Just got second GTX 560 Ti - SLI Setup Q's

[Holymartyr]

From the thread title I just go my second GTX 560 Ti, and was wondering what I have to do, if anything beyond checking the "Maximze SLI Performance" box in the NVidia control panel.

 

I've heard about SLI AA and that Skyrim has issues with SLI, not sure if these were resolved in the latest WHQL drivers or not (301.42 I think).

 

Any/all input welcome! Thanks! =)

[PioneerRaptor]

I don't believe that Crossfire and SLI are the wave of the future at all, as they both are not well supported by a lot of games. Not only that, but I cannot foresee a time when SLI or Crossfire would be needed to max out a game. The current top of the line single GPU (680, 7970) are more than powerful enough to run any current game at maxed settings. Also, looking at the system specs for upcoming games, they are still going to be enough for at least this year and probably another year or two after that.

[Neovalen]

Honestly Skyrim is the only released game I've had issues with. I've been able to max out pretty much everything else. If your right then my beast system will last me quite a long time but tech can surprise you sometimes...

[JudgmentJay]

I don't believe that Crossfire and SLI are the wave of the future at all as they both are not well supported by a lot of games. Not only that, but I cannot foresee a time when SLI or Crossfire would be needed to max out a game. The current top of the line single GPU (680, 7970) are more than powerful enough to run any current game at maxed settings. Also, looking at the system specs for upcoming games, they are still going to be enough for at least this year and probably another year or two after that.

While I agree that SLI is not the wave of the future and will continue to remain an enthusiast option, I'll have to disagree about a single 680 being able to run any current game at maxed settings. That might be possible for 1080p, but 1080p isn't "maxed!" Also, this is a Skyrim modding forum. I think we all know how performance-intensive Skyrim can be. With minimal effort I could make my game run at sub-20 FPS. With 3 680s.

 

Also, agree with Neovalen. I've encountered very few games that didn't benefit from SLI since I started using it ~5 years ago. In this day and age it'd be pretty silly to release a game without SLI support. Especially AAA titles.

[torminater]

Well that answers my question very well :D

Now: I used SLI configs for over 5 years ... and I want to change back to single gpu. I actually want to stick to Nvidia, but which graphic card is the best? I want to invest in a graphic card that offers me a maximum amount of vram and a maximum performance (clockwise) at the same time.

If I look at the nvidia graphic cards the upmost vram-wise is 2048 MB per GPU. So the "best" single GPU would be the GTX 680 (~550,- €). Do you guys know of any benchmarking that showcases the performance of the 680 versus the 690 (~1000,- €) with SLI disabled? That's what would interest me the most.

Neovalen, you use the GTX 670 (~440,-€), would you recommend it price/performance wise over the newer models?

But of course ATI is more than worth being mentioned as well.

I've heard of the AMD Radeonâ„¢ HD 7970 GHz edition and normal edition. I don't really know what the difference is, except that they differ in some things but not one version is everywhere higher than the other... I don't get it. I never was much of a ATI-freak. Anybody any insights on this?

[TechAngel85]

Well that answers my question very well :D

Now: I used SLI configs for over 5 years ... and I want to change back to single gpu. I actually want to stick to Nvidia, but which graphic card is the best? I want to invest in a graphic card that offers me a maximum amount of vram and a maximum performance (clockwise) at the same time.

If I look at the nvidia graphic cards the upmost vram-wise is 2048 MB per GPU. So the "best" single GPU would be the GTX 680 (~550,- €). Do you guys know of any benchmarking that showcases the performance of the 680 versus the 690 (~1000,- €) with SLI disabled? That's what would interest me the most.

Neovalen, you use the GTX 670 (~440,-€), would you recommend it price/performance wise over the newer models?

But of course ATI is more than worth being mentioned as well.

I've heard of the AMD Radeonâ„¢ HD 7970 GHz edition and normal edition. I don't really know what the difference is, except that they differ in some things but not one version is everywhere higher than the other... I don't get it. I never was much of a ATI-freak. Anybody any insights on this?

