760 Sli or 780/770.

[superkoopatroop]

Thanks to a series of unfortunate events, I need a gpu upgrade. I'm considering 760 sli 4gb. I hear and read a lot about the downsides of SLI but is it really so. I'm the kind of guy who plays a hand full of games for years. The last few, I've been playing Natural Selection 2 religiously and the occasional Counterstrike/ Battlefield. I want to purchase a 760 and wait a month or so and save up for another. Would I be better off saving for a 780? I mean, the game is more demanding then Battlefield 4. The match starts with 200fps on low settings and drops to 40 half way into the game. I'm currently using a 660 non ti but my old 7950 played a little better but not by much as I ran the settings higher.

Do you guys regret going sli? Will I wish I had saved for a better card? Being able to get one card first allows me the instant gratification I've come accustom to .

 

[CropDuster]

What resolution are you running at and what FPS are you shooting for? IMO SLI/CF is only worth it if you are trying to maintain high FPS at a high resolution. Otherwise the heat and power required aren't worth it. If you're at 1080p I'd just get a R9 290 or GTX 780 and call it a day. (speaking from BF4, haven't played NS).

Also what CPU and PSU do you have?

 

[dn7309]

go for single card option for compatibility.

 

[Headfoot]

Single 780 or 290

 

[Evilviking]

Pick up a used gtx 780 for about 400 with a transferable warranty. I had 2 760s in sli.and they were beast with my 120hz monitor. I ultimately ended up selling them both because all the heat they pumped out and the noise. Sli worked great tho. Smooth and stutter free.

 

[blackened23]

I like SLI quite a lot. However, 760 sli isn't as cost effective as it once was. I'd just get a 780 to be honest; 760 sli was killer back when there was no competition at the upper end and the 780 cost 650$. However with the 780 custom cards being rather close to the 500$ mark, 760 sli makes less sense now than it did then. I'd prefer a single 780 over 760 sli.

Now if the 760 were 200$, *OR* if you can find them on sale? I'd get 760 SLI in that case. SLI support really is excellent, I've never been not pleased with it in the past 1.5 years or so. But 760 sli just isn't very cost effective in terms of bang for buck right now. GTX 780 OC cards are more bang for the buck, and you'll stay within nvidia's excellent (IMO) software ecosystem.

 

[dn7309]

if you want cheap SLI get the GTX 660. They're dirt cheap (130-150) and performance close to the 780

 

[bystander36]

There are a lot of people who go with the cheap SLI option, rather than the single big card. Unfortunately, many of them are not happy with the results.

SLI is for when you cannot get a single card at the performance you need, in which case you SLI two higher end cards. It is never worth SLI with mid ranged cards.

In order for SLI to feel better than a single card, you'd need to beat SLI by a fair bit. I'd guess somewhere in the 40% range.

 

[raghu78]

OP at current prices the 780 is a much better buy than 760 SLI. when the price and performance difference is marginal always go with single GPU. the asus gtx 780 dc2 is a good deal. excellent cooler.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121779

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2013...ectcu_ii_oc_video_card_review/10#.U1jqp6KfZ8E

 

[Tequila]

There are a lot of people who go with the cheap SLI option, rather than the single big card. Unfortunately, many of them are not happy with the results.

I don't know where you got that information from but plenty of us on these forums are very happy with our SLI results.

That said though, I'd go with the 780 if starting from scratch. Since I already had one 760, buying another one made more sense for me and it does outperform a single 780 at 1920x1080 and barely trails a 780ti (see http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1172&page=13)

Stick to brands with custom cooling and you won't have to worry about noise and heat in SLI.

 

[Insomniator]

With used 780's going for ~400 its completely pointless to go 760 SLI... especially if you are planning on buying that second 760 after 1 more month of saving.

I'm surprised how fast the 780's/ti's are... or how slow 760s are maybe . 4GB 760's can't be cheap ($275+?)... and individually certainly aren't worth it.

Just get the 780 and have full performance in all games, less power, heat, noise and hell... you could eventually end up with SLI 780's that way

 

[bystander36]

I don't know where you got that information from but plenty of us on these forums are very happy with our SLI results.

That said though, I'd go with the 780 if starting from scratch. Since I already had one 760, buying another one made more sense for me and it does outperform a single 780 at 1920x1080 and barely trails a 780ti (see http://www.ocaholic.ch/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=1172&page=13)

Stick to brands with custom cooling and you won't have to worry about noise and heat in SLI.

I said many people are not happy, not everyone. And I'm only talking about people SLIing mid-ranged and lower cards. I personally have 680 SLI, as I couldn't get the performance I wanted at the time with a single card, but I'm not blind to the faults of SLI.

If you already have 1 760 and wanted to upgrade, that would one situation where it might be worth it, but definitely not worth starting from scratch with 760 SLI.

You have to beat a single cards performance by a good bit before SLI feels as smooth as the single card. Just because 760 SLI can beat a 780 in FPS, does not mean it produces as good of an experience. It won't in most cases.

 

[dn7309]

just in case anyone plans to play Need for Speed Rivals, that game does not support SLi.

 

[Headfoot]

I did SLI and have built rigs that use CF and SLI and its pretty good these days but you still run into irritating issues every now and again. More so with CF in my experience. So if its nearly the same price and nearly the same performance go single GPU. No frame time weirdness, no extra CPU load, no waiting for SLI profiles.

Tons of the really fun PC games come out buggy as all get out these days. SLI worked like junk in Rome Total War II for 6 months, same thing with Skyrim, same with the early days of BF4. Would it be nice if they got it together? Of course. Will that happen? Probably not.