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1, 2, or 3 video cards???

Balforth

Balforth

Member
So it's a question I've been asking for a long time, and I still don't understand or know the right answer. So let me know your opinion, and given the options, what you would choose.

I couldn't decide on whether or not to do SLI. My next question is whether or not to do a dedicated PhysX card. It sounds great in theory, but people talk about having mixed results.

My choices are:

A single nvidia gtx-580
A single nvidia gtx-570
Dual gtx-570s SLI
and maybe or maybe not a dedicated physx card (which would likely be a GeForce GT 430)

What combination would you choose?

PS It will be on an Intel i7 950, ASUS Rampage III Formula LGA 1366 Intel X58 mobo, 6GB DDR3 2000 RAM, and running 1080 on an HD TV
 
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Buy a 580, then add a 2nd 580 down the road when needed.


Wait to see the 69xx series in 2 days too.


Physx is big time overrated in my opinion. If you've got a big enough PC, which you will, you don't need a dedicated card.
 
*IF* you get a 570 or above, useing a 430 dedicated physx card would cost you more performance, than you would gain by haveing a dedicated physx card.

Is physx important? meh theres like 13 pc games that make use of it, most of them its rather insignificant with reguards to gameplay. A few of the titles do use it well... like the batman game. You could go a gamers life without running into a game that uses physx (depending on which type of games you play).


What combination would you choose?
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I would wait to see what the 6970 and 6950 cost, and how much the 6990 pushes down the 580/570 prices. Their bound to drop once the 69xx cards come out, a penny saved and all that.
 
I agree with the poster above. The release of the new cards is bound to drop the prices of the 570 and 580.

When you say choices, do you mean that someone is buying this stuff for you? In that case the sli 570s would be the fastest out of what you listed if you won't want to buy anything down the road.
 
I wish somebody was buying it for me 🙂

No, I'd be buying it myself... I guess I failed to mention I'd like it to handle 3D well. I know the school of thought was always 1 powerful video card is better than 2 slightly less powerful video cards, but I just wasn't sure if that was still true with modern games, high AA, and 3D.

I won't make the purchase until January at the earliest, so I definitely have time to wait and see what happens with prices.
 
What resolution are you playing at?

My suggestions

5760x1200 or 5760x1080 then get 2x570sli

2560x1600 or less then get 570 gtx or 2x6850

There are a lot more questions to run through though.

Is your board SLI certified? Do you have at least an 850w PSU?(quality brand also)

If the answer to either of those questions is no then go with 2x6870 at 5760x1200 OR wait for 69xx to release as 1gb vram causes you to hit a wall in some games at surround or eyefinity resolutions

In any case with the release of the 570 I think it would be a mistake to get a 580 - unless you can financially justify 10% performance change for 150$
 
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1 x gtx 570 (or 6950 depending on perf/price obviously) will be more than sufficient for the forseeable future for a 1080p monitor. sli/crossfire would be extreme overkill, you would probably not notice a performance difference at all in any game that you play. and the good news is that if you did feel that you had performance issues you could always get a 2nd card later on, probably for less money than the first one cost.

his mobo runs both sli and crossfire so it doesn't matter which color he goes with on the first card.
 
There are a bunch of other questions to answer.

Many people like to warn about multi-card configurations. Are you willing to put up with those problems?

How much time do you want to keep your upgraded video cards for? The GTX 570 is powerful enough to play any game at 1080p right now but a 580 or 570SLI will obviously be more future-proof and presumably last you longer.

Regarding PhysX, who cares what other people seem to say. Do you see value in PhysX? Are there game you play or want to play that feature it?
 
For those of you recommending a single card configuration, did you read this blog post?

http://3dvision-blog.com/testing-geforce-gtx-480-vs-gtx-580-for-gaming-in-stereo-3d-mode/

It shows 3D benchmarks for SLI configs significantly higher than single card configs. I'm a father with a family who can't seclude himself in the office to game any more... my wife is actually encouraging me to build a gaming HTPC so I can return to PC gaming in the living room, which is where I currently do all of my occasional console gaming -- on the couch with my family.

I'm a 3D fanatic and if significantly enhanced 3d performance means SLI hardships, then I am willing to have a go with them.

This really is a once every 5 years kind of thing for me -- I obvously don't want to waste money, but at the same time I don't want to take a leap and spend a significant amount of money on something that won't fully meet my needs, when I could spend a couple hundred more and be set.

While I have the free pass to put out, I just want to make sure that I can play 3D in high quality and be somewhat future-proof. Judging on the results of the benchmarks from that blog post, I'd be dumb not to go SLI, considering 3D is a priority. Even if I had to drop down to the 4xx series for cost reasons... I'd rather not spend $530 now for a single card (gtx-580) that will do awesome on 2D gaming, yet seriously under-performs two $200 (for those mathematically disinclined, $400) on something like two 470's that will outperform.

My PSU (not yet purchased) is a 650W Corsair. I've had a few people tell me it is sufficient to run the SLI config, but the people at anandtech have always been unbelievably reliable, so if you tell me otherwise, I will bump it up.

Thanks in advance
 
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If HardOCP does another 3D Vision evaluation with the new hardware you will have a good answer for what to aim for.

That said, the single GTX580 numbers on that blog don't look too bad at all. Buy 1 580 now and upgrade to SLI later might make the most sense.
 
2 GTX570 will greatly outperform 1 GTX580.

I personally would get just the one GTX580 because i am cheap and its more then good enough IMAO.

Using a much slower card as a dedicated physX card will DECREASE performance compared to letting physX render on the main cards. You need a very beefy card to be dedicated physX, and its just not worth it (nobody uses it, not to that extent especially).
so forget about physX card. (two GTX570 in SLI or one GTX580 will render physX just fine)
 
Balforth said:
My PSU (not yet purchased) is a 650W Corsair. I've had a few people tell me it is sufficient to run the SLI config, but the people at anandtech have always been unbelievably reliable, so if you tell me otherwise, I will bump it up.
Click to expand...

If you are doing sli you need 4x PCI-E connectors. I doubt your 650W Corsair has that many, but it might.
 
CLite said:
If you are doing sli you need 4x PCI-E connectors. I doubt your 650W Corsair has that many, but it might.
Click to expand...

For 570 SLI I would not run under 750. The 650 may be able to push it but effeciency takes a serious nose dive when you approach 100% output. If you want to overclock take that into consideration also.

I see the 650w corsair has 6+2s which is not enough for 2 570s you will need 4x6 connectors
 
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I'm currently running 2 single slot 512MB GDDR3 9800GT's and a GT 240 512MB GDDR5 as a dedicated PhysX card. I play at 1600x1200 @ 85Hz and experience no lag or microstuttering.

I just installed Batman:AA yesterday and can say that the motion of his cape near a vent is awesome and so is the "rustle" of trash on the ground when he walks by but definitely is only eye candy. The same goes for the flags in Mirror's Edge but I hear Mafia 2 gameplay can come into effect with destructible environments.

Its pretty simple, buy one very powerful card (GTX 480 / 580) and not worry about SLI and/or a dedicated PhysX card or if cost is a concern by two lower powered cards plus a decent dedicated PhysX card. In my case I got all 3 cards for about $300 total. I bought the PhysX card over a year after I got the first 2 SLI cards.

You have to have pretty much no extra expansion cards (sound, TV Tuner, USB 3) if you want to run any modern 2 dual slot cooling cards in SLI plus a dedicated PhysX card.

Things quickly get cluttered going that route.
 
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