Sli gtx 260 rig...560ti an upgrade?

[shadowk8]

Hey, guys im looking to possibly upgrade my sli gtx 260's 216 cores to a gtx 560ti in my gaming rig within the next month. Mostly use it for gaming of course, atm im using a corsair 850TX to power it. The issue is that im trying to figure out is if the gtx 560ti is an actual upgrade performance wise for 230-250$. Or if i should just wait a bit more for the prices to come down on the 500x series.

Heres what im looking at price wise:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604


My rig right now:

ga-p67a-ud4-b3
i5-2500k turbo at 4.0ghz+hyper 212
ripjaw x @ 1600mhz
corsiar 850tx
28" monitor at 1920x1200

 

[roan1234321]

hmm.. later this yr. the 28nm technology for GPU will be out by ATI and Nvidia. if your going to wait for the prices to come down by that time the 600 series of Nvidia will come out.. and it is 28nm vs 40nm. if you will wait for the price to go down why don't you just raise money and just get the new 600 series of Nvidia.

I have GTX 560 ti. and it's a good GPU upgrade for the 260's..
I can play the witcher 2 at ultra settings w/ uber sampling disabled.

And if your getting a gtx 560 ti.. choose those who has 2 fans. like msi gtx 560 ti twin frozer II, or asus engtx560 ti direct CUII. or palit gtx 560 ti sonic, or EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti DS Superclocked. or other gtx 560 ti w/ dual fan. so if ur going to OC them you will get good temps.

hopes this helps u..

EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti DS Superclocked:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130657&Tpk=EVGA%20GeForce%20GTX%20560%20Ti%20DS%20Superclocked

 

[Cygnus x-1]

^ You'll also gain the ability to run DX11 textures and lighting. But as Greg said, it's not a big upgrade from a raw horsepower standpoint.

 

[jjb8675309]

yup +1 to the ti, and +1 to the asus dc2 and msi tf2 and 3 models

my asus dc2 holds a 1ghz core oc fully stable, stays cool...

 

[Mousemonkey]

2 GTX 260+ = 2* HD5770 = HD5870.
1 GTX 560Ti = HD6950 1GB > HD5870.....slightly

IMO, getting a sinlg e 560Ti to replace them is worth it as Dual GPU drivers are....sometimes buggy or annoying

What dual Nvidia cards have you been running? A single GTX560Ti gives about the same framerates as a pair of 8800GT's in SLi and the GTX260's are beefier than than the 8800GT's were so I fail to see how a single GTX560Ti is going to be the same or better than SLi'd GTX260 216's.

 

[Mousemonkey]

I would be honest with you, I have never had Dual GPUs before. But What I stated was based on benchmarks that show the HD5770 being on par with the GTX 260+ , hence in theory, GTX 260 216SPs in SLI would also be on par with a pair of HD5770 in Crossfire.
as the said setup would match a single HD5870 in performance, which itself is slightly weaker than a HD6950 in most situations.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-5770-review-test/17

Well my post was based on real life experience and so is my experience of dual GPU drivers for Nvidia cards which is why I'm questioning your

Dual GPU drivers are....sometimes buggy or annoying

comment because if you have no experience of such things then how would you know what you're talking about?

 

[monkeysweat]

u get additional functionality, but not really a noticeable upgrade 260s are pretty good in SLI, you should wait longer or buy bigger,,, unless the SLI bugginess giving you issues,, but i don't think its worth 250

 

[megamanx00]

Two GTX 260s in SLI still provide good performance. You should take a look at these slightly older charts to gauge relative performance.

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2010-gaming-graphics-charts-high-quality/benchmarks,114.html

While these charts do not include the newer GTX 400 series cards or Radeon 6000 series you can still draw a rather fair comparison. Being older charts there are some instances where the 260s outpace the 460 in SLI even, but I attribute that to lack of driver optimizations for the newer cards.

Anyway, I don't think a GTX 560 would be a significant upgrade, and in some cases might be a slight downgrade, from your current setup save the fact that a newer card grants you DX11. I say if you can play your games just fine right now then you should wait for newer cards to provide a more meaningful upgrade.

 

[shadowk8]

You think a gtx 570 would be a better buy? And ya megmanx00 i agree with u, and with dx11 i feel like it be even more of a performance drop.

 

[monkeysweat]

are you really finding your 260's to be slow? if you really need to upgrade, you'd have to go with a 570 or 580,, BUT a 570 not be a noticeable difference over the 260's,, it will be faster,, but maybe 15%

 

[shadowk8]

its more of me sorda getting sick of my cards running so hot recently hitting around 77-85c. I end up reseating my cards yesterday and the temps have barely dropped so i figured id ask about the 560ti.

 

[roan1234321]

My Gtx 560 Ti. reaches 89c for full load and 75c at under load.. 39-41c at idle...

 

[megamanx00]

Ah I see mean. I have two 5870s in a case which was just enough for one so my system ain't no popsicle . Anyway, if you want something now then a single GTX 570 with a good cooler (like the funky gigabyte cards with 3 fans) might be a good option for you. If you have a case with poor airflow though then a cheaper option might be to just stick everything in something like an HAF case with a bunch of fans or upgrade to water cooling.

On the other hand winter is coming so it should run a bit cooler if you keep the heater off ^_^. Might get you till spring when nVidia brings around their 28nm cards and AMD has decent availability of theirs.

 

[jjb8675309]

asus DCII gtx 560ti, mine holds a 1 ghz core oc with cool temps (72C max on full load) and is quiet and only costed me 210 AR....it matches a gtx 570 at stock... imo there is no reason to get a gtx 570 for the extra 80 dollars....

of course you can oc it and get even more performance but imho stock 570 performance is more then adequate at 1080p in most scenarios..

 

[nforce4max]

Sorry but I am with mouse on this one, SLI for all the problems is worth it if every thing else including skill measures up.

 

[shadowk8]

Ya i figured the 500x series was about the same temp wise, i guess im gunna go with megamanx00 and try and wait a couple more months and see whats up with the 28nm card. appreciate all the help guys!

 

[shadowk8]

Best answer selected by shadowk8.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey