now that i have a new x58 board, sli is finally an option. i have one gtx 280 already and a buddy is offering me his year old gtx 280 for only 150.00. cheap! worth the upgrade? i'm not gaming on my pc much lately but i do still need to finish crysis warhead and wouldn't mind playing the original again. someone want to weigh in on my indecisiveness? thanks!
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280 sli worth it?
- Thread starter wadec22
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nope.
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I'd say yes. I saw a pretty good improvement in games using higher levels of AA and AF. $150 for a GTX 280 is a smokin' deal, too.
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i agree, seems like a good deal.
What sized monitor and resolution are you running your games at?
Agreed. Especially for that price.
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Only reason not to get it is your rig will be a space heater with 2 280's and a OC'ed i7 in there(which is great in the winter, but right now, not so much)
I've never had any heat problems, and I have my i7 OC'ed on air cooling as shown in my sig. Unless it's like 80 degrees ambient in your residence, there shouldn't be a problem.
Agreed. I'm running my Core i7 920 @ 4.2GHz and I've got 3 BFG Technologies Geforce GTX 280 OC cards in 3-Way SLI. With the video cards I did have to play with their fan speeds a bit so they'd keep cooler idle and so they wouldn't get too hot while gaming. I don't have any problems at idle speeds but while gaming for long periods of times I'd end up with graphical anomolies and the games would hard lock or crash to the desktop. A little fan speed adjustment for each card, and all is well. I have rules setup in the NVIDIA control panel to raise the speed when games start and lower them when I exit the games. Outside of loading new games, I don't even notice this during daily use.
fixed.
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my modest Q6600 @ 3.0GHZ and 4870 @ 790/1025 is a massive space heater. like said above it's not much of a problem in the winter time, but right now it keeps my spare bedroom uncomfortably hot when i'm gaming. SLI 280's should give you a nice sauna
I meant to say something about that. It is the truth. The house I'm in now = great AC. The house I used to live in = crap AC.
I'll admit computer placement and air flow patterns do have a lot to do with it too. For a short time I had my computer next to 3 windows behind me and a couch infront of me with the air vent on the other side of the room. Now I'm infront of the air vent back to the wall and away from the window and it makes a LOT of difference. I keep the air about 3 degrees warmer and it feels cooler.
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I don't even have an air conditioner in my apartment (living in Seattle) because it's really not necessary. The hottest it would probably ever get in the apartment itself is mid to high 70s, and that's extremely rare. It really just depends on where you live.
In Texas a home without air conditioning might as well be an alien planet incapable of supporting human life.
When it's 100+ about 20 days in the summer come try living in Texas with out AC. Seattle does sound nice though