2g 256bit GTX560 or 1g 192bit GTX550Ti

[JLmike7]

Title says it all. Poor college kid here trying to build a slightly-gamer-ish computer.

I am looking at two cards, which can be compared here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709+4017+600094002&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&CompareItemList=48%7C14-162-085%5E14-162-085-TS%2C14-130-625%5E14-130-625-TS

Needs:
<$200
PCIe 2.0 x16
SLI / Crossfire support
3 video outs.

Wants
<$150
Obviously the fastest possible.

What it will be doing:
Displaying on 3 monitors at once. (They are 1440x900, 500x900, and 1280x1024)
And I plan on doing a bit of gaming on the 1440x900 screen. (MineCraft, Portal, Rise of Nations, etc.)

Thanks in advance and much love to you all!

 

[Sonny73N]

Obviously you've preferred nVidia. You can go ahead and get the 256-bit 560 2GB.

 

[JLmike7]

Maybe it's just Newegg being strange, but I can't seam to find any decent AMD cards. That's really the only reason I chose nVidia.

This is my MoBo. It can do CrossFireX and SLI.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138317

I know that the 560 is a good bit better, but I guess what I'm really asking is if the 2gb and 256-bit bus will make a big difference in my setup.

 

[JLmike7]

Also this is my PSU. The two cards I am comparing should be fine to crossfire on it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371031


My whole build consists of:
60gb SSD (1x)
wireless card (1x)
i5 2500k
4gb ripjaws ram (4x)
dvd reader/writer (1x)

I am hoping to SLI/CrossFireX two cards later on. I just need to get the first card now to get my build off the ground.

 

[4745454b]

None of those cards can output on three screens. You'll need an AMD card for that. (or an Nvidia card from the 6xx series.) That PSU also only has two plugs for video cards. This limits you to the GTX550TI from Nvidia, or the 7850 from AMD.

 

[JLmike7]

Thank you 4745454b.

My revised plan is to get the nVidia GTX550Ti. It will run 2 of the monitors until I can save enough to get a second 550Ti to run the third monitor.

With my motherboard and PSU, can I SLI together two 550Ti's?

 

[JLmike7]

I've done a bit of SLI research, and am still a little fuzzy. If I have two 550Ti cards using SLI, can I use 3 monitors?

Could I use 3 monitors if I disabled SLI???

 

[JLmike7]

Best answer selected by JLmike7.

 

[4745454b]

I believe the GTX550TI will handle 3 monitors in SLI. Those cards are weaker then the 6850 and 7850 however. For three monitor gaming you'll be lacking in power.

 

[merandos]

I've done a bit of SLI research, and am still a little fuzzy. If I have two 550Ti cards using SLI, can I use 3 monitors?

Could I use 3 monitors if I disabled SLI???

The GTX 550 ti has a quite high pixel rate among the cards in that price range, that's why it does not lose that much performance when running in high resolutions or using multi-monitors, so you should be fine with GTX 550 ti SLI'ed..........but if i were you i would go for the single 560 since it will perform slightly better than 2 of the GTX 550 ti and cheaper