Review: EVGA GTX 970 SSC in SLI vs. Titan X and R9 295X2

Conclusion

The GeForce GTX 970 remains a good GPU for full-HD or QHD gaming even with the recent 'Memorygate' issue fresh in enthusiasts' minds. Available from £255 in reference form and significantly faster once a high-profile partner has given it the OC treatment, such as EVGA with the SSC variant, putting two cards in one system offers enough performance for them to be a viable solution at a lofty 4K resolution.

A decent dollop of extra performance isn't compromised by stuttery gaming in the main, and two GTX 970 SSC's throughput is better than a single Titan X and, depending upon title, about the same as the AMD Radeon R9 295X2.

Average and minimum framerates don't tell the whole story, though, so while a pair of EVGA GTX 970 SSC cards can be blisteringly fast, a single Titan X, admittedly more expensive, has more consistent performance. We can say this because, more often than not, its worst frames are relatively close to the average framerate at 4K.

Where does this leave GTX 970 SLI? It's a good solution if you own a card already and want to indulge in 4K gaming without reducing image quality to a large degree. Such advice applies to today's titles alone; those from next year may expose the 4GB framebuffer available to each GPU.

The well-heeled enthusiast is steered towards the Titan X for the best combination of framerate/smoothness/futureproofness at a 4K resolution. Those with more modest budgets can achieve higher framerates with a little more variance by choosing either a Radeon R9 295X2 or two-board GTX 970 run in SLI.

EVGA GTX 970 Super Superclocked in SLI
(04G-P4-3975-KR)

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The GTX 970 Super Superclocked graphics cards are available to purchase from Scan Computers.

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