Get 2nd GTX-295 or wait??

[Baasha]

Guys,

I have a single EVGA CO-OP GTX-295 for my system and it works great. I wanted to get a 2nd GTX-295 to run SLI but since the card has been out a while and newer ones are bound to be released, do you think I should wait (for a newer/better card) or just get the 2nd GTX-295 for SLI?

When I try to record games at 60fps, I notice some slowdown and lag but other than that, the card (single GTX-295) works like a charm.

 

[crisium]

The scaling is rather bad for 4 way SLI. While one GTX 295 usually beats a 5870, 2x GTX 295 usually always is slower than 2x 5870. I would absolutely disapprove.

So you'd be better off selling your 295 and buying 2x 5870s rather than buying a second 295, if your system is X-Fire capable. If not, wait for Fermi.

 

[dguy6789]

Frame rate reduction from using recording software isn't because of your video card. It's because of your hard drive and processor. If your CPU is good, then try recording onto a good solid state drive.

 

[Udgnim]

assuming you haven't already, try recording on a non-page file / non-game hard drive if you have one

assuming you're using FRAPS, you can try setting record to "Half-Size" and 30 FPS also.

 

[Baasha]

Frame rate reduction from using recording software isn't because of your video card. It's because of your hard drive and processor. If your CPU is good, then try recording onto a good solid state drive.

Interesting... I have an i7 950 @ 3.06GHz (not OC'd) and my HDD (OS drive) are 2 G-Skill 32GB SLC SSD in RAID-0. I'm also recording the game (with FRAPS) to my RAPTOR 150GB (10k RPM) so I'm not sure why there is a slowdown?!?

The thing is, my main HDD has only 14GB of space left so I wonder if that plays a role. I should have gotten 4 and put all of them in RAID for 128GB!!:twisted: And, G-Skill doesn't sell the SSDs anymore either!! ARRGH!!

 

[Baasha]

The scaling is rather bad for 4 way SLI. While one GTX 295 usually beats a 5870, 2x GTX 295 usually always is slower than 2x 5870. I would absolutely disapprove.

So you'd be better off selling your 295 and buying 2x 5870s rather than buying a second 295, if your system is X-Fire capable. If not, wait for Fermi.

makes sense... so I'll wait then.. good thing I didn't blow another $500 on a card that hardly makes a difference!^_^

 

[dguy6789]

When I record with fraps, until I encode the movies into a different format, they are huge in size. It wouldn't take very long to exceed 14GB.

 

[Bolas]

I'd wait until next month to do anything. With Fermi due out from Nvidia, you'll have a new architecture that should soundly thrash the GTX295's. And if you're not an Nvidia fanboy, the new cards from Nvidia should drive down the prices on the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series as well -- possibly even to MSRP or below -- giving you better pricing on the Radeon cards. Either way, you're getting much better bang for the buck from only a one month or so wait.

 

[cbn]

The scaling is rather bad for 4 way SLI. While one GTX 295 usually beats a 5870, 2x GTX 295 usually always is slower than 2x 5870. I would absolutely disapprove.

Wow, That is surprising. I wonder why this happens?

 

[tweakboy]

Wait for Fermi it's just around the corner... next month... gl