Add another gtx 280 for sli fun or go for single card solution?

[spartagates]

I'm mulling over an upgrade in time for BC3 I'm wondering which way to go; I'm going to pull out the old faithful q6600 and get an i5 2500k with 6gb so that should be taken care of cpu/ram side, but the gfx option is stumping me. Do I grab another gtx 280 for sli or go with a new single card solution? You can pick up the 280s cheap enough these days, but it would involve a power supply upgrade (recommendations welcomed!) so the savings could quickly be lost compared to singe card solution.

Advice would be welcomed!

 

[CaptainUnlikely]

A GTX 460 is equivalent to a 280 while using less power and being much quieter and cooler, I made the swap from a 280 to a 460 and was very happy.
What PSU do you currently have? Then we can recommend whether it's worth replacing it and getting another 280, or an alternative single card solution. Remember with the 280's you will miss out on DX11, though.

 

[spartagates]

thanks for the reply and fair points. Current psu is a antec 450w - came with the case and is a suprising unit, but not a hope of coping with sli and unsure with next gen units. Is dx11 really worth it?

 

[arc@css]

Buying a dx11 able gpu is not worth it for that alone.

 

[CaptainUnlikely]

You're probably looking at replacing the PSU anyway, a replacement card with better performance will be as power hungry if not more so than your current 280.
At this point, flip a coin really. 280s scale pretty well in SLI for the most part, so if you can find a cheap 280 I'd double them up, should handle BF3 nicely. On the other hand, a used 480 or similar will give you the same or better performance at peak, without the stuttering and scaling issues that can be present with SLI setups. Used 480s should be easy to find for under £200 as they did sell for £200 new until recently.
Either way is a viable option but I would recommend a new PSU. As above, you won't be missing out on all that much by sticking with DX10 cards, it was just something to take into consideration.

 

[spartagates]

You're probably looking at replacing the PSU anyway, a replacement card with better performance will be as power hungry if not more so than your current 280.
At this point, flip a coin really. 280s scale pretty well in SLI for the most part, so if you can find a cheap 280 I'd double them up, should handle BF3 nicely. On the other hand, a used 480 or similar will give you the same or better performance at peak, without the stuttering and scaling issues that can be present with SLI setups. Used 480s should be easy to find for under £200 as they did sell for £200 new until recently.
Either way is a viable option but I would recommend a new PSU. As above, you won't be missing out on all that much by sticking with DX10 cards, it was just something to take into consideration.

Thanks for that, I appreciate the advice. Think I will double up the 280 for now to keep the costs down for now, but will keep an eye on the 480s in the future.

 

[iostream]

....and not to nitpick but you'd be looking at either 4gb or 8gb or ram rather than 6gb, since sandy bridge has a dual channel memory controller.

Also what case do you have? I imagine GTX 280s in SLI will get rather warm

 

[iguanoid]

I would grab a 570 and a psu, and keep the 280 as a physx card. SLI has never really satisfied me personally.