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GTX 660 SLI Advice

mattacuk

mattacuk

mattacuk

Associate
Joined
3 Jan 2009
Posts
174
Location
Blackburn, Lancashire UK
Hey guys,

I have a single Asus GTX6602GB which has been great, but this weekend I bought FarCry3 and found it really taxed my GPU more than I expected! This has prompted an upgrade itch.

Now I was going to wait untill next summer to upgrade my GPU to either the new GTX800 series or the upcoming AMD 9000 series offerings. But I was thinking maybe it would be a good idea to add in another GTX660 as I've seen OCUK selling an MSI offering for just £155.

My question is, do you recommend me going SLI or waiting for the heavy hitting cards?

Im not convinced laying down £500+ on GTX780 now is a good idea in the long run so a budget option seems a better idea for the interim?

Any thoughts appreciated!


Edit:- I forgot to mention my rig specs;

i5 750 @ 3.8Ghz
8GB DDR3
3 x SSD
Single Monitor @ 1900 x 1200
 
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Won't be long until the usuals come in here to tell you to go red as your 256bit bus is just not cutting it!

But as for Farcry 3, the game is a pig and rarely runs perfectly. Think of it this way though, if you got a GTX 780 now, you could get another in the future for SLI ;)
 
Krisali said:
Won't be long until the usuals come in here to tell you to go red as your 256bit bus is just not cutting it!

But as for Farcry 3, the game is a pig and rarely runs perfectly. Think of it this way though, if you got a GTX 780 now, you could get another in the future for SLI ;)
Click to expand...

But when that time comes for SLI, you could then just say, get GTX880 and sli later? :confused:

Is FC3 the only game you struggle to play?
I think I read that its not the problem with specs/drivers but more to do with the engine they use?
 
Jony27 said:
But when that time comes for SLI, you could then just say, get GTX880 and sli later? :confused:

Is FC3 the only game you struggle to play?
I think I read that its not the problem with specs/drivers but more to do with the engine they use?
Click to expand...

Yes I suppose he could wait another 12 months for GTX 880. Makes sense....
 
Jony27 said:
Is FC3 the only game you struggle to play?
I think I read that its not the problem with specs/drivers but more to do with the engine they use?
Click to expand...

Its not so much that it struggles to play, but I like all the eye-candy on which obviously hits the frame rates. Everything else I play is smooth as a very smooth thing :p

I just get this feeling that if I drop some money now, im going to regret at least not waiting untill the end of the year when the new consoles are out. Im sure AMD and Nvidia will be dueling it out by that point!! :)
 
Trouble with waiting is you could wait forever theres always something better coming out.

155 pounds is not the dearest upgrade and as long as you dont have to buy a new psu id say go for it, i have a friend sli'ing the gtx660ti and he loves them.
 
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should have picked up one of the weekend 670/680's deals mmm wish i had the money, I just dont see SLI'ing 660's that worth it just for one game to run a bit better personally id wait for the 800 line and hope they release some magic FC3 drivers

especially as it looks like you need a new psu to run SLI (plus take the extra heat generation and power use into account)
 
Krisali said:
Won't be long until the usuals come in here to tell you to go red as your 256bit bus is just not cutting it!

But as for Farcry 3, the game is a pig and rarely runs perfectly. Think of it this way though, if you got a GTX 780 now, you could get another in the future for SLI ;)
Click to expand...
Troll bait much?

And get your fact straight, the GTX660 is 192-bit, not even 256-bit. It's been shown in many game benckmarks that the frame rate fall sharply beyond 2xAA on the 192-bit cards such as the 660. This is the direct result of the low memory bandwidth.

Turning your bait around, anyone can easily say "won't be long before the usual coming in telling your the lower memory bandwidth resulted from the 256-bit bus don't matter, so you should pay the same money for a card that gives you lower memory bandwidth and lesser vram" :rolleyes:

>OP

Anyway, as others have already said, FC3 has always been somewhat broken when it comes to performance, so I wouldn't recommend you considering upgrade based on that game alone. For most games if you are not using beyond 2xAA and Ultra-ing on everything, your 660 should last you till next gen of cards. Also, overclock your 660 if you not yet done so.
 
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If Farcry3 is the only game giving you a problem I would resist the urge to upgrade as this would involve getting a new PSU as well.
 
Well as mentioned. My fiancée plays FarCry 3 in 1920x1080 with 4xMSAA/16xAF and she's quite happy with the performance of GTX 660 2GB SLI. The 192bit issue, may be more apparent with 8xAA or 2560x1440 with 4xAA, but as for now, she's a happy fragger :)
 
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