Upgrade to 980, or add a third 480?

[Rakewell]

I'm finally building my dream machine, and I need your advice.

To stay withing my budget, I can either get a 980 i7 instead of the 950, or add a third card for tri-sli.

Which one should I do for best performance (mostly gaming)?

Here's the rest of the build:

i7 950 (or 980)
Patriot Viper II Sector 7 edition 12gb
2x (or 3x) EVGA gtx 480 SC (I hope to add a third at some point.)
EVGA Classified SR-2 1200w PSU
Seagate Barracuda XT SATA 6.0 2tb 7200 drive
Super Talent 120gb Ultradrive ME SSD (for the OS)
Win 7 Ultimate 64bit
Prolimatech Megahalems Rev b CPU Cooler
LG W300H 30" 2560x1600

 

[Will Robinson]

Dude ...you are joking right?
3X GTX480s?
That's not a dream machine....its a nightmare.:thumbsdown:
You want to improve your gaming right?
An extra 480 or a slightly faster CPU frequency won't do it.Get yourself a gaming keypad(if you don't have one already).
Something like this will do a hell of a lot more for your gaming than more FPS.
http://www.cybersnipa.com/us/gaming-keyboards/gamepad.php

 

[biostud]

keep it as it is now, I'll seriously doubt you will run into any games you cant run.

 

[Sp12]

IMO save the cash. Computer parts are pretty terrible investments.

 

[Grooveriding]

Big diminishing returns kick in at your 3rd and 4th card. Third is not nearly as bad as your fourth, but it is still over 50% less than the boost you get from the second one.

You obviously want to build a monster rig :thumbsup: Enjoy, that is always a lot of fun.

Have you already bought everything ? If I was buying right now, I would wait till the 6870s come out, they're going to be a good deal faster than the 480s are.

If you are set on doing it now though, I would of said get a bigger monitor, but you're already doing that

If you are overclocking your cpu, you could get a i7 930 or 920 and still get the same results. The most you'll see with a top-tier cpu over an i7 920/930 is maybe 200mhz or so, maybe not even that.

Spend the money on watercooling instead imo. 480 SLI gets really stinking hot and watercooling would do wonders for it, plus it really adds to the cool factor of your pc.

 

[Rakewell]

Big diminishing returns kick in at your 3rd and 4th card. Third is not nearly as bad as your fourth, but it is still over 50% less than the boost you get from the second one.

You obviously want to build a monster rig :thumbsup: Enjoy, that is always a lot of fun.

Have you already bought everything ? If I was buying right now, I would wait till the 6870s come out, they're going to be a good deal faster than the 480s are.

If you are set on doing it now though, I would of said get a bigger monitor, but you're already doing that

Spend the money on watercooling instead imo. 480 SLI gets really stinking hot and watercooling would do wonders for it, plus it really adds to the cool factor of your pc.

I actually have one of the cards already (bought it a month or so ago), which I'm using on my current rig.

I was going to add a 2nd card for the new rig...

Is it really worth waiting for the 6870?... Has a release date even been announced yet?

 

[Grooveriding]

I actually have one of the cards already (bought it a month or so ago), which I'm using on my current rig.

I was going to add a 2nd card for the new rig...

Is it really worth waiting for the 6870?... Has a release date even been announced yet?

No release announced yet. Likely two months or so. If you already have 1 480, it's a moot point.

I would get the second and do something else with the cash. Two 480s is really powerful, even for a 30" monitor. A third will make a difference, but not nearly as big a difference as the second one does.

Or just do it anyways. It would still be really cool and would be faster than 2 of them in SLI

The one thing I would say, is once you are doing tri-sli 480s, it almost becomes necessary to watercool. Because you're going to have to sandwich them together at that point, that middle card is going to get really, really hot, as well, the top one will get really toasty too.

Expect to see temperatures of 100C on the middle card, probably on the top one as well.

 

[FaaR]

Are you getting over 60fps with 2 cards? Then for the love of all that is unholy, don't buy a third. You'll just burn power with nothing to show for it.

When there's good flatpanels that handle more than 60fps without blurring all to hell and back (IE, not cheating by using crappy TN panel), then you might consider triple-SLI.

