Single Display-ultra gaming, one vid card or two?

[towlie]

I currently play Star Wars The Old Republic and World of Warcraft.

At the moment I am using an i7-950, 560Ti (1 GB), and 6 GB of RAM (however in three days i have new RAM arriving, so i will have 12 GB of 1600 RAM then). I will also put my Dxdiag at the bottom of this post for full system information.

The 560Ti is factory superclocked, but I have not overclocked anything myself (maybe i should but i dont want to risk damaging anything so i have avoided it so far).

I use an IPS panel monitor, and just a single display.

In SWTOR I REALLY enjoy the highest settings, its so vivid and stunning and it feels like a new game, for performance (in particular, PVP) I have always reduced settings so my system wouldnt stutter and case the loss of a fight due to a moment of pause cause by my system bottlenecking. I would like to improve my system so I can play even in PVP in a high or even ultra graphics setting. I assume my vid card is a definate need to upgrade, perhaps tho i should change something else, if you notice anything from the Dxdiag then please mention it to me.

I look at high end video cards and it seems the appeal to most of them is u can get two video cards in one for multiple displays. However I only use a single display so what would be the best video card to get for my single display without paying for performance that just wont be used and wouldnt be an actual improvement. I am trying to word this cause I see lots of people say "whats your price range?" My price range is whatever i want it to be, but im a frugal guy and I dont want to spend money that I dont have to, what I do want is to have the best gaming experience i can (with a single display).

And should i consider running two video cards sli to achieve top settings? i notice when im in 16man operations i have to tone graphics way down and even then i get low fps (14-20) at some moments. Howver i can pvp in warzones at ultra and suffer little issues most of the time with my 560ti.


------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 10/27/2012, 19:16:51
Machine name: DAMON-PC
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120830-0333)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: OEM
System Model: OEM
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07GHz (8 CPUs), ~4.0GHz
Memory: 12288MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 12280MB RAM
Page File: 7812MB used, 16743MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 560 Ti
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1200&SUBSYS_35151458&REV_A1
Display Memory: 4050 MB
Dedicated Memory: 978 MB
Shared Memory: 3072 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: IPS236
Monitor Id: GSM580C
Native Mode: 1920 x 1080(p) (60.000Hz)
Output Type: DVI

 

[obsama1]

At 1080p, a 7870 will be fine for WoW and SWTOR.

 

[towlie]

the stats on a 7870 seem to be barely above the 560ti, if the 560ti cant even run low graphics ina 16man operation how can this one operate at ultra in a 16man operation?

 

[obsama1]

The 7870 is a lot better than the 560 Ti. It beats even the 570, and you can overclock it to 580/7950 levels. Also, make sure you're running the latest game update, Windows updates, and GPu drivers to maximize performance. Here's the 560 Ti vs 7870:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/548?vs=547

 

[maxalge]

the stats on a 7870 seem to be barely above the 560ti, if the 560ti cant even run low graphics ina 16man operation how can this one operate at ultra in a 16man operation?

Online games, especially ones with a lot of people at the same time often tax the CPU very heavily.


You should look at overclocking your cpu.

 

[towlie]

Online games, especially ones with a lot of people at the same time often tax the CPU very heavily.


You should look at overclocking your cpu.

i recently did oc my processor to 4Ghz, it shows this in the dxdiag.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

A 2nd 560 Ti will easily give you the biggest return on your investment.....about 77% faster than your single 560.....and 40% faster than a 580

 

[swifty_morgan]

this is what you said...........

"I have always reduced settings so my system wouldnt stutter and case the loss of a fight due to a moment of pause cause by my system bottlenecking. "

that's because the 1gig frame buffer on the 560 is strangling your system. adding a second card does NOT mean there will be 2gigs of vram.............

you need to upgrade your video card to something that is faster than the 560 but also have at least 2gigs of video ram......... it's been that way for a while but lots of people unwisely still argue otherwise.......... watch vid. will help explain............

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCcQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DHaXVrCFvL94&ei=8LqMUKa3Barg0gH01IDwCA&usg=AFQjCNGunZ8BusEF5MFOKOwnv0W0NtNofA&cad=rja

 

[towlie]

this is what you said...........

"I have always reduced settings so my system wouldnt stutter and case the loss of a fight due to a moment of pause cause by my system bottlenecking. "

that's because the 1gig frame buffer on the 560 is strangling your system. adding a second card does NOT mean there will be 2gigs of vram.............

you need to upgrade your video card to something that is faster than the 560 but also have at least 2gigs of video ram......... it's been that way for a while but lots of people unwisely still argue otherwise.......... watch vid. will help explain............

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCcQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DHaXVrCFvL94&ei=8LqMUKa3Barg0gH01IDwCA&usg=AFQjCNGunZ8BusEF5MFOKOwnv0W0NtNofA&cad=rja

awesome video, thank you for showing me this. now my next question is 660 or should i go a little bit higher in the 600 series to a 670 ot 680 for any reason?

 

[towlie]

oh and should i consider a 660ti, i cant find a straight explination on what the difference is between the 660 and the 660ti.

 

[swifty_morgan]

I'm really biased about video card performance. the 660ti version isn't worth the extra money for the little bit of extra performance over the plain 660............

if you have the budget for the 670 don't hesitate, spend the money. it will give you better performance over either of the other 2 especially when you're bandwidth limited ( making you turn settings back when the card gets stressed ) kinda like you are now but to a much lesser degree.

Then you have to think about how long it's going to be before your next upgrade and what's gonna come along between now and then that will end up crippling a lesser card.............. seriously, if you can get the 670 do it.

 

[towlie]

I'm really biased about video card performance. the 660ti version isn't worth the extra money for the little bit of extra performance over the plain 660............

if you have the budget for the 670 don't hesitate, spend the money. it will give you better performance over either of the other 2 especially when you're bandwidth limited ( making you turn settings back when the card gets stressed ) kinda like you are now but to a much lesser degree.

Then you have to think about how long it's going to be before your next upgrade and what's gonna come along between now and then that will end up crippling a lesser card.............. seriously, if you can get the 670 do it.

ok, and should i stick with 2GB or look at 3 and 4 GB cards, and is there any difference between 670s, and i would be buying from newegg, would i be hurting myself by looking at refurbished ones?

 

[swifty_morgan]

I don't really want to pick a card for you. I will say the 3 slotter's are ridiculously huge, the single fan blow out the back kind are usually the hottest. Ram, that's up to you. Right now I have no problems anywhere with 2gig cards at 1900 res but you never know how fast that will change or if there will be another "texture mod" .. ???? or if you have an eye on larger screens or 3monitor set ups in the future then you might consider more than 2. The balls in your court on this one.

 

[gregaaron89]

ok, and should i stick with 2GB or look at 3 and 4 GB cards, and is there any difference between 670s, and i would be buying from newegg, would i be hurting myself by looking at refurbished ones?

3 or more gigs of vram won't benefit you if you're only using 1 1080p display, 2 is fine.

There's not a huge difference between different models of the same GPU, the main difference will be in clock speed, and ability to overclock. You can look at benchmarks to see which one performs best and/or is the best value (consider cooling and noise too)

 

[towlie]

Best answer selected by towlie.