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GTX 570 in Sli or a single GTX 670?

BattleMoose87

BattleMoose87

BattleMoose87

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14 Oct 2012
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Birmingham
As thread title says, which is preferable for gaming? Should I buy another GTX 570 to sli with my current one, or sell my current 570 to put towards a 670? This will be my first experience of Sli and the possibilities of micro stutter have put me off in the past.
 
570's will be faster than a single 670 however the VRAM limit will most likely impact on you're ability to make the best of the cards.

Most of the benchmarks you see use extreme settings which punishes the 570's memory limit and exaggerate the 670 vs 570 performance.

SLI will be noisier, you'll need a 750W or preferably 850W psu

What games are you playing, what res and how much performance improvement do you need.

AD
 
I'm only at 1680x1050 at the moment but will be upgrading soon, and I have an 850W PSU. At the moment I'm playing games like Battlefield 3, Natural Selection 2, Crysis 3, Tomb Raider (tomorrow) and will be getting the Arma 3 Alpha. Also looking forward to Rome Total War 2.

My other specs are i5 2500k OC'd to 4.2Ghz, Asus P8Z77 V-LX mobo, 16GB 1600Mhz G Skill Ripjaw RAM.
 
If you would rather use Nvidia then it becomes more difficult to advise. If Nvidia's price reflected their performance compared to AMD then I should have been able to offer the GTX670 for around £240 for the cheapest one. Sadly they have not cared about what the figures say and pricing has remained. The only alternative for a single card that is worthwhile IMO (budget wise), is the 7950. This card overclocks pretty well usually but that doesn't guarantee you anything remember, it just heightens the chance.

If you're on 1680x1050 then 570 SLI would be a bit overkill for that resolution and as said above, when you enlarge the resolution then VRAM might be more susceptible to limitation if you went SLI. Then the offer of the 670 is overpriced so I'm not sure what to do here if it's Nvidia only.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-164-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2294

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-098-GI

If, however you're set on Nvidia, go for the GTX 670 as the GTX 680 isn't worth the extra IMO and the GTX660Ti isn't worth the extra over the GTX 660. I'm not bashing Nvidia due to being an AMD fanboi (although they are a sexy lot), it's just that with the "Never Settle" driver release from AMD which gave the company a massive boost in games/benchmarks somehow didn't effect Nvidia's pricing too much at all. That annoys me as the higher value is usually representative of the performance and in this case, it's completely wrong. AMD or possibly the retailers (I bloody hope not), have driven top end 7970s up £140 in the last couple of months, so whoever is controlling these price ranges are putting AMD in the same light. Although when the 7950/70s launched, the pricing was just as high as Nvidia but when the GTX 600 series cards came out, AMD dropped their pricing pretty quickly. I just wish Nvidia would do the same.

Sorry for the rant but I'd rather explain my negativity than just say "boooo @ Nvidia" followed by "ya-a-a-ay AMD!!!!".

What size of resolution are you thinking of moving up to?. It's quite important due to VRAM differences between the 670/680 and the 7950/7970. It will help us to advise you what to choose. Don't be put off in replying, my next comment won't be as large lol. As for microstutter, I've not really experienced it yet but I've been playing BF3 and Pro Evo 2013 only for months (:o) so I'd wait on someone with experience to let you know.
 
How much Vram do the 570's have?

i'd aim for a minimum of 2GB, and make a choice from that. Tombraider can use 1.5GB and battlefield uses quite a lot too.
 
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J.D said:
If you would rather use Nvidia then it becomes more difficult to advise. If Nvidia's price reflected their performance compared to AMD then I should have been able to offer the GTX670 for around £240 for the cheapest one. Sadly they have not cared about what the figures say and pricing has remained. The only alternative for a single card that is worthwhile IMO (budget wise), is the 7950. This card overclocks pretty well usually but that doesn't guarantee you anything remember, it just heightens the chance.

If you're on 1680x1050 then 570 SLI would be a bit overkill for that resolution and as said above, when you enlarge the resolution then VRAM might be more susceptible to limitation if you went SLI. Then the offer of the 670 is overpriced so I'm not sure what to do here if it's Nvidia only.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-164-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2294

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-098-GI

If, however you're set on Nvidia, go for the GTX 670 as the GTX 680 isn't worth the extra IMO and the GTX660Ti isn't worth the extra over the GTX 660. I'm not bashing Nvidia due to being an AMD fanboi (although they are a sexy lot), it's just that with the "Never Settle" driver release from AMD which gave the company a massive boost in games/benchmarks somehow didn't effect Nvidia's pricing too much at all. That annoys me as the higher value is usually representative of the performance and in this case, it's completely wrong. AMD or possibly the retailers (I bloody hope not), have driven top end 7970s up £140 in the last couple of months, so whoever is controlling these price ranges are putting AMD in the same light. Although when the 7950/70s launched, the pricing was just as high as Nvidia but when the GTX 600 series cards came out, AMD dropped their pricing pretty quickly. I just wish Nvidia would do the same.

