2 EVGA GTX680 SLI Upgrade

[Pedro924]

I Currently have a Core i5 3570K + ASRock Z77 Extreme6 + 1 EVGA GTX680 (EVGA 02G-P4-2680-KR GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card). 1920x1080 game play

Planning to add 1 more GTX680 for SLI will this be worth it for better gaming experience? below are my full specs, are there any bottlenecks?

CASE: COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M
PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower Grand TPG-850M 850W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153143) Output+3.3V@25A, +5V@25A, +12V@71A, -12V@0.8A, +5VSB@6A
MOBO: ASRock Z77 Extreme6 LGA 1155 Intel Z77
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2GB 256-bit GDDR5
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 32GB DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
CPU: Intel-Core™ i5-3570K Processor 3.4GHz (with Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz)
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO
SSD: OCZ VERTEX 4 256GB SSD
OPTICAL DRIVE: ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate N


Games Played: Black Ops 2, Crysis 2, Crysis3,

 

[Gate9er]

No your rig will have no bottlenecks if you go for SLI. If you ask me there is no point to SLI two 680's since one 680 is powerful enough to play all your games with high fps. I believe its a waste of money, since you will see no significant changes..

 

[Guest]

It depends on if you want to play everything absolutley maxed out or not.I hate that term overkill theres no such thing even at 1080p unless your talking 2 gtx 690's.Even with 2 7950's in crossfire i struggle to max out crysis 3 and farcry 3.I say go for it.If you want to play everything at high settings but do not mind scaling back some of the settings then a single 680 is good enough for now.

 

[cravin]

I really don't get why people can't just turn it down to medium/lower AA, or a lower resolution and save the what, $500.

 

[Guest]

I really don't get why people can't just turn it down to medium/lower AA, or a lower resolution and save the what, $500.

because we own pc's not consoles.If i spend $1500+ to build a gaming pc i want everything i can get out of it

 

[maxinexus]

If you want an upgrade get a new 2560x1600/1440 monitor

 

[Guest]

He would deffinetly need another gtx 680 then.upgrading to that monitor makes no sense unless he has another 680 to sli

 

[redeemer]

SLI 680's are amazing! 1920x1200 highest settings 4X MSAA Crysis 3 60+fps makes me very happy!

 

[redeemer]

I really don't get why people can't just turn it down to medium/lower AA, or a lower resolution and save the what, $500.

Hobbies, enthusiasts etc!

 

[maxinexus]

He would deffinetly need another gtx 680 then.upgrading to that monitor makes no sense unless he has another 680 to sli

Apparently you have never game on 30" I run my on single 7970.
Once you are at 2560x1600 you don't need to turn on all the eye candies bc of the better pixel density. 30 has around 100 whereas 24 and 27 in the 80s
You can run 30 on a single 680/7970 however SLI and CF is a must if you want everything maxed out

 

[Guest]

Apparently you have never game on 30" I run my on single 7970.
Once you are at 2560x1600 you don't need to turn on all the eye candies bc of the better pixel density. 30 has around 100 whereas 24 and 27 in the 80s
You can run 30 on a single 680/7970 however SLI and CF is a must if you want everything maxed out

Thats what i was getting at i know its doable with one card but if you can afford a monitor like that you should beable to get a 2nd 680 to or its still sort of wasted imo.

 

[computeguy]

SLI 680's are amazing! 1920x1200 highest settings 4X MSAA Crysis 3 60+fps makes me very happy!

Do you have 2gb or 4gb of VRAM?

 

[redeemer]

Do you have 2gb or 4gb of VRAM?

2GB bro so only 4X MSAA for me only

 

[computeguy]

2GB bro so only 4X MSAA for me only

Interesting...how much VRAM does all of that take up? I would think that would take well over 2gb, especially with that MSAA.

 

[cravin]

Interested too ^
My 660 ti for some reason only fills to like 1500/2000mb (crysis 2, metro 2033, battlefield bc2 tested so far). 1080p with max settings on all of them

 

[Pedro924]

So it seems that If I want to max out my settings (which i do) installing a 2nd GTX680 for SLI makes ense. With that said what benefits would it be to add an Asus VG278H monitor to the mix (120hz)? Is there truly a big difference between 60hz & 120hz monitors with my rig?

 

[imomun]

I can see your in to upgrade and that root has no end to it. Every three month something better coming out.

