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worth it?

P

pcgamer14

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Apr 9, 2013
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i currently have a intel i3 build with a GTX280. i will be building a AMD computer for video editing gaming etc. i was wondering if i should get another GTX280 from a family member and SLI them with the AMD or get a brand new 7850 or 7950. i was thinking of two 280's in a AMD build and a 7850 in my i3. any ideas?
 
SLI is something you do if you have no other upgrade route, in my opinion. Prefer single-GPU solutions over more complex multi-GPU solutions.
 
i have upgrade opitions but thought why waste money buying a new card, when i could just use two beefy 280's?
the single GTX280 does more then what i need it to. which is why im asking two 280's or spend $200+ on a new gpu.
 
How much is another GTX280? They aren't really beefy by todays standards. I bet you even a Radeon 7770 or 7790 would be faster than one, and maybe even both in SLI.
 
I'd get the other one, sell them both and then buy a 7850.

If you can find one, a Tahiti based 7870 (7930, Tahiti LE, Powercolor MYST/LE) is a pretty good bang for the buck. They run around $220 or so and come with Bioshock/Tomb Raider. I've bought a couple and sold the games, so my total cost was around $180.
 
the 7870 myst sounds like a underpayed whore. its so freaking loud..................:mad:
 
Try the Sapphire 7870XT...dual fan. Runs pretty quiet in my experience.
 
atleast it wont sound like the famous myst... and i used to think it was so good.... god was i wrong .
 
If you're even thinking about SLI with two GTX280's you better have one HELL of a power supply.

An average system with two GTX 280's in SLI can use over 600 watts of power at load. No, that's not 'it's printed on the box worst case scenerio' numbers, that's the real damned deal.

The GTX280 was top dog in mid 2008 when it came out and as such it used a metric fuckton of power (hence the 6+2 and 6-pin PCIE power connectors).

A single GTX280 also runs hotter than hell, so if you plan to SLI two of 'em you better have a case with LOTS of airflow and exhaust.


A single GTX280 is easily outclassed by most mid-tier GPUs today... I would buy something newer (and less power hungry) like the GTX 660 or GTX 660 Ti although the latter might be out of your ballpark expense wise.
 
pcgamer14 said:
the single GTX280 does more then what i need it to. which is why im asking two 280's or spend $200+ on a new gpu.
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If your current set-up does "more than what you need it to do" then why are you thinking of adding another 280 to it? I could understand going to something that would be less power hungry, cooler, and more powerful at the same time, but yeah. I guess more is usually nice to have though (especially if you are getting it for free).
 
i have a antec 850w psu. so no problems there and its in a bitfenix shinobi which has some fcking amazeing cooling in it. it can house 7 120mm fans. or a 240mm rad on the roof inside. so no biggie keeping them cool ;-)
 
Then why are you asking if you should get a 7850/7950 instead?

Very little you've said to this point makes any sense.
 
pcgamer14 said:
if you get offered another 280 that you can SLI. would you turn it down? lol
Click to expand...

I guess it depends on the situation.

Me being me and knowing that I could get better performance from even a cheap single card (not to mention running much cooler and quieter) it's a no brainer.

But as said above if the single GTX 280 is doing everything you need it to, why even entertain the thought of SLI? It's just going to suck up almost twice as much electricity, pump twice as much heat into your bedroom / office, and may even cause a few issues (SLI isn't perfect).

*shrug*
 
pcgamer14 said:
if you get offered another 280 that you can SLI. would you turn it down? lol
Click to expand...

If by "offer" you mean "free" - no, but then again I'd take anything PC related for free. :D
If they want to "sell" you the card, no, I would not buy the card if my single 280 did the job already.
 
Sell the 280s on Craigslist and someone might overpay. They also might try it with their 400W PSU but that's not your problem.
 
OP sell your GTX 280 and get a HD 7950 boost. massive upgrade. overclock HD 7950 to 1100 - 1150 mhz and match HD 7970 Ghz performance.
 
yeah sell the gtx280 cards and get a modern single card. even a 7850 will match or beat 280 sli while offering more vram, DX11 and using much less power. an oced 7850 will be a good match to an i3 and I would not even consider a 7950 for your setup.
 
lol, a 7950 would brutally destroy these two.lots less power needed and heat. but yet again a 7950 costs around $300+ lol
 
Two GTX 280 in SLI should be as fast or slighly faster than a Radeon HD 5870, so while it is respectable performance, the power consumption and nVidia driver support on older GPU's are a joke plus it is only a DX10 videcard. I think I would get them and sell them on Craiglist or Ebay and get something around the HD 7790-7850 which are moderately faster than the HD 5870 and will consume far less power than the HD 5870 and deff less power than the power guzzler GTX 280 in SLI.
 
If you are making strides to update your GPU it makes sense to update to a single gpu. Do as others suggested, sell and upgrade to a single card. As to which card is dependent upon your mobo and future uses.
 
I would go with the AMD card. The drivers have matured, the 7000 series has real good value now I think
 
well I just bought my second MSI 7870 and I got a treat, my other card max is around 1223/600 20% power @1.262v when I am mining 1177/1367 1.255v gaming however I can see the voltage jump around a lot, the new one I just got today I believe is a newer stepping or something, I can clock up gaming stable stock volts(1.219) can hit 1245/1590 core/mem when I am mining I have went and am using 1272/600, clocks like a beast, I wonder how far I can push it, but really don't want it to "break"

Other card hits 450Mhash new one hits in excess of 470Mhash at less heat and voltage is wicked stable compared to older one.

I am loving it, I myself use Catalyst 12.8 with stream 2.6 cap 12.11 cap, install in this order drivers-uninstall the cpu sdk-stream-then cap works wonders performance for me for every game.
 
the thread was is it worth throwing a 7870 or 7850 in my i3 and swapping my two 280's into a amd build...
 
or spend $200+ on a new gpu.
Click to expand...

Well unless you just kept the 280s gathering dust you wouldn't have to spend that much, after doing the math.

And the 7850, 650 Ti Boost, and 660 don't have to cost $200. Besides the bundles.

Do you have or want Bioshock: Infinite, Tomb Raider, and Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon (separate from FC3)?
 
*facepalm* the real question here was do i buy a 7850 or 7950 and put it in my intel build then put GTX280's in the AMD build. and yes i would like the new bioshock ,tomb raider and farcry3
 
I can say this as a true fact, Intel is higher IPC and scale better with clock speeds, Nvidia cards by and large also scale according to clock speed the cpu has this has been shown before, basically if clocked up just on the cpu side the Nvidia cards scale more performance as well(in games that allow scaling anyways)

So, I would put a shiny new single card in the AMD setup, and use the 280s in the Intel setup for this reason and the reasoning that a lot of folks feel and can prove that overall most Intel setups have less issue running dual card setups from a pure performance standpoint.

Does this help to answer your question?
 
Single gpu for sure if at all possible. I seen a couple of used 6970 for 120 the other day....if you use sony vegas I know it actually used the cpu +gpu.
 
im just going to smack a 7850 or 7870. or a nvidia card around the same price range in the intel i3 build.
and ill be putting two GTX280's in the AMD build.an ill be overclocking them later ;)
 
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