More power or more VRAM

[ThetaSigma]

I've recently come into a predicament, I built a budget gaming PC and got a used GTX 570 (1.2GB) for really cheap, and so far, it's been powerful enough for my taste without breaking the wallet. Now a week or two ago I found and bought another GTX 570 ("broken" but works fine) for $40 off of eBay; however, the problem is that the second GTX 570 is a 2.5GB model.

I've had no problems so far with either card, and I have managed to "hack" SLI onto my motherboard via DifferentSLI, with this, I have two 1.2GB GTX 570s working together perfectly. On the one hand, more power, on the other hand, I remove the smaller (1.2GB) card and keep the bigger VRAM one. (For those that don't know, SLI-ing a big card with a little one limits it to the smallest)

I've tested with Valley Benchmark and found that on higher resolutions, the two working together is far superior, but with the game Shadow of Mordor on max the 2.5GB GTX is far superior by itself.

My question is this; what should I do? Remove the smaller card and sell it, or keep them both (while sucking up major power from my PSU)?

Details: 1680 by 1050 monitor, and an AMD 6200FX (<-- can't remember exact processor, but close enough).

 

[Mercennarius]

Are you more concerned with benchmarks or games?

 

[ThetaSigma]

Games; the reason I mention benchmarks is because I only briefly tested the setup because I'm in college and don't have the time to do a full-on performance comparison during finals.

Edit: I only tested GTA V and Shadow of Mordor, which are both texture heavy. Valley was used just for power tests.

 

[Actaeon]

It will vary by game so no right answer for 100% of situations.

I don't know if this would work, but I would try putting the 2.5GB GTX as the 'primary' card and use the 1.2GB version as the secondary card. For games that need the extra VRAM, disable SLI and I would think it would use the 2.5GB card. For games that benefit from the power and don't need as much VRAM, enable SLI.

Another alternative is to sell the 1.2GB 570 and spend a little extra getting a 2.5GB version to replace it.

 

[Mondozei]

At 2.5 GB and at your resolution you have literally nothing to worry about.

SLI is in a sorry state, though, so if you go that route prepare for plenty of misery. Dual GPU setups generally worked a lot better 3-4 years ago than today.

 

[RussianSensation]

I've recently come into a predicament, I built a budget gaming PC and got a used GTX 570 (1.2GB) for really cheap, and so far, it's been powerful enough for my taste without breaking the wallet. Now a week or two ago I found and bought another GTX 570 ("broken" but works fine) for $40 off of eBay; however, the problem is that the second GTX 570 is a 2.5GB model.

I've had no problems so far with either card, and I have managed to "hack" SLI onto my motherboard via DifferentSLI, with this, I have two 1.2GB GTX 570s working together perfectly. On the one hand, more power, on the other hand, I remove the smaller (1.2GB) card and keep the bigger VRAM one. (For those that don't know, SLI-ing a big card with a little one limits it to the smallest)

I've tested with Valley Benchmark and found that on higher resolutions, the two working together is far superior, but with the game Shadow of Mordor on max the 2.5GB GTX is far superior by itself.

My question is this; what should I do? Remove the smaller card and sell it, or keep them both (while sucking up major power from my PSU)?

Details: 1680 by 1050 monitor, and an AMD 6200FX (<-- can't remember exact processor, but close enough).

Sell both and get a used Gigabyte Windforce or Sapphire Dual-X or similar HD7950/HD7970 for $70-100 and overclock either of them to 1.15Ghz. If you want new, sell both, and pick up a $90 R9 270.

 

[ThetaSigma]

I've had some bad luck with AMD cards, so I'll stick with Nvidia until further notice. Maybe after they work out the HBM technology past 4GB.

I've tried using the 2.5GB card as primary, however, enabling SLI glitches it out. I assume it is because of 2.5GB trying to enable 2.5GB on a 1.2GB.

Thanks you for your suggestions; I've pretty much decided to sell the 1.2GB, as it is probably too much trouble to keep around, in the meantime, I can play around with it. When I sell the 1.2GB one, I can decide if I'll sell and upgrade to a different card altogether.

With that in mind, would a 680 or a 770 be better?

 

[Zodiark1593]

770 would be better, though if you can swing a 970, that would be much, much better.

On level of importance, both vram and compute are relatively equal, yet not very useful without the other. You can have the most powerful gpu on the planet, yet it won't amount to much if it gets starved out. Likewise, 8 GB HBM on a weak gpu (think 5450 performance) would do absolute jack squat.