GTX 670 vs GTX 660 SLI

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fatshakes

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Feb 5, 2013
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Hi,
I am currently looking to build a PC and was wondering what would be better a GTX 660 SLI or a single GTX 670. I would be using the PC for gaming but I will have started my ourse at uni so will be using programs such as MAYA, 3ds MAX, After Effects and Photoshop along with editing sofware.
At the pricing I have seen the GTX 670 is £15 cheaper then 2 GTX 660's.
I would also consider SLIing the GTX 670 in the future.

The PC spec I am looking at is:
Intel Core i7-4770K
Asus Z87-A ATX LGA1150
16GB RAM
Samsung 840 Series 120GB 2.5" SSD
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM
Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM x2
Zalman Z11 Plus ATX Mid Tower
Corsair 750W ATX12V / EPS12V
Samsung SH-222AB DVD/CD Writer
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)

Thanks in advance, sorry its so long.
 
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fatshakes

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Feb 5, 2013
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Thanks man, would you conside spending the extra £80 odd and buying the GTX 680 or should I stick with the GTX 670?
 
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fudoka711

fudoka711

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Apr 2, 2012
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Actually, I would try to buy the GTX 770. Dunno how much it is in the UK, but it's $400 in the US for the base model. Much better buy than the gtx 680 which it replaces (and it's slightly better).
 
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Major_Trouble

Major_Trouble

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I have to agree. If I was building new now I would be looking at the GTX 770 myself (have a 670). Just go the best single card solution you can afford. SLI being a great solution in principal still brings many problems, practical as well as technical, you won't have to deal with.

Looking at your other specs I see you have a Samsung 840 SSD. I hope that's the Pro version they use much cheaper memory on the non-Pro. I would also go with a 256GB if you can afford it. That would give more room for your high end graphics programs, most frequent played games and OS.

Why the 500GB & 1TB HDD x2. Legacy drives from an old system? You planning to RAID them?

Another point to mention is that Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit) has a 16GB memory limit.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_7
As you look to be getting serious about graphics you might want to get more memory in the future and Home Premium is gonna stop you using it. Better to go for the Pro version now I think.
 
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sam_p_lay

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Huge +1 to Major about the 840 Pro. I'd never recommend a non-Pro, but the Pro is the best consumer SSD in existence. Not sure about the Windows 7 advice (do you need more than 16GB? Or even more than 8GB?). I've just bought an EVGA GTX670 FTW. It's within 7-8% of the framerates of the the GTX770 and I got it for £270:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/nvidiageforcegraphicscards/nvidiagtx670keplerseries/02g-p4-2678-kr.html

Absolutely brilliant bargain. Hard to justify £60 extra for 7-8% framerates with the cheapest GTX770 (would turn 30fps into 32fps) and draw considerably more power, heating up my room and costing me on energy bills in the long run.
 
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fatshakes

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Feb 5, 2013
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I am considering getting the GTX 770, butget permits though, but definily something I'd look into.
Im not sure weather it is the pro version the name I was given was the one above, so not sure but I would like more space but again it depends on my budget closer to the time.
In my mind at the moment the 500GB would be for personal thing, photos, music, films that kind of thing. 1TB would be for games and the other 1TB would be for footage and project files for editing sofware and graphics programs.
And I denfnily want to get the pro/ultimate version of windows 7, but my motherboard only has 4 slots and the 16GB ram takes up all 4 but I could replace them when I'm ready.
 
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princejeet

princejeet

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May 16, 2013
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1. U don't need 750w for single GPU. 600-650w PSU is enough for ur rig and save some cash.
2. Buy just 1 SSD of 120gb or 256gb and 1 HDD of 2tb. You can make partision in ur HDD and this way u can devide ur data easily. Don't waste money on 3 HDDs and save some more cash.
3. Which u save money go with gtx 770 for best performance. You don't need sli in next 2 years minimum.
I hope it helps.
Thank you.
 
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princejeet

princejeet

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I gave him some ideas for saving some cash for better one GPU. Thats why i said 600-650w PSU but if he don't care about money and performance both then its all his choice. I cannot say anything.
Thank you.
 
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fatshakes

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Feb 5, 2013
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I looked into how much power I would need if I wanted to SLI with a GTX 670 and a 750W PSU apparently isn'e enough, I'd need 850W so I'd still need to upgrade. I personally don't like the idea of large HDD's, it sound silly I understand but I'm worried about it failing and I loose all my data on, where as if the smaller HDD's fail I only loose 1TB of data on that HDD but not all my data if you get me? Basically The other HDD's will be fine and still have stuff on where as if its all on one HDD I loose everything, its not a risk I feel comfortable taking.
I'll have to look closer to the time which GPU is the best value for money and where I can get it cheapest, I am hoping that when I come to buying it something like a GTX 670/680 will be in a similar price range as the GTX 660, but heres hoping.
 
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sam_p_lay

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750 watts should actually be ample. You're not going off what the card manufacturer recommends are you? Problem with that is that they don't know what else your system is running, so they cover themselves for a worst case scenario and recommend far more than needed. Neither GTX670 is gonna be drawing more than 200 watts, and the rest of your system shouldn't take consumption higher than 600 watts total, even under load.
 
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fatshakes

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Feb 5, 2013
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I used PC Specialist to work out how much I'd need, they suggest 650W so I think I'll drop it down, if I want to SLI, I could change my PSU couldn't I? The reason I said 850W was because SLI GTX 670 is approximately 780W on full load, which is why I went for that one :)
 
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sam_p_lay

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Haha nope :) That would be 390 watts each. Usually a GTX670 is drawing ~150 watts while gaming. There physically isn't enough power hooked up to it to draw 390 watts (even 2x 8-pin PCI-E connectors provide a maximum of 300 watts, plus 75 watts from the slot). Honestly you don't need that much wattage.
 
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princejeet

princejeet

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May 16, 2013
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The company don't know which system is people are going to use. Everyone has different system so they recommend very high wattage of PSU.
Choose a better brand of ur HDDs or SSDs. I bought a WD cavier blue 320gb 7years ago . Its still working fantastick.

At this time best gpu for money is gtx 770.
Thank you.
 
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