GTX 560 SLI upgrade to GTX 660 SLI?

[rayf01]

Current specs.

i5-2500k
2 x Gigabyte GTX-560 1 GB
Gigabyte GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3
4 x 4GB (16 GB) Memory DDR3 - CL9

I currently only play BF3 at 1980 x 1080. I find that even with the SLI setup I cant run it on ULTRA and every once and while the frames slow down a bit. I know that's a limitation of VRAM.

I was considering selling my GTX 560's and upgrading to 2 x GeForce GTX 660 OC 2GB PCI-E. I do not overclock ever.

Do you think the upgrade would be worth it to last another 1-2 years? I'd like it to be able to run the next release of Battlefield, but who knows what those requirements will be with it being so far out.

I was also considering selling my i5 and sticking an i7-3770k in here as well.

 

[sam_p_lay]

I'll check UK pricing, but maybe it's different in this from USA/Canadian pricing where the 7870 and the 660 can be found aroudn the same price.

Ah don't worry then - you'll probably be wasting your time! If you really want to look, our best online hardware retailers are scan.co.uk, aria.co.uk, ebuyer.com, novatech.co.uk and dabs.com. I don't think you'll find a 7870 below £160 though.

 

[loops]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814202006

and 3 games as well...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600286767%20600298540&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=20

 

[Mousemonkey]

Ah don't worry then - you'll probably be wasting your time! If you really want to look, our best online hardware retailers are scan.co.uk, aria.co.uk, ebuyer.com, novatech.co.uk and dabs.com. I don't think you'll find a 7870 below £160 though.

The cheapest one one Scans site is £176.14 + P & P which is about £20 IIRC, I would rather have a GTX660Ti TBH.

 

[sam_p_lay]

Those 7870 prices really highlight how these companies/the British government/all of the above screw us here in Britain. Do you add tax to that at checkout in America or is $209 really the price you end up paying?

 

[sam_p_lay]

The cheapest one one Scans site is £176.14 + P & P which is about £20 IIRC, I would rather have a GTX660Ti TBH.

Which card costs that? 🙂 P&P with Scan I think is around £5. People would not be happy paying £20 for delivery! Ebuyer and Novatech are free delivery and Dabs is around £1.

 

[bigshootr8]

Wow a whole 8c cooler in my experience, not really earth shattering is it?

Was quite a bit more then that for me in my experience. I went from circumstances where I was getting 70 C to almost 90 C to temperatures in the 50's. So its a bit more dramatic then that. I think you know as well as I do that having 2 cards in a case that close tends to build up more heat anyway. More heat more power consumption.

 

[rayf01]

I could potentially wait until the 700's come out then as an option. The performance boost to a single 700 series card might be a better deal than doing a 670 right now. I could potentially still sell my twin 560s and upgrade to a single card then.

 

[bigshootr8]

That may be a better option if you are satisfied with the frames you are currently receiving then it may be a good option to wait and see what comes out.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Which card costs that? 🙂 P&P with Scan I think is around £5. People would not be happy paying £20 for delivery! Ebuyer and Novatech are free delivery and Dabs is around £1.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/2gb-msi-radeon-hd-7870-overclocked-28nm-4800mhz-gddr5-gpu-1050mhz-1280-cores-dl-dvi-i-hdmi-mdp

Was quite a bit more then that for me in my experience. I went from in circumstances where I was getting 70 C to almost 90 C to temperatures in the 50's. So its a bit more dramatic then that. I think you know as well as I do that having 2 cards in a case that close tends to build up more heat anyway. More heat more power consumption.

Two 660Ti's running flat out, top card @73c bottom card @76c the 560's hit 81c and 80c which is below the thermal threshold and quite acceptable IMO.

 

[bigshootr8]

But weren't people debating he should just go with a single card if he were to upgrade? I think that the logic is more so along with that then pairing up 2 mid level cards and maxing out his experience.

 

[blazorthon]

Those 7870 prices really highlight how these companies/the British government/all of the above screw us here in Britain. Do you add tax to that at checkout in America or is $209 really the price you end up paying?

No tax is needed in most of the USA for online retailers

 

[Mousemonkey]

But weren't people debating he should just go with a single card if he were to upgrade? I think that the logic is more so along with that then pairing up 2 mid level cards and maxing out his experience.

You can debate what you like mate, IMO SLi is the way to go and 660Ti's are my current weapons of choice.

 

[bryjoered]

I think EVGA makes great cards, but they also are very pricey. I dont think it's a bad practice to simply buy the damn card direct from Nvidia or AMD. The differences between the nvidia 670 and the EVGA 670 are marginal unless one has more VRAM, both can play the same games at the same settings the eVGA just might give you like 10 more fps if you're lucky.

 

[bigshootr8]

I think EVGA makes great cards, but they also are very pricey. I dont think it's a bad practice to simply buy the damn card direct from Nvidia or AMD. The differences between the nvidia 670 and the EVGA 670 are marginal unless one has more VRAM, both can play the same games at the same settings the eVGA just might give you like 10 more fps if you're lucky.

Really.....
evga:$369.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130787
gigabyte:$399.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125423
asus:$419.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121637
MSI: $389.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127685

Not all EVGA prodcuts are expensive. In fact for most people the regular standard joe card they are cheaper than the competition if cooling/overclocking aren't your goal.

 

[blazorthon]

I think EVGA makes great cards, but they also are very pricey. I dont think it's a bad practice to simply buy the damn card direct from Nvidia or AMD. The differences between the nvidia 670 and the EVGA 670 are marginal unless one has more VRAM, both can play the same games at the same settings the eVGA just might give you like 10 more fps if you're lucky.

There are so many things that are wrong with this that I'm not even sure of where to begin.

First off, some of EVGA's cards are the cheapest. Not always, but fairly often and perhaps most of the time.

EVGA's cards are generally just the reference Nvidia cards, although some are the reference cards with slight factory overclocks.

How much of an FPS difference it is depends on many things, but saying like 10 more FPS is ridiculous. For example, let's say the reference 670 gets 45FPS in a given task. Like 10 higher FPS would be nearing 60FPS and that'd be a very noticeable difference for most gamers. Besides, it wouldn't be nearly that much higher anyway, it'd be like 2 or 3 FPS in this scenario, if even that.

Last, but not least, do AMD and Nvidia even sell cards directly? This'd be the first that I've heard about selling retail cards directly.

 

[bigshootr8]

Sometimes you can find OEM cards from nvidia at best buy. For example
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/NVIDIA+-+GeForce+GTX+550+Ti+1GB+GDDR5+PCI+Express+2.0+Graphics+Card/2375089.p?id=1218323853938&skuId=2375089

As far as amd not that I know of other than there workstation cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195116

 

[blazorthon]

Sometimes you can find OEM cards from nvidia at best buy. For example
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/NVIDIA+-+GeForce+GTX+550+Ti+1GB+GDDR5+PCI+Express+2.0+Graphics+Card/2375089.p?id=1218323853938&skuId=2375089

As far as amd not that I know of other than there workstation cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195116

Okay, I was wrong about that, but those're some horrible prices anyway... Thanks for the links.

 

[bigshootr8]

the 550 most assuredly a bad price the workstation cards well at the high end are pretty damn expensive man 😛

nvidia's new one coming out nearly 2 grand but comes with a ssd 😛
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133472

and AMD's beast of a workstation card at 3,400 dollars
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195116