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tri sli gtx 580 or somthing else?.

Sgt Tackleberry

Sgt Tackleberry

Sgt Tackleberry

Associate
Joined
28 Oct 2010
Posts
2,446
Location
Colchester
hi guys and girls,

Need some advice. I'm thinking of adding another gtx 580 3gb to my system so i will be having tri sli. I'm not sure if my psu is up to the job,
I have a corsair hx 1000w, would i need more power or not?.
Or would it be worth be selling them and getting something like x/fire 7970 or sli gtx 670/80 4gb cards?.

I game at 5760x1080 res, I've only just went to 3 monitors and love it but i would love abit more grunt when gaming.

Or do you think i'm stupid and keep my sli gtx 580's as they are ok and can run most games at 30-100fps in games.

Thanks

Sgt T
 
If you must upgrade, seeing as 660ti's, 670's and 7970's and even 7950's all beat a 580, i'd say sell the 580's whilst their price is still high (£300 on OCUK or so, same or more than these higher end cards). Then as you use triple monitor take CF 7970's :)
 
Katsumoto said:
If you must upgrade, seeing as 660ti's, 670's and 7970's and even 7950's all beat a 580, i'd say sell the 580's whilst their price is still high (£300 on OCUK or so, same or more than these higher end cards). Then as you use triple monitor take CF 7970's :)
Click to expand...

Why 7970's at triple resolution? 670/680 are more than fine at this resolution. I hope you're not going to quote VRAM again. I'm not advocating either I'm just questioning why you're only recommending 7970's without asking more questions... Namely what monitors? Some monitors only work one way in 3D and he may want to retain 3D gaming if he already has the ability.
 
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p.s. I wouldn't personally bother with 580 tri-SLI but that's just my personal choice. You'll get better scaling with 2 cards so now may be a good time to sell them on.
 
If your talking 3 gb gtx 580s I would be inclined to say hang on to them and get another for tri sli. This should give you performance aproaching 2 gtx 670s or HD 7970s at much less cost.
 
Rusty0611 said:
Why 7970's at triple resolution? 670/680 are more than fine at this resolution. I hope you're not going to quote VRAM again. I'm not advocating either I'm just questioning why you're only recommending 7970's.
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7970's are quite consistently the better card are these resolutions from the reviews i've read. I'm not going on VRAM again, although as you stated in previous post it does start to come to play at triple/quad gpu setups (which the OP can obviously support).

Also the OP seems to have a need for 3gb of VRAM for something presumably, else why have it? 1.5gb of VRAM is still ok today even at that res.

edit: @above. Why keep the 580's?

GPU costs:

580: ~£300
670: ~£300
7970: ~£300
660ti: ~£250
7950: ~250

All in the same price region, and the 580 is the worst performing card of them all. So the OP is going to be spending around £300 anyway. £300 covers one card of todays tech (670/7970) and i'm sure you can sell 2*3gb 580's for more than £300. Even if 2 of them only went for £300 (which is insane) he'd be able to afford an SLI configuration on today tech and not cost him a penny extra, whilst getting about the same performance as 3*580's (i think). It also means he stays on 2 GPU's and has more modern tech so that setup would last longer.
 
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Katsumoto said:
7970's are quite consistently the better card are these resolutions from the reviews i've read. I'm not going on VRAM again, although as you stated in previous post it does start to come to play at triple/quad gpu setups (which the OP can obviously support).

Also the OP seems to have a need for 3gb of VRAM for something presumably, else why have it? 1.5gb of VRAM is still ok today even at that res.
Click to expand...

Depends entirely on the game. The 7970 and 680 are neck and neck to take an overall position.

1.5GB of VRAM is not enough at 5760*1080.
 
I was going to go this very route - but re-sale prices on 3GB 580's were rediculously high still and I managed to get more for my 3GB 580 than a 670 was going for so made that jump instead

I get much better frame rates with 670-SLI 2GB than I did with 580-SLI
I would love to see some SLI/TRI-SLI 660ti 3GB results on 3 screens to compare with 670-2GB results that are more widely available
 
I still like my gtx 580 3gb sli setup and i would add another one to my setup if my psu can do it.

Only reason i said about the newer cards as just for the simple reason as they are newer and use less power.

