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SLI GTX 280 (Upgrading)

TantrumusMaximus

TantrumusMaximus

Senior member
Hey all,

I'm currently running GTX280 SLI setup... the main game I play is Skyrim right now and loving it. My current setup does fairly well in Ultra texture settings with tweaks obviously to distance and other settings.

I am running a post FFXA injector which makes lighting/shading so much more realistic but at a price and I'm pretty much ready to drop $$$ on my system again.

Can anyone suggest a single card significant upgrade? $500 budget.

OR, is the SLI 280 setup going to match a single card GTX580? etc etc...

Having a difficult time finding comparisons to my setup online.

Basically I'm hoping to up the settings a bit and get to slide out the distances a bit for objects/grass/actors/items etc and get some more FPS.... I'm probably playing between 20-35FPS now and it gets chuggy during busy fights.

Thanks!

[DOH, I haven't been here in several months and went to adjust my signature and found that I posted a similar question in November. Still, hoping perhaps there are better options now.]
 
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TantrumusMaximus said:
Hey all,

I'm currently running GTX280 SLI setup... the main game I play is Skyrim right now and loving it. My current setup does fairly well in Ultra texture settings with tweaks obviously to distance and other settings.

I am running a post FFXA injector which makes lighting/shading so much more realistic but at a price and I'm pretty much ready to drop $$$ on my system again.

Can anyone suggest a single card significant upgrade? $500 budget.

OR, is the SLI 280 setup going to match a single card GTX580? etc etc...

Having a difficult time finding comparisons to my setup online.

Basically I'm hoping to up the settings a bit and get to slide out the distances a bit for objects/grass/actors/items etc and get some more FPS.... I'm probably playing between 20-35FPS now and it gets chuggy during busy fights.

Thanks!

[DOH, I haven't been here in several months and went to adjust my signature and found that I posted a similar question in November. Still, hoping perhaps there are better options now.]
Click to expand...

wait till the end of the month before jumping ship the tahiti pro hd 7950 is launching then and kepler might (1 in 180 chance of happening) launch
 
Install SKYBOOST. Made a world of a difference for me. Although I do have a slower CPU. I run @ 1080 with sliders maxed and everything on ultra excpet shadows are at high. 2X AA and 8X AF. Runs awesome with Skyboost - towns specifically. Markarth is a framerate killer.
 
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SLI GTX 280 would be like GTX 460 SLI so you are about at GTX 580 performance right now.

I would guess that you are actually CPU limited in Skyrim. Skyrim can only run on two cores so even your i7 is going to get bogged down.

Even i5 2500k processors at 5GHz are CPU limited in this game.
 
That's a good combination you've got there, I wouldn't upgrade until nVidia releases Kepler in a couple of months (Feb. / March) time frame.

The only thing I would recommend right now is the Radeon HD 7970 but that costs over your budget at $550.
 
Thanks for the responses.

I know the 7000 series and the 580s are overpriced to me....

I did a bunch of reading and found the EVGA GTX560ti 448 Core Classified.... for $299 on newegg. It supposedly overclocks very well and can match or even best a reference (non-OC) GTX580 which is $300 more....

I am entertaining the thought of buying two of these as I doubt any new single card will best two of them....

What do you think about that plan?? A bit out of my initial $500 plan... but at $600 and selling my 280s I should be under budget and have pretty stellar performance.

Regarding SKYBOOST in Skyrim, is that compatible with the TESV accellerator I'm running now? It is a plugin for SKSE...
 
Get two 570's instead. The 560ti 448 is a bit overpriced and not worth bothering with in my opinion.
 
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Don't shell a lot of money on old tech. In only a few months the new NV cards will be out. AMD's new 7970 is a lot faster than your setup but currently I think is overpriced. The 580 was overpriced from the beginning and is now redundant at 500$, even at 450$ compared to the 570. Your cards will hold for a few months and yes, Skyrim needs very fast CPU. New tech is just around the corner wait and then decide.
 
Crap Daddy said:
Don't shell a lot of money on old tech. In only a few months the new NV cards will be out. AMD's new 7970 is a lot faster than your setup but currently I think is overpriced. The 580 was overpriced from the beginning and is now redundant at 500$, even at 450$ compared to the 570. Your cards will hold for a few months and yes, Skyrim needs very fast CPU. New tech is just around the corner wait and then decide.
Click to expand...
And after that comes out newer tech will be around the corner yet again. :ninja:
 
im upgrading this month as well,gpu is the only thing left to replace on my current rig.i can still play skyrim on my 2600k @4.5 cooled w/h100 using 9800gt 50-60fps :awe:

this gpu guide is updated to current prices.
 
IonusX said:
wait till the end of the month before jumping ship the tahiti pro hd 7950 is launching then and kepler might (1 in 180 chance of happening) launch
Click to expand...

Looking forward to the 7950 as well, but where did you hear that Kepler had a chance of launching? Even at the odds you posted?

OP: There is also a single card dual GPU GTX560Ti 2WIN that fills the gap between GTX580 and GTX590 performance. Might want to check that out.

Here is a link: http://www.techpowerup.com/154688/The-New-EVGA-Dual-GTX-560-Ti-That-Thinks-It-s-A-GTX-585.html
519.00 and will dust a 7970 or GTX580. I figure you don't mind multi GPU coming from 2 280's.

Link to AT article: http://www.anandtech.com/show/5048/evgas-geforce-gtx-560-ti-2win-the-raw-power-of-two-gpus
 
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Damn my head's spinnin... I think I'll wait. I need new hockey skates and some other crap anyhow! I guess I'll milk the 280's some more.... it plays fine.

As of last night I downloaded some drivers off Guru3D and was able to push the distances to the max on all sliders and run the ENB Post Injector mod for FFXA on Skyrim so that's enuff for me for the time being.

I appreciate the responses and will keep watching 🙂
 
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