Pulling the trigger: 760(SLI) vs 770.

ThrawnFile

Weaksauce
Joined
Feb 7, 2005
Messages
70
I have some cash burning a hole in my pocket; but I want to be frugal.

Should I pick up a single 760 now, and wait for prices to drop a bit before grabbing a second? Or just get a 770 and not screw with the whole SLI nonsense?

I know benchmarks say 760 SLI is better, but I've been burned by SLI when it first came out and haven't had much luck in the crossfire arena either. I'm mainly playing Neverwinter (d&d nerd), Planetside 2 and an immense backlog of Steam titles that were on sale. How much support are there for SLI profiles nowadays?

Upgrading from a AMD 6970.
 
I always upgrade to the best single card that I can buy @ the time. It increases the longevity of the system in question if you can afford the 770 get it. Eventually you will want more out of your system @ that point buy a price dropped 770 and sli. System envy is inevitable. This Ideology helps stave it off. That being said, I have just purchased a gtx 670 to replace my hd 6950, and I am smitten. It boosts to 1.2ghz under full load, and it's a beast. Enjoy your new card whichever you choose. Btw what resolution and which games do you play, that info will make it easier for me to help give you advice *cheers*
 
I prefer the smoothness of a single card.

If you want to go SLI though also consider the GTX 670. Its faster than the 760 and sometimes can be found for the same price. Oh and definitely get the blower style coolers.
 
I am very happy with my gtx 670s in SLI. One was good in most games, but newer stuff wasn't keeping things at 60fps in gameplay. My suggestion is start out with one gtx 670 or even 770 and see how it does. If things start lagging they will go down in price eventually and you can always add another one like I did.
 
The 760s in SLI will destroy the 770s. Buying a gtx 670 now is bad advice as you won't find those under 300 but you can get a 760 now with a free game (splinter cell) so like, 200 for the card.

I'd get the 760 and SLI later, performance about the same as a 670 but much cheaper, and SLI will be much faster than a single 770.
 
You misread what he posted. He's not buying both @ once he was going to buy one. I told him choose the 770 if he can afford it. It's a crummy feeling when you have multi card and it still does not perform enough. Sli is nice to extend the life of an aging system. I do not recommend building your system around it from the beginning.
 
Currently playing Neverwinter Online, replacing an 8year on and off WoW addiction
Planetside 2 or DayZ when the co-workers/friends are all online
and looking to start Bioshock or Dishonored finally

I have 3 1080p screens, but mainly run a single monitor as my card cant handle 5760x1080 with max settings. Or games like Planetside 2 doesn't even support it. The zoomed fisheye is horrible.
 
If you were interested in doin 3 monitors I would go with a 770 4gb. Otherwise either single card would suit your needs.
 
After much deliberation, hemming and hawing, browsing benchmarks sites and deciding to drop my idea of a 32gb ram upgrade I'm gonna go with the 760 (4gb) and more than likely sli. Price point for SLI is $600 and it surpasses a Titan at $1k. I know I'll never pay that much for a card let alone 2 of them unless I had me a winning lotto ticket. Going by a few benchmarks of 760SLI against 770/780SLI the gain is 20-37% but for double the cost. I can deal with that, even if new tech is released that blows them out of the water in the next year... such is planned obsolescence.

And as I've seen, though 2gb is more than enough for a single monitor setup, the extra memory 4gb offers will assist in a 3 screen surround should I find a game that I deem it worthwhile.

Unless someone can talk me out of it?
 
Not going to talk you out of it because it sounds like a fine setup.

Just keep in mind that for single card surround all monitors can be connected to one card. For SLI Surround though you will need to separate them. For example lets say you were only using DVI connectors you would set it up with 2 x DVI on card #1 and 1 x DVI on card #2. Then when you turn off span (surround) you will lose the display connected to card #2. So if you wanted to just have 3 extended displays on the desktop you would have to reconnect your cables.