No need for benchmarks. It'll be the same. The 690 is simply a card with two 680 GPUs onboard, so if one is disabled this it's going to be the same or a little less. Sometime they underclock the GPUs for stability when they're combined like they are on the 690.

 

EDIT: Confirmed... The GPU clocks on the 690 are underclocked by ~100MHz

[Neovalen]

Well that answers my question very well :D

Now: I used SLI configs for over 5 years ... and I want to change back to single gpu. I actually want to stick to Nvidia, but which graphic card is the best? I want to invest in a graphic card that offers me a maximum amount of vram and a maximum performance (clockwise) at the same time.

If I look at the nvidia graphic cards the upmost vram-wise is 2048 MB per GPU. So the "best" single GPU would be the GTX 680 (~550,- €). Do you guys know of any benchmarking that showcases the performance of the 680 versus the 690 (~1000,- €) with SLI disabled? That's what would interest me the most.

Neovalen, you use the GTX 670 (~440,-€), would you recommend it price/performance wise over the newer models?

But of course ATI is more than worth being mentioned as well.

I've heard of the AMD Radeonâ„¢ HD 7970 GHz edition and normal edition. I don't really know what the difference is, except that they differ in some things but not one version is everywhere higher than the other... I don't get it. I never was much of a ATI-freak. Anybody any insights on this?

 

There are 4gb versions of both the 670 and 680. I haven't checked recently but when I bought the 670s were the price/performance winner in the 4gb space.

[torminater]

There are 4gb versions of both the 670 and 680. I haven't checked recently but when I bought the 670s were the price/performance winner in the 4gb space.

 

Oh really? I've never heard of that?

Do they really have 4GB Vram on a single GPU or are they pseudo-4GB SLI GPUs?

[Neovalen]

There are 4gb versions of both the 670 and 680. I haven't checked recently but when I bought the 670s were the price/performance winner in the 4gb space.

 

Oh really? I've never heard of that?

Do they really have 4GB Vram on a single GPU or are they pseudo-4GB SLI GPUs?

 

Actually 4gb vram. I regularly use up to 3gb with all max textures.

[torminater]

That's cool.

I'm currently thinking about this one https://www.gainward.com/main/product/vga/pro/p00868/p00868_datasheet_4204f8e7c19281df.pdf?s=92 ...

At least the model is the one of my choice.

What do you think about those two producers: https://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=04G-P4-2686-KRR (sorry wrong link -fixed), https://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4373#sp?

I've had so far really good experiences with gainward, but I know the other two are great as well...

The other variant would be this one: https://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=04G-P4-3673-KR

[torminater]

OK, so right now I'm sitting inbetween those two graphic cards:

https://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4373#sp ~ 478 €

https://www.gainward.com/main/product/vga/pro/p00868/p00868_datasheet_4204f8e7c19281df.pdf?s=92 ~ 510 €

They really don't give themselves a lot, but the phantom is slightly better at performance at least what I saw from the dozen of benchmarkings I've worked through...

What do you guys think? Is Gainward winnwing over Gigabyte that much that it is worth 30 Euros? It doesn't REALLY matter in this price catagory though. x-P

[PioneerRaptor]

The 680 and 7970 are pretty close when it comes to performance. The main difference ends up being what the developer optimized more as I have seen each one win in benchmarks for different games. The 680 usually does better though for single monitors while the 7970 usually does better with multiple monitors. Keep in mind that they can both do multiple monitors, but the architecture of the 7970 allows it to do it better.

 

Anyways, the biggest difference though is price. Both of these cards will easily max out any game that is out at 1080p for quite some time and they can still play games above that resolution, though you then risk not playing with ultimate settings. So the decision is on you, you can get the 680 which is a little more powerful or you can get the cheaper 7970 which is still very good and will last you a long time.

[torminater]

The Gainward Nvidia GTX 680 4GB Phantom it is! Just ordered it. I think I'm going to love it :D