Single powerful/expensive card versus 3 video cards

[Speculous]

I did read some threads that touched upon this question however, there is a nuance to what I am building that I did not find covered.

Would I be better getting one very powerful and expensive card, like the GTX 690, or 2-3 three mid range ($250) cards to run three monitors in my situation?

My primary game/use will be for Eve Online and I will run a separate game client in each of my three displays. I might occasionally run a single eve client or play a FPS that across all three displays but my primary motivation for this build is multi client Eve play.

I did not that the review on the GTX 690 and it indicated that it performed slightly under two 680 cards. Where is the value threshhold between single and multiple cards?


Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[ImPain]

It is better for you to get 2 GTX 680 than one GTX 690 in my opinion, it will perform better.

Plus, when you plan to use several monitors, you should get more than one GPU if you plan to play on a resolution like 1080p. A single card is fine if you plan to use a low resolution (which I doubt).
In addition, you will need more VRAM to display on the monitors, having several GPUs helps with this.

Hope it helps.

 

[legacyBIOS]

I was in this exact situation. At first, I had dual 680s then I switched to a 690. I've had almost zero loss in performance from the switch. Also, it's very nice not to have the hassle of SLI or Crossfire. Having multiple cards is a pain, not to mention, most games don't support muliple gpu setups very well, if at all. From now on, I'm staying with a single strong card as opposed to multiple cards. You don't lose much if any performance from 680s to a 690 honestly. I would advise a 690 if you are in the neighborhood to spend that much. That's just my experience anyways. Good luck.

 

[dannyboy2233]

Hi,
Due to possible issues with GPU Scaling, you want to stick to as few GPUs as you can. I run a GTX 690 and it works great for me. One thing that I want to point out to ImPain is that having more than one GPU does not increase the VRAM; In SLI, VRAM does not stack.
To LegacyBIOS; I'm not entirely sure to what you are referring. What you replaced your 680s with is a card has two underclocked 680 chips on the PCB. It is not a single strong card in terms of the hardware, solely in terms of the fact that it is all on one PCB.
I repeat: You are still running an SLI rig with a single GTX 690.
Two GTX 770s will outperform a 690 by a pretty large margin. However, if you are looking at XD/5760x1080 resolution, then you should wait until the release of the new AMD GPUs, as they will provide more VRAM than the NVIDIA ones, and, with the new micro-stuttering driver fixes, the XFire should be fine.

 

[ImPain]

Thanks for the precision DannyBoy.

 

[dannyboy2233]

Thanks for the precision DannyBoy.

Yup!

 

[Speculous]

Thanks to all for your responses.

Hi,
Two GTX 770s will outperform a 690 by a pretty large margin. However, if you are looking at XD/5760x1080 resolution, then you should wait until the release of the new AMD GPUs, as they will provide more VRAM than the NVIDIA ones, and, with the new micro-stuttering driver fixes, the XFire should be fine.

@Dannyboy2233, you are referring to the the "Hawaii" GPU due out at the end of this month, right?

Thanks,

 

[dannyboy2233]

Thanks to all for your responses.

Hi,
Two GTX 770s will outperform a 690 by a pretty large margin. However, if you are looking at XD/5760x1080 resolution, then you should wait until the release of the new AMD GPUs, as they will provide more VRAM than the NVIDIA ones, and, with the new micro-stuttering driver fixes, the XFire should be fine.

@Dannyboy2233, you are referring to the the "Hawaii" GPU due out at the end of this month, right?

Thanks,

Yes, I am. I would've said the name, but it completely slipped my mind

 

[dannyboy2233]

Thank you for the B.A.
Glad I could be of help!