Buy a 2nd GTX 670 for SLI or go with a 780 Ti/R9 290X?

Solution
You need to look at the frame ratevariance and render-times too.

50 fps on my single 780 (crysis 3 maxed out) feels WAY better than 50fps (crysis 3 high settings) on my old sli setup. (two 560's)

After switching, from SLI, and feeling how much smoother a single card is, I'm willing to take a 10 to 20 FPS hit with a single card over the raw FPS of an sli setup.

Heck even when I get jumped by a bunch of aliens with explosions going off everywhere and my rig drops into the 30's it still feels smoother than my sli rig felt in the 50's.

jnjnilson6

Distinguished


BF3_01.png
 

Z1NONLY

Distinguished
You need to look at the frame ratevariance and render-times too.

50 fps on my single 780 (crysis 3 maxed out) feels WAY better than 50fps (crysis 3 high settings) on my old sli setup. (two 560's)

After switching, from SLI, and feeling how much smoother a single card is, I'm willing to take a 10 to 20 FPS hit with a single card over the raw FPS of an sli setup.

Heck even when I get jumped by a bunch of aliens with explosions going off everywhere and my rig drops into the 30's it still feels smoother than my sli rig felt in the 50's.
 
Solution

benjanini61

Honorable
Mar 20, 2012
237
0
10,680


I can second this, after having a 1440p monitor for about 6 months i wanted to upgrade my GPU, so i bought a second 7950 and ended up sending it back 2 weeks later. I now have a single R9 290 and im so much happier. Even though its not as powerful is feels much smoother.

 

burty7

Honorable
Jul 6, 2013
7
0
10,510
right i just gotta say 560 sli to 780 is a massive jump, 670 sli would be far better than a single 780 also it would be alot cheaper .... buy a second 670 because the 780 is basically a 680 on steroids .. its not that much of an improvement. wait until the next gen comes out .... because like cpu's they come out in 2s ... ivy bridge was a slightly better sandy... broadwell is slightly better than haswell. its a marketing industry, there next card will have to be far better than the 7** series to make people think its worth buy after spending a bomb on this gen. trust me. i bought one 6** then when the 7** out, i sli the 6** then when the 8** or what ever fancy name they will give it i will buy one then when the 9** i will sli the 8** ... its all about money over performance at the end of the day
 

Z1NONLY

Distinguished
I was pointing out that not all FPS numbers are created equal. On paper (just going by FPS numbers) my sli 560 rig was throwing up the same numbers on "high" settings as my 780 gets at max settings. However the 50 FPS my single card gets plays much smoother than the 50 FPS my sli rig got. I'm not comparing the 780 and the sli rig at the same settings. I'm comparing the smoothness difference with the same FPS.

The 680 and the 780 are two different architectures. It's not a 680 on steroids, it's a cut back Titan. (And not cut back all that much)
 

Bigarc

Honorable
Dec 14, 2013
1
0
10,510
A mate of mine has a 780 ti that overclocks to 1350 + on the core and my 670 in 2 way sli heavily overclocked beat his card by around 7 % :) I definitely would go the 670 sli route as I have it and can vouch that there is no micro stutter and is smooth as ! and is a much cheaper upgrade :) I get 70 - 90 frps crysis 3 1080 p 8 x msaa and very high everything !
 

burty7

Honorable
Jul 6, 2013
7
0
10,510
i meant its like its on steroids because there is not that big of a jump in performance. where as 670 sli is there is about a 50% increase in performance. im not saying the 780 isnt a good card but for price and performance sli 670 wins both.
 

Z1NONLY

Distinguished


If you just use raw FPS numbers to define "performance" you will not get the whole picture.

More and more reviews are including data points that relate to how SMOOTH a given setup plays.

It is possible for an SLI setup to put out high FPS numbers and lack smooth game play. This shows up in frame time variance numbers and other numbers other than simply FPS.



 

TDiT

Distinguished
Dec 5, 2011
48
0
18,540
The R9 290, GTX 780, R9 290X, GTX 780 Ti, and Titan all occupy a performance segment that mirrors their sheer size of their dies. Lets call it "tier-1" performance. Nvidia's old GK104 (GTX 680,770) is 52% the size of GK110. AMD's old Tahiti is 80% the size of Hawaii (not quite such a huge change as Nvidia). These things are massively powerful. I feel crossfire and SLI, and the multiple issues and driver headaches they bring, are not to be messed around with until you need more power than a single current tier-1 card can offer.

Z1NONLY has lived with multi-GPU before, and has seen the light, so-to-say. I'd listen to him. It is not about raw FPS. Multi-GPU is more a compromise than anything. If you have the ability of moving to another single-die card that offers at least a 30% performance boost, that would be your best course of action. If it is too pricey, wait for next generation. Remember, you can sell your GTX 670 for maybe $160-200 top-dollar currently to offset the cost of another, beefier single card.

It is really too bad about the R9 290/X's pricing and availability now. D*mn miners... Maybe you can score a used GTX 780 from someone moving up to a 780 Ti?
 

TTheuns

Honorable
Feb 10, 2014
1
0
10,510


The 780 is not a 680 on steroids. It's a Titan with a sleeping pill.
He is asking about a 780 Ti. Wich is a Titan without restrictions.
And a single card is smoother in frame times.
 

ddferrari

Distinguished
Apr 29, 2010
388
6
18,865


Agreed. 80% of the posters who claim that SLI setups are a "nightmare" are going by what they've READ, not real-life experience. I also have an SLI setup- 2 Gigabyte 670 OC Windforce (OC'd another 10% by me) and I rarely have a problem with smoothness/stutter. Even then, I'm almost always able to make adjustments to fix the issue. Yes, some older games don't like SLI, but just one "double" OC'd 670 is more than enough anyway, so I just disable the second card for those games.

 

fannyfarts

Reputable
Aug 10, 2014
9
2
4,515


Yeah that's utter bullshit, my dual Gtx 670s ftw edition overclocked to the max and beating Gtx 770s. I get 30 fps to 70 fps battle field 4 I get a constant 200fps at 1080p
I7 3770k @ 5 Ghz
16gb Kingston beast 2400mhz