SLI 560Ti or time to upgrade Graphics Card to 7xx series?

FiL

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Feb 4, 2002
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Hi,

I have a nVidia GTX 560Ti - whilst some of the less demanding games still run fine the more demanding games (particularly Battlefield 3) are dropping to frame rates that aren't great on Ultra and Good settings

Whilst I have the budget to upgrade the card to a GTX 780, I'm in no hurry to waste money when a similar frame rate can be achieved for less. (are there any benchmarks available for SLI 5xx series v single card 7xx series?)

I'm wondering what your opinions are on the smartest upgrade?

Ditch and get 7xx or SLI my old card?



 
Solution
If you consider that a single 660Ti will out perform SLi'd 560Ti's then a 780 now isn't such a bad idea as it will likely be some time before Maxwell turns up.
+1 to Mousemonkey (where's the bike?) - a powerful single-GPU solution will be a far superior solution. You probably have the 1GB version of the GTX560 Ti too? If so, it will start running into problems with a lot more games soon if you want high settings (even with SLI - each GPU would still only have access to its own memory).
 




Two 560ti's in SLI are more in line with a GTX670 therefore, slightly more powerful than the 660ti.

Saying that, you have twice the power draw, the extra heat to dissipate, and of course potential problems with micro stuttering. So I would suggest the 660ti on that basis, or if you can wait maybe the 760ti which should be out soon, and be a good leap over both previous gen options.
 


Just parked up for a bit. ;)
 
Good choice :) Another option:

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

Only 7-8% gain with a GTX770, yet it'll cost you at least £40 extra (£60+ extra if you want a quality brand) and much higher energy consumption will belt out more heat into your house (plus a little more energy bill). GTX770 and GTX780 are still good options though (even if the latter is heinously overpriced relative to anything other than a Titan).
 

Have you tried running those cards yourself? Or are you making your assumption from website numbers?
 
Yeah scaling is still a major issue, even in modern games. I'd make the same estimate based on mean average gains from adding the second, but wouldn't be surprised at all to see gains as low as 40% in some games (which would really disappoint me) while others will be close to double. It's just too inconsistent and unreliable.
 


Firstly I don't make assumptions, and try to give as accurate an answer as possible, as I'm sure you do too!

Regarding 560ti in SLI, no my config is quite clear on my profile, I run one 560ti. However, my colleague runs an SLI config for the 560ti's with a 2500k, and has a second rig wth a single 660ti ( he also has a third AMD rig with a 7970). So based on some comparisons, they are the figures. Not based on website assumptions as you implied. As a matter of interest have you run those configs to make your own assertion???

Also, I did mention that the 660ti is the way to go, for a number of variables, but for raw performance the 560ti SLI is slightly (and only slightly) more powerful.

Thanks


 
I owned a 5970 and it was actually outperformed in Rage by a GTX550 Ti - a £100 budget card vs £500 dual-GPU flagship. And that's Rage! You'd think id of all people would have a well-optimised engine with awesome scaling. Game was a mess on the technical side but goes to show that even games you'd think would scale beautifully won't necessarily do so. Many other games too (Assassin's Creed 2 comes to mind) had performance issues while running flawlessly on a lesser single-GPU setup (so not really 'lesser' at all :)).
 


Back in November I replaced the two OC'd 560Ti's in my 2600k rig with a pair of 660Ti's and when doing so I did run various benchmarks with only one of the 660's in and the numbers were always about the same or better than the 560's.
 


Well seeing as both our independent benching varies ever so slightly, we can agree to disagree. We can put the difference down to margin of error! :) Or indeed other hardware factors that might yield up the difference between benches.
 

centaurius

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I'm actually in the same dilema!

My both 560 TI get between a 660TI/670 stock GPU. Buying a 770 for that matter would be like a 20% increase I assume. But a 780 would be around 45% increase. But that price is just...blargh :|

I even thought about getting 680 SLI or even a 770 SLI, however Im not sure if its worth the hassle. I havent encountered many issues in SLI, but I would like some more juice... So I have come to the conclusion that will wait a few weeks to see how prices goes, and then decide, I suggest you do the same. I am not sure if I can hold off until October/november to see what AMD has in its pocket however I believe it wont be anything out of this world unfortunately, unless they can provide a GPU with same performance as a 780 for like 200€ less...
 


general guideline (and this isn't everyone's preference as some people just like multi card configs) is to always go for the best single card solution that you can afford. By doing so, you have the GFX grunt to play games, but also avoid any potential driver related problems for SLI/CF (microstuttering etc)