• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Need a New GPU

G

GoC_Derek

Weaksauce
Joined
Mar 24, 2008
Messages
89
My current SLI 460s aren't working well together. Work great by themselves, but when I enable SLI the control panel stops working. So I'm looking for a card that's comparable to the dual cards. Preferably comparable at stock speeds, so overclocking will increase it. I'm looking at the 560TI.

I play BF3, SC2, Diablo, all those. i5 2500k, 8GB.


Cheers
 
depending on what kind of budget you are on, just grab a 670 and call it a day so you don't have to deal with SLI anymore.
 
I would say a Radeon 7950 is about as fast as a GTX460 in SLI. I have mine running a little faster than GTX560 speeds and score a tad higher than a single Radeon 7970. So if you wanna stick with nVidia, either get a GTX670 or wait for the GTX660(which is rumored to be as fast as a 7950, but for $300. Is it me or are AMD cards way overpriced for the performance they provide.
 
Is your budget for the 560Ti level price including selling off the 460's? If not you may want to increase the budget by selling them and get the recommended GTX 670/680.
 
Relativist said:
Is your budget for the 560Ti level price including selling off the 460's? If not you may want to increase the budget by selling them and get the recommended GTX 670/680.
Click to expand...

The 560 TI price is about where I'd like to be. Money's tight at the moment, and I wasn't expecting this issue. I'm probably going to buy the card, the whatever I get from selling the cards will just make up for a part.

Rauelius said:
I would say a Radeon 7950 is about as fast as a GTX460 in SLI. I have mine running a little faster than GTX560 speeds and score a tad higher than a single Radeon 7970. So if you wanna stick with nVidia, either get a GTX670 or wait for the GTX660(which is rumored to be as fast as a 7950, but for $300. Is it me or are AMD cards way overpriced for the performance they provide.
Click to expand...

I have the ASUS P8Z68-V/GEN3. I think it's SLI only. But does that mean I could add one Radeon card?


Thanks
 
Well BF 3 on my old 560 Ti @ 900MHz was nice and playable for sure, typically high settings. I found the extra eye candy helped my view distances a lot when I upgraded to a GTX 680, but other than that a GTX 560 Ti is no slouch.
 
GoC_Derek said:
The 560 TI price is about where I'd like to be. Money's tight at the moment, and I wasn't expecting this issue. I'm probably going to buy the card, the whatever I get from selling the cards will just make up for a part.



I have the ASUS P8Z68-V/GEN3. I think it's SLI only. But does that mean I could add one Radeon card?


Thanks
Click to expand...

I wouldn't get a GTX560 TI, instead I'd try overclocking one of your GTX460's to the absolute brink and try to come close to GTX560 Ti performance. Also, you can absolutely use a Radeon card on a Z68 board, from what I've seen if it's an Intel board and can SLI it can also Crossfire. However not all boards that can Crossfire can SLI, but you should be good with what you got to Crossfire down the line. In that case, if your looking at GTX560 Ti's you may wanna turn your attention to the Radeon 7850, with the possibility of Crossfiring down the road and crushing the GTX670 AND GTX680, in performance(good) as well as power usage(bad). But if you already ran Two GTX460's in SLI two 7850's in CFX shouldn't be an issue.
 
Here's a comparison of a GTX460 @ GTX560 Ti Speeds. Runs really close, and if you can get to about 900(core)/4200(memory) you'll be pretty much at GTX560 Ti performance with a GTX460. Concidering that they work great solo and your thinking about getting another card, taking each one as far as they each can go and settling on the fastest one may be the best way to save $$$ and get GTX560 Ti performance.

http://www.overclock.net/t/948160/gtx-460-vs-gtx-560-ti-clock-for-clock
 
Last edited:
TBH, sell the two 460's and get a 580.

2x460 1GB = near gtx 580 performance.

(Have seen 580's float around on the forum for as low as $285.)
 
If you can afford it go for a HD 7950 OC. here is a good deal.

