GTX 680 SLI or GTX 880 for Skyrim with 300+ mods

[Laaden]

Hi!
I'm considering buying a 4GB Gigabyte GTX 680 to SLI my 2GB 680 (also Gigabyte) for under 200€ from ebay (used).

I mainly play heavily modded Skyrim with over 100 graphical mods and sometimes I feel that I don't have enough vram as actors' skins turn black at near distances and my vram usage is always at maximum in GPU-Z.

I know making it SLI will reduce the total memory to 2GB, but I could turn the SLI feature off to run with 4GB when playing Skyrim and use the SLI for other games like Battlefield 4 etc.

So, my question is: Should I buy a 4GB 680 or wait and buy the 880 and probably get saved from possible SLI problems?

My specs are:
MB: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H
CPU: i5 3570K @4200MHz
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 680 Windforce @1200MHz
PSU: Silverstone 700W Strider Essential 80+ Bronze
SSD: G.Skill 240GB Phoenix III 550/520 MB/s

Oh, and I am using a 2560x1440 monitor @120Hz and a Full HD monitor as a secondary one.

 

[ruecklm14]

I'd wait for the 880 and then if the 880 doesn't seem strong you can always buy the 680 when the price drops when the new cards release.

 

[aerocool]

Wait a little bit and see how that GPU performs, and how many vram it will have. I have a 780ti 3GB and with some HD mods (not the ultra HD) the vram is at full capacity. 4GB should be OK, but with the ENB the 680 don´t have too much power and framerate drops considerably (fully activated ENB will drob to half the framerate).

 

[legend001523]

880 will be better, because the mods will struggle with 2gb of vram, the new 880's will come in at least 3, get the 880 instead

 

[Calnin]

Gtx 780 6gb is something to consider I'd say. (assuming you have the budget for it...)

 

[ruecklm14]

Gtx 780 6gb is something to consider I'd say. (assuming you have the budget for it...)

He should wait for the 880 to see if there is a price drop for the 780 6gb and to see the price to performance of the 880.

 

[nikoli707]

at 1440p the 2gb gtx670 i had did not like skyrim very well. using a slightly modified s.t.e.p. highest possible quality install(Jan 2013), i would get texture drop outs after a few minutes of play and then fps drops through the floor. so i ordered up a 7950(3gb) and tried it out and all my skyrim problems were solved, so i returned the 670. my situation was unique, but did contribute to my believing that the 7950(now r9-280) was, and still is, better than any 2gb 760/770/670 for this single reason. most everyone over at nexus abandoned 2gb nvidia cards in favor of the much more stable 3gb amd cards or 4gb 670/680s. now that there is a software mod to allow skyrim to address more than 3.1gb vram, 4gb/6gb models are the go to for 3840x2160 as there are now plenty of 8k/16k retexture mods for skyrim.

 

[17seconds]

You cannot mix and match cards with different VRAM amounts in SLI.

 

[ruecklm14]

You cannot mix and match cards with different VRAM amounts in SLI.

You can but its not recommended because the extra vram is a waste of money because the 4gb will go down to 2gb.

 

[Laaden]

I doubt 880 will be better than 2x 680 that has a performance boost of 70-90% over a single 680 at 1440p at least according to this: http://www.legitreviews.com/nvidia-geforce-gtx-680-2-way-sli-video-card-review_1891

However, my main concern is if 4GB 680 could run heavily modded Skyrim smoothly with demanding ENB?

You cannot mix and match cards with different VRAM amounts in SLI.

You can but its not recommended because the extra vram is a waste of money because the 4gb will go down to 2gb.

And that is exactly what I said in my post.

 

[17seconds]

From the Geforce.com forum FAQ:

All GPUs must have the same amount of VRAM and an identical Bus Width
-- You cannot use a "2GB" version with a "4GB" version or "3GB" version with a "6GB" version in SLI or a 1GB 192 bit bus with a 1GB 256 bit bus Etc.
Note: It used to be possible to enable SLI on cards with differing VRAM but this is no longer available.
Last Updated August 5th 2014
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/469402/

 

[Leemon]

I'd definitely wait for the 880. SLI just isn't worth the trouble and the 880 will most likely have the same or better performance than 680 SLI. The 780 Ti isn't far off 680 SLI.

 

[Laaden]

From the Geforce.com forum FAQ:

All GPUs must have the same amount of VRAM and an identical Bus Width
-- You cannot use a "2GB" version with a "4GB" version or "3GB" version with a "6GB" version in SLI or a 1GB 192 bit bus with a 1GB 256 bit bus Etc.
Note: It used to be possible to enable SLI on cards with differing VRAM but this is no longer available.
Last Updated August 5th 2014
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/469402/

Are you sure it doesn't only affect newer GPUs? And what about those who already have different vram cards in SLI? Wouldn't there be a massive number of cards for sale in ebay because people would have to buy new cards?

So if it affects 680 too, what is the last driver version that supports different vrams?

 

[aerocool]

My 780ti with custom ENB + ugrids 11 + HD mods and 1080p, have a minimum framerate of 40, but usually have 50+... 60+, and at interiors more than 60 (my montor only gives 60HZs). A 680 maybe can handle a custom ENB, but maybe in some points will go down to 24...

 

[17seconds]

From the Geforce.com forum FAQ:

All GPUs must have the same amount of VRAM and an identical Bus Width
-- You cannot use a "2GB" version with a "4GB" version or "3GB" version with a "6GB" version in SLI or a 1GB 192 bit bus with a 1GB 256 bit bus Etc.
Note: It used to be possible to enable SLI on cards with differing VRAM but this is no longer available.
Last Updated August 5th 2014
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/469402/

Are you sure it doesn't only affect newer GPUs? And what about those who already have different vram cards in SLI? Wouldn't there be a massive number of cards for sale in ebay because people would have to buy new cards?

So if it affects 680 too, what is the last driver version that supports different vrams?

The question is, do you have direct experience or knowledge with someone mixing and matching their VRAM in SLI? This is one of those items that gets repeated and passed around as "common knowledge", but a little research shows that's never really been the case. The only way it was possible in the past, and may still be today, is to use Coolbits to hack the registry. Not something that all users are prepared to do.