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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  • Flunk - Thursday, February 5, 2015 - link

    "There is one other group of individuals where super-high frequency memory on Haswell-E makes sense – the sub-zero overclockers."

    Yeah, I'm sure the 200 people on the planet who care about that are a real big market...

    Nice article overall though. I don't know why, but I was expecting more from DDR4. It looks like there is little reason to upgrade right now. Although I expect we'll all end up being forced into it by Intel.
  • Antronman - Thursday, February 5, 2015 - link

    There's a lot of consumers who want high clocked memory just because they want it.

    And there's more than 200 extreme overclockers on the planet.
  • galta - Thursday, February 5, 2015 - link

    The reason to upgrade today is not DDR4 per se, but 5xxx CPUs, and you might want these CPUs because of the extra cores, extra pci lanes, both, or just because you want it and can pay for it.
    These discussions over RAM get me tired. Rocks on the streets know that:
    a) fast memory makes close to no difference in real world, especially today with overclocking being so much more friendly than it was in the past
    b) whenever a new standard is introduced, it performs poorly when compared to previous standard. It was like this with DDR3 back in 2008 and it's the same today, but today you probably have less than 200 people saying they miss DDR2.
    Let's discuss more interesting and reasonable subjects.
  • Murloc - Thursday, February 5, 2015 - link

    200? You're severely underestimating the number of people who do that.

    Also why do car companies make cars that are going to be driven by just a few sheiks?

    With rams it's probably even easier given that you just have to bin chips and there are people who buy them just because they want the best. That's why they put increasingly cooler heatsinks and packages on the more pricey sticks. Not because they really need additional cooling in non-extreme use cases.
  • FlushedBubblyJock - Sunday, February 15, 2015 - link

    Because the elite cater to the elite, and the clique' is small and expensive, and leeches off the masses for the advantage and opulent and greedy lifestyle and media hype and self aggrandizement.
    They can fly each other around the world for huge parties and giveaway gatherings called global contests and spend enormous sums and feel very important.
  • imaheadcase - Thursday, February 5, 2015 - link

    Wait a tick, DDR2 is 800+mhz. That is what its default to on both my systems.
  • imaheadcase - Thursday, February 5, 2015 - link

    You put 200-533 MHz. My is actually at 936mhz for the overclock to.
  • ZeDestructor - Thursday, February 5, 2015 - link

    DDR = Double Data Rate, i.e: two operations are done per clock cycle. Thus the frequency is 400, but the effective frequency is 800. Same applies for DDR1-DDR4.

    GDDR5 is crazier: 4 operations per clock cycle, so 1750MHz works out to 7000MHz effective.
  • Murloc - Thursday, February 5, 2015 - link

    so basically what we knew all along: many enthusiasts are just wasting their money. The same goes for size although few people who build PCs are that stupid when it comes to this, it's mostly gamers who buy pre-built PCs who fall into this trap (it's not like they have much of a choice anyway, everybody is selling computers with lots of RAM and a pricey CPU bottlenecked by a weak GPU because it makes them money).
  • fredv78 - Thursday, February 5, 2015 - link

    seems to me most benchmarks are within the error margin (which is usually up to 3% and ideally should be quoted)

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