is it worth upgrading 2 GTX 280 SLi?

I

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Weaksauce
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Oct 3, 2011
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I have GTX 280 2way SLi in my System.

I'm considering upgrading my graphic cards to HD 6950 or 6970.

Would having single 6950 or 6970 give me some boost on performance?

is it even worth upgrading? or should i wait till the Q1 of 2012 for HD 7 series/GTX 6 series?

also, would 6950 run cooler than having 2 GTX 280?
 
Keep em till the next refresh unless you want DX11 eyecandy.. NOW instead of later.
 
I have GTX 280 SLI. I'm getting a GTX 570 in a week or so. I think I will be pleased.

The performance difference won't be mind-blowing, but single card is nice, plus I can go SLI again and get a huge boost next year when the new generation of cards come out.

Also, yes, one 6950 will run a lot cooler. Though with a 6950 you're not going to see as big (if any) of a performance boost unless you're VRAM limited.
 
I have had 2 x 280 for a couple of years, they are great. I am keeping them until I see a card that can beat them by a decent margin.
 
yea gtx 280s in sli is pretty amazing. but it draws too much power :p i guess then i will keep these and wait for the next HD 7xxx or GTX 6xx Series.

but i do want the DX11 features so bad cause i actually jumped down from GTX 460.
 
I tend to upgrade every other generation or so, so 280 -> 570 is about in-line with that for me.

Here's the way I see it; you can buy a upper-mid range card (570 or 6950/70) right now for about $250 that will meet or beat the current 280 SLI setup you have, and then down the line you can get another card for probably $200 or less and do SLI/Crossfire. If you buy a $450-500 top-range card right now (GTX 580), you are getting maybe 25% more performance over your current 280 SLI setup, if that, and you're spending the same amount of money as an SLI/Crossfire setup with two upper-mid range cards, which will blow the top-end card out of the water. Sure, you can later SLI/Crossfire with the top-end card, but then you're still playing probably $350-400 for the second card.

Also, waiting for the new line to come out, to get any sort of significant single card difference over your current setup you are probably going to have to get the top-end card, or the next one down, which is likely to run you $500-600.

Overall it just seems like getting a $250 card and then going SLI or Crossfire 6 months or so later is way more cost efficient and you still come out ahead in terms of performance with a single-card solution.
 
MavericK96 said:
I tend to upgrade every other generation or so, so 280 -> 570 is about in-line with that for me.

Here's the way I see it; you can buy a upper-mid range card (570 or 6950/70) right now for about $250 that will meet or beat the current 280 SLI setup you have, and then down the line you can get another card for probably $200 or less and do SLI/Crossfire. If you buy a $450-500 top-range card right now (GTX 580), you are getting maybe 25% more performance over your current 280 SLI setup, if that, and you're spending the same amount of money as an SLI/Crossfire setup with two upper-mid range cards, which will blow the top-end card out of the water. Sure, you can later SLI/Crossfire with the top-end card, but then you're still playing probably $350-400 for the second card.

Also, waiting for the new line to come out, to get any sort of significant single card difference over your current setup you are probably going to have to get the top-end card, or the next one down, which is likely to run you $500-600.

Overall it just seems like getting a $250 card and then going SLI or Crossfire 6 months or so later is way more cost efficient and you still come out ahead in terms of performance with a single-card solution.
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I totally agree with this. I was hanging on to my crossfire 4870's waiting for gtx 6xx or hd 7xxx but then I heard last month they won't be out until maybe Q2 2012 so I decided to push the button and go now. I ordered a MSI 6970 Lightning yesterday which was pretty much the fastest 6970 card I could find. I'm looking forward to running a single card for a while. If I need more boost next year I can buy another or sell the one card I have and buy the next gen. The 4870's lasted me almost 2.5 years and are still kind of strong. The 280\s should beat them by a bit as the 4870's compared closer to 260's in a lot of cases but the 4870's scale slightly better. I tried a GTX 560 as wasn't 100% happy so I decided to jump a bit higher and considered a GTX 570 or 580 or HD 6970. To me the 6970 seemed like the best value.
 
MavericK96 said:
I tend to upgrade every other generation or so, so 280 -> 570 is about in-line with that for me.

