2x GTX 770 SLI Gaming

Next up is a pair of MSI GTX 770 Lightning graphics cards in SLI, which may be more akin to the typical Haswell-E system. Our goal here is to provide enough frames for a full on 120 Hz or 144 Hz refresh rate, ideally at the minimum frame rate level in modern games while still attempting maximum quality settings at 1080p. Even for this system it will be a hard task, and it will be interesting to see how the different memory configurations help with this.

Dirt 3: Average FPS

Dirt 3 on 2xGTX 770: Average FPS

Dirt 3: Minimum FPS

Dirt 3 on 2xGTX 770: Minimum FPS

Bioshock Infinite: Average FPS

Bioshock Infinite on 2xGTX 770: Average FPS

Bioshock Infinite: Minimum FPS

Bioshock Infinite on 2xGTX 770: Minimum FPS

Tomb Raider: Average FPS

Tomb Raider on 2xGTX 770: Average FPS

Tomb Raider: Minimum FPS

Tomb Raider on 2xGTX 770: Minimum FPS

Sleeping Dogs: Average FPS

Sleeping Dogs on 2xGTX 770: Average FPS

Sleeping Dogs: Minimum FPS

Sleeping Dogs on 2xGTX 770: Minimum FPS

Conclusions at 1080p/Max with two GTX 770s

Similarly to the single GPU arrangement, the only deficit worth mentioning is that of the minimum frame rate in F1 2013. Here we see 114-115 FPS on all the DDR4-2133 C15 kits, compared to 124-126 FPS on everything else except DDR4-2400 4x8 which had 120 FPS. This is a bigger 10% boost from choosing something other than the JEDEC standard.

Memory Scaling on Haswell: Single GTX 770 Gaming Comparing DDR3 to DDR4
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  • menting - Friday, February 6, 2015 - link

    simulation software, pattern recognition, anything that does a lot of data analysis and/or data transformation. Heck, whatever an SSD's BW is good for, high BW memory can also be good for
  • retrospooty - Sunday, February 8, 2015 - link

    Simulation and pat rec maybe, not that anyone uses it other than rare outliers... But Anything an SSD is good for? No, not at all. An SSD improves launch times for anything and everything from browsers to office apps, to graphic suite apps like Adobe CS to games. Everything that normal people do. HB ram improves almost zero for the vast majority of what people actually do with computers. Even what enthusiasts do.
  • menting - Monday, February 9, 2015 - link

    "SSD improves launch times for anything and everything from browsers to office apps, to graphic suite apps like Adobe CS to games. Everything that normal people do". Exactly my point. Everything that normal people do. All that an SSD does is to provide faster storage (granted, it's non-dynamic storage, unlike DRAM) such that when a CPU can't find the data in the cache nor the DRAM, it can go to it for data. If you have enough DRAM, all these software can reside in DRAM (provided that power does not go out). Also, a smart algorithm will know what software you used before so it will keep some parts in memory so the next time you launch it it will be faster. And the speed that it can relaunch will heavily depend on DRAM BW.
    If you want to talk about rare outliers, people who are serious enough Adobe users or gamers who really get affected in a major way by using a SSD vs a traditional HD are rare outliers. I won't be surprised if the number of those people are on par or lower than people that use simulation software or pattern recognition software.
    BTW, if memory BW doesn't make much of a difference, why do graphic cards go for GDDRx instead of plain DDRx?
  • retrospooty - Monday, February 9, 2015 - link

    "BTW, if memory BW doesn't make much of a difference, why do graphic cards go for GDDRx instead of plain DDRx?"

    You are seriously clouding the issue here. With a graphics card assuming you are utilizing it with a modern 3d game or such, would benefit immensely from memory bandwidth on the card... It hardly benefits at all from system RAM bandwidth. Like everything, memory bandwidth doubling while timing/latency more than doubles doesn't improve system performance much at all. Some cases ahve it diminishing performance. This is NOT about Video RAM, its system RAM and based on the Intel CPU architecture for the past 15+ years, improving memory bandwidth at the cost of latency doesn't help much...

    AGAIN, as I said in my original post - "We saw almost no improvement going from DDR400 cas2 to DDR3-1600 CAS10 now the same to DDR4 3000+ CAS [rediculous]
  • menting - Tuesday, February 10, 2015 - link

    if you just want to talk about system RAM, the biggest blame is on software and CPU architecture, since with the exception of a few, are not optimized to take advantage of BW, only latency, even when the usage condition is ripe for doing so.
  • retrospooty - Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - link

    This is an article about system RAM. Why would anyone be talking about video RAM? Agreed, it is a CPU architecture issue, however this is the world we live in and this is the CPU architecture we have... Intel is pretty much the top of the heap.
  • FlushedBubblyJock - Sunday, February 15, 2015 - link

    Don't worry there are endless thousands of bonerheads who cannot wait to be "sporting" DDR4.
    For most, if they are made to think it should be faster, it is, no matter what occurs in reality.
    I'd say 75% of it is how happy hyped their mental attitude is about how awesome their new bonerhead equipment is marketed to be, including any errors and rumors about what it is they actually purchased and installed, which they in many cases are not clear on.
  • xTRICKYxx - Thursday, February 5, 2015 - link

    This would be an interesting topic to return to when DDR4 becomes mainstream with higher speeds.
  • WaitingForNehalem - Thursday, February 5, 2015 - link

    Now this is an excellent article. Thank you!
  • ExarKun333 - Thursday, February 5, 2015 - link

    AMAZING article! Been waiting for this! :)

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