8800 gtx sli > gtx480

[raikesi]

a friend of mine wants to upgrade his setup. he wants to upgrade his fairly dated graphics setup (8800 gtx sli) which i gave him when i built his system (i7) 20 months ago. just wondering what performance increase he would get from a gtx 480

 

[RavenXXX2]

Mega increase, he will blow his load at the speed.

 

[raikesi]

haha thanks! would a gtx460 sli setup be better?

 

[Mr Krugga]

haha thanks! would a gtx460 sli setup be better?

Yes, in every ****ing aspect - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/181?vs=158.

 

[Redmint]

Indeed, GTX 460 SLI is VERY fast.

 

[raikesi]

ok great but which one is best. my mate doesnt overclock so would it be worth getting a factory overclocked version?

 

[Mr Krugga]

If he absolutely doesn't overclock then Sonic Platinum is the value overclocked one at OcUK.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-002-PL&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1830

Otherwise the Gigabyte and MSI Afterburner to overclock:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-064-GI&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1830

Teach him how to overlock. Happy times.

 

[Duff-Man]

I would recommend a single GPU setup. Either a 5870, a GTX470 or a GTX480.

I don't want to keep banging the same old drum, but I would not recommend a GTX460 SLI setup, as benchmark performance with multi-GPU setups is not representative of real-world performance (click me).

 

[coupe69]

ok great but which one is best. my mate doesnt overclock so would it be worth getting a factory overclocked version?

Does this include not overclocking his cpu as well? He's going to be bottlenecked by the i7 if it's still at stock, especially if he's considering a SLi setup again.

+1 for the single 480 though.

 

[franco_22]

+1 for the single 480.

Single best graphics card is always better then 2 budget gpus.

 

[rounddodger]

+1 for the single 480, although if he's happy with sli then as mentioned above twin 1gb 460's have awesome performance.

 

[widdyst]

I would recommend a single GPU setup. Either a 5870, a GTX470 or a GTX480.

I don't want to keep banging the same old drum, but I would not recommend a GTX460 SLI setup, as benchmark performance with multi-GPU setups is not representative of real-world performance (click me).

Actually I dont think there is a definitive answer to this . Maybe a single gpu will perform best in some situations but i dont think all.
The only time I have noticed micro stutter or tearing to be an issue is with a fully maxed out crysis at 1920 x 1200. I am not saying it doesnt happen in other games but if it it does I couldnt detect it.
Also from some things I have read the new 400 series scales significantly better than the old 200's so I can only imagine things being smoother than my setup.
Sli 460's is definitely an upgrade avenue i shall be exploring