Sorry for the rant but I'd rather explain my negativity than just say "boooo @ Nvidia" followed by "ya-a-a-ay AMD!!!!".

What size of resolution are you thinking of moving up to?. It's quite important due to VRAM differences between the 670/680 and the 7950/7970. It will help us to advise you what to choose. Don't be put off in replying, my next comment won't be as large lol. As for microstutter, I've not really experienced it yet but I've been playing BF3 and Pro Evo 2013 only for months (:o) so I'd wait on someone with experience to let you know.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. It used to feel like that by paying the extra for an Nvidia card bought you better driver support, but looking around AMD seemed to have pulled up their socks since merging the ATi and AMD brands.

Resolution wise I'm undecided. Initially I was looking at 1920x1200 (I prefer 16:10) or 1920x1080, but upon browsing I have seen a few 2560x1440 monitors that have caught my eye.

If I could justify it, I could get GTX680 4GB Sli along with a 2560x1440 IPS monitor. BUt how much of an upgrade is that higher res monitor in real world terms?
 
i had a 570 and considered this exact problem.

I went sli 570's and was the biggest mistake i ever made. The cards are a fair bit more powerful than a single 670 not massivly though. Probably about 680 speeds.

The problem was I kept hitting Vram issues in BF3 and a few other games FPS dropped to 30's from 100's whenever anythign happened.

Ended up swapping the 570's for a 670 ftw and never looked back. Better performance as no vram issues, less power draw less heat more room in case better in every way.
 
J.D said:
If you would rather use Nvidia then it becomes more difficult to advise. If Nvidia's price reflected their performance compared to AMD then I should have been able to offer the GTX670 for around £240 for the cheapest one. Sadly they have not cared about what the figures say and pricing has remained. The only alternative for a single card that is worthwhile IMO (budget wise), is the 7950. This card overclocks pretty well usually but that doesn't guarantee you anything remember, it just heightens the chance.

If you're on 1680x1050 then 570 SLI would be a bit overkill for that resolution and as said above, when you enlarge the resolution then VRAM might be more susceptible to limitation if you went SLI. Then the offer of the 670 is overpriced so I'm not sure what to do here if it's Nvidia only.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-164-MS&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2294

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-098-GI

If, however you're set on Nvidia, go for the GTX 670 as the GTX 680 isn't worth the extra IMO and the GTX660Ti isn't worth the extra over the GTX 660. I'm not bashing Nvidia due to being an AMD fanboi (although they are a sexy lot), it's just that with the "Never Settle" driver release from AMD which gave the company a massive boost in games/benchmarks somehow didn't effect Nvidia's pricing too much at all. That annoys me as the higher value is usually representative of the performance and in this case, it's completely wrong. AMD or possibly the retailers (I bloody hope not), have driven top end 7970s up £140 in the last couple of months, so whoever is controlling these price ranges are putting AMD in the same light. Although when the 7950/70s launched, the pricing was just as high as Nvidia but when the GTX 600 series cards came out, AMD dropped their pricing pretty quickly. I just wish Nvidia would do the same.

Sorry for the rant but I'd rather explain my negativity than just say "boooo @ Nvidia" followed by "ya-a-a-ay AMD!!!!".

What size of resolution are you thinking of moving up to?. It's quite important due to VRAM differences between the 670/680 and the 7950/7970. It will help us to advise you what to choose. Don't be put off in replying, my next comment won't be as large lol. As for microstutter, I've not really experienced it yet but I've been playing BF3 and Pro Evo 2013 only for months (:o) so I'd wait on someone with experience to let you know.
Click to expand...

My way of looking at this is to always buy the card that's the best value in a given price range. If nvidia want to keep their price high and let all but "fanboys" (used loosely here, I'm not bashing) drift to the other camp that's their downfall I guess. I'd have considered 670 but when there's a 7950's available quite a bit cheaper that clearly spank it in benchmarks I don't see the point.

I'm thinking back and the last time ATI was really dominant was around the Radeon 9700/9800 pro, which happens to line up fairly well with console releases. I think there's going to be a lot to say for AMD having their chips in both consoles and PC's - that probably makes console ports easier to get running/looking nice on ATI hardware. It's a pretty shrewd move.

