Budget SLI - Or Single GOOD GFX Card

Hazeno · 24 Jul 2013 at 17:36

Just bought a rig for the bedroom and was thinking i need to upgrade the GFX Card in there. It's got a low profile Nvidia GT430 In there ATM. And it's definitely a bag of rubbish now lol.

What do we think here guys? Got a couple of £100 to spend. Dual SLI o some 650's? Or Blow out on a 770?

snips86x · 24 Jul 2013 at 17:52

What is your budget?
What is the rest of your rig?

Timeconsumer0 · 24 Jul 2013 at 18:08

single card is normally better.

teppic · 24 Jul 2013 at 18:13

With £200 you should look at the 760 or the 7950 with 8 games. Definitely not 2x650.

Nocky24 · 24 Jul 2013 at 18:49

Blow out on a 770 now and consider sli at a later date as and when required. I always go for the best single card I can buy. Would like to know the cpu though so we can properly advise.

scotsdragon · 24 Jul 2013 at 18:50

Although crossfire and SLI have come along way you get less issues with one single powerfull card

teppic · 24 Jul 2013 at 19:05

The 650 is pretty weak and only has 1GB memory. I'm not even sure it'll do SLI. It wouldn't match a 760 anyway.

whyscotty · 24 Jul 2013 at 19:13

What Psu have you got?

Will you be overclocking the cards?

What res monitor are you using?

spaceburge · 24 Jul 2013 at 20:12

SLI or CrossFire updates in drivers always lag behind the single card solutions. With a slight bit of overclocking on a 770 will deliver great results.

I'm currently using a single overclocked 680 from Gigabyte. Not the best of the non-reference cards but no game struggles. The 770 will be even smoother.

Only time you'll want SLI in truth is for 2560x1440

spoffle · 24 Jul 2013 at 20:15

teppic said:
With £200 you should look at the 760 or the 7950 with 8 games. Definitely not 2x650.

This. You just can't beat the value of a 7950 with 8 games.

Zeed · 24 Jul 2013 at 21:01

spoffle+1 loads of games and good card. You can sell games and get some cash back

varkanoid · 24 Jul 2013 at 22:00

teppic said:
The 650 is pretty weak and only has 1GB memory. I'm not even sure it'll do SLI. It wouldn't match a 760 anyway.

MSI GeForce GTX 650 Black Knight OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Gainward GeForce GTX 650Ti Boost Golden Sample 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

650 TI 2gb SLI is supposed to be pretty good on a budget
although I would always go for the best single card you can get IMHO.

teppic · 24 Jul 2013 at 22:13

The 650 Ti Boost isn't the same card as a 650.

The NVIDIA website says neither the 650 nor 650 Ti support SLI.

ALXAndy · 24 Jul 2013 at 23:32

You can't even SLI the 650 unless you run a hack like HyperSLI. You can do it with two 650ti BOOST cards but -

1. The boost is priced all wrong. The 660 is about £5 more.

2. The 660 is about £5 more.

So you're looking around £250 or so but it is worth it as they're right up there with the 770.

Krisali · 25 Jul 2013 at 00:19

If it's a choice between a 660 and a 7950 I would take the 7950. Really nice card

MeatLoaf · 25 Jul 2013 at 00:27

Krisali said:
If it's a choice between a 660 and a 7950 I would take the 7950. Really nice card

+1 Ive had both a 660 and 7950 and the 7950 was the much nicer card. Plus the 8 free games make it a really sweet deal

Nuclear Fusion · 25 Jul 2013 at 11:50

7950 with the free games gets my vote, sell them off and you end up with a great value card. Shame I bought mine back when it only came with Sleeping Dogs

Drangueos · 25 Jul 2013 at 11:54

One move vote to 7950

wojsku · 25 Jul 2013 at 13:50

if you could afford 770 that's possibly the best solution. otherwise 7950 with games is an absolute no brainer.