Here's the way I see it; you can buy a upper-mid range card (570 or 6950/70) right now for about $250 that will meet or beat the current 280 SLI setup you have, and then down the line you can get another card for probably $200 or less and do SLI/Crossfire. If you buy a $450-500 top-range card right now (GTX 580), you are getting maybe 25% more performance over your current 280 SLI setyup, if that, and you're spending the same amount of money as an SLI/Crossfire setup with two upper-mid range cards, which will blow the top-end card out of the water. Sure, you can later SLI/Crossfire with the top-end card, but then you're still playing probably $350-400 for the second card.

Also, waiting for the new line to come out, to get any sort of significant single card difference over your current setup you are probably going to have to get the top-end card, or the next one down, which is likely to run you $500-600.

Overall it just seems like getting a $250 card and then going SLI or Crossfire 6 months or so later is way more cost efficient and you still come out ahead in terms of performance with a single-card solution.
Click to expand...
show me this magical store that sells 570's for $250.
 
GTX280 SLI

Typical performance: 175% of single GTX280
Best case (rare): 200% of single GTX280
Worst case (unusual, not rare): 100% of single GTX280

Single GTX570
Typical performance: 175% of single GTX280
Best case: 190% of single GTX280
Worst case (rare): 160% of single GTX280

Your performance should remain about the same, but you lose the reliance on SLI and associated issues with that, and also save a lot of power (c. 210W instead of 470W)
 
I haven't considered GTX 500. even though Nvidia got the performance, seems that the AMD cards are cheaper, while Nvidia is keeping their price way up high
 
They are a bit more expensive, but at 1920x1200 or less the GTX570 performs more like an HD6970 than an HD6950, which makes the pricing justified for lower resolutions.
 
Mmm, I am wary of rebates though. They're rare in the UK for a good reason, most of the negative complaints raised against any one product are usually that the manufacturer ignores the rebates, so I don't tend to rely on them as a recommendation.
 
samuelmorris said:
Mmm, I am wary of rebates though. They're rare in the UK for a good reason, most of the negative complaints raised against any one product are usually that the manufacturer ignores the rebates, so I don't tend to rely on them as a recommendation.
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Totally understandable. Just putting it out there. :) Some companies are good about it (e.g. Kingston), some aren't. I think MSI is pretty good in regards to rebate though.
 
Rhyick said:
Just this week (ended a couple days ago), you could get a reference MSI 570 for $250 after rebate.

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3346094
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Yup.

Also there was a Galaxy one on Newegg for the same price after rebate...but they ran out of stock and jacked up the price by $20 when it came back in stock. Kinda sleazy, but still, the point remains. Even if you jacked up my estimate to $300 apiece, the point is still fairly valid.

samuelmorris said:
Mmm, I am wary of rebates though. They're rare in the UK for a good reason, most of the negative complaints raised against any one product are usually that the manufacturer ignores the rebates, so I don't tend to rely on them as a recommendation.
Click to expand...

I've never had a problem getting one back, so I'm cool with rebates. :cool:
 
Yeah, that's the one I was talking about. It's back in stock now, but they upped the price by...actually, $30. Damn.

It was $309, $259 AR before.
 
Doesn't change the fact that the pricing is magical... and similar to typical Black Friday type deals.
 
dook43 said:
Doesn't change the fact that the pricing is magical... and similar to typical Black Friday type deals.
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At this specific point in time yeah, but I could have picked up the 570 for 2 days this past weekend for $260. I chose not to. Similar deals will be around if you watch.
 
dook43 said:
Doesn't change the fact that the pricing is magical... and similar to typical Black Friday type deals.
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:rolleyes:

There are sales all the time. And, like I said, the point still stands even if you consider it to be $300.
 
dook43 said:
Doesn't change the fact that the pricing is magical... and similar to typical Black Friday type deals.
Click to expand...



Its magical like electricity is magical.


Its not. You have to understand it (at least somewhat) though to not consider it magic. There are subforums here (hot deals, OK only) and dedicated forums (I think slickdeals is the best) for deals. And black friday is for noobs. Has been for at least two years now.
 
i came to conclusion that i will be going for 6970. thanks to all of you guys for your input.
 
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