however, I envision any gamer would surrender 5 watts for the exhibition delta we are seeing. Only a solitary 8-pin connector again provides the force.
GTX 970 SLI Vs GTX 1070
GTX 970 is a standalone game-changer and mid-range GPU of today, but making it is twice and paired up with its twin, which makes a considerable difference and sums up all the graphical computing power with incremented VRAM, of course!

Although all the competitors of GTX 970s differ in their price and performance with a price tag on them.
GTX 1080 | GTX 1070 | GTX 980 Ti | GTX 980 | GTX 970 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
GPU | GP104 | GP104 | GM200 | GM204 | GM204 |
GPU Cores | 2560 | 1920 | 2816 | 2048 | 1664 |
Rated Clock | 1607 MHz | 1506 MHz | 1000 MHz | 1126 MHz | 1050 MHz |
Texture Units | 160 | 120 | 176 | 128 | 104 |
ROP Units | 64 | 64 | 96 | 64 | 56 |
Memory | 8GB | 8GB | 6GB | 4GB | 4GB |
Memory Clock | 10000 MHz | 8000 MHz | 7000 MHz | 7000 MHz | 7000 MHz |
Memory Interface | 256-bit G5X | 256-bit | 384-bit | 256-bit | 256-bit |
Memory Bandwidth | 320 GB/s | 256 GB/s | 336 GB/s | 224 GB/s | 196 GB/s |
TDP | 180 watts | 150 watts | 250 watts | 165 watts | 145 watts |
Peak Compute | 8.2 TFLOPS | 5.7 TFLOPS | 5.63 TFLOPS | 4.61 TFLOPS | 3.4 TFLOPS |
Transistor Count | 7.2B | 7.2B | 8.0B | 5.2B | 5.2B |
Process Tech | 16nm | 16nm | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm |
MSRP (current) | $599 | $379 | $649 | $499 | $329 |
The GTX 1070 can deliver up to a 40% leap of performance compared to a single GTX 970 GPU. This raises the idea of doing SLI (2x Nvidia GPUs incentives) of GTX 970 to have a slingshot of shortcut performance by chasing the VRAM of 4GB + 4GB out of the GTX 970 to run down the VRAM of GTX 1070, i.e., 8GB.
Is this idea worths the outcomes that we are anticipated? Or is it just a more powerful draw from the PSU to showcase a fancy hardware combo, or is it worth the results on the FPS of games and rendering speed?
Benchmarks
GeForce GTX 970 SLI and GeForce GTX 1070’s general presentation parameters include several shaders, GPU center clock, producing process, finishing, and estimation speed.

In a roundabout way, these parameters talk about GeForce GTX 970 SLI and GeForce GTX 1070’s exhibition, yet you need to consider its benchmark and gaming test results for exact evaluation.
Test System:
CPU: Core i7 6700k
RAM: 16Gb 3000Mhz DDR4 Vengeance LED
Storage: Samsung 860 Evo 512GB
Display: 1440p 120hz
Casing: Corsair 780t
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i
We ran the benchmark at 2560×1440 on the Ultra Preset with 2x AA. We picked these settings since we needed this to be a sensible perspective on the settings you will utilize in-game. We don’t consider numerous you wrench AA up to 8x and run extraordinary decoration when you really game.

We ran a solitary GTX 970 with a mere OC of 1075Mhz Base and 1225Mhz lift multiple times for the testing system and found the middle value of the average. Fps and the base fps. I did precisely the same method with 2 GTX 970s in SLI at similar clock velocities and the same graphical settings.
Single GTX 970 at 1440p Ultra 2x AA: Average = 38.8 fps Min. = 21.4 fps
GTX 970 SLI at 1440p Ultra 2x AA: Average = 71.9 fps Min. = 24.9 fps
Clearly, the thing that matters is huge. We didn’t run games at 4k with this SLI arrangement on medium-high settings with no AA at 50-60 fps simultaneously; truth be told, this SLI arrangement is unquestionably the sweet spot for maximized 60 fps 1440p gaming. Would you be able to accomplish 4k with worthy outcomes? Indeed, however, you may need to dial back on settings like Ambient Occlusion and AA. We needed to toss this little benchmark out there because I know how it feels to be adhered to needing to overhaul your GPU yet not know whether it is justified, despite all the trouble.
I can benchmark my arrangement, so we feel committed to letting any of you who are confounded know how this arrangement charges at goals above 1080p. After an OC to 1310Mhz base and 1425Mhz lift, and +200 on the memory, I tried the SLI config and got 80.8 fps, an expansion of 9 fps!! None of these cards are awful. By the goodness of utilizing the GTX 970 GPU and all coming in at under £300, they’re fast, silent, effective, and well-valued. Any of them would make an invite expansion to an excellent quality framework.
That carries us to the MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G; of the three, this one stands apart as the best. At £282, it’s the least expensive on a test and just £20 more than reference valuing. Despite this, its boosting solid qualifications imply it coordinates the EVGA for speed in many tests. The cooler’s somewhat lower than double space tallness additionally settles on it as a decent decision for those hoping to run two GTX 970 cards in SLI.
Besides, it has the most beasty performance transferring system compared to every one of the three cards, and with this, we figured out how to overclock it to a level that really outperformed the GTX 980 at stock rates. Your mileage may fluctuate, obviously; however, this is irrefutably a great outcome. Include the very peaceful activity and semi-cooling mode, and you have yourself a really magnificent graphics card.
Conclusion
The GTX 970 SLI is not as budget-friendly as it seems, and SLI doesn’t perform well in all games equally because of Nvidia’s driver drawbacks, and it always gets updated for newer games. It isn’t that route in the genuine gaming world where every detail matters. Graphics cards are not simply realistic cards. That is why numerous individuals like us spend numerous days isolating ourselves, and individuals like you invest the energy to sifter through. Having an extraordinary video card is the focal point of your gaming experience.
In the wake of chipping away at this audit broadly, we have discovered that the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 970 4GB XTREME GAMING OC EDITION is the best GTX 970 you can get. You can’t turn out badly with it as it has extraordinary execution, a great cooling framework, and can serve directly for 4K gaming. The GTX 1070 standalone, on the other hand, is a wise choice to get into better GPU architecture, of course, and to abolish the term of insane power draw so that it won’t require too much room and too much power draw from the PSU, i.e., your 550 Watts PSU is okay to run this GPU without any edge. Pascal architecture is really that power efficient, and a surprise to lead all the serious odds before the pascal architecture came out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it worth it to SLI GTX 1070?
Yes! The 1070 OC is still worth it, especially if the games you want to do not require a fast GPU, and you are willing to run every game at 1080p.
Is it worth SLI GTX 970?
Yes! It’s not a bad driver’s improvement. If we look at the stats, it shows that a pair of GTX 970 produces a 33.3% gain in performance, more than a single you can ever get.
What graphics card is better than GTX 970?
All GTX 10 series GPUs are better than GTX 970, but if we compare them to AMD graphic cards, you can see that AMD Radeon RX 570 has 3% better performance than GTX 970.
Is a GTX 1070 still good in 2021?
GTX 1070 is a stable graphics card for 1440p gaming, but RTX 2060 provides better performance at a similar rate. So, GTX 1070 is still a good GPU if you can get it at the right price.