Buy 3rd GTX 480 or wait for GTX 680 SLi?

Buy 3rd GTX 480 or wait for GTX 680 SLi?

  • Get a 3rd GTX 480 (200-300$)

    Votes: 5 10.0%

  • Sell both (400-600$), get GTX 680

    Votes: 45 90.0%
  • Total voters
    50
If it were *my* system, I'd wait for the 680. You, however, will likely have some bizaar issue that will cause it to melt anyway.
 
Ruoh said:
If it were *my* system, I'd wait for the 680. You, however, will likely have some bizaar issue that will cause it to melt anyway.
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No, I'm going to get aftermarket cooling and run those suckers at 60C.
 
I would also wait. I don't recall tri-SLI scaling being as good as regular SLI.
 
I have two GTX480's and waiting for the 6XX line. Less power, less heat with less cards. Who know if one card will beat two GTX480's or not... We shall see.....
 
Actually I shouldn't say less power and less heat because we don't know that yet... LOL
 
I ran tri-sli with 3x gtx 480s and they did GREAT, scaled very well from two to three cards. Problem with waiting is it could be anywhere from 1 to 4 months for keplar, no one knows for sure. You can probably get another 480 for near $200 so thats a nice upgrade for the price.
Hope this helps as I'm giving you my thoughts from actually running 3 of those cards. :)
 
Vegasr said:
I ran tri-sli with 3x gtx 480s and they did GREAT, scaled very well from two to three cards. Problem with waiting is it could be anywhere from 1 to 4 months for keplar, no one knows for sure. You can probably get another 480 for near $200 so thats a nice upgrade for the price.
Hope this helps as I'm giving you my thoughts from actually running 3 of those cards. :)
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But you went from 3x GTX 480 to 2x GTX 580..

You lost performance.. why would you do that?
 
Trackr said:
But you went from 3x GTX 480 to 2x GTX 580..

You lost performance.. why would you do that?
Click to expand...

Well that was an adventure to say the least. Here is the nutshell version:

Sold my three 480s a few weeks before the 7970 launch due to upgrade bug.
Got two Sapphire 7970s on release date, then driver nightmare city and issues with each game I'm currently playing ( BF3, Civ5, LORT War of the North, Batman AC)
Returned after 3 weeks for full refund.
2 weeks go by with no vid cards deciding which way to go. Big time jones'ing
Came across a deal on 2 bnib Evga 580 3GB Classified Ultras, the F-bombs of the gtx 580 world. :) With how well this Classy Ultras are built and how great they OC (currently at 950/2205 and will go higher with voltage bump) I'm very content for now. And I'm so much happier going back to NV multi cards as I've had ZERO issues with drivers or any games. Don't really know how much performance I lost as these Ultras are damn'ed fast.

Tri-Sli is pretty cool and you will get a nice increase in performance.
 
Vegasr said:
Well that was an adventure to say the least. Here is the nutshell version:

Sold my three 480s a few weeks before the 7970 launch due to upgrade bug.
Got two Sapphire 7970s on release date, then driver nightmare city and issues with each game I'm currently playing ( BF3, Civ5, LORT War of the North, Batman AC)
Returned after 3 weeks for full refund.
2 weeks go by with no vid cards deciding which way to go. Big time jones'ing
Came across a deal on 2 bnib Evga 580 3GB Classified Ultras, the F-bombs of the gtx 580 world. :) With how well this Classy Ultras are built and how great they OC (currently at 950/2205 and will go higher with voltage bump) I'm very content for now. And I'm so much happier going back to NV multi cards as I've had ZERO issues with drivers or any games. Don't really know how much performance I lost as these Ultras are damn'ed fast.

Tri-Sli is pretty cool and you will get a nice increase in performance.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I see we both have the 256GB M4 as well.

To be honest, I'm just worried that when the GTX 680 does show up, I won't be able to sell my GTX 480s for that much anymore..

I guess, maybe.. I could sell them right after the benchmarks are posted and the NDA is lifted. That way, the n00bs won't know what hit them.
 
With every new release comes the same ole threads

I have "x" - should I get another "y" now or go up to "z".

These cards aren't even out yet... and driver support is always lacking, esfuckingspecially with AMD.

Wait for the effing reviews and figure out the price/performance that you can live with.

PC games are lacking in terms of actually utilizing the hardware anyway, because fucking E V E R Y T H I N G is becoming ported from console anyway.
 
