2 GeForce GTX 580 vs 1 Sapphire HD 7970

[Winguh]

Specs:
Asrock z68 Extreme3 Gen3
i5-2500k
Corsair AX850 PSU


After having my 7970 in my current rig for ~2 years, I just today got my hands on two (free) GTX 580's. Comparing the specs of the two show them around neck-and-neck, the 7970 being a little better. Having two 580's however opens up my options, so I'm curious if it will be worth the work to install and combine the two cards and then just have the 7970 as a replacement card if anything crazy happens in the future.

Here are the two specific cards & their specs:

7970
GTX 580

Thanks for any help.

 

[Memento Mori]

7970 is like 15% better if i remember correctly from benches!
i could be wrong though!
but definetely is better!
2 sli 580 are better compared to 1 7970 but they lack memory!
1,5gb isnt enough nowadays!
stay with 7970 and if you can flash it to 280x for better o/c headroom!
Also if you can afford it put an aftermarket cooler!

 

[Winguh]

Okay cool, that's sort of what I figured but I didn't know myself so thank you for answering.

 

[Crazy_Ivan55]

Multi GPU setups will create new problems aside from A lower framerate with a single card. Heat is one of the big concerns, if i remember right the GeForce 500 series were quite hot compared to new video cards. Power is the other main concern, you will need considerably more power to run those two cards. 1.5 Ghz is no problem for 1080P gameplay but anything higher then the higher VRAM on the 7970 will be a benefit. So for multi monitor the two cards are better and for higher resolution and single monitor the single 7970 is better.

EDIT: If you just go for a single 7970 you could also just add another later if things get slow in the future while you would have to replace both 580's or add a new one which would add more heat and use even more power, aside from it being harder to find.

 

[Winguh]

Yeah, I have a TV next to my computer that I can plug into my PC so I have the option of two screens but I usually use it for watching videos so when I play games I can take it off. It's probably not worth the work to put the cards in so I'll leave it now. Thanks