Surround Gaming SLI GTX 680 vs 670 do I spend the extra money?

[nupe123]

Hello I just want to get some expert feedback on surround gaming. From what I have read I see people saying you should get the 4GB cards for surround gaming because of the VRAM but I’m still not understanding that. The games I play are mostly MMO’s and strategy games like FFXIV, FFXI and ANNO 2070 and I want to be able to play those games in surround mode. So from what I understand the 670 is right on the heels of the 680 as far as performance but I imagine an SLI 670 is no match to SLI 680 so I just want to ensure that buying SLI 680 is not throwing away money on the games I’m playing when SLI 670 would do just fine. And again do I need to get 4GB cards? Even though I say that I’m an MMO and strategy gamer I do at least want to get a setup that will allow me to step out of the box and play a Crysis or a Battlefield game in surround mode.

My current setup is 850AX Corsair PSU, 32GB of Corsair ram and ASUS Sabertooth Z77 and the CPU is either i5 3570k or i72600k will be getting it soon.

 

[firedice]

You do not need the extra VRAM, and the performance of SLI 670 is still close to SLI 680, the difference isn't exponential. 670 SLI is going to be just fine for your needs, but if you have the kind of money to waste on 32gbs of ram and a sabertooth motherboard, why not get a single 690? Beautiful card, plenty of power, and if you really want to add more power to it eventually, you can add another 680 in the setup.

 

[DM186]

For the games you are playing the 670 is overkill but never less it is a good card and if RPS and RPG games get up in the graphics dept then yeah the 670 is a good to get.

I would wait and see what the 660 ti brings because it is just right for RPS games. I play a log of those games myself and I have two of the worst cards the nVidia ever put out.

I get good FPS for example in Shogun II I get 60 FPS with all setting set on ultra and everything turned on. Those 690's are a very nice card. They are self contained hydro cooling and they have two 680 chips in one card.

Only problem with them is the $999.99 price tag. If you are getting a new CPU the i7 has a new one that is 6 or 8 core. The i7 2600k is a quad core. You might want to look into that as well.

I am going to link you too the hierarchy of the CPU's and GPU's if anything they are a good resource to have. Good luck to you on your awesome rig.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

 

[ohyouknow]

I'd go with the GTX 670 4gb version if you are really concerned about VRAM on your surround setup. The 680 is just too darn close to a 670 in performance to make any recommendation in favor of it SLI or otherwise.

 

[nupe123]

For the games you are playing the 670 is overkill but never less it is a good card and if RPS and RPG games get up in the graphics dept then yeah the 670 is a good to get.

I would wait and see what the 660 ti brings because it is just right for RPS games. I play a log of those games myself and I have two of the worst cards the nVidia ever put out.

I get good FPS for example in Shogun II I get 60 FPS with all setting set on ultra and everything turned on. Those 690's are a very nice card. They are self contained hydro cooling and they have two 680 chips in one card.

Only problem with them is the $999.99 price tag. If you are getting a new CPU the i7 has a new one that is 6 or 8 core. The i7 2600k is a quad core. You might want to look into that as well.

I am going to link you too the hierarchy of the CPU's and GPU's if anything they are a good resource to have. Good luck to you on your awesome rig.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

Thanks for the information. I think I'm going to try and get SLI 680's

 

[nupe123]

Best answer selected by nupe123.