MSI HD 7950 OC - USD 340 after rebates
http://www.amazon.com/MSI-R7950-TWIN-FROZR-3GD5/dp/B007NG3WR2/

clock for clock HD 7950 is slightly behind a HD 7970. Getting the HD 7950 OC to 1 - 1.05 Ghz at stock volts and 1.1 - 1.15 Ghz with voltage tweaking should be easy . you can check out HD 7950 OC perf here.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/03/01/xfx_radeon_hd_7950_black_edition_video_card_review/8

A HD 7950 (1150 Mhz) is easily better than GTX 460 SLI for much lesser power, heat and noise. :)
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Rauelius said:
I would say a Radeon 7950 is about as fast as a GTX460 in SLI. I have mine running a little faster than GTX560 speeds and score a tad higher than a single Radeon 7970. So if you wanna stick with nVidia, either get a GTX670 or wait for the GTX660(which is rumored to be as fast as a 7950, but for $300. Is it me or are AMD cards way overpriced for the performance they provide.
Click to expand...

nah nvidia's just playing the AMD game this time around. trying to undercut AMD's prices for being so late with the 600 series. they learned their lesson from over pricing the 400 and 500 series. just means you won't see any price drops for a long time.
 
Just a hunch but is your PSU the culprit? Two 460's draw about 433w @100% and the 580 requires around 280w @100%. Besides those two 460's aren't outperformed by many sub $250 Cards-they're actually pretty beast as Im using one in place of my 2x5770; no the 460 isn't quite there in terms of FPS, but still holds it's own. The major difference is that 2x5770 only need 212w or so :) compared to the massive juice the greeny needs. Only pulled them to try and get good coin for upgrades but every day the temptation to reinstall them persists.
Last thing maybe-VGA flash?? That 460 SLi is definitely worth fixing. Save some doe for when an upgrade is really needed. We're kinda in the same boat just for different reasons.
 
Well my PSU is some years old, so it could be going bad. Although I had them overclocked and had no issue. I even had the single card overclocked with no issue. What can I do to test my PSU?
 
Newegg has PSU testers. I picked one up for $13 because I let a friend borrow one of my GTX460 (a nice Asus Direct CU model too) and it blew in his system. I should have known better because in his computer a 4890, 7850 and GTX670 were all DOA...I replaced his PSU and will test it when I get the tester.
 
Well my cards are still both running fine (good enough to sell), but the issue only happened when I enabled SLI. And recently too. I've been SLIing since October. And after switching from the current 301 drivers, back to the previous 296 ones, it started happening. I reinstalled Windows and the first time SLI worked. But I reverted back and it happened again. Then another reinstall, now it won't enable SLI at all. I've tried cleaning the drivers, new SLI bridge, etc. Both cards seem to be running fine by themselves in games..
 
Make sure you have all the latest BIOS revisions for everything installed (MoBo, GPUs, etc). Also, what nVidia driver version is installed? Have you checked all the power connections to ensure they are properly seated?
 
I couldn't find any updated versions of the cards or board. 301 (the current latest) was installed, messed my Diablo III up, so I went to 296, which worked, then tried enabling SLI which became disabled for some reason, and that's when it happened. And I had checked the power connections when swapping the cards.
 
Humor this, try using the molex->PCI-e adapters that came with the card, as opposed to the PCIe powerplugs native to the PSU.
 
Well both cards have two molex connectors. I had to buy two converters for each card. I have one PSU power in each, so power is distributed evenly. It's the weirdest issue.. It just started happening after trying different driver versions.
 
GoC_Derek said:
I reinstalled Windows and the first time SLI worked. But I reverted back and it happened again. Then another reinstall, now it won't enable SLI at all. I've tried cleaning the drivers, new SLI bridge, etc. Both cards seem to be running fine by themselves in games..
Click to expand...


After the 1st reinstall the "reversion" was from 301.xx to what, the driver that crashed the SLi in the beginning? Then another reinstall (of Windows or drivers??) w/o any SLi. Seems that your installation method(of the drivers) may be an issue. What prompted the change in drivers after the initial install was successful?
 