680 SLI is a better solutionthan the 690 so is the SLI TITAN even better.
Now to ans I overclocked my monitor from 60Hz to 75 HZ and can notice a difference while some others cant,
120Hz is a 3D monitor as far as I know which I yet to grasp but yes sounds yummy.
If you want fluidity a better CPU is required aswell to keep up with your 120FPS if your in to Crysis 3 a 6 core perhaps?
Theres no end to it. It realy comes down to your buddget and choice but theres no end to it realy

 

[cravin]

Do you know if some monitors are better at overclocking than others? I have mine up to 66hz (a tiny difference, but better than nothing) but it goes 'input signal not acccepted' or something when i go higher. Kinda funny tho, its the exact refresh rate of the source engine for tf2.
3d monitors have to be 120hz (2x 60hz for the red/blue or whatever) but they make lots of 120hz non 3d monitors.

 

[imomun]

Monitor overclocking depends on the quality of the inner components used. Not all can overclock well without any artifact/Crash display lost.
60Hz LEDs can do some or less 70-75Hz but that refresh rate is only enjoyable when your CPU and GPU can keep up with it.
I do not know about others but I cn tell you about mine. Heres a test to make it easy http://frames-per-second.appspot.com/
My monitor is a 27" Syncmaster SA350 specified to run 60HZ but for few months Im enjoynig 75HZ no issue.
If you run a game vsynce locked to 30 than 45 than 60 and so on you can see the fluidity difference.
A single 680 is the best card for such monitor till now dont know about future games though
GTx 7 series is coming out next year So I would hold on to my GK104 for that as I can play 99% Games very high settings 2XMSAA No problem
Hope this helps your gaming. Thanks

 

[cravin]

What exactly does that test show to you? On my monitor the non motion blurred one looks a lot clearer but due to the speed of it it even still is blurred and I can't focus on it really since its blurred like that. Is that just saying that my monitor is bad?

 

[cravin]

Actually that might just be my eyes lol

 

[mark anderson]

You guys seem very knowledgable about this kind of stuff, hope you guys can help me. Im building a pc from scratch, a complete noob. My previous pc was a laptop from 2008 that had a nvidia 8400gt. I've never had a great computer and this build will be 99% than my previous laptop so im super excited to be able and join the cool games like bf2, crises 3 and etc. I mostly played tf2 and mw2 because thats the most my laptop could handle :/ (feel sorry for me)

I'm buying either a EVGA 680 stock 2gb, or a EVGA 680 superclocked signature edition 2gb. Dont know the difference but i do know that the superclocked version is better i guess. I'm also going to buy a 2nd one for sure, but im debating if ill use it for sli or to build a 2nd pc. (I social engineer, yes im a crook, but thats how im getting the 2nd one).

I want to get the intel i5 3570k, but if i'm going to sli, would i need the i7 3770k? To me it doesnt seem to make a big difference since its only .1 extra ghz and its a $100 difference.

I really need help picking out a mother board though, they all look the same to me, i just know i will most likely go sli in the future, but i also know i might use the second evga 680 for a 2nd build. I will most likely go with either 2x 4gb ram, or if needed 2x 8gb ram? 2x 4gb ram seems more than enough. I mainly game and thats it, no intense video editing or anything... Could you guys give me a brief overview of what mobo i could get?

Also for the power supply, how much watts would i need if im going to just use 1 gfx card, and how much watts would i need if i go sli?
If i plan on going sli, ill get the higher watt power supply, if i plan on building 2 seperate pc's ill just go with the lower one for the 2nd pc and a little higher one for my main build if i plan on upgrading something later.

extra:
I want to make sure this pc will last long, so i was told a cpu cooler would be a safe investment for $30ish bucks. (fan?)
I'm going to get a SDD for my OS and either 1 or 2 Sata drives for storage (500gb/1t or something each).
I dont need blu ray players or readers really so i dont know if theirs a real big price difference between those and a regular optical drive.
Whats a stylish case i could also get that has good air flow?
Also would i need a aftermarket cooler for my gpu? Or 2 gpu's if i plan on going sli.

I basically want a pc that will run all current games at max settings and will last me atleast the next 2-3 years.

 

[cravin]

gtx 680 vs 7970
look it up
7970 is so much better I don't know why anyone would go nvidia