280 sli or 295

[garpizzle]

Hi guys,

There seems to be some disagreement on this topic and I would love to know what you guys think. I currently have a GTX 280 OCX from BFG. Should I keep the 280 and get a second for SLI? Should I sell the 280 and get a 295? If i got the 295 I would eventually go quad. Anyway.... What would you do?

 

[L1qu1d]

stay away from quad sli.

I would buy another 280, it would be cheaper, and stronger, and most of the time the 3 280s stil come out ontop of the 295 GTX in quad (which has min frame rate problems just like all the other X2 cards).

It would cost you double to own a weaker card setup.

 

[garpizzle]

ah....so the 295 suffers from the same micro-stuttering as the GX2 did...(god that card was such a waste of money)

 

[coozie7]

+1 LIQUID.

 

[garpizzle]

So 295 = bad??????

 

[L1qu1d]

its not bad...if used as a single card...just not the best route for you

 

[cjl]

It isn't bad. It is, however, slower than a pair of 280s, and the micro stutter may still exist.

 

[megamanx00]

280s in SLi are faster than a single 295. I would get a second 280 and run them in SLI. If you have a board capable of Tri-SLI, and the PSU for it of course, then in the most demanding settings three 280s in triple SLi can prove to be faster than two 295s. Either way that's a crapload of money on video cards. Go with two 280s and be happy.

 

[rangers]

why what res do you play at, and are you experiencing any problems with a game

 

[L1qu1d]

^exactly, rangers has a point, if everything is good 60+ then or if your happy with 30+ there is absolutely no point in changing.

But if your not getting the frames you want and you want to see a difference, then I'd go with the 280 because the system will run cooler, and be an overall stronger unit.

 

[garpizzle]

I'm playing on a dell ultrasharp 24 inch at 1980 x 1080 reso. I'm not really having too many problems other than some slow down in crysis and sup com at times. Oh...and COH randomly shuts down windows with a video driver error. I know these are very demanding games so it doesnt bother me that much. Im also looking ahead to games like Fear 2 etc.

On the other hand... I've been bitten by the upgrade monster. Something about popping open the side of my machine and thinking "yup...thats a beast" makes me all gooey. You guys know what I mean.

 

[L1qu1d]

well Crysis will put any machine at it's mercy even at 1280x1024 randomly.

Supreme commander is more of a CPU based game, even though alot of visuals are done by the graphics card, the AI and massive amounts of detail on screen are more dependent on CPUs. But I'm pretty sure that ATI yields better results in Supreme commander than Nvidia.

As for COH, thats really weird, usually that error is acheived by overclocking to much and it being too demanding for the card at the clocked frequencies.

You should make sure you have the updated drivers, if it persists find out that the temps are ok, or see if there are any conflicting drivers running in the backgroud that may mess with the Nvidia drivers.

I kno that most of my BSODs are Nvidia related, this might be something 2

So if its just those games, I would hold out. I mean the 280 GTX is only getting cheaper since its getting phased out by Nvidia.

If you have a BFG or EVGA card you can step up your card to the 285 GTX. I was skeptical at first myself but I did it, and after reading that it consumes less power than the 260s I'm very pleased (not the 55 nm 260s).

 

[garpizzle]

I narrowed the CoH error down to AA being enabled and some of the effects set to Ultra. The card runs fine at first but after about 3 minutes the game closes out. When I turn some of those settings down its all good. Temps are around 68 -78 c under load on every game. The card is a BFG OCX model so its got a factory OC on it (666mhz).

Id love to step up to the 285 but i stepped up from the GX2 to the 280 so I believe that kills that option.

But yeah...I think your right as always L1quid. Ill just stick with what I got and get another ocx 280 when the time is right.

 

[L1qu1d]

well enjoy it its a really strong card