2 cards are better than 1?

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teh_interwebz

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I have a EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti DS Superclocked GPU and was planning on getting a new card, but one of my peers suggested that instead of getting a new card just buy another of the one I already have. He said explained that it will split the load and handle the pressure smoother than just 1 card. Is there some truth to this? If so this would save me some money, and that is always nice.
 
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ubercake
Your friend is right. Getting a second card and running an SLI setup is an affordable way to, in some cases, almost double your performance. In most cases you'll get a 50-80% improvement in performance by adding the second card. Two things you need to consider with SLI is:

1) Is your motherboard SLI-ready (if it is the SLI bridge would be included in the motherboard's box)?
2) Can your current power supply support a system with another card in it?

When shopping for a second GTX 560 Ti, you don't have to get the same brand or same core clock, but you do have to get the same GPU - GTX 560 Ti - and I would suggest you get one with the same amount of VRAM as that which is on the 560 Ti you have to minimize performance issues.
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Jake Fister

Jake Fister

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Yes but you can get a better card and still link it. The later card will handle most of the load while it dumps some of it to your older card. You used to have to get identical cards for it to work, but that isn't the case anymore =)
 
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unknownofprob

unknownofprob

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yes, that is true. However; It is not worth investing in another GTX 560Ti when both will have to be scrapped soon, as with it's specs it isn't worthwhile getting another. It has 1GB Vram and getting another will keep that figure the same. I would consider upgrading to one better Graphics card.
 
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ubercake

ubercake

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Your friend is right. Getting a second card and running an SLI setup is an affordable way to, in some cases, almost double your performance. In most cases you'll get a 50-80% improvement in performance by adding the second card. Two things you need to consider with SLI is:

1) Is your motherboard SLI-ready (if it is the SLI bridge would be included in the motherboard's box)?
2) Can your current power supply support a system with another card in it?

When shopping for a second GTX 560 Ti, you don't have to get the same brand or same core clock, but you do have to get the same GPU - GTX 560 Ti - and I would suggest you get one with the same amount of VRAM as that which is on the 560 Ti you have to minimize performance issues.
 
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4745454b

4745454b

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Yes but you can get a better card and still link it. The later card will handle most of the load while it dumps some of it to your older card. You used to have to get identical cards for it to work, but that isn't the case anymore =)
Click to expand...

Incorrect. You still have to pair it with another 560TI. It doesn't need to be the same make/model, but it does need to be the same GPU/chip. You can't buy a GTX760 and SLI it with a 560TI. It won't work.

What is the budget and system specs? Need to know what we are dealing with before handing out advice.
 
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Jake Fister

Jake Fister

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Oh ok. Thanks for catching me. I was under the impression that they didn't have to be identical.
 
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oxiide

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What you're describing, as said above, is Nvidia SLI. And yes, its generally almost twice as fast as a single card, but that depends heavily on drivers and how well the game you're playing supports SLI. Additionally, bear in mind that if a single GTX 560 Ti has 1 GB of VRAM, for practical purposes two 560 Ti's still only have 1 GB of VRAM available to a game, because the two GPUs need their own copies of all data. Just for the sake of completeness, the AMD equivalent is called Crossfire.

SLI has a lot of extra considerations to make that you don't have to with a single card. You'll need a motherboard with two PCIe slots (ideally two PCIe 16x slots) and enough PCIe lanes that you can run the two cards in at least 8x/8x configuration. You'll also need to make sure your power supply has enough capacity, current, and power connectors to support two video cards.

It usually makes more sense just to get a faster, single card. Especially when we're dealing with cards that are now several generations behind.
 
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teh_interwebz

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I have an ASUS P9X79 PRO mother board that supports 3-Way SLI and Quad-GPU CrossFireX Support. I also have a 1050W Kingwin power supply.
 
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ubercake

ubercake

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I have that same motherboard. Great choice! You have plenty of power and an SLI-ready motherboard so you're all set there. You'll definitely see improvements buying a second 560Ti, but you might find they're hard to find new or over-priced new or used. You'll be able to achieve the same performance or better with a single 970 @$330 and have more VRAM modern games increasingly require.

If you can find a 560ti new, it's probably going to be over-priced. I do see refurbs on new egg for around $160 right now though.
 
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