Gtx 570 sli, or gtx 680

[mattsaffell5]

This is another question i get mixed answers about. I currently have a gtx 570, would it be a better deal to buy another one and put it into sli, or sell that and biy a single gtx 680?

 

[bigshootr8]

The performance of 2 570's would beat out a 680 handily. However that being said there are a couple things you will not have. You will not have a larger memory bank to pull from as the 570 doesn't go beyond 1.280 GB of memory. So long term the 680 would be a better card. What I would advise doing is perhaps waiting till the next series of cards come out and then maybe making the jump. Are you currently having issues playing the games you are playing at the settings you desire?

 

[completelyrandomname]

If I'm correct a GTX 680 should perform near if not better than a GTX 570 in dual SLI. Keep in mind that if you have 2 cards you will need more power and it will usually be more noisy and run hotter than a single card.

 

[bigshootr8]

Well the 570 in Sli is faster then a 680 however you run into things like you said heat, and power, and you run into memory being a factor. Sorry I should rephrase it apparently the 680 has a higher min frame rate where as the 570 in sli has a higher max which doesn't mean everything you could be right completelyran

 

[photonboy]

The subjective experience due to micro-stutter usually creates a reduced gaming experience even when the frame rate is the same as that of a single GPU.

I absolutely love my Asus GTX680 DC2T. It's about $520.

This is a good review though the benchmark results will be slightly different now in some games with driver updates:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/55064-asus-gtx-680-directcu-ii-top-review.html

As mentioned, heat and noise will be a huge factor. This single GTX680 uses the new 28nm GPU with much less power and the massive heatsink design (3-slot card) makes it the quietest card with this level of processing power. For most games I can't even hear the increase in fan noise over idle but on the 2x570 setup I tried the increase in sound while gaming was huge!

 

[bigshootr8]

A 680 is awesome I don't agree with the pricing but I don't think at this time that the value for him is justified. I don't think he is really gaining much from moving from a 570 to a 680 unless he is wanting to get that single generation boost. It would be better to wait and see how the 700 series goes and then perhaps invest in one. His 570 will still have value and he can sell it at that point as well.

 

[photonboy]

A 680 is awesome I don't agree with the pricing but I don't think at this time that the value for him is justified. I don't think he is really gaining much from moving from a 570 to a 680 unless he is wanting to get that single generation boost. It would be better to wait and see how the 700 series goes and then perhaps invest in one. His 570 will still have value and he can sell it at that point as well.

I agree. If he can wait, a GTX780 upgrade might be the way to go. I also don't know what CPU he uses and whether that would bottleneck things.

 

[bigshootr8]

Yea that would be something interesting to know. I would suspect that having a gen or two old i5 should do the trick.

 

[Z1NONLY]

I have not detected any micro-stuttering with my 560's in SLI, but your mileage may vary.

 

[stantheman123]

My 590 system and 7970 system basically achieve the same fps so 680 wouldn't not be a upgrade wait for 780

 

[Rockdpm]

I might would wait for a 780 unless a tier 1 model 680 gets cheaper in the next 2 months

 

[cgner]

A single 570 should play any game just fine, so wait till 700 series comes out and grab a 770

 

[photonboy]

I might would wait for a 780 unless a tier 1 model 680 gets cheaper in the next 2 months

No indication of immediate price drops on the GTX680. However, the Asus DC2T version can play most games at full and the rest look awesome. Far Cry 3 is the biggest exception as it's the only game I really have to tweak much to ensure I maintain high frame rates (I prefer 60FPS at least 80% of the time).

The GTX780 isn't announced and prices may take several months to drop.

*It also depends on the games you play. If your card already handles the games you play at full quality it would be pointless to upgrade.

 

[photonboy]

I have not detected any micro-stuttering with my 560's in SLI, but your mileage may vary.

FYI, micro-stutter affects your game play in TWO ways:
#1 the obvious quick stuttering (many stutters per second, not to be confused with larger stutters due to drive access loading textures).

#2 The game can appear SLUGGISH. It might feel smooth, but more like 30FPS when it's actually 60FPS. This type of stutter exists but until you run a game at 60FPS (SLI) versus 60FPS (single card) you don't notice what you are missing.

*Incidentally, I just bought a Samsung 840 Pro and use it as a Second Steam folder. I've moved some games over like Fallout NV and Oblivion and the stuttering is far, far less as is loading new map points and entering buildings. Awesome.

Many people look for stutter fixes for Bethesda games and some work okay, but the ONLY way to get around much of the stutter is to use a good SSD.

 

[Z1NONLY]

I ran the same game (Crysis 2) with a single GTX 560, then I ran it with two 560's in SLI....

SLI was faster and smoother than the single card.

The single card was "playable" on "extreme" and smooth on "very high" (Single card was choppy and sluggish on extreme).

The SLI is butter-smooth on "ultra".

Now, I built a rig for one of my son's friends that used a single 6850 and a 4100. I don't know if it was the 4100 or the 6850, but that rig had micro-stutter with a single card. An overclock of both the GPU and CPU helped, but going back and forth betwen my single 560 and the 6850, it was easy to notice the difference in smooth vs stutter.

My SLI rig doesn't have the issue that I saw with that single 6850.


And, more to the pont, my SLI rig is much faster than my single card and just as smooth in "ultra" as my single card was in "very high" or even just "high"(lowest setting).

I also found stutter when using a very old 40g HDD in my back-up rig when I took the newer 7200rpm hdd out of it to get extra storage in my main rig.

The 7200 rpm hdd was fine, but that poor old hdd would slow-surge-slow a lot in crysis 2 regardless of settings.

I have seen a couple different examples of stuttering. My SLI rig is not one of them.

 

[Rockdpm]

No indication of immediate price drops on the GTX680. However, the Asus DC2T version can play most games at full and the rest look awesome. Far Cry 3 is the biggest exception as it's the only game I really have to tweak much to ensure I maintain high frame rates (I prefer 60FPS at least 80% of the time).

The GTX780 isn't announced and prices may take several months to drop.

*It also depends on the games you play. If your card already handles the games you play at full quality it would be pointless to upgrade.

While the 600 series may not drop in price anytime soon. The 700 series are expected to start dropping no later than march

 

[bigshootr8]

I would suspect them to drop around the time of the 700 series however probably more so after the 700 series has been out for a month or two.

 

[Rockdpm]

I would suspect them to drop around the time of the 700 series however probably more so after the 700 series has been out for a month or two.

I don't mean the 700 series dropping in price. I mean the 700 series being released. I know the 600 series won't drop in price until maybe mid-end of summer

 

[cgner]

I doubt they will be releasing them in march. Last year they paper launched them in march, but getting one was hardly possible till around may. This time their high end cards are not even pushed by any new game releases, so they could just wait till early-mid summer to release new cards. Both AMD and nvidia that is to say....

 

[Rockdpm]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SfPLhTgRPQ

Um it says...Published March 22. So technically the 680 was launched on newegg ready to buy March 22.. now constant stream avail was more smooth a few months later.. But that was because of FAB issues which isn't gonna happen for the 700 series

 

[bigshootr8]

Right he is just saying that sites go out of stock and its hard to get a card within the few couple of months.