Monitor upgrade first?

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About a year ago I had to replace my MB and CPU. I am still using 2 Nvidia GForce GTX550ti in SLI mode and a Samsung SyncMaster t220/T220G monitor. Native res is 1680x1050 with 60Hz refresh rate. I can't afford to upgrade both so was wondering if I should go with the monitor first?

I'm thinking if I do go monitor first, will 1920x1080 at 120Hz be a noticeable upgrade? I like the 22 inch and the aspect ratio fits my gaming area,BUT it seems everything I look at now appears to be a lot wider compared to its height.
 
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BnG
Do you have a power supply big enough for SLI? If you don't the system will auto adjust to lower performance in order to keep within the power limit. A 550ti should still be fine for a lot of games though. I'd say try taking out 1 card and see how it goes. After that, add it/ enable SLI again and see if it is showing any difference (make sure the PSU is big enough though).

If you go for a single card, the 760 will run MMO's flawless ;). A 750ti will also achieve this but has less performance in general (logic).
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J

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I'm not the type that is looking for cutting edge technology but I do want pleasant viewing without severe lag,tearing,etc. I'm just wondering if I upgrade my monitor to 1920x1080, will I notice a difference with my existing GTX550Ti cards in SLI mode?

Eventually, I hope to upgrade my video cards. More than likely I will go with a single card that will do better than the 2 cards I'm running at the moment.

Obviously, money is a major factor. With that said, I'm trying to get the best "Bang for my buck".
 
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BnG

BnG

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What games are you playing? You might want to consider a new GPU in general. The 550ti is pretty outdated. What is your budget?
Also, you will loose FPS when playing on 1080p instead of the resolution you are gaming on now. I don't know if this would make the difference between lag/no lag, but take it into consideration.
 
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BnG

BnG

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I have played MMO's on my old latop's pentium integrated graphics so expect the 550ti to be more than fine :p
My advice: Record your gameplay --> +60 fps on most intensive MMO you play on the settings you'd like to play? Upgrade the monitor =). If you have less than 30 fps (which would surprise me), upgrade the GPU.

You can download the free trial of for example fraps just to see what FPS you are running on (the actual trial itself when recording is very bad though).
 
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I have been using the fraps app for several days now and I've noticed that there are times when there is a lot of activity my frame rate drops below 30 fps. I have also noticed that there are times when I see a lot of white rectangular sections through out my screen. It seems to me that the card is trying to fill in the definition of the objects but fails to complete the draw.

In my OP I stated that my video cards were is SLI mode. This is not that case. When I try to run my cards in SLI mode, my system crashes. My work around this is the dedicate the second video card to PhysX.

I would like to get some feedback on what I'm thinking about My specific video cards and monitor and when I upgrade them:

1) If at times I'm having issues with my existing video cards completing the draw on my existing monitor(see OP above to specs), then upgrading to a 24 inch at 1920x1080 @ 120Hz will stress my existing video cards even more.

2) If I replace my 2 video cards with a more powerful single card, I may fix the white rectangular splotches but I won't any better sharpness,depth of color,motion blur,etc because my existing monitor can only do so much(1680x1050 @ 60Hz).

I hope my questions and statements make sense.
 
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BnG

BnG

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Do you have a power supply big enough for SLI? If you don't the system will auto adjust to lower performance in order to keep within the power limit. A 550ti should still be fine for a lot of games though. I'd say try taking out 1 card and see how it goes. After that, add it/ enable SLI again and see if it is showing any difference (make sure the PSU is big enough though).

If you go for a single card, the 760 will run MMO's flawless ;). A 750ti will also achieve this but has less performance in general (logic).
 
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