Hi guys,
I've been thinking lately about taking the step up to SLI. The last time I tried it was back when 12 mb Voodoo 2 cards could do it, and were the cutting edge of graphics technology, which was a while ago
Currently I have a 700W modular Tagan PSU and a 3GB GTX 580 at stock clock speed. I'm also running 8GB RAM on an i5 2500K clocked to 4.3 and an SSD cached WD Black 1TB hard drive.
As 3GB 580's seem a little rare these days, and the new Kepler cards are out, should I sell my card and get 2 new cards, or should I try and source another 3gb 580?
I play a range of stuff like GW2, Rift, Diablo 3, Crysis 2, Sleeping Dogs and other games that don't really push my card too hard, except for the fact I run almost everything in 3D (on a single 27" Asus 120hz monitor at 1920x1080 with 2x FSAA max, any more is a waste as 3D provides its own form of AA).
Most games play at 60FPS, but Rift and GW2 can sometimes push the card really hard. With Crysis 3 incoming, as well as Unreal Engine 4 and Frostbite 2 titles, I wouldn't mind a bit more power.
I'm not sure if 3D increases the amount of VRAM being used and I've not had a chance to try another 580 with 1.5 GB to see if there is any performance difference, so would it still be effective to get a 1.5gb 580 if a 3gb wasn't available (I know that using mismatched memory sizes defaults to the lower value) and does anyone know if 3D does use up more texture memory?
If I was to go with a newer pair of cards what would you recommend vs a GTX580 for any titles which don't do well with SLI where I would have to drop back to a single card? ATI isn't an option for me because I use nVidia 3D vision for 3D.
Thanks, and sorry for the slightly long post!
I've been thinking lately about taking the step up to SLI. The last time I tried it was back when 12 mb Voodoo 2 cards could do it, and were the cutting edge of graphics technology, which was a while ago
Currently I have a 700W modular Tagan PSU and a 3GB GTX 580 at stock clock speed. I'm also running 8GB RAM on an i5 2500K clocked to 4.3 and an SSD cached WD Black 1TB hard drive.
As 3GB 580's seem a little rare these days, and the new Kepler cards are out, should I sell my card and get 2 new cards, or should I try and source another 3gb 580?
I play a range of stuff like GW2, Rift, Diablo 3, Crysis 2, Sleeping Dogs and other games that don't really push my card too hard, except for the fact I run almost everything in 3D (on a single 27" Asus 120hz monitor at 1920x1080 with 2x FSAA max, any more is a waste as 3D provides its own form of AA).
Most games play at 60FPS, but Rift and GW2 can sometimes push the card really hard. With Crysis 3 incoming, as well as Unreal Engine 4 and Frostbite 2 titles, I wouldn't mind a bit more power.
I'm not sure if 3D increases the amount of VRAM being used and I've not had a chance to try another 580 with 1.5 GB to see if there is any performance difference, so would it still be effective to get a 1.5gb 580 if a 3gb wasn't available (I know that using mismatched memory sizes defaults to the lower value) and does anyone know if 3D does use up more texture memory?
If I was to go with a newer pair of cards what would you recommend vs a GTX580 for any titles which don't do well with SLI where I would have to drop back to a single card? ATI isn't an option for me because I use nVidia 3D vision for 3D.
Thanks, and sorry for the slightly long post!