SLI Twin GTX 660's vs holding out for Pascal line.

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TheBlackPearl

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Apr 1, 2016
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My current PC is coming up on three years and is starting to show it's age. I want to upgrade in the most cost effective manner possible, considering I have an outside figure of 1000 AUD to spend. Current specs being:
Graphics: Gigabyte Windforce GTX 660 x2
CPU: i5-3470
Motherboard: full sized, generic non-sli
Memory: 8GB DDR3
Storage: 1TB hard disk
PSU: 550 watt

As you can see, I have acquired a second 660 largely being underutilized and as far as I can tell, I have three real options I could go for.
1. Source an older sli motherboard and squeeze some power out of the that second 660.
2. Upgrade to a newer chipset with DDR4 RAM, an sli motherboard and possibly an SSD.
3. Or, hold out for the new pascal GPU's (considering the 900 series is nearly finished up) and upgrade the rest as necessary.

Alternatively, some combination of the three or just going for a 970 when they become a little cheaper. I'm not 100% sold on any of these solutions and would love some input.

Thanks
 
Solution
DustinV
if you can wait it out till pascal i would, you have a decent gpu that you can get by.
You can slap a gtx 970 and an SSD in there or

The other option is to sell your entire pc and the 2nd 660, im assuming your power supply is probably low quality, you said motherboard is generic so probably low quality, and you cpu is 3rd gen. Basically everything is out of date, so you would get a huge performance increase from starting over.
Then build a new skylake pc with a 900 series or pascal card

Check how much used pc's go for online, the 2nd 660 is probably worth $100 AUS id think
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DustinV

DustinV

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Dec 22, 2015
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if you can wait it out till pascal i would, you have a decent gpu that you can get by.
You can slap a gtx 970 and an SSD in there or

The other option is to sell your entire pc and the 2nd 660, im assuming your power supply is probably low quality, you said motherboard is generic so probably low quality, and you cpu is 3rd gen. Basically everything is out of date, so you would get a huge performance increase from starting over.
Then build a new skylake pc with a 900 series or pascal card

Check how much used pc's go for online, the 2nd 660 is probably worth $100 AUS id think
 
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TheBlackPearl

Commendable
Apr 1, 2016
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That's definitely a viable route and I may end up selling that second card. As for the rest of it, I was looking to cannibalise it in the interest of building a little steam machine, as a side project later on. Either way, thanks man.
 
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megamanx00

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Sep 3, 2008
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Well without an SLI motherboard the most you can do with that second card is use it for physx only. I'd go with option 2. The second 660 will give you a big boost, but the biggest limiting factor is going to be VRAM, so you will be able to push the pixles, but maybe have to lower the textures and AA/AF a bit. You could also pick up a used sli board with a K series CPU on eBay that you can overclock and add another 8GB of RAM to bring you up to 16GB. Just a thought.
 
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TheBlackPearl

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Apr 1, 2016
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Thanks man, but I've gone with Dustin's option and done a clean build (non-sli). I think I'll hold out for the pascal GPU's.
 
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