GTX 580 SLI upgrade/sidegrade

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evanisthecoastie

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I havnt been following the trends for the last two years and have no idea what is comparable to what I currently have.

I am tired of the heat output from my current 580's and am just looking for a cheap alternative that will give me relatively the same performace with a single card for my current usage. I don't game very much any more, and the most graphic intensive game I play currently is CS:GO, a source game.

Cheap card is the name of the game here that will run that game fine, thanks for your input, brand does not matter to me. I use 1920*1080 res.
 
Are you looking for equivalent performance to the GTX 580s or just capable of running CS:GO (in what capacity? settings, fps, etc.?)

If you really want to go with efficiency, power savings, and money savings you don't need such high performance for CS:GO and could get by with a lot lower end single card setup and still be in the 100+ fps range (keep in mind you're likely CPU limited with a game like CS:GO if you really want extremely high fps).
 
GTX 580 SLI is roughly equal to a single GTX 770 for $360ish. For the kind of game you're talking about, you could probably drop down to a GTX 760 ($260ish) or a GTX 660 ($190ish) with no problem. The 600 series is when the massive reduction in heat generation and power usage started.
 
evilsofa said:
GTX 580 SLI is roughly equal to a single GTX 770 for $360ish. For the kind of game you're talking about, you could probably drop down to a GTX 760 ($260ish) or a GTX 660 ($190ish) with no problem. The 600 series is when the massive reduction in heat generation and power usage started.
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Are you sure about that? That doesn't sound right to me. GTX-770 is roughly a GTX-680 with a little kick. I'm pretty sure SLI'd GTX-580's would beat this card.
 
evilsofa said:
GTX 580 SLI is roughly equal to a single GTX 770 for $360ish. For the kind of game you're talking about, you could probably drop down to a GTX 760 ($260ish) or a GTX 660 ($190ish) with no problem. The 600 series is when the massive reduction in heat generation and power usage started.
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Wrong a 770 which is a nearly maxed out 680 is about 50% faster than a single 580.

for OP go with a 780 try to get a nice non reference one and overclock the hell out of it, it's more than double the performance of your 580 Sli.
 
evilsofa said:
GTX 580 SLI is roughly equal to a single GTX 770 for $360ish. For the kind of game you're talking about, you could probably drop down to a GTX 760 ($260ish) or a GTX 660 ($190ish) with no problem. The 600 series is when the massive reduction in heat generation and power usage started.
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No it's not SLI'd 580s are equal to a single GTX780 in performance.

Recently swapped from SLI'd 580s to SLI'd 760s (EVGA RMA) and there's little difference in framerates.
 
Little difference in frame rate doesn't prove anything other than you have a bottleneck SOMEWHERE. That doesn't mean it's the GPUs.

SLI 580s might be equal to a 780 in a best-case scenario and in terms of framerate -- but they are in no way equal to a 780.. and the 780 will trash SLI 580s when SLI scaling isn't close to perfect.
 
FrankD400 said:
Little difference in frame rate doesn't prove anything other than you have a bottleneck SOMEWHERE. That doesn't mean it's the GPUs.

SLI 580s might be equal to a 780 in a best-case scenario and in terms of framerate -- but they are in no way equal to a 780.. and the 780 will trash SLI 580s when SLI scaling isn't close to perfect.
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Yeah because I have a huge CPU/architecture bottleneck going on here... </sarcasm>

Unless you have direct experience with 580SLI and a 7-series card, really, you're just spouting opinion and I'm coming from a position of fact.
 
Buy a GTX 780 and call it a day. No need to look any further. You can always SLI if you want more horsepower.
 
Nexus6, I said a bottleneck SOMEWHERE. Just saying "I didn't see an increase in performance," doesn't mean that the bottleneck is the GPU. You didn't see an increase in performance may be a fact, it being the fault of the GPU is not. Good day!
 
Thank you for the input so far guys, just to expound a bit more on my needs, I am looking for a cheap alternative to my SLI 580's. It does not have to be similar performance, it just needs to run CS:GO comfortably. Cheap card is the name of the game as I am tired of the heat output and noise levels with my 580's.
 
evanisthecoastie said:
I don't game very much any more, and the most graphic intensive game I play currently is CS:GO, a source game.

Cheap card is the name of the game here that will run that game fine, thanks for your input, brand does not matter to me. I use 1920*1080 res.
Click to expand...
GTX 770 is your best bet. Will handle all games @ 1080p with ease. If CS:GO is your most graphic intensive game, then even a GTX 760 will be more than enough :p.
 
evanisthecoastie said:
Thank you for the input so far guys, just to expound a bit more on my needs, I am looking for a cheap alternative to my SLI 580's. It does not have to be similar performance, it just needs to run CS:GO comfortably. Cheap card is the name of the game as I am tired of the heat output and noise levels with my 580's.
Click to expand...

What is your CPU? Are you using a 120hz or 60hz monitor?

What I would do is disable SLI. Run the game on a single GTX 580 at the settings you want. Are you happy with the performance (be careful to account for placebo affects, difficult though. Look beyond the numbers)? If yes check what the GPU utilization level is.

From there you can get a better idea of how much performance you actually need for the CS:GO experience you want. Even the GTX 760/770 for example are unnecessary to maintain a 100fps minimum. The upcoming 750/750ti could for instance even be enough performance wise, and that would be a massive improvement in terms of power usage and efficiency while being cheap.

Basically what you want to consider is if you were to do a double blind test playing CS:GO could you notice the difference.

Maybe even just run with a single GTX 580 and sell the other one for the time being.
 
I'd find first if you like the performance with a single GTX 580. Then find the GPU utilization rate (use soething like GPU-Z or Afterburner). Also see if you get any significant performance increase from removing something like anti-aliasing or lowering resolution (or other GPU focused settings).

120hz is a bit different since you probably want to take advantage of the higher refresh rate. At the same time you want to make sure, since CS:GO is not a GPU demanding game, whether or not it is actually GPU performance you need.

Is the 2500k OCed?

It's hard to find actual CS:GO numbers, since it isn't really a go to benchmark especially for newer/higher end cards, so doing these tests would provide more data.

Do AMD cards get better (particularly min fps.) numbers in CSGO? The benchmarks I've managed to find seem to show a significant advantage in this area compared to similarly tiered Nvidia cards. Not sure if there is some other variable (such as smoothness due to microstuttering) and the benchmark numbers aren't showing the whole picture. Not sure how you feel about going to an AMD card instead. Seems like something such as even the r9 270 (or even lower like the r7-265. Or an "older," although not really older, 7850) could do 120+fps minimums. Basically the 7850/265 would be the lowest end card (and cheapest, and least power demanding) that still carries a relatively larger memory bandwidth having a 256 bit bus.
 
In that case just get a used GTX 680 or GTX 670 even. GTX 760 is on par with GTX 670 in most games.

Buy whichever is more wallet friendly.
 
David-Duc said:
GTX 770 is your best bet. Will handle all games @ 1080p with ease. If CS:GO is your most graphic intensive game, then even a GTX 760 will be more than enough :p.
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What this gentleman says, pretty much. Plenty of mid-range cards will absolutely spank Source engine games at 1080p.
 
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