Vram is not an issus here, so dont get that idea in your heads, lol.

just want to see what people think really before i take the plunge really.
 
Sgt Tackleberry said:
I still like my gtx 580 3gb sli setup and i would add another one to my setup if my psu can do it.

Only reason i said about the newer cards as just for the simple reason as they are newer and use less power.

Vram is not an issus here, so dont get that idea in your heads, lol.

just want to see what people think really before i take the plunge really.
Click to expand...

Well read what I said on my edit :) Even if somehow you only sell those 580's at £150 each which is super low, you end up spending the same anyway (if you upgrade to triple 580's, dual 670's or dual 7970's). So if you are upgrading, it makes more sense to get the newer stuff and sell the old whilst the price is still high.

Also Rusty, lets be fair. Compare the 670 to the 7970, the 680 is a totally different price region, unless you go for the silly toxic 6gb vram 7970 which really is pointless.
 
Sgt Tackleberry said:
I still like my gtx 580 3gb sli setup and i would add another one to my setup if my psu can do it.

Only reason i said about the newer cards as just for the simple reason as they are newer and use less power.

Vram is not an issus here, so dont get that idea in your heads, lol.

just want to see what people think really before i take the plunge really.
Click to expand...

3 way SLI will pull around 720W - 750W. Add in your CPU/Mobo/RAM/HDD's/DVD anbd you will be very very close to your 1000W OC on the CPU and GPU's will push it over I feel.
 
Katsumoto said:
Also Rusty, lets be fair. Compare the 670 to the 7970, the 680 is a totally different price region, unless you go for the silly toxic 6gb vram 7970 which really is pointless.
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It is fair. Flagship card vs flagship card. And if you buy at the right time the difference is £40. AMD's cards were priced in line with Nvidia's until AMD dropped their prices to compete. Adding prices to the equation just confuses matter and diverts from the issue at hand: performance.

The 670 is only about 5% slower and more often than not cheaper if you did want to use price (like for like models) so....
 
It's all a moot point anyway. The 7970's are good cards but you can't just recommend them with the reasons you have stated and without checking which monitors he has (in case of locked 3D compatability).

That was my point. I don't wish to get into another 670/7970 discussion as that is not what the OP is asking.
 
I'd go for another GTX580, you can pick them up second hand for cheap now, just got to find the 3Gb ones. You should be fine with the HX1000 tbh.
 
Rusty0611 said:
It's all a moot point anyway. The 7970's are good cards but you can't just recommend them with the reasons you have stated and without checking which monitors he has (in case of locked 3D compatability).

That was my point. I don't wish to get into another 670/7970 discussion as that is not what the OP is asking.
Click to expand...

That's fair enough. Then lets discuss his choices:

Tri-Sli GTX 580's
Dual-Sli GTX 670's
Dual-Sli GTX 660ti's
Dual-CF 7970's
Dual CF 7950's

These all fall within the amount of money we have to play with due to the sale value of 2*GTX 580's.

If saving money, aka the 660ti/7950 option. Go with the 7950's. Based on the averages of reviews the 7950 is slightly better. Source below:

http://www.3dcenter.org/artikel/lau...nch-analyse-nvidia-geforce-gtx-660-ti-seite-2

Also the memory bandwidth may cause issues on the 660ti at the resolutions and settings the OP will want to be playing with.

If going for modern tech then it's the 670 verses the 7970 discussion all over again. Both are around the same price-point. Lets agree to disagree here though, at the same price i'd take a 7970. That's me. And certainly based on my games preference they are better. This is the best performance option probably (not seen a triple 580 vs dual 670/7970 comparison). At the least, it's the option with the most longevity. If you have a mobo that can run triple SLI setups then another 670/7970 in the future is an option.

Then there's the 3rd 580. I personally wouldn't. They are bound to drop in price dramatically soon with the release of the 660ti really hammering home the point that they cost as much/more than better performing cards.

Even if they perform better as a triple gpu setup than the dual gpu setups mentioned, you'll end up spending more at a future date to upgrade your gpu's because the 580's won't sell as well by the time you need more power as 670's/7970's will. Something to consider.
 
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But the 670's are cheaper :(

I do agree regarding 580 tri-SLI not being desirable. 6**/7*** series crossfire definitely the better option IMO.
 
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