Graphics Card Questions

[habsfreak]

My PC has an Asus M4A88T-M/USB3 motherboard, ENGTX560 TI 448 DC2 GeForce GTX TI 1.2GB PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort graphics card, 8GB of RAM, AMD Phenom II X2 560 Processor 3.30GHz and 600W power supply. I have a BenQ
GL2030 20in Widescreen LED LCD monitor and I'm thinking of getting another one. My questions are:

Would 2 GTX 560 TI's be overboard?

Would I need another motherboard if I do get another monitor?

Any input would be greatly appreciated and recommendations would be great too.

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

your motherboard only has 1 pci-e x16 slot; you need another motherboard.
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A88TMUSB3/#specifications

and then we can talk about that cpu . . .

 

[habsfreak]

Ok, what motherboard would you recommend then?

 

[Guest]

Ok, what motherboard would you recommend then?

MSI 970A-G46 AM3+ AMD 970 $89.99
actually i think iam backwards and instead of getting another 56ti448, which is very expensive now, you wouldb e better off upgrading the cpu to:
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz $119.99
or atleast:
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Deneb 3.2GHz $99.99
both are supported by that motherboard:
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A88TMUSB3/#CPUS

what make wattage of PSU do you have?

 

[habsfreak]

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX32274 This is what I got for my power supply.

 

[Guest]

^ok that will do great.
i believe you will see a performance difference while gaming by upgrading your CPU.
it will not be "cost effective" to upgrade that motherboard and get another clostly 560ti448 to SLI while you have a PIIx2
a motherboard i suggested PCI Express 2 (x16, x8) <--- what you need to SLI
and add in a PIIx4 955 because really a dual core just won't make it; so before you even get another 560ti448 that is going to cost $190. the cheapest 560ti448 i found was:
GIGABYTE GV-N560448-13I GeForce GTX 560 Ti - 448 Cores $269.99
$249.99 after mail-in rebate card

for a total of $440

now you may forgo the CPU now and see how bad the system bottlenecks with picking up the mobo and 560ti448. which will make it $340.

 

[habsfreak]

So just upgrade my CPU and it should run pretty good?
No new graphics card and motherboard?

 

[Guest]

getting a better cpu will help.
here is a test: monitor your GPU and CPU while you game. if the CPU is at or close to 100% load and the GPU is around ~60% your CPU is holding back your card.

 

[spentshells]

Are you able to unlock the additional cores ?
555 and 560 BE's have been pretty good about unlocking on even basic motherboards supporting the function

 

[habsfreak]

Spentshells, how would I go about doing that?

 

[spentshells]

Mobo ?