Are 2 Nvidea GTX 550 ti better than 1 for this system?

[Diamondice4]

The system I am looking at buying is (scrapped the laptop idea)

BitFenix Shinobi Window white gaming case,

2 x GTX 550 Ti 1GB 192bit DDR5 Graphics Cards in SLI

Intel core i7 3770k 3.5ghz ( 8m cache, 8x cores)

MSI Z77A-G43 Z77 Chipset SATA3 6.0Gb/s USB 3.0 MB

Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz High Performance RAM

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Basic 64-Bit(or should I get 32bit?)

How will this system hold up against new releases? Also, will this system overheat in the casing or will it be ok? Any help is appreciated

 

[blackhawk1928]

Your CPU is 4 cores, the other 4 are virtual and don't actually count since games don't really use them.

Either way your CPU and RAM is set for new releases, the graphics setup is excellent, but it really depends on your resolution and types of games. At 1080P I'd say you would have most games maxed out pretty easily.

 

[Diamondice4]

Thanks do you know about the cooling though? worried it will overheat

 

[blackhawk1928]

If you have a good case it shouldn't. Make sure you have appropriate exhaust and intake and you will be fine. If heat is still an issue, buy a PCI slot based fan or separate the cards through a slot. I cannot imagine 550's having a heat issue though.

 

[13thmonkey]

I would swap the two 550ti's for 1 570 or whatever is a similar value.

no microstuttering, more vram as you only have 1Gb of vram and at 1080p that will cause you problems, 2Gb is better, cooling will be easier, can you afford a 670? probably not.

At the absolute best the sli 550ti's would do twice as well as this comparison suggests. in which case loses many times to a 570, however in reality they will only scale to about +80% max http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/541?vs=518

I would however change the 3770K for a 3570K, and put that money into the gpu, could this get you to a 670? if it does you are set for more years than the 550ti's

64bit for sure.

 

[wr6133]

+1 on 13th monkey

550ti in SLi will be crap as it will throw up various issues from stutter to heat the same money would buy one better card that would outperform it.

 

[Diamondice4]

Can get the GeForce GTX 670 2GB 256Bit Overclocked Graphics Card, will this be a better option than the 2 550's?

 

[13thmonkey]

oh god yes.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/541?vs=598

and again double the 550ti values for absolute best case scenario.

now subtract cooling issues with SLI, subtract micro stuttering issues, subtract the limit of 1GB of Vram, and the 670 is pure awesomeness in comparison.

Take the Bf3 result,
single 550ti = 31.4fps, therefore sli = 62.8 absolute best case scenario realistic maybe 50fps
single 670 = 92fps

hence it will be ok for possibly the generation of games after the next one, vs the 550ti's which will struggle on the next gen.

 

[Diamondice4]

Best answer selected by Diamondice4.

 

[Diamondice4]

ok thanks