...That's the rational way of thinking. The irrational doesn't care about practicalities, it's just fun to have 3 monster vidcards in the same PC.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Either upgrade will simply be pissing money away. Want i7-980 performance? Put a slight overclock on your 950. And Tri-SLI? Not even worth the effort / heat.

Any more than you have will simply be for bragging rights, not for actual performance. Save your money and upgrade when the next generation hits.

 

[CitanUzuki]

To answer your question, the third gpu would make the most difference assuming you overclocked the cpu.

 

[tweakboy]

The CPU is not a bottleneck so that wont give you any FPS improvement. If you go SLI or TRI then yes you would see a difference, but its a waiste of money. SLI will run any games at high res and textures at high framerates. Even one 480 will do the job.... save your money... thx and gl

 

[YBS1]

Get the 980. If you were asking 980 or SLI, I'd say SLI without hesitation, but a third 480 is going to see very diminishing returns as stated above. At least with the 980 it can benefit you to some degree in other areas as well.

 

[TemjinGold]

If I were you, I would spend the money on a better SSD and/or more monitors instead. You also don't need the Seagate when you already have an SSD.

 

[pctweaks]

get a second monitor...
but don't even try for the 980, it sh*t, have you even thought of buying a 3d optimized kit? Thát would add to your gaming experience, but it won't last long, in 3 years this 3-D fad will go away.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Go with water and overclock the shit out of those chips.

 

[happy medium]

I actually have one of the cards already (bought it a month or so ago), which I'm using on my current rig.

I was going to add a 2nd card for the new rig...

Is it really worth waiting for the 6870?... Has a release date even been announced yet?

Release date is sometime in early 2011 for the 6870, with the lower end 6770 comming in Oct/Nov.
http://vr-zone.com/articles/-rumour...-2011-mainstream-hd-6000-in-q4-2010/9744.html


With your 30 inch monitor, a third gtx 480 will give you the best performance boost then replacing any other computer component in your system.
No ,ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Please read this review and don't listen to all the morons who think a third gtx480 is a waste @2500x1600

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-480-3way-sli-review/6

And keep in mind this review was done with release drivers and performance has improved since this review that was done back in April.

3 way gtx480 in SLi scale just fine when you add resolution and highe details. You have a good cpu and a great psu, GO FOR IT!

 

[Wreckage]

Is it really worth waiting for the 6870?... Has a release date even been announced yet?

Rumor is that it is just a "minor" improvement over the 5xxx series.
http://vr-zone.com/articles/-rumour-ati-southern-islands--hd-6000-a-minor-improvement/9414.html

AMD won't see a big improvement until they launch a new architecture late next year.

Are you running Folding@home or something? I would think a pair of 480's would be plenty. There are rumors of a 485/495 coming. But I doubt we will see any big improvement over the 480 this year.

 

[happy medium]

To answer your question, the third gpu would make the most difference assuming you overclocked the cpu.

Only one person answered your question correctly. Kudos for you.

 

[Acanthus]

Anything beyond a 2nd graphics card is a waste as far as price performance goes.

As for the CPU, look into overclocking. You can get a lot more with a lot less money (beyond 980 performance).

Personally, I would save the money and buy a new set of flagship cards as they get updated periodically every 9 months or so. This will keep your monster rig gaming at the top end for a lot longer than triple SLI or $1000 CPUs.

Think about it, would you rather have 2x GTX 480s or 4x 8800GTXs? Longetivity is the main issue with premium gaming rigs not absolute performance.

 

[happy medium]

Anything beyond a 2nd graphics card is a waste as far as price performance goes.

As for the CPU, look into overclocking. You can get a lot more with a lot less money (beyond 980 performance).

Personally, I would save the money and buy a new set of flagship cards as they get updated periodically every 9 months or so. This will keep your monster rig gaming at the top end for a lot longer than triple SLI or $1000 CPUs.

Think about it, would you rather have 2x GTX 480s or 4x 8800GTXs? Longetivity is the main issue with premium gaming rigs not absolute performance.

Please read the OLD (april 13) 3 way gtx480 sli review I posted.WHile I agree a 3 way sli setup is overkill for a 1900x1080 setup,but @2500x1600 it scales just fine.
With newer drivers I would bet it's even better.
Please don't just guess and post.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-480-3way-sli-review/6

In case you missed it.
The op's question was "is it worth it". I'd say yes definitely.

