Lost a GTX 660 in SLI setup and need advise. Replace the bad 660 or get single card ?

RickJamesBish

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Mar 27, 2016
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System is i5 at 3.30 and 8 gb ram. Been running GTX 660 SC SLI for 3 years now. Became accustomed to 3 monitor in surround and cannot go back to single monitor. Just lost one of the 660.

Is there a single card that will match or outperform a 660 SLI in three display surround or am I better off just replacing the bad 660 ?

Advise appreciated.
 
Solution
What board do you have? I havent seen many problems with z68 boards, as long as your bios is up to date and your board has a 16x 2.0 or 3.0 slot PCI-E. I would say you're good.
I don't see why they would be un-compatible.

-good luck

Anonymouselite5

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Well a GTX 970 would be about equal in performance to SLI gtx 660's. With less heat and power+more Vram.
However depending on your budget a GTX 980 would be a good upgrade.

Although depending on your budget replacing your 660 is cheaper, but in my opinion upgrading to a GTX 980 would be the best benefit for the price.
If you have a large budget a GTX 980ti would be a massive upgrade.
You could sell your remaining 660 as well.

So in my opinion upgrading to a single better card may be a better option here, it also leaves room for SLI later if you need it. (dependant on what games you choose to play)

-=good luck
 

oobymach

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A gtx 780 ti would run better than dual 660's (can confirm as I tested a friends computer against mine) and cost about half what a 980ti does (performance is between the 970 and 980). I think you can find them on ebay rn for around $350-400 used.

A single 780ti will run most any game @1440p maxed out @60fps or better and 2160p @60hz with high settings, it should do well in a triple monitor environment (it has 2 dvi, one hdmi and one display port out) and you can always sli it in the future.
 
I had 2 660's in sli, and i found a single 7970 to perform better. It didn't get as high average FPS but fps was more consistent and the low end fps was higher. Don't know how you ran 2 1.5gb cards in 3 monitor setup without stuttering? Get a good single card, the difference is day and night.
 

RickJamesBish

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Mar 27, 2016
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So my situation has changed. It would seem based off several posts here and elsewhere that the Z68 chipset will potentially have compatibility issues with the 980. With my processor being by i5 socket 1155 I am looking at Z77 boards. I have not seen any reports of issues as of yet.
 

Anonymouselite5

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What board do you have? I havent seen many problems with z68 boards, as long as your bios is up to date and your board has a 16x 2.0 or 3.0 slot PCI-E. I would say you're good.
I don't see why they would be un-compatible.

-good luck
 
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