Buy new Motherbaord and go SLI or stick with single GPU?

G

Guest

Guest
I have the ASUS Z87-C Motherboard and a GTX 760. I wanted to go SLI 760's but heard that this Motherboard is not the best for SLI setups. Would it be better to go with like a 290x or 780ti or buy a new motherboard and another 760?
 
The reason your motherboard is not suitable for sli is that the second X16 slot is only 4x speed.
That means that both cards will need to operate at 4x. Possible, and even workable, but not the best.

I suggest a better solution is to simply replace the GTX760 with a single stronger card.
If you will be gaming on a single monitor, a GTX780 should do the job.

Here is my canned rant on planning for dual cards:
-----------------------------Start of rant----------------------------------------------------
Dual graphics cards vs. a good single card.

a) How good do you really need to be?
A single GTX650/ti or 7770 can give you good performance at 1920 x 1200 in most games.

A single GTX660 or 7850 will give you excellent performance at 1920 x 1200 in most games.
Even 2560 x 1600 will be good with lowered detail.
A single gtx690,7990, GTX780ti or R9-290X is about as good as it gets for a single card.

Only if you are looking at triple monitor gaming, or a 4k monitor, might sli/cf will be needed.
Even that is now changing with triple monitor support on top end cards and stronger single card solutions.

b) The costs for a single card are lower.
You require a less expensive motherboard; no need for sli/cf or multiple pci-e slots.
Even a ITX motherboard will do.

Your psu costs are less.
A GTX660 needs a 430w psu, even a GTX780 only needs a 575w psu.
When you add another card to the mix, plan on adding 200w to your psu requirements.

Even the most power hungry GTX690 only needs 620w, or a 7990 needs 700w.

Case cooling becomes more of an issue with dual cards.
That means a more expensive case with more and stronger fans.
You will also look at more noise.

c) Dual gpu's do not always render their half of the display in sync, causing microstuttering. It is an annoying effect.
The benefit of higher benchmark fps can be offset, particularly with lower tier cards.
Read this: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995.html

d) dual gpu support is dependent on the driver. Not all games can benefit from dual cards.

e) dual cards up front reduces your option to get another card for an upgrade. Not that I suggest you plan for that.
It will often be the case that replacing your current card with a newer gen card will offer a better upgrade path.
The Maxwell and amd 8000 or 9000 series are due next year.
-------------------------------End of rant-----------------------------------------------------------
 
sli = Sudden Losss of Income todaays cards will do what you want as long as you dont go cheap-o stay above the ''curve'' and you will be fine i use a 7850 and i am just fine with it but today for what my card cost back then there better out there now. its all up to you and what you are willing to pay
 

endeavour37a

Honorable
Your right, the Z87-C is not made to SLI, it has only 1 PCIe 3.0 slot. The cheapest way to go would be to get another MB and 760 for the price/performance. A 290x is around $500, the 780Ti is $700.

You could pick up an Z87-A for $140, another 760 for $250, total cost $390. A pair of 760 would match a 290x and close to a 780Ti.

You need the power to run them also, 700W should do it, 750W should be better. If you don't have the power then we need to reconsider.....