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3x GTX 470 or 2x GTX 480 !?

Gripen90

Gripen90

Gripen90

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The latest price reductions on both GTX 470 and GTX 480 cards have got my attention and especially the price on GTX 480 at £394.
I currently have 3 x EVGA GTX 470 SC cards and it runs perfectly, but I keep hearing that GTX 480 in SLi should still be the more powerfull option.
I demand max performance at very high image quality settings so I'm wondering if I would get any benefit from parting with my GTX 470's and go for GTX 480 ?
 
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As you already have 3 470s just hold out for now. It's in no way worth the hassle and cost for a sidegrade. Just wait until the next gen comes along.
 
I would wait too mate. I will find a few reviews for you, which show performance for 470 SLI and 480 SLI, and you can compare the performance. Let me dig them out my favourites, and you will see, that keeping your 3 SLI 470s is probably the very best option :)

Update:
2 and 3 way 480 SLI
2 and 3 way 470 SLI

Check the performance graphs and compare them (you will have to do it in seperate windows, as the reviews are seperate.

You can see, Metro 2033, in 1920x1200 resolution:
3 way 470 SLI: 59 fps
2 way 480 SLI: 53 fps

Ok, I'm not sure exactly what those numbers are (min or average I gues), but you see my point.

That is at full graphics, and very high settings on the card also (as far as I know).
 
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Ya you're probably right... perhaps we should get GTX 485 into the picture before making any decissions.
I must admit I have been tempted trying out GTX 460 1GB, but they can't run 3-way SLi, I would have liked to try that out.
 
Even then will be too early. The GTX 285 was only about 10% better than the 280. It will probably be the same story with the 485. Wait it out for the next generation rather than a refresh. Otherwise you are just burning money away.

If you are really eager to spend money then get an extra couple of monitors or go 3D. ;)
 
seriously 3x GTX470 will annihilate anything and everything. If you're looking to spend money, how about upgrading your mobo/CPU? The AMD 6 core processors are great machines (I've specced a few for mates myself) but it gets spanked by a decent I7 build. Any thoughts? Just to add: I would have thought that your 3xgtx470 would be CPU limited by your 1090t, you need a seriously fast processor to keep pace with three graphics cards
 
Mojo said:
seriously 3x GTX470 will annihilate anything and everything. If you're looking to spend money, how about upgrading your mobo/CPU? The AMD 6 core processors are great machines (I've specced a few for mates myself) but it gets spanked by a decent I7 build. Any thoughts? Just to add: I would have thought that your 3xgtx470 would be CPU limited by your 1090t, you need a seriously fast processor to keep pace with three graphics cards
Click to expand...

Nah not really. I had HD5970+HD5850 TriFire on P55 with Core i7 860, then I got a AMD board with 790FX and a Phenom II X4 965 and in games I got equal performance, but more importantly microstutter was gone.

I've had X58 with Corei7 920 and 965 (GTX 280 SLi), then P55 with Ci5 750 and Ci7 860 and I have frankly not been happy with those setups. Fluctuating FPS and to much FPS milisec. lag with multi GPU's (you can measure that with FRAPS).
While the AMD's might be a bit slower at least in my opinion they deliver me a more fluent and smooth gaming experience. The difference between minimum and average FPS isn't that big, and the microstutter milisec. lag is much lower compared to the Intel setups I had.

CPU limitation is no problem at 1920x1200 with max AA/AF SSAO/TSSA enabled.
 
Overslop said:
Even then will be too early. The GTX 285 was only about 10% better than the 280. It will probably be the same story with the 485. Wait it out for the next generation rather than a refresh. Otherwise you are just burning money away.

If you are really eager to spend money then get an extra couple of monitors or go 3D. ;)
Click to expand...

Well then I'll keep the setups for 1½years, just like my previous 3x GTX280.

Well I actually had that with 2 x 24TFT's and 1 x 26"TFT. But after using hours and hours to get surround to work, I discovered in a small nVidia FAQ that Surround is ONLY supported by windows 7 !. That's jus great when you have Vista 64bit, and I'm not interested in doing complete reinstalls and backups of save games and use 2-3days to make everything run again. My Vista runs fine... was a bit p*ssed to find out Vista isn't supported.
So now I'm trying to sell samsung 245B & 245+.
 
Never actually done it myself but can't you just use an upgrade version of Windows 7 and keep all your games and programmes installed?
 
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