GTX 570 SLI or a Single GTX 680?

[J_Rimmer]

What would give me greater gaming performance in terms of FPS, a single GTX 680 or GTX 570 SLI configuration? I already own a GTX 570, so it would be cheaper to buy another GTX 570, but I’m open to paying out more for the GTX 680 assuming its better overall.

Thanks,
Sam

Details about the cards:

I currently own the following:

EVGA GeForce GTX 570 (Fermi) – SuperClocked – 012-P3 –1572 –AR
PCI Express 2.0
Core Clock: 797 Mhz (vs. 732 Mhz reference)
Shader Clock: 1594 Mhz (vs. 1464 Mhz reference)
CUDA Cores: 480
Effective Memory Clock: 3900 Mhz (vs. 3800 Mhz reference)
Memory Size: 1280 MB
Memory Interface: 320-bit
Memory Type: GDDR5

The specs on the GTX 680:

EVGA GeForce GTX 680 – SuperClocked+ - 02G-P4-2684-KR
PCI Express 3.0
Core Clock: 1058 Mhz
Boost Clock: 1124 Mhz (I’m not even sure what this is?)
CUDA Cores: 1536
Effective Memory Clock: 6208 Mhz
Memory Size: 2GB
Memory Interface: 256-bit
Memory Type: GDDR5

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My computer:
Processor: Intel Core i5 2500 (3.3 Ghz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3
(2 x PCI-Express 2.0 slots, single configuration X16, SLI configuration X8 and X8)
(Note: My motherboard only supports 2.0, I don't know how significant that is.)
Power Supply: Seasonic X-850 80 Plus Gold. (850W)
Ram: Corsair DDR3 1333 Mhz (6 GB total)
Graphics: EVGA GTX 570 (Fermi) – (The one mentioned above)
Operating System: Windows 7.

 

[yialanliu]

2.0 x16/8 in SLI isn't that big of a problem. In 1 card mode for 680, you're perfectly fine. In SLI, it's like 96%.

Since you already have a 570, I'd just SLI it. It'd be much cheaper and since you're running 850W, you won't have to change anything.

At the same time, I think a 2500 will bottleneck a 680 SLI anyways so the next upgrade would be a new system maybe around Haswell's release. So I'd just get SLI 570 and then do a complete upgrade later on.

 

[DM186]

^^I do believe that a 680 in SLI can run on the i5 CPU with out any problem unless you know something I don't know. The i5 is a very good gaming CPU weather it be a 2500 or a 2500k it will be able to handle the 680 or even two 680's.

But I have been wrong in the past before but I think I have it right this time. You might be thinking the i3 would have a bottle neck issue for sure. But most of your post is right on the money.

@OP
Here are both cards the first one is the 570 in SLI and the second one is the 680 single card I tried to get both on the same page but it wouldn't do it.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/307

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/555

570 vs 680
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/518?vs=555

 

[sunnk]

go with single gtx 670 now which is close to the performance of gtx 680 and then sli it later.

 

[Guest]

Agree with sunnk and yialanliu if the gtx 680 sli gets bottlenecked by an overclocked I5 2500K then nothing on the planet will handle 2 gtx 680's.

 

[J_Rimmer]

Best answer selected by J_Rimmer.

 

[Guest]

always go single card over sli.