Should I buy another GTX460 for SLI or just a single new card?

[Liquidity]

Hi y'all, I have a "ASUS ENGTX460 DirectCU TOP/2DI/768MD5 GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 768MB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP" in my current system, and I want to know if I should try and find another one of those to SLI or just replace it with a new card. Obviously I'd rather spend less money if I can. I play a few games, but I would probably play more if the graphics were smoother. Here's the rest of my system:

2560x1440 resolution
CPU: Celeron G530
MB: ASRock H61M/U3S3
PSU: CORSAIR|500W CMPSU-500CXV2 R
8 GB RAM

Thanks much in advance!

-Liquidity

 

[aaksheytalwar]

You need to upgrade the CPU first.

 

[dagamer34]

Are you actually trying to run games at 2560x1440, because if so, you need a new CPU, 2 new GPUs, and a better PSU.

 

[Termie]

Liquidity - what you should know is that if you're having trouble playing games, it's almost certainly an issue with your Celeron G530 right now, not your GTX460, which is definitely being bottlenecked by your processor. Also, the motherboard you have can't do SLI.

So there are a lot more questions you'll have to answer before making any decisions. Here's the list:

(1) What's your budget?
(2) What games do you play?
(3) What type of performance are you getting now? You can use FRAPS to track your frames per second.
(4) What type of performance would you like?
(5) What resolution would you like to run at? Your native resolution is 2560x1440, but whether you are going to run at that resolution may come down to your budget.

Hope that helps!

 

[Liquidity]

Interesting. Most games that I want to play (Diablo 3, Path of Exile, Half-Life 2, Torchlight 2...) run pretty well on my existing system at 2560x1440. Sometimes I have to turn down a couple of graphics options one notch (anti-aliasing, etc.) that's it. I just thought I might get a performance bump out of my current GPU in SLI. But thanks for reminding me about the fact that my MB doesn't do SLI! I guess I'll wait until a "must have" game comes out and then upgrade.

Termie - thanks for the mention of FRAPS - I'll check it out!

 

[BFG10K]

Interesting. Most games that I want to play (Diablo 3, Path of Exile, Half-Life 2, Torchlight 2...) run pretty well on my existing system at 2560x1440. Sometimes I have to turn down a couple of graphics options one notch (anti-aliasing, etc.) that's it.

If you’re turning down graphics options and the performance goes up it means your GPU is the primary bottleneck, not the CPU. This is quite plausible as your resolution is quite high.

Don’t waste your time SLI’ing a second obsolete card. Sell it and get a GTX660/670/680 instead.

 

[FalseChristian]

If you’re turning down graphics options and the performance goes up it means your GPU is the primary bottleneck, not the CPU. This is quite plausible as your resolution is quite high.

Don’t waste your time SLI’ing a second obsolete card. Sell it and get a GTX660/670/680 instead.

I disagree. The GTX 660 is only 20% faster than my overclocked GTX 460 1GB at 840/1680/4200. You can get a second GTX 460 1GB for less than $100.

I have 2 GTX 460 1GB SLI and I can even play Crysis 3 smoothly at 1680x1050.

 

[Termie]

I disagree. The GTX 660 is only 20% faster than my overclocked GTX 460 1GB at 840/1680/4200. You can get a second GTX 460 1GB for less than $100.

I have 2 GTX 460 1GB SLI and I can even play Conrysis 3 smoothly at 1680x1050.

Your regular posts about your GTX460s are starting to make no sense at all.

First of all, the OP has a GTX460-768, which is ~10% slower than a GTX460 and much more likely to be VRAM limited.

Second, he can't SLI, so discussion over.

But third, you're just making stuff up. I just upgraded from a GTX460-768 @850/4000, and my OC'd HD7870 is twice as fast. Where you get that a GTX660 is "20%" faster than your card is beyond me. A GTX660, even at stock, is on average 50% faster than an overclocked GTX460 and 80-90% faster than the OP's card.

And yes, an OC'd 660 is going to be nearly as fast as your SLI set. That doesn't make it a good upgrade for you, but it's a much better upgrade at this point for people running single GTX460s unless they're very budget-limited.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Your regular posts about your GTX460s are starting to make no sense at all.

First of all, the OP has a GTX460-768, which is ~10% slower than a GTX460 and much more likely to be VRAM limited.

Second, he can't SLI, so discussion over.

But third, you're just making stuff up. I just upgraded from a GTX460-768 @850/4000, and my OC'd HD7870 is twice as fast. Where you get that a GTX660 is "20%" faster than your card is beyond me. A GTX660, even at stock, is on average 50% faster than an overclocked GTX460 and 80-90% faster than the OP's card.

And yes, an OC'd 660 is going to be nearly as fast as your SLI set. That doesn't make it a good upgrade for you, but it's a much better upgrade at this point for people running single GTX460s unless they're very budget-limited.

Didn't you buy a 670 when it released? I've went from 670 to 460 to 670 to 6870.

 

[Termie]

Didn't you buy a 670 when it released? I've went from 670 to 460 to 670 to 6870.

Yes I did, in my gaming rig, which had been 5850 crossfire. The 670 is about 20% faster. The 7870 is in my HTPC, and is twice as fast as my OC'd GTX460-768 and about equivalent to my 5850 duo.

Wouldn't you say the GTX 670 was at least twice as fast as the GTX460?

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Yes I did, in my gaming rig, which had been 5850 crossfire. The 670 is about 20% faster. The 7870 is in my HTPC, and is twice as fast as my OC'd GTX460-768 and about equivalent to my 5850 duo.

Wouldn't you say the GTX 670 was at least twice as fast as the GTX460?

Yeah at least. 460 sli was a little faster than 580 & the 670 beats the 580 pretty easily

 

[Shmee]

I would recommend a card with 2 GB memory at least for your resolution. A CPU and possibly PSU upgrade are also due I would think.

I would recommend an i5 at least given current mobo.

As for the GPU, 7870 or 660 Ti would be minimum I would recommend.

 

[SPBHM]

768MB card is going to be even worse for SLI, and 1440p
also you would be forced to upgrade the motheboard, it hardly makes any sense...
the G530 is not really a gaming CPU,

the PSU is fine, I don't know why people are recommending an upgrade for that,
as long as he stay away from high OC and multiple cards it's more than enough,

I think any card like a 7870, or 660 2GB would be a better choice,
also any I5 (even some used 2400) would do a great job coming from the 530.

 

[Denithor]

I would recommend a card with 2 GB memory at least for your resolution. A CPU and possibly PSU upgrade are also due I would think.

I would recommend an i5 at least given current mobo.

As for the GPU, 7870 or 660 Ti would be minimum I would recommend.

This, in entirety. You can often pick up a used i5 2400 from eBay/Amazon for around $130, drop it in to replace your Celeron for quite a nice boost.

Really surprised you don't have more issues running that high of resolution on a 768MB card.

I guess those games just really, really aren't graphically intense.

 

[Liquidity]

Thanks everyone! I think I will start looking into a new processor and GPU, and see where that takes me. I feel like I am caught up on the latest tech after reading this thread.

 

[jamudin1]

buy 7870 myst