Should I get another GTX 960 (2gb) to SLI, or should I get a GTX 1060?

alwyn_42

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Dec 2, 2015
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Good day, I'm planning to upgrade my rig soon, and I'm interested in getting a new video card.

I currently use a GTX 960 (2gb), and I have an I5 4460 as my processor. The PSU I'm using is an FSP Raider 550.

Anyway, I was wondering if it would be better to get a 1060, which is a bit pricey, or if I could get by with getting another GTX 960 and put it in SLI mode?

For comparison, I can get a GTX 960 here in PH for about 129 USD, and a 6gb 1060 would be about 238-298 USD.

Which one would give me better bang for my buck for 1080p gaming? If you can recommend other video cards, that would be great too. thanks!
 
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (2x SLI) and your CPU

http://www.3dmark.com/search#/?mode=advanced&url=/proxycon/ajax/search/cpugpu/fs/P/1798/1010/500000?minScore=0&cpuName=Intel Core i5-4460 Processor&gpuName=NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960

1060 [6gb] single card use and your CPu

http://www.3dmark.com/search#/?mode=advanced&url=/proxycon/ajax/search/cpugpu/fs/P/1798/1096/500000?minScore=0&cpuName=Intel Core i5-4460 Processor&gpuName=NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060-6GB


RX480 [Number of GPUs = 1 ] not xfire and your CPU

http://www.3dmark.com/search#/?mode=advanced&url=/proxycon/ajax/search/cpugpu/fs/P/1798/1092/500000?minScore=0&cpuName=Intel Core i5-4460 Processor&gpuName=AMD Radeon RX 480


looks like a more powerful single card suggested is stronger then your 960 in sli

 


Your lower quality, under-powered PSU would make the experiment SLI'ing the 960 short I'm afraid. I would work (if your motherboard supports SLI), but the stability may not be there.....or not there for long.

I would recommend the newer single card for improved performance and best experience overall.
 
i guess i'd probably go with a 1060.

the PSU actually was another thing i was worried about, since a couple of weeks back, i had my old PSU fail on me.

last question though, would a 1050ti be better than a 2gb 960? or would i be way better off saving up for a few more months to get a 1060? and how many gigs should i get?
 
1) SLI doesn't always work, and when it does it can cause stuttering sometimes.

2) NEWER games appear to be dropping SLI (AFR mode) due to leveraging code that requires consecutive frames which needs to use the same GPU. We'll eventually be able to have multiple GPU's work on the same frame but that's a ways off.

3) RX-480 is cheaper than GTX1060 6GB

4) GTX1060 gains in DX11 (relative to benchmarks) vs AMD in games where your CPU is the bottleneck often. It's hard to guess the exact difference though sometimes it's 10%. AMD has proved their DX11 code somewhat though I don't think this applies to most older games.

So...?

I'd say the RX-470 4GB/8GB or RX-480 4GB/8GB is your best choice based on the budget. See pcpartpicker:

(I'd go with at least 6GB if possible for VRAM as games are starting to get more demanding.)

GTX1060 6GB cards:
$240USD: http://pcpartpicker.com/product/tJyxFT/evga-geforce-gtx-1060-6gb-sc-gaming-video-card-06g-p4-6163-kr
$265USD: http://pcpartpicker.com/product/P8wqqs/asus-geforce-gtx-1060-6gb-6gb-rog-strix-video-card-strix-gtx1060-6g-gaming

The Asus Strix is much quieter if you can fit it in.

RX-470 4GB: ($140, $170 before rebate)
*price is a bit deceiving as there is a $30 rebate. Still, here it is: http://pcpartpicker.com/product/JfyxFT/asus-radeon-rx-470-4gb-strix-video-card-rog-strix-rx470-o4g-gaming

RX-470 8GB:
$190USD: http://pcpartpicker.com/product/7dJkcf/asus-radeon-rx-470-8gb-rog-strix-gaming-video-card-strix-rx470-o8g-gaming

RX-480 8GB: ($215 after $245, $30 rebate):
http://pcpartpicker.com/product/hkJkcf/asus-radeon-rx-480-8gb-rog-strix-video-card-rog-strix-rx480-o8g-gaming

BENCHMARKS TO COMPARE VALUE (skews more towards NVidia with slower CPU's though some newer games do better relatively with AMD):
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/RX_470_STRIX_OC/24.html

GTX1060 6GB is about 10% faster vs RX-480 8GB (on average).
GTX1060 6GB is about 37% faster vs RX-470 4GB (stock).

So...?

Depends on BUDGET, but the RX-480 8GB (Asus Strix) looks pretty good.
 
''last question though, would a 1050ti be better than a 2gb 960?''

use that 3d mark custom results and punch in your CPU and then what card ??? the firestrike is a 1080p result but you can change that to timespy that's a dx12 or to firestrike ultra whats a 4k demand run??

then compare what looks to do the better in your opinion

one thing is the 1060 and 1050 cards are not SLI compatable /allow sli . the AMD rx card can be x-fired . maybe be something you want to do down the road and the lesser nvidias cant you would need a 1070 or higher of the series to do sli
 
1) GTX1060 6GB can get you about 2x the FPS in games (depending on the game and settings)

2) RX-470 4GB is obviously much cheaper but the upgrade over what you have now is much less.

3) SLI not recommended for various reasons said above.

4) I'd get more than 4GB of VRAM. It's not much of an issue now, but I'd spend the extra to get 8GB on an RX-480 card as it's much more future proof (and will help a couples games now).

So... ?

I recommend either an RX-480 8GB, or GTX1060 6GB. Anything less doesn't feel like enough of an upgrade. (RX-470 was about 45% over GTX960 here but with your CPU probably averaging closer to 35-40%).