Will I need to SLI?

[Master Bob]

I am currently working on my first build and I'm not sure whether or not I will need to setup SLI with my graphics card. I've chosen a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti with 2GB of vRAM. I think my power supply should handle another card (850W PSU to be on the safe side). I would like to run intense games on highest settings (Battlefield 3, Crysis 2, etc.), and it would be nice if it could run games with decent graphics for at least 3 years.

In short, do I need to SLI my graphics card for badass performance?

 

[Sunius]

Did you build the system? If you were thinking about SLIing 550 Ti, I think a single GTX 570 would be a way better option.

 

[xtreme5]

SLI'ing being a good choice for games but which cpu,mobo are you going to get as i'm telling you do not sli that model it's good enough but you cannot max any heavy game like bf3 skyrim etc 550ti sli scaling is not approval for all the new games get at least gtx 560ti sli.

 

[ram1009]

IMHO, you are spending money for very little return. Why not save that money for a second card and spend it a year or two from now for whatever is current then.

 

[megamanx00]

Two GTX 460s or Radeon 6850s as well as a single GTX 560 Ti or a Radeon 6950 is a better choice than two 550Tis.

 

[Master Bob]

My Specs:
Intel Core i5-2400 3.1 GHz
MSI P67A-GD65 (SLI Certified and comes with Bridge)
8GB (2x4GB G.Skill Ripjaw Series DDR3 1333 MHz (MB doesnt support 1600MHz+ unless in OC))
Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

This is NOT final, as I won't be able to build the rig until this summer.
By GTX 560 Ti, you are referring to the 2GB vRAM version, right?
I'm also working on a pseudo-budget, I'm trying to spend <$200 per part, but will go slightly up for important parts, such as Video Cards.

 

[cuecuemore]

If you're waiting until summer, then you'll want next-gen everything: IB>SB, HD7xxx/GTX6xx>>>GTX5xx. SLI 550s won't max anything except at 800x600.

 

[Master Bob]

If you're waiting until summer, then you'll want next-gen everything: IB>SB, HD7xxx/GTX6xx>>>GTX5xx. SLI 550s won't max anything except at 800x600.

If they are out before July, then HELL YESSHH.

 

[cuecuemore]

IB will be out by then for sure, along with all of the Southern Islands and at least a few releases from Kepler. Idk if you're dead set on Nvidia, I'd at least take a look at AMD as they've been very competitive in the GPU arena and are only getting fiercer.

 

[Master Bob]

IB will be out by then for sure, along with all of the Southern Islands and at least a few releases from Kepler. Idk if you're dead set on Nvidia, I'd at least take a look at AMD as they've been very competitive in the GPU arena and are only getting fiercer.

The thing is I've never used AMD/ATI, whatever it is now before, and I've used NVIDIA graphics cards for many years, but I'll take a look at it, trying something new would be interesting, after all. Radeon HD 7000 series and GeForce GTX 600 series are allegedly supposed to come out Q1 (Jan-Mar), and Ivy Bridge might be out in April/May (according to that Taiwanese leak), so I should be good in terms of timing. Hopefully the MBs will be decently priced.