To SLI or not to SLI??

AthlonXP

AthlonXP

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Joined
Oct 14, 2001
Messages
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Just wondering what you guys think. Should I just stick with 1 GTX580 to power my U3011 monitor?? I have a GT520 card powering my 2 side 20 inch monitors and was wondering if I should snag another GTX580 for it. Also should I go with the 3GB or not??


Most games I play:

CS Source
Bad Company 2
UT3
BF2
Shogun 2
Empire 2
WOW
Will be testing the Diablo 3 Beta
 
If you already have a 1.5gb GTX 580, buying a 3gb is pointless unless you don't care about money, as you would have to sell your original card so both have 3gb, otherwise you don't get to use the extra ram. Furthermore, very few games actually use that much ram. I have 3 GTX 480's running at 5760x1200, they also have 1.5gb, and I only get close to the vram limit in a couple games, mostly Crysis Warhead where I play the MWLL mod. Metro 2033 as well, but that game is badly coded and doesn't run correctly on 3 screens.

Unless you don't mind low fps, you are going to run out of gpu horsepower before you run out of vram. I like to average around 90 fps myself for games like Battlefield and COD, and Battlefield only uses 1.3gb at most for me.

I think the real question is whether you are happy with the frames you are getting in BC2 and Shogun 2, or if you think you need a boost. The other games are older and not as gpu heavy.
 
AthlonXP said:
Should I just stick with 1 GTX580 to power my U3011 monitor??
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Depends. There are certainly a lot of games out there where one GTX580 falls short on a 30''. Then again, I don't see many of them on your list... All comes down to whether or not you're happy with what you've got.

AthlonXP said:
Also should I go with the 3GB or not??
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Needs to be the same as your existing card.
 
Well the situation I have is that I am going to trade my 1.5GB GTX580 ROG Matrix Plus $250 + a 1TB Drive I have sitting around for my buddies dual GTX 580 3GB setup.
 
AthlonXP said:
Well the situation I have is that I am going to trade my 1.5GB GTX580 ROG Matrix Plus $250 + a 1TB Drive I have sitting around for my buddies dual GTX 580 3GB setup.
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That's a pretty banging deal. I would do it.
 
Actually, I'm in exactly the same boat (30'', GTX580, contemplating a second one), so I'd like to throw a couple more questions out there...

Anyone got some recent data on microstutter? I haven't been able to find anything solid on the last couple of generations of cards (hell, it's hard enough to find someone who knows what the word means these days...). Just to be clear, I'm not looking for vague reassurances about how it "feels"; please, just run the Fraps frametimer and show me some numbers ;) .

I'm also wondering how VSync works in SLI, since I'm not sure how the frame buffers are laid out. Do you still jump from 60 to 30fps? If so, is there any solution? (I've heard triple buffering doesn't work; is this still the case?)
 
SLI isn't really that necessary and can be a pain to set up, however if you are a big hobbiest and like to tinker it is a lot of fun. I personally think it's boring if everything works correctly all the time ;)

I actually use 2 GTX 460's in SLI and don't have a lot of issues. I also have a 2gb Eyefinity 5870 I swap out occasionally. If you have the money go for it.
 
I am in the same boat as well - although I dont think it will be necessary to SLI until the end of this year or a few months into next year. The reason for that is most games out now arent much trouble but the laundry list of good, next gen games coming out could be a lot of trouble.
 
AthlonXP said:
Well the situation I have is that I am going to trade my 1.5GB GTX580 ROG Matrix Plus $250 + a 1TB Drive I have sitting around for my buddies dual GTX 580 3GB setup.
Click to expand...

This is a no question take the deal. That's 425$+250$+75$ = 750$ vs 525$x2=1050$. I don't see how you pass up a free 300$. That's pricing the 1.5GB model high and the 3GB models low too.

I wouldn't hesitate to do it.
 
Get a 120Hz Monitor or Projector so you can actually see what the 580GTX is capable of! Trust me it's capable of more than 60fps ;) if that's what style of a monitor you're running.

Heck my 260GTX is. :D Then if bored with that, get the Nvidia 3D Vision kit with the free Duke Nukem like me ;) Avatar 3D movie, Drive Angry 3D, Alice in Wonderland 3D etc. in MKV 3-D with Power DVD 11 is amazing! You can even run old movies (Paths of Glory, Wizard of Oz, Teen Wolf) and get a 3D effect just not as deep as the level of a movie like Avatar etc.

60Hz is shit bro. I prefer First Person Shooter's strictly in 120Hz, and racing games (GRID or NFS's) and single player games (Oblivion) in 3D or 120Hz. Just trying to get the word out. :) Nvidia 3D Vision is even better than most movie theaters... the ones with the 3D Real technology (That green-purple/magenta bleeds through the glass/screen) Nvidia doesn't have that problem, it's beautiful stuff.

Or just stick to that 60fps cap/ceiling....ugh yuck! :p

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