I'd definitely have stuck an nvidia card in my box, the 480 has been lovely but they don't get it with the pricing :( Went with the gigabyte 7950 WF in the end.
 
I have never bothered with sli myself. It's just too much driver hassle, heat, noise and power usage to be worthwhile. Always go for the fastest single GPU card you can afford.
 
IvanDobskey said:
I have never bothered with sli myself. It's just too much driver hassle, heat, noise and power usage to be worthwhile. Always go for the fastest single GPU card you can afford.
Click to expand...

Well I've just jumped to SLI yesterday, 2x670's (previously had a 680) and tbh there wasn't much hassle, I had an initial issue as the SLI bridge I used appeared to be borked but I've collected those things over the years from mobos so got plenty of spares. Beyond that it's stupidly easy really - pop a 2nd card in, add the bridge and restart and nvidia even prompts you to enable SLI :)

Heat and noise I agree on with you, but I'll be putting WC blocks on to combat that. As for power usage, I can live with that :D
 
gigeorge said:
And then spend a few hours sorting all the issues that sli brings?!
Click to expand...

Well so far everything has worked out of the box (tried numerous benchies and more importantly games). But honestly if it takes a couple of hours or more to get things working initially is that such a bad thing?

Granted I'm speaking from 1 day of experience but usually adopting things day one is the worst :)
 
Deceptor said:
Well so far everything has worked out of the box (tried numerous benchies and more importantly games). But honestly if it takes a couple of hours or more to get things working initially is that such a bad thing?

Granted I'm speaking from 1 day of experience but usually adopting things day one is the worst :)
Click to expand...

What games are you using to benchmark and what are the results against your previous single GPU?
 
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BattleMoose87 said:
What games are you using to benchmark and what are the results against youtr previous single GPU?
Click to expand...

Tried out Crysis 3, BF3 and AC3 so far (what's with the THREES?!) and on average I'm seeing a 30-50% boost over my GTX 680 which is what I expected. So far not run into any scaling issues although I'm sure that'll happen (especially with newer games) but I'm happy with the results. Although the reason for me going SLI is purely because I like to game at 120Hz and a single 680 @ 1080p wasn't able to do that with games fully maxed out most of the time and Crysis 3 was pretty much unplayable ranging from 20-40 FPS (avging 30) until I knocked settings down (namely AA/AF).

I can probably compile some numbers if you like, just need to wait for my better half to get off her PC since she has the 680 now :p (She had the 670 before, hence why I went 670 SLI vs 680 SLI, and it's a win-win for us both :))
 
Thanks Deceptor. Great plan using your girlfriend as a route to an upgrade ;)

Can anyone spec me the best performance from OCuk of a SLi GTX 670, a single GTX 680 or a 7970.
 
I've had 2GB GTX560TI's in SLI for over a year. While I haven't played every game out there I can't say I found any real SLI issues with the modern games I've played. Battlefield 3 is great with the 2GB SLI cards maxed @ 1080p where 1GB cards fall over due to VRAM

Install, click enable SLI and play the game.

I'd still recommend a GTX670 or AMD 79x0 rather than the SLI pair. The GTX570's are Vram limited at higher resolutions.

GTX680 vs GTX670 is marginal. Get a decent 670 and OC. If that's not enough then buy another.

The only caution to the AMD card would be battlefield 3. Nvidia own that benchmark with a GTX670 being 30% faster than the 7950 (toms gtx670 benchmarks)

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Edit

GTX670 GTX680 and 7970 would be mostly indistinguishable without a FPS counter in the corner ..... SLI 670 or 7950 would be significantly faster than any single card
 
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BattleMoose87 said:
Thanks Deceptor. Great plan using your girlfriend as a route to an upgrade ;)

Can anyone spec me the best performance from OCuk of a SLi GTX 670, a single GTX 680 or a 7970.
Click to expand...

Any excuse right :D

I did have a Valley bench screenshot from the 680 and I did run one yesterday with the 670s. The 680 was OC'd as much as mine could take and the 670s are OC'd but I've not found the maximum I can push although I feel like it was close:

CPU clocked to 4.6 Ghz
1x GTX 680 (Score: 1,985) http://i.imgur.com/rB2SpJN.jpg
2x GTX 670 (Score: 3,524) http://i.imgur.com/1uCWRjj.jpg

Just in case you were wondering, the 680 is a reference card bought at launch not an OC edition or anything, and the 670s are the reference EVGA ones so no OC on them either :)
 
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