Single Graphics Card vs SLI setup?

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Trist_58

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Hello again everyone,

I'm looking to get a new graphics card to satisfy the needs of some new games I want to play in 3D. While doing some research into the current technology, I discovered to my dismay that my mboard (ASUS P7P55D LE) supports Crossfire but NOT SLI. This is a problem because I was planning to install two NVIDIA cards, probably 560ti's. I understand that Crossfire does not support multiple NVIDIA cards (if i'm wrong here please correct me).

As an alternative to the above mentioned setup, I thought perhaps to go with the new NVIDIA 590 or 580 3GB.

My question to anyone who has experience in high end 3D gaming is do you think the single 3GB 590/580 card will do as good a job as two 560ti's when it comes to 1080p 3D at 60hz?

As I currently have a (dusty old) GTX 285 installed I assume a 590 will fit just the same.

The rest of my setup should be sufficient for this sort of thing.

If you think it matters, I am looking to get an "Acer HN274H 27in LED 120Hz" 3D monitor for the games (and some stereoscopic 3D animation/editing)

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks.
 
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A 590 is just two 570's (or 560's can't remember exactly) SLI'd on the same PCB. Their still two different GPU's completely with two different memory banks, they just share a single card and power unit.

590s are a horrible choice for your money. Best to get a 580 then buy a second one in 6...

Trist_58

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Hehe, not really, just accumulated technology at the cost of a social life ;)

Anyway, I took a photo of the PSU this this time.

The +12V1 has a max output current of 30A
+12V2 is also 30A

Is this the info you were after?
 



A 590 is just two 570's (or 560's can't remember exactly) SLI'd on the same PCB. Their still two different GPU's completely with two different memory banks, they just share a single card and power unit.

590s are a horrible choice for your money. Best to get a 580 then buy a second one in 6 months to a year, then sit on that for a generation or two. You end up spending less money and getting better performance in the long run instead of constantly upgrading to the newest thing out there.

That and the 590 is ridiculously hot. Two powerful GPU's sharing the same heatsink / fan is a very bad idea.
 
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My two GTX 285's can do that fine. A single 580 would be plenty for now, but you really might want to look at purchasing a second one later. Try to think ahead at least a year or two, never buy for the immediate needs. This is why I don't recommend getting two 560's or 570's, your upgrade options are limited and later when you do upgrade you end up with HW sitting in your closet.
 

cnox

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Well, look no further then Tom's Hardware:

Micro-Stuttering And GPU Scaling In CrossFire And SLI
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-geforce-stutter-crossfire,2995.html


"Even at frame rates above 50 FPS, micro-stuttering rears its ugly head, pronounced enough to significantly detract from the gaming experience. A paradigm shift seems necessary, at least until both AMD and Nvidia are able to prevent or mask the artifact. Right now, if you asked us whether it'd be smart to "go cheap" on an inexpensive card and double-down later with another one, we'd have to suggest against it if you're the sort to be bothered by micro-stuttering."

And

"Bearing in mind that vendors purposely try to price two mid-range cards similarly to a faster single-GPU board wherever possible (generally, when the competitive landscape allows for it), we’d have to pick the single-GPU card every time."

 

And how many different card/CPU/mobo configs were used for that article?
 

cygone

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Ok, 1 single card using for 3D at 1080 will fail badly in alot of situations. Remember you also need a 120hz monitor which cost buckets.

Because you are 120hz, you basically run the same amount of pixels as 2x1080 resolutions . For this setup you need 2 high powered GPUs, as no single GPU will give you the frame rate you require or want.

560ti SLi would have been the best bet for performance vs price. The equil ATi would be 6950s.

You could ofc add the bios hook to that mb so that you can run nVidia gpus.

EVGA / Giga / Asus are the 3 'A' class vendors, just go with which ever gives you the best warranty (EVGA i would think in the US), also take into account the EVGA step up program

Micro Stuttering, I have never in all my time ever had any micro stutter for 2/3 way Sli or CFX, using all of the following

2x260
3x260
2x470
3x470
2x5850
3x5850

dont know why some ppl get it !
 

cnox

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I'm going to say "not enough to change your opinion.".