Considering you have to use adapters, you may consider a new PSU, as your current PSU may not have been meant to power two GTX 460's. I had that issue with a machine with two 4870's. When not in CFX they each worked fine, but turn on CFX and the system becomes unstable. Replaced the PSU and it's good...My old PSU was a 550Watt Seasonic, now I have a 750watt Rosewill(cheap but powers my stuff)
 
PcGuy78 said:
After the 1st reinstall the "reversion" was from 301.xx to what, the driver that crashed the SLi in the beginning? Then another reinstall (of Windows or drivers??) w/o any SLi. Seems that your installation method(of the drivers) may be an issue. What prompted the change in drivers after the initial install was successful?
Click to expand...

I was running 301.42 back in May. Running SLI, no issue. Diablo came out, and then only in Diablo my cards would run hot, and have issues, but not in BF3 or anything. So I forgot how I did it, but I installed 296.10, and that worked great. Then for some reason SLI became disabled, tried enabling it, and my issue happened. I couldn't fix it, so I reinstalled Windows, installed 301.42 on the clean install, SLI worked great. The played Diablo, remembered I had issues, so I didn't check the box for clean installation for 296.10, and my SLI issue came back. Then after a lot of testing, I decided to do another, third, Windows reinstall. This time I chose 296.10 for the clean version. No luck. And that's where I'm at now.

Rauelius said:
Considering you have to use adapters, you may consider a new PSU, as your current PSU may not have been meant to power two GTX 460's. I had that issue with a machine with two 4870's. When not in CFX they each worked fine, but turn on CFX and the system becomes unstable. Replaced the PSU and it's good...My old PSU was a 550Watt Seasonic, now I have a 750watt Rosewill(cheap but powers my stuff)
Click to expand...

Well the PSU is a 700w GameXStream by OCZ. It's SLI rated. And has been working great since October. Now it could be getting old, so I do want to pickup a tester. And my issue is when enabling SLI is NVIDIA control panel stops responding, leaving me in a very low resolution. It's not like I crash or anything during games.



Thanks guys
 
GoC_Derek said:
I was running 301.42 back in May. Running SLI, no issue. Diablo came out, and then only in Diablo my cards would run hot, and have issues, but not in BF3 or anything. So I forgot how I did it, but I installed 296.10, and that worked great. Then for some reason SLI became disabled, tried enabling it, and my issue happened. I couldn't fix it, so I reinstalled Windows, installed 301.42 on the clean install, SLI worked great. The played Diablo, remembered I had issues, so I didn't check the box for clean installation for 296.10, and my SLI issue came back. Then after a lot of testing, I decided to do another, third, Windows reinstall. This time I chose 296.10 for the clean version. No luck. And that's where I'm at now.



Well the PSU is a 700w GameXStream by OCZ. It's SLI rated. And has been working great since October. Now it could be getting old, so I do want to pickup a tester. And my issue is when enabling SLI is NVIDIA control panel stops responding, leaving me in a very low resolution. It's not like I crash or anything during games.



Thanks guys
Click to expand...

Hate to bump again.. but any ideas?
 
Well w/o beating a dead horse one thing added to my "driver habits" was to regedit out all the entries for said GPU software in ~~Root; ~~Local Machine(Software and system) Seems like that Diablo error is costing you your SLi since it works w/30x.xx and not the 294's. Try one more driver wipe using only one GPU(restart when prompted)/regedit out nVidia folders(ALL of the forceware directories)/ goto Device manager and uninstall card manually then shutdown not restart. Install card #2 along w/SLi bridge (which on CFx direction matters...)/Power up and wait for full log-on then do the driver thing. Use the 30x.xx and wait for the diablo patch or even try reconfiguring the SLi management. Hope some of this rambling helps. I had a similar issue when I switched back to the cfx5770 from the 460. My Cfx was "grayed out" so I did the above and all went w/o hiccups. Yes am back to my twin 5770's for now. GL!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top