SLi 560 Ti OR 680?

[Zigiy]

Hello.

My friend is able to get me a cheap 560 Ti for about $100 (A proper factory on, not a cheap piece of ***). Hes also able to get me a 680 for around $250. So Im wondering, which iwll get me the best performance? SLi'd 560 Ti's? Or a single 680. The obvious problem with SLing is that it'll take up more power than the standalone 680. But im interested to see which one will be best for my moneys worth.

Thanks!
-Sam

 

[gamerkila57]

the GTX 680 is the best choice as a GTX 560 Ti Sli won't give you as much as a single 680 and plus a single powerful card is always better than two

 

[JackNaylorPE]

In general, two mid range cards in SLI will trounce the top end GPU every time.....within the same generation. For example, two 560 Ti's blow the 580 outta the water by 30 - 40%. We see a big range here because there were so many different versions of the 560 ti. But here ya talking two different generations and when that happens, things change ..... the 680 is at least 50% faster than the 580.

So in your comparison, I'd have to give the nod to the 680.

Talkin "current generation", here's some comparisons between the 660 Ti in SLI and 680 .... no contest. And we can see why the 660 Ti costs $300 and not $250 as expected. nVidia learned that lesson when twin 560 Tis beat the pants off the 580 while being 80% of the price.

BF3 - 680 = 66.7 / 660 Ti SLI = 98.4
AvP - 680 = 100.3 / 660 Ti SLI = 155.8
Batman AC - 680 = 87 / 660 Ti SLI = 86
Crysis 2 - 680 = 75.5 / 660 Ti SLI = 96.7
Dirt 3 - 680 = 119.8 / 660 Ti SLI = 150.4
Hard Reset - 680 = 96.3 / 660 Ti SLI = 114.6
Metro 2033 = 31 / 660 Ti SLI = 44
Skyrim - 680 = 120.1 / 660 Ti SLI = 167.8
Shogun 2 - 680 = 59 / 660 Ti SLI = 91.5
Unreal 3 - 680 = 79.5 / 660 Ti SLI = 129.7

Total for 680 = 835.2 @ $500 = $0.60 per frame
Total for 660 Ti SLI = 1141.2 @ $600 = $0.53 per frame

Clearly the best bang for the buck is the twin 660 Ti's

3D Mark Vantage - 680 = 35,856 / 660 Ti SLI = 43,624 (21% faster for 20% more cash)
3D Mark 11 - 680 = 9,836 / 660 Ti SLI = 14,154 (44% faster for 20% more cash)