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/how-to-correctly-configure-geforce-gtx-680-surround#3
 
After much deliberation, hemming and hawing, browsing benchmarks sites and deciding to drop my idea of a 32gb ram upgrade I'm gonna go with the 760 (4gb) and more than likely sli. Price point for SLI is $600 and it surpasses a Titan at $1k. I know I'll never pay that much for a card let alone 2 of them unless I had me a winning lotto ticket. Going by a few benchmarks of 760SLI against 770/780SLI the gain is 20-37% but for double the cost. I can deal with that, even if new tech is released that blows them out of the water in the next year... such is planned obsolescence.

And as I've seen, though 2gb is more than enough for a single monitor setup, the extra memory 4gb offers will assist in a 3 screen surround should I find a game that I deem it worthwhile.

Unless someone can talk me out of it?


Well. I have a GTX 670 for sale.

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1773446
 
This seems like a good time to ask why people choose the more expensive single card than going SLI? According to that logic you would rather spend 1k on a titan than SLI 760's, no? What's the reasoning for this when SLI'ing 760's or even 770's that blow the single card out of the water for a lot cheaper? Is microstutter really that big of an issue to stave off going SLI?

Thanks in advance for the help.
 
I dont notice microstuttering on my 670 SLI at all. I play bf3 dayz grid 2 crysis 3 and metro 2033 last light. All of it ran smooth. Just want to play with a 780
 
Headaches, I know xfire was riddled with it, and non standard sli performance. 760s in sli will be great. If I was going to pony 600 dollars up i would get a 780
 
next question.

Blower or Fan? Since I'm going the SLI route I figure blower is the best for actually removing heat. But I've seen some compelling temperature readings from EVGA's ACX fan array.

I do have a slot of space between PCI-E so there would be some airflow, and I have a Lanboy Air case with two fans at GPU position that are currently blowing in. I considered reversing them to blow hot air out. All else fails I have a box fan sucking hot air away from the case if my GPU gets above 75c.
 
I think with that case you've got, you could go either way. Depends on whether or not you mind the blower noise. I own a couple GTX 780 ACX SC and the top card does get pretty toasty -- 10C warmer in Crysis 3 and Metro Last Light. That's like 68C bottom, 78C top -- sometimes 70C bottom, 80C top. This is in a PC-X1000 with Corsair AF 140mm Quiet Edition fans -- in the summer.

Cards are set to power target 106%, temp target of 94C, stock voltage. I know they're not the model you are looking into, but to give you some idea as to what you'd be getting into, with a case with less ventilation and more power hungry cards, I figured I'd post. Hopefully someone with a setup similar to what you want will join the conversation.
 
If you have a lot of room between PCI-E slots then you can probably get cards with aftermarket cooling. Even 80C is still well within safe operating temps.
 
And as I've seen, though 2gb is more than enough for a single monitor setup, the extra memory 4gb offers will assist in a 3 screen surround should I find a game that I deem it worthwhile.

Unless someone can talk me out of it?

I do not fully agree with your statement as the GPU performance has also to be factor in the equation.
For instance, while a single 680/770 is unable to deliver the performance to support graphical settings using more than 2GB, a 680/770 SLI does. So in the case of Sli-ing two 680/770, it makes sense to go with the 4GB variant. I expect this to apply for the 760/670 as well since their performance does not lack too much behind the 680/770.
 
Then why do people recommend a more expensive single GPU card than SLI'ing cheaper cards. SLIing provides better performance for less cost but I see it time and time again people recommending not SLIing and just spending all they can for a single card.
 
Because SLI/CF has its down sides. More power, more heat, more noise, potentially more driver issues, micro shutter, configuration limitations, and etc. Some people don't notice or mind microshutter, others feel they rather have the smoothness of a single card vs higher frame rates or eye candy.

IMO its stupid that one card can do surround + 1 accessory monitor, but in SLI you have to split up the connectors.

SLI is worth trying and deciding for yourself.
 
Back
Top