 

[Acanthus]

Please read the OLD (april 13) 3 way gtx480 sli review I posted.WHile I agree a 3 way sli setup is overkill for a 1900x1080 setup,but @2500x1600 it scales just fine.
With newer drivers I would bet it's even better.
Please don't just guess and post.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-480-3way-sli-review/6

In case you missed it.
The op's question was "is it worth it". I'd say yes definitely.

2 games improve the experience for the gamer.

Metro 2033 goes from 30 average fps to 45 average fps which is alright as long as minimums improved which the review doesnt show. This could be from unplayable to playable.

BFBC2 goes from 65 to 94. Again this assumes minimum framerate increases which aren't explicitly shown.

Every other title is taking already high framerates and making them higher, well beyond what the eye can see.

I maintain that keeping 2 way SLI of flagship cards over a few generations is better than spending a lump on 3 or 4 GPUs. Even at 30" high resolution.

A second GTX and overclocking that i7 will give you the best possible experience now.

 

[happy medium]

2 games improve the experience for the gamer.

Metro 2033 goes from 30 average fps to 45 average fps which is alright as long as minimums improved which the review doesnt show. This could be from unplayable to playable.

BFBC2 goes from 65 to 94. Again this assumes minimum framerate increases which aren't explicitly shown.

Every other title is taking already high framerates and making them higher, well beyond what the eye can see.

I maintain that keeping 2 way SLI of flagship cards over a few generations is better than spending a lump on 3 or 4 GPUs. Even at 30" high resolution.

A second GTX and overclocking that i7 will give you the best possible experience now.

Well you forget Crysis war head and using common sense. You don't think it would help with any other more graphic intensive game out there like mafia 2, Crysis, the Stalker series? Dirt 2? Just Cause?
I think you get my point.
It is not a waste at all, it scales just fine, turn up the AA and crank the details @ 2500x1600 and nothing is faster!!!!Nothing! Well except 4 gtx 480's

 

[skuzzzzy]

put the cash into the bank, use on next pc build.

 

[nitromullet]

Spend the money on watercooling instead imo. 480 SLI gets really stinking hot and watercooling would do wonders for it, plus it really adds to the cool factor of your pc.

I agree with the idea of this, but the costs associated with water cooling are a little greater than a third GTX 480 or i7 980.

Just a quick run down of what he'd be looking at to water cooler a rig like that:

2x 120.3 radiators (1 for the cpu/mobo, the other for the cards) ~$200
cpu block ~$80
2 GTX 480 block ~$200
motherboard full block (optional) ~$150
2 pumps (either D5 or DDC) ~150
2 reservoirs ~$50-100
fittings ~$100 ($200-300 for compression/rotary fittings)
tubing ~$30
6x 120mm fans ~$30 for Yates, ~$100 for GentleTyphoons

Basically, he's looking at ~$850 just get his foot in the door with a dual loop system for his cpu, mobo, and cards. This doesn't take into account any niceties/bling either. This is a basic setup with standard barb fittings, stock pump tops, and cheap fans. Not to mention that he might need to mod his case or purchase a new one just to fit all this stuff in there.

To make this a good looking water cooled system, I would imagine the total cost would be closer to $1500 just for the cooling alone. If he really wanted to step up to the big leagues of water cooling, along the lines of 4 x 120.3 rads in a Mountain Mods case, he's looking at $2k+ easily.

Someone who is even considering 3-way GTX 480 SLI is not the type of person to settle for a bare bones water cooling rig. That was my problem... I couldn't settle for barbs, I had to have compression fittings. I couldn't settle for a singe loop, I wanted two... Eventually, just had to bail out because I was spending more time/money on the rig itself than actually using the damn thing or playing games. I ended up selling the wc stuff, and buying a second GTX 470. For $300 my rig now is pushing higher FPS in games than it ever did under water with a single GTX 470. Yes, it is clocked lower and is a bit noisier.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone from water cooling (it is pretty damn cool), but one really has to be aware that you do water cooling because you can afford it and enjoy tinkering with your rig. You don't do it squeeze more value out of your existing components.

 

[Sind]

Bah nm I see now.