To SLI or not to? Need advice

[DeclanBall]

Hi,

So i finally joined these forums after reading so much great info and advice and now i need some of my own. I am currently upgrading my PC which I use to play games, mainly TF2, BF3 and Batman Arkham City.

Now so far I have bought a Phenom II x4 965 Black Edition at 3.4GHz, a chunky gaming case with lots of internal fans, 8GB of RAM at 1600MHz. I currently have filling the gaps a 500W power supply, pretty cheapy/standard ASrock motherboard and an Nvidia GTS 250 OC 512mb along with a harddrive that I dont intend on changing.

Now what I advice on is a dilemma I cant come to a decision upon, whether or not to SLI my current graphics card due to my friend having the exact same card in good working condition willing to sell to me for a good price. Now, if I choose to SLI I will have to upgrade my motherboard (I need to anyway to accomodate the new CPU) to a 2 xPCIe one that I have found for £50, I will also undoubtedly need to upgrade my PSU to atleast 750W? Not to sure, and obviously the other option is to sell my current GTS 250 and go ahead with buying a new GFX card for around £100-130. This way the two options pan out to approximately the same cost but which one will be better for my needs?

I understand that TF2 and other source engined games dont support SLI which is a bit of a bummer but my main ambition for this upgrade will be to have BF3 running a med-high graphics at GOOD fps (60fps+ 99% of the time) and at a comfortable fps if i chose to record, with eg. fraps.

Basically, I need some opinions on what will get me the best outcome. Maybe suggest anygive new cards that will give me a decent performance.

 

[auntarie]

Don't SLI low-end cards like the GTS 250. You'll get horrible microstuttering. You can buy a single card like a GTX 560ti that will outperform two 250s in SLI. You'll need to upgrade your PSU though to something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151095

That's about £57. There probably are cheaper options, but this is mine and I'm sure it works.

You won't need more than one PCI-E x16 slot on your motherboard.

 

[auntarie]

Also, here's a link for the card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130623

It's about £150, but it's worth the extra £20.

 

[DeclanBall]

Ok thanks for replying, can anyone recommend a specific brand of GTX 560ti? Also, if im going to run a single card do i really need to upgrade my PSU, is it because of the new CPU.

 

[DeclanBall]

ah didnt see ur second reply, thanks.

 

[ram1009]

If you get any increase in FPS they will be the most expensive FPS ever. IMHO, over clocking & multi GPU is a giant pissing contest. Not required for full game experience.

 

[DeclanBall]

ok thanks for the input.