Trackr said:
Yeah, I see we both have the 256GB M4 as well.

To be honest, I'm just worried that when the GTX 680 does show up, I won't be able to sell my GTX 480s for that much anymore..

I guess, maybe.. I could sell them right after the benchmarks are posted and the NDA is lifted. That way, the n00bs won't know what hit them.
Click to expand...

That is the main reason I sold mine in Dec, to try and get as much as I could for them before the 7970 release. I think the resale value of those have gone down quite a bit since that release so you probably won't lose that much more if you buy a third one now. If it buys you time until Keplar does get released, then well worth it IMHO.
 
jimbean21 said:
With every new release comes the same ole threads

I have "x" - should I get another "y" now or go up to "z".

These cards aren't even out yet... and driver support is always lacking, esfuckingspecially with AMD.

Wait for the effing reviews and figure out the price/performance that you can live with.

PC games are lacking in terms of actually utilizing the hardware anyway, because fucking E V E R Y T H I N G is becoming ported from console anyway.
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Well, right now, I can run Crysis at 2560x1600 w/4xAA Very High and get 30FPS.

I am guessing that with GTX 680 SLi, I will finally get 60 FPS and therefore "Max Out" Crysis once and for all.

The only question is - if I wait until GTX 680 is released, will I not be able to sell my GTX 480s for as much.
 
Trackr said:
The only question is - if I wait until GTX 680 is released, will I not be able to sell my GTX 480s for as much.
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The GTX 680 release prob won't reduce your cards values by much, but it will cost more than $600 to own the 680 when it comes out :rolleyes:
 
I'm in the same boat.....but since I use 3D Vision and from what I've read tri-sli yields no benefits for 3D Vision the have 680's become the obvious choice.
 
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SpeedwayNative said:
The GTX 680 release prob won't reduce your cards values by much, but it will cost more than $600 to own the 680 when it comes out :rolleyes:
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Are you rolling your eyes at me or the price?

The high-end single-GPU card will cost more than 600$?

That will certainly be a first!
 
I have a pair of 480's, so i share your sentiment.

I cannot justify more noise and heat though. Literally a leaf blower that blows winds from the belly of a volcano.

Trackr said:
Are you rolling your eyes at me or the price?

The high-end single-GPU card will cost more than 600$?

That will certainly be a first!
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First? More like back to normal. The 8800gtx ultra was 700$ at release. 500$ for a flagship graphics card is an anomalous low for gpu pricing in the scheme of things.
 
I would not call a $600 flagship card "back to normal".

$400-500, maybe.
 
Sell. Unless you're looking to black out your neighborhood or get raided by the cops because they suspect you're growing marijuana in a shed somewhere, I'd sell and buy something else.
 
thesecond said:
I have a pair of 480's, so i share your sentiment.

I cannot justify more noise and heat though. Literally a leaf blower that blows winds from the belly of a volcano.
.
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I did have my 3 watercooled from the get go, so noise and heat was a non issue. No way I could handle stock cooling but to each is own.
 
3xGTX480s?
Are you trying to make you're office feel like an oven...
Go with the GTX680s. Even though no one knows what the performance will be it should beat the 480 handily.
 
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Trackr said:
Well, right now, I can run Crysis at 2560x1600 w/4xAA Very High and get 30FPS.

I am guessing that with GTX 680 SLi, I will finally get 60 FPS and therefore "Max Out" Crysis once and for all.

The only question is - if I wait until GTX 680 is released, will I not be able to sell my GTX 480s for as much.
Click to expand...

Why the fuck do you care about maxing out graphics on a poorly coded game that's 5 years old and is no longer relevant - and wasn't that good to begin with?
 
jimbean21 said:
Why the fuck do you care about maxing out graphics on a poorly coded game that's 5 years old and is no longer relevant - and wasn't that good to begin with?
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And what game do you try to max out?

As far as I recall, there really haven't been that many good games since 2007 on the PC side.

I manage pretty much identical frames in Crysis and Metro 2033 (both maxed).
 
Vegasr said:
I did have my 3 watercooled from the get go, so noise and heat was a non issue. No way I could handle stock cooling but to each is own.
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I get what you're saying but if the complaint is that the cards make the room too hot water cooling does nothing to solve the problem since they still produce the same amount of heat.

Darn that physics.;)
 
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