460,470 or 580? can't decide

[pbrain]

I'm undecided which way to go, i've got QUAD SLI 295's at the moment with a 920 @ 4.5Ghz (which has been great) but i'm interested in the DX11/Tesselation aspects.

options are:-

3x 460's (1008 cores), 1G mem, total cost around £450 - good clocking
3x 470's (1344 cores), 1280 mem, total cost around £600 - cores a plenty
2x 580's (1024 cores), 1536 mem, total cost around £850 - nice but costly

heart says 580's...brain says 460's!

 

[RavenXXX2]

580 SLI as you can only do 2 way SLI with the 460's Or three of these.Take in to account the 470 maybe replaced soon with the 570 which should run cooler and perform better.

 

[pbrain]

good point - doh!

 

[Cosimo]

2x 580's is a no-brainer.

 

[reiyushin]

2x 580s there.

Keep in mind the 570 might pop up soon along side the new AMD offerings.

 

[PhoenixUK]

I'd wait to see 69xx and lower end 5xx.

580 is quite overpriced for what it offers.
Worst case scenario is that in a month you'll be able to buy it a lot cheaper if the other new products aren't all that good.

 

[pbrain]

2x 580s there.

Keep in mind the 570 might pop up soon along side the new AMD offerings.

i can't see the point of a 570? there's already a 470. The 580 should really have been a 485, it's just an unlocked/better heatsinked 480 isn't it?

i've nothing against ATI/AMD cards, i just prefer the nvidia drivers...they work well (been with nvidia since AGP 6800GT)

 

[reiyushin]

The 570 is there to replace the 480 I think, it's cooler, quieter and should consume less power. The name game is a bit crap from both sides on this refresh.

I take it you're on a 30" screen? That's some serious horsepower you're looking at ^^

 

[Mr Krugga]

3x GTX470s will work out at £525 if you order Gigabyte 470 today.

GeForce 580s should still be available for £380 each if you have a look around for them. That would work out at £760 which is far less than your estimate.

Of course there's a question of noise and temps in both cases.

 

[pbrain]

The 570 is there to replace the 480 I think, it's cooler, quieter and should consume less power. The name game is a bit crap from both sides on this refresh.

I take it you're on a 30" screen? That's some serious horsepower you're looking at ^^

at the moment i'm using a 24" (1920x1200) i know 470's or 580's is overkill at the moment, but i don't want to buy 1 now, wait some months for another and have a mismatch (i've always bought the cards in pairs for maximum compatibility & vanity!) plus i should imagine these would be decent for at least 2 years.
once the cards are sorted, then i may upgrade the monitor(s)...and maybe change the CPU to 980X next year.

 

[Stromatolites]

Also, tri sli 460 isn't possilbe.

 

[pbrain]

3x GTX470s will work out at £525 if you order Gigabyte 470 today.

GeForce 580s should still be available for £380 each if you have a look around for them. That would work out at £760 which is far less than your estimate.

Of course there's a question of noise and temps in both cases.

what would you recommend? 3x 470's or 2x 580's?

PSU should be no problem (got an enermax 1250w), noise is no problem (case is under a very thick bench & i play loud!)

using an EVGA classified MB, so there's room for 3 cards.

will the extra cores of the 3x470's be as good as the faster clocked 2x580's?

 

[pbrain]

Also, tri sli 460 isn't possilbe.

yeah, i've been reminded earlier (shame really)

 

[straxusii]

2 580's, the extra vram will start to count more and more in the coming year I suspect