Hi,
I built the PC in my sig back in May 2012 and haven't touched it since. The last year or so I have not really been gaming much other than CS:GO and Dragon Age Inquisition. Star Wars Battlefront, Witcher 3, FO4 and other stuff have me excited to get back into it and I want to be able to max out these games with good FPS. My monitor is 1920x1200 60hz so I do not need to go beyond that. I figure my CPU (3770K @ 4.5GHz) is fine. My choice is either:
1) Buy a GTX 970 which is about $410CAD + 12% tax = $460CAD, sell my GTX 670 for $150CAD = $310 net upgrade cost.
2) Buy a used GTX 670 for $150 and run SLI
So ~$160 incremental cost to have a 970 vs. picking up a 2nd used 670 for SLI. That is a lot of money. I've never run an SLI setup before, have always avoided it in favour of a single faster card. I am really struggling with $410 for a 12 month old card (970) given the 670 SLI is not that far off and I am only gaming at 1920x1200.
My PSU is fine, so my only real concern is that my current Gigabyte 670 is a 3 fan card (so heat is dumped into the case). So I would try to find a blower for the second 670 given that my 550D is not the best case at exhausting air. I don't mind noise while gaming but can someone confirm if the second card will idle at the desktop so I don't have to hear the blower fan?
Am I missing something here?
tl;dr Currently have a single 670, can get a second one used for $150. 970 is $410+tax. Should I try SLI 670 versus spending an incremental $160 on a new 970.
cheers
I built the PC in my sig back in May 2012 and haven't touched it since. The last year or so I have not really been gaming much other than CS:GO and Dragon Age Inquisition. Star Wars Battlefront, Witcher 3, FO4 and other stuff have me excited to get back into it and I want to be able to max out these games with good FPS. My monitor is 1920x1200 60hz so I do not need to go beyond that. I figure my CPU (3770K @ 4.5GHz) is fine. My choice is either:
1) Buy a GTX 970 which is about $410CAD + 12% tax = $460CAD, sell my GTX 670 for $150CAD = $310 net upgrade cost.
2) Buy a used GTX 670 for $150 and run SLI
So ~$160 incremental cost to have a 970 vs. picking up a 2nd used 670 for SLI. That is a lot of money. I've never run an SLI setup before, have always avoided it in favour of a single faster card. I am really struggling with $410 for a 12 month old card (970) given the 670 SLI is not that far off and I am only gaming at 1920x1200.
My PSU is fine, so my only real concern is that my current Gigabyte 670 is a 3 fan card (so heat is dumped into the case). So I would try to find a blower for the second 670 given that my 550D is not the best case at exhausting air. I don't mind noise while gaming but can someone confirm if the second card will idle at the desktop so I don't have to hear the blower fan?
Am I missing something here?
tl;dr Currently have a single 670, can get a second one used for $150. 970 is $410+tax. Should I try SLI 670 versus spending an incremental $160 on a new 970.
cheers