To 670 SLI or new GFX card???

TheTacticsGuy

So I'm running:

EVGA GTX 670
i5 3570K @ 3.4GHz
8GB RAM 1600MHz
WIN 7 64-bit
650W PSU

I will be upgrading my GFX configuration in the next few weeks. I could get another 670 and go SLI or I could sell my 670 and pick up a brand new GFX card (AMD or NVidia).

What should I do??? I'm still waiting to hear/see the non-reference R9 series from AMD.

Also, am I limited by my PSU for SLI or a beasty new card?

BloodBath

I don't think there's much value in upgrading from the 670. Adding a second one would probably be your best bet but what board do you have?

A decent 650w psu would be enough. What model is it?

Overclock that 3570k while you're at it.

TheTacticsGuy

Sorry should have said:

Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 650W
ASRock Z77 Extreme4

Luck100

Should be ok with that psu, it's got a good reputation and rated for SLI.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2643/9

Luck100

I had a similar choice recently. I had one EVGA GTX 670 FTW and I wanted to upgrade. I ended up getting a Zotac 670 from scan, but mainly because they had a very good price (175 pounds). Generally prices for 670's don't seem so good now value-wise compared with 7 series cards.

On the plus side I'm very happy with how SLI runs. No driver problems, no stuttering, and it scales extremely well so far.

TheTacticsGuy

Luck100 wrote: »

I had a similar choice recently. I had one EVGA GTX 670 FTW and I wanted to upgrade. I ended up getting a Zotac 670 from scan, but mainly because they had a very good price (175 pounds). Generally prices for 670's don't seem so good now value-wise compared with 7 series cards.

On the plus side I'm very happy with how SLI runs. No driver problems, no stuttering, and it scales extremely well so far.

What kind of FPS increase did you get with that setup?

Luck100

I was easily seeing 80-90% boost on anything gpu limited. Some benches were almost exactly twice as fast. I tried firestrike, unigine valley, and the game benchmarks in Just Cause 2, Metro 2033, and Crysis. I can post actual numbers later when I get home if you care.

After I put in the SLI, I started playing Crysis 2 Maximum Edition (DX 11 version with improved textures). On Ultra/1440p it stays locked at 60 fps with adaptive vsync. Without Vsync it's running 70-80 fps easily.

Luck100

A few other things I've learned:

1. Don't mix different memory size cards. If you mix 2 and 4 GB, both will only use 2 GB in SLI. Each card has a separate copy of all the data so they don't add.

2. Mixing different brands is fine, I have EVGA / Zotac.

3. Each card can be overclocked independently and run at it's own speed. BUT - it looks like the actual FPS you get is dictated by the slower of the two cards. That's based on testing with Unigine Valley, where I overclock one card faster than the other and see no improvement. I only see improvement by overclocking the slower card until it catches up with the faster one. So it looks like you want to have a balanced overclock between the two cards.

TheTacticsGuy

Luck100 wrote: »

A few other things I've learned:

1. Don't mix different memory size cards. If you mix 2 and 4 GB, both will only use 2 GB in SLI. Each card has a separate copy of all the data so they don't add.

2. Mixing different brands is fine, I have EVGA / Zotac.

3. Each card can be overclocked independently and run at it's own speed. BUT - it looks like the actual FPS you get is dictated by the slower of the two cards. That's based on testing with Unigine Valley, where I overclock one card faster than the other and see no improvement. I only see improvement by overclocking the slower card until it catches up with the faster one. So it looks like you want to have a balanced overclock between the two cards.

Cheers for the info.