Drawbacks to SLI my 460 GTX

[DEY123]

I currently have a GTX 460 (The 1GB with 256 bit memory interface)
I can get a second hand GTX 460 for about $80 and roughly double my performance or I could pay something like $200 (well $160 when I sell my 460) to get a GTX 660 which is lets say only 65% better. I would probably need to step up to a $300 card ($220 when I sell mine) to double performance.


I currently have a 1920 by 1080 monitor but may decide to upgrade at somepoint to a 2560 by 1440.


My board supports PCIE2.0 at 16X on both PCIE slots and I am running an AMD FX 8320 at 4.1 GHZ. Additionally, I have a "true" 750W PSU so I can handle the power requirements.


I am wondering what the drawbacks would be to getting a second GTX 460 to run my system in SLI?

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[alvine]

drawbacks would be drivers as they will be improved with time to increase scability in new titles, some new titles will have problems running SLI so you will have to run a single card to get around it. I would recommend selling your current 460 and get a single more powerfull gpu so you won't have as many issues

 

[tripledouce]

you need four Six pin connectors and alot of extra power, i have two Sparkle GTX 460 myself in SLI.

 

[rajrathan6]

look buddy if u cant raise ur budjet then let go . i recommend gtx/gt 650ti 2gigs or 1gig. 1 gig will cost around 200$ and 2 gb will cost ya 200$-300$. both have almost equal performance upgrade but for satisfaction factor some take 2gb its a waste.

in this gpu u can play games like batt...3 , moh warfighter ,and new released games in extreme or high as almost same as the 660. hope tis works.

 

[rajrathan6]

dont take it too high if u can play games like bt3, moh warfighter in extrm or high tis is fine fr u or else if specs or graphics usage goes too high then u may have many issues sloving for pc. for eg over haeatin , your mothabrd may get kicked off soon and etc, etc. i recommend u to give away gtx 460 and take 650ti

 

[DEY123]

dont take it too high if u can play games like bt3, moh warfighter in extrm or high tis is fine fr u or else if specs or graphics usage goes too high then u may have many issues sloving for pc. for eg over haeatin , your mothabrd may get kicked off soon and etc, etc. i recommend u to give away gtx 460 and take 650ti

I think a 650Ti is roughly a 6850. As I recall both of these cards are only a bit better then my 460. I am not going to upgrade for something unless it is close to 2x better.


Also not sure what you mean by my motherboard may get kicked off soon. I'm sure more motherboard is not going to cause me any issues unless I am mgoing to try and run more then 2 cards in SLI/x-fire at this point (or if I try to run 2 690s which is way out of my range).

 

[DEY123]

You don't want 1GB cards for 1440p resolution, by the way.

Anyways, I'm not 100% sure but I think a GTX 660 should be around the performance of 460 SLI.

Have you seen any benchamarks that compared cards at different GBs for 1440. It would be helpful for me for whenever I make a choice. I don't really have a specific budget but the idea of doubling performace for less then $100 is appealing. However, I think the fact it is an older card and may soon fall out of support plus the 1GB for 1440 is telling me I should get a new card when I can afford it.

 

[rene13cross]

I game at 1600p with 2 7950s in CF and they use more than 1GB in pretty much every game so I definitely wouldn't recommend using 1GB cards for that resolution (1600p is very close in pixel amount to 1440p). Having said that, Nvidia might be better regarding VRAM management so you might be fine but it probably won't last long until 1GB won't even be enough for 1080p gaming.

Also, if you do decide to SLI, consider the problems that come with multi-GPU systems:
- Your gaming experience will become very driver dependent, if drivers (or games for that matter) don't support proper multi-GPU usage, you won't see any benefit from having multiple GPUs.
- Micro-stuttering can also become an issue (personally, I don't think it's quite as big a deal as it's made out to be but some people are very sensitive to such things).
- More power usage; your bills will increase (it's probably not very significant, especially with newer gen GPUs).

 

[Kiowa789]

660, for sure.