However, they did show an interesting result that when you get into 3 way configurations, somehow the architecture works better. They have very detailed graphs about per frame rendering, and you can see that the micro stutter is measurable (which i think is very objective). So, if you're going to go multicard and have less issues form microstutter with 3 way cards than 2. But that's just based on the aforementioned article.
 

Well I'm on my third SLi rig and I have yet to see this much talked about microstutter, but then none of my configs seem to get mentioned in any of these articles so does that mean that it's going to be affected? Or is it one of the ones that doesn't suffer? Or it just didn't get tested so you can't post a link?
 

cnox

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Fair enough, and I'm glad it works for you. However it's a blanket statement to say 'It works for me, so you're wrong.' I'm just giving personal experience with my setup and also pointing to published articles that get into very specific details. The bottom line is that with multigpu configurations, some frames get rendered very fast, some slower, and while your average fps looks high, if you dig into the details, you find that the volatility of FPS is a source of distraction that can be as bothersome as overall low FPS (nothing sucks more than having GREAT frames and then like every so often it is like a record skips a beat. What good is super hi-def bluray if you get pixelation throughout your movie?<-- metaphore).

I think it's worth cautioning people who are going to double down on their gfx configuration in order to get a superior gameplay experience should understand all the hurdles. You say you've never had any issues, and, with all due respect, I find that hard to believe, if only from looking at the patch notes around both GPU vendors about various bug fixes. Surely you must have had SOME issue.

Otherwise, I guess you're the luckiest guy on the internet.



 

Trist_58

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The "MSI Lightning XE GTC 580 3GB" looks pretty awesome but I can't find it here in Australia atm. Is there another model of the GTX 580 3GB that is just as good? Like the "EVGA GeForce GTX 580 3GB"?

I am willing to invest in a high end card, but if the 590 overheats etc then I might try and avoid it.
 


I'd go with the EVGA ones, they seem to be built well. Solid cooling design and all that.
 

Trist_58

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Thanks, Palladin. I'm just checking out some forums to see if this card will be enough for 3d vision with great (im not expecting maxed out) settings @1080p. One thing I have learnt is just to do all the research. You are probably right that I should look to the long term benifits and not splurg on a 590. Overheating is my main concern and its always good to future proof.
 


That's always a smart idea, unless you got tons of cash to blow on the latest stuff.

Currently I'm running the Acer 24 inch 1920x1080@120 hz screen with the NVidia 3D vision kit. Two EVGA GTX-285's with a Phenom II X4 970BE @4.3 Ghz and 4x4GB Crucial DDR3-1600 memory.

The caveat to this is that I'm running water cooling for the CPU and GPUs. I really hate loud fans when I'm playing games and the GTX-285's would crank up under load. So opted to go all water cooling and it's very silent now, the OC'ing was just the icing.

If your going with a GTX-280 make sure your case is big enough to vent the hot air.
 

Trist_58

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Sounds like a good setup, similar to what I should end up with. I currently run a single GTX 285 so one would think a 580 would be fine. I will also look into water cooling if that's what I will need. Can't wait to get everything together!
 


Actually that would be a personal statement, a blanket one would be if I said it worked for everyone and what about all those who state that they have never had a problem with ATi drivers? Are they also the luckiest people on the internet? I have not issues with my SLi rigs but then they were built with the sole purpose of being SLi gaming rigs rather than being rigs that could be SLi'd later on as an upgrade.
 

Trist_58

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Just a side note of my findings -

I mentioned earlier that I need the new card to work well in 3D Animation as well as 3D games. I have discovered that 3DS Max 2012 will only use the VRAM to the total of just one card in an SLI setup, not the sum of the two cards.

In theory, the GTX 580 3GB will actually perform better in a way because it's 3GB of VRAM is on the one card as opposed to the 590 who's 3GB is divided between the two SLI'd underclocked 580's.

Man am I glad I did my research and not just splurged on the most expensive brand of the moment.

I will def look into getting another 580 down the track for an even better gaming experience.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread.

:D
 

Just bear in mind that you would have to get another 3GB 580 to place in SLi with your current one to keep the 3GB of VRAM.
 
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