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Soooo... Upgrade GTX480 SLI to GTX660 SLI?

D13 said:
bear in mind though that is average fps, they don't mention the minimum.
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Yup but bear in mind too that the minimum FPS also has to be an "average minimum", because you can have one instance for 1ms where the FPS drops heavily just to leap up again for the rest of the 6min benchmark or so ... so would it be fair to say the minimum FPS e.g is 8 FPS when for the rest of the 6min run it never goes under 30FPS ?.
 
I use 480SLI with 2560x1600 and the performance is perfectly acceptable at around 50 to 60fps.

As others have said, wait for the next gen in which time there may be something out that'll need the extra grunt.
 
tape two GT340's together and you have a GTX680 for a fraction of the cost ^_^

On a serious note however, i would personally do the upgrade to save on electricity, and help prevent a nationwide heatwave every time i start gaming.
 
acme15 said:
tape two GT340's together and you have a GTX680 for a fraction of the cost ^_^

On a serious note however, i would personally do the upgrade to save on electricity, and help prevent a nationwide heatwave every time i start gaming.
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Interesting that according to your sig you still have a 480 yourself - also bearing in mind the expense of the upgrade, how long would it take to make that money back from the electricity saving? I suspect you'll be thinking about the next upgrade before that happens :p
 
sk3lph said:
Interesting that according to your sig you still have a 480 yourself - also bearing in mind the expense of the upgrade, how long would it take to make that money back from the electricity saving? I suspect you'll be thinking about the next upgrade before that happens :p
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I'm not too sure i'll be perfectly honest, I don't really monitor the power usage/cost of my PC, but i do know that at stock my single GTX480 draws about 250W, and I know that the Radeon HD7850 performs similarly to my GTX480, and the HD7850 draws about 130W of power... So tech has moved on a long way in terms of power usage...

A single 660TI draws around 150W. If you take into account the fact that all of the cards I have mentioned will draw different amounts of power depending on how much of their potential is being used at a given time, and the fact that they won't be running at 100% capacity for days on end (I am assuming), it is very hard to figure out the KW/h usage difference between a system with 480's and 660ti's... I should imagine it would be noticeable, and yet you are probably right in saying that you will never make up the difference before you upgrade again.
 
I'd agree, go with one top end card for now. And then pick up a second at a later date when prices drop. And when you have some more spare cash to play with.

You'll have enough performance with one top end card for now. And adding a second 670 or 680 will keep you going for longer than two 660's.


I have 480's in SLI, and can't fault them at the moment. Other than the heat and noise plus power use age. They run ever thing just fine with regards to performance.


I'm going to wait for the next gen most likely and get a GTX 780. Then when prices drop pick up a second. Unless 670's or 680's drop to a price point I can't ignore. :D
 
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tbh @ 1080p I would keep the 480's unless power usage was an issue, as I know 480SLI will run anything, hell battlefield 3 played perfect at max settings @ 1600p, so 1080p would be a piece of cake.
 
Yep they run great and ive tweaked the fan profile so they dont get so hot or noisy as they used to do.

Just a case of the upgrade itch i think :D

After doing the sums a 670 would cost me about £100 after selling the 480s?

Would you say it would be £100 well spemt?
 
MeatLoaf said:
Just a case of the upgrade itch i think :D

After doing the sums a 670 would cost me about £100 after selling the 480s?

Would you say it would be £100 well spemt?
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I don't think so. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/518?vs=598

That's a single GTX 570 vs a GTX 670. The GTX 570 is comparable to the GTX 480 if I remember correctly so I think you'd have to go 670 SLI at least to see a decent improvement. £400 on top of selling your cards roughly.

TBH, if you're running faster than a GTX 670, which it would seem you should be slightly going by Anandtech's results, maybe stay where you are unless you're willing to go SLI with 670/680?.
 
Just to muddy the water somewhat ive just seen that the 7950 cards arent as expensive as id thought. How would one of those compare to 480 SLI, bearing in mind i can always crossfire later?
 
Currently the games i play are BF3 multiplayer, MW2 and MW3 mp, Black ops MP. Ive still got metro 2033 to play thru and i hope to get Black ops2 and the new simcity when there out.

I know for the COD games 480SLI is overkill hence the original thought of a single 660
 
Single 660 or 660 Ti?

At 2560x the 660 Ti is impossible to recommend really over the 7950. At 1920x it holds up a lot better but tbh I'd still probably go for the 7950 unless the 660 Ti was a fair bit cheaper.

The 660 is a good card but its performance is similar to the 7870 so obviously that's a huge leap down from SLI 480s! Still ok for most stuff at 1920x though.
 
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