To SLI or not to SLI

[ellspeedy]

Case
Send In Your Own Case (View Details | Edit Model/Source)
Case Model: NZXT Phantom 410 Midi Tower Chassis - Black
Case From: Amazon

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics

Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Change to: ASUS® P8Z77-V: PCI-E 3.0 READY, WIFI, SLI, CROSSFIREX

Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)

Graphics Card
1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM


Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)

Change to: CORSAIR 850W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX850 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£99)

Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
2 x 200Mbps HomePlug AV - Create a Wired Network Using Electric Sockets! (£38)

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Anti-Virus
NORTON ANTI-VIRUS 2012 - 1 Year Licence for 1 PC (£14)

Monitor
IIYAMA E2473HDS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, 2 HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£159)

Surge Protection
6 Socket Compact 2M UFO Surge Protector (£9)

Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Ok so above is my spec along with the changes i made today.

I have been toying with SLI for a while and decided this morning to go for it!
However over the day, along with some research, im not too sure that SLI is worth going for?

I chose the better mobo to allow for SLI and obv upgraded the PSU to 850w to accomdate (will SLI in the future if i do)

But i am wondering would it just be better to stick with one GPU?
Really cant make my mind up!

 

[Corfate]

I'd like to know if i wanted too i could SLI/Crossfire my cards. I get what you mean though.. When that 570 starts to struggle, would it be worth getting another one (which would be old technology) or spend the money on a single good GPU. If moneys an issue, i wouldn't go for SLI

 

[MadMan]

Its always better to go for the strongest gpu that you can get now like a gtx 680 so a long time passes before you need to sli.

 

[tom_gr7]

If i were you, i'd drop the psu and go for a 650w corsair, then get a 7950, as you can crossfire two of these on 650w's

I think a 7950 is much stronger than a 570 and uses less power and outputs less heat.

 

[dangro474]

Unnecessary, go for the best single GPU you can afford.

 

[ellspeedy]

Ok il stick with the single gpu then, that was my original plan i just couldnt resist it haha!

If i were you, i'd drop the psu and go for a 650w corsair, then get a 7950, as you can crossfire two of these on 650w's

I think a 7950 is much stronger than a 570 and uses less power and outputs less heat.

Iv done a little reading up on the 7950 and from what iv found it seems that the performance jump is not big enough to justify the money (for me anyway), although the less power + heat would be good!

 

[baron75mk2]

Get two GTX 580s & sli them , stamps all over a GTX 680 in every benchmark & scales really well. Bear in mind for this you may need a bigger psu , minimum 850w seems to be the accepted range for two of these in SLi - id personally go for a 1,050 watt at leased for smoother power supply at high usage lvls ( i have the corsair 1,200w 80 + gold , overkill i know but a great power pack & it will power anything you throw at it without breaking a sweat) :yes:

( but if its a choice between 2 X GTX 570s sli & one GTX 680 - definately go for the single GTX 680 . )

 

[ellspeedy]

My intended choice of GPU is the 570 - partly for cost reasons, but also because i simply want a graphics card that will run current games at high/max settings on a 24" 1920x1080 monitor. From what iv researched the 570 will fulfill my requirements.
Baron, while i would like to have the 680 (bragging rights ) i would prefer to get the 570 now, and gradually dull down the settings on future games, untill i purcahse a new high end (but likey not TOP) GPU.

 

[tom_gr7]

that's why I suggested the 7950, its alot better than a 570, alright costs a bit more, but you save a bit cause you don't need 850w's for two but only 650w's for two. So you have a better gpu and the option of adding another in the future, if you want, if you don't want, its not a problem as you would want a 650w corsair in any case. you would also save in electricity bills, (two580's does cost hahah) less power output and heat. Personally that's what I'd go for if I was ordering again. its the whole spend money here to save money there argument I guess.

 

[ellspeedy]

Part of me has a 'thing' against AMD cards, and tbh im not sure why!
I view it the same as intel being better than AMD for CPU, nvidia being better than AMD for GPU - although im sure i am incorrect!

 

[baron75mk2]

Part of me has a 'thing' against AMD cards, and tbh im not sure why!
I view it the same as intel being better than AMD for CPU, nvidia being better than AMD for GPU - although im sure i am incorrect!

I wouldnt worry amd cards are very good these days , nvidia have their benifits & also failings , just the same as radeon , just depends what your needs are , i think the main thing that is missing from radeon is cuda & physx (cuda is handy for video editing etc , but most apps also support ati stream wich is a similar thing) , physx is not really worth worrying about as only a few games support it & in these games half the time it is poorly implemented & ruins performance , mafia 2 & batman arkham city being two of the worst , as soon as i enable physx on these two the fps just goes in to the floor (even on 2x GTX 580 SLI) , One thing that is better with radeon is heat , radeons tend to be quite a bit cooler than nvidia equivilant cards in my opinion ( & also use less energy typically , if this is a concern of the buyer)

Drivers all come down to personal taste , i prefer some things with radeon & some things with Nvidia ( not much with Nvidia though , i find more tailoring is possible with amd in general) - but compatibility tends to be a little better with nvidia ( mainly with older games ) ,

In the past Nvidia was a lot better with DX10 & DX11 than its radeon counterparts But this could well have changed recently with the introduction of the 7XXX series

So if your not to bothered about physx , then definately dont rule radeon out , their GPUs dont really lag behind the way their CPUs tend to :yes:

 

[agtrinity]

Running 2x570 in SLI and although I agree it's the more "complicated" solution, the performance is just extraordinary.

It does require a 850w PSU and a big case for good ventilation, but those are things worth getting anyway when making a gaming rig.

Playing Metro 2033 in nvidia3D with high/max settings, maxing out Skyrim, BF3, etc every game with ease makes it worth it.

 

[baron75mk2]

Running 2x570 in SLI and although I agree it's the more "complicated" solution, the performance is just extraordinary.

It does require a 850w PSU and a big case for good ventilation, but those are things worth getting anyway when making a gaming rig.

Playing Metro 2033 in nvidia3D with high/max settings, maxing out Skyrim, BF3, etc every game with ease makes it worth it.

Yes got to agree with this , i did a few crossfire setups & didnt really get much of a performance boost - but with SLI the performance bosst slapped me right in the face (definately the best slap in the face i have ever had though)

When i did the 2x GTX580 SLI setup i trawled trough all of my games trying to catch it out with max settings & couldnt do it , battlefield 3 , witcher 2 ( i was sure this would catch it out maxed out but it didnt) , skyrim all at 60fps at all times ( have not tried metro yet as the last time i played it it fried a GTX 590 , not to the point of it failing , but extreemely high temps 93C plus & 100 % fan speed, i dont mind high temps but that was very uncomfortable indeed) - but the 590 was a very buggy card to start with all round from my experience & from what i have read of others)

What the heck , ill give it a try its the only one i have not trown at it yet - will post back with results (fps temps etc)

Update : An interesting benchmark indeed
Bench results , tested in "prologue" , train journey in the beginning & the catacombs.
in DX10 & 11 , prologue & catacombs suffered a bit was ony getting between 50 & 60fps (1080p max settings)
But in DX 9 mode all benches were 60fps rock solid (1080p max settings , obviously no tesselation & dof confined to DX11 mode)
( all benches with V-sync enabled) (Max temps top card , reference 80C DX11 , DX9 72C)

Thing is i really tried to see the visual difference between DX9 & DX10/11 & i cant see it ( seen a few games like this ) When in DX 10 /11 it just seems to degrade performance for little or no visual difference.

Think ill just stay with DX9 for performance reasons & i dont require AA as this game isnt a jagged game at all in 1080p :yes: