Going for a new 6core setup. Should i upgrade my GPU from a 570 or just get another and SLI?

Serial45 · 29 Jul 2012 at 22:07

Hey guys,

Overdue an upgrade so decided to go for a 6core x79 setup with 16 gig memory.
I realise the bottleneck will be my 570. I'm unsure whether to sell it for approx £175-200 and buy a new GPU or just buy another and SLI them?

Thanks in advance.

synixx · 29 Jul 2012 at 22:10

For starters I don't think you'd get that much if you sold them, but then that's of benefit if you want to go sli as you can get another on the cheap. The only downside to sli I can think of is the 1.3gb ram will be a limiting factor for the games that really need the power such as battlefield 3.

kharma45 · 29 Jul 2012 at 22:14

Yeah you won't get anywhere near that for selling your 570, a brand new one on OCUK is £209.99, and on that well know auction site there is a used one finishing tomorrow sitting at £113.

spixelspixel · 29 Jul 2012 at 22:21

You will get 150-160 pounds for a 570.

2 of them will beat any current single gpu. 1.3gb vram will not limit you in the slightest so I'd for for another 570 if you have at least a decent 750w psu.

Serial45 · 29 Jul 2012 at 22:26

Thanks for the advice guys, Yeah I have a 900w enermax psu. Another 570 it is then

Nickolp1974 · 29 Jul 2012 at 22:52

Some reading for you http://www.overclock.net/t/1243717/gtx-570-sli-or-one-gtx-680

My 7970 in bf3 uses 1.45gig @ 1080 with 2xAA, sbao and terrain detail set to high, all rest on ultra.

Whats your budget if you were to buy a new single card?

Serial45 · 30 Jul 2012 at 08:32

Nickolp1974 said:
Some reading for you http://www.overclock.net/t/1243717/gtx-570-sli-or-one-gtx-680

My 7970 in bf3 uses 1.45gig @ 1080 with 2xAA, sbao and terrain detail set to high, all rest on ultra.

Whats your budget if you were to buy a new single card?

I'd estimate around £350.

Thanks for that topic mate, certainly changed my view. Thinking about going for a 680. Or possibly a switch to AMD.

Kaapstad · 30 Jul 2012 at 08:41

Hey guys,

Overdue an upgrade so decided to go for a 6core x79 setup with 16 gig memory.
I realise the bottleneck will be my 570. I'm unsure whether to sell it for approx £175-200 and buy a new GPU or just buy another and SLI them?

Thanks in advance.

If you are happy with the graphics on your current system why upgrade. Your gtx 570 will not perform any worse on an x79 system.

If you do want to upgrade. What do you need out of your system. Which games do you play, What settings (do you need everything maxed ?) are you going to keep the 3007.

andybird123 · 30 Jul 2012 at 09:28

kharma45 said:
Yeah you won't get anywhere near that for selling your 570, a brand new one on OCUK is £209.99, and on that well know auction site there is a used one finishing tomorrow sitting at £113.

when I was selling my 580 on that auction site, I got several messages from people telling me what price they were on the MM and that I would never get the price I was asking... 2 days later it sold for full asking price, items on there tend to shoot up in price in the last few minutes as people try to out do each other to get "a deal" not realising they are in fact about to pay shop price for a 2nd hand item

never underestimate the stupidity of auction site users

@theOP... 570 SLI will be VRAM limited either now depending on what games you play, or in the very near future the next time you pick up a new game
I even had VRAM limit situations on a 580 1.5GB, hence why I'm now on 670's

if you can stomach it, sell the 570 now and then see what 660ti brings to the party mid august (or just bite the bullet and get a 670 now)

Serial45 · 30 Jul 2012 at 09:54

Kaapstad said:
If you are happy with the graphics on your current system why upgrade. Your gtx 570 will not perform any worse on an x79 system.

If you do want to upgrade. What do you need out of your system. Which games do you play, What settings (do you need everything maxed ?) are you going to keep the 3007.

Forgot to update my sig guys. I swopped to a 24" benq 120hz monitor. The dell was poor for gaming.

I'll mostly be playing world of warcraft, mass effect 3, battlefield 3. Want it future proof for some titles.

Nickolp1974 · 30 Jul 2012 at 10:53

imo i'd get this

YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 7970 Windforce 3X 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - AMD 3 for FREE Promotion £359.99
Total : £371.39 (includes shipping : £9.50).

at your resolution either the 670, 7950 or 7970 will do but you say you want futureproofing and if you ever changed your monitor again and the resolution upped, thats where the 7970 will take over and of course the 680 but that costs more.
some 680's are only £40 more and at stock the 680 will win in bf3 but once both top end cards are overclocked theres nothing really in it.

andybird123 · 30 Jul 2012 at 10:58

yeah, that, or save another £60 and get this;

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-185-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2294

which will perform 99% as good (or better than) the 7970 but for a big chunk less money...

if the OP was thinking about 3 screen gaming then a multi 7970 system might make more sense, but as he's single screen 1080 it doesn't really make a difference which team he goes for

TXAA will mean that VRAM requirements are less on the green side of the fence anyway in newer titles

Nickolp1974 · 30 Jul 2012 at 11:07

andybird123 said:
yeah, that, or save another £60 and get this;

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-185-EA&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2294

which will perform 99% as good (or better than) the 7970 but for a big chunk less money...

if the OP was thinking about 3 screen gaming then a multi 7970 system might make more sense, but as he's single screen 1080 it doesn't really make a difference which team he goes for

TXAA will mean that VRAM requirements are less on the green side of the fence anyway in newer titles

good price for a good card, and at the op's res is a winner but any higher and the 7970 has that one.

more reading for you on the 670 v 7970 disscussion
http://www.overclock.net/t/1279022/gtx-670-vs-radeon-7970

and dont forget in games such as BF3 min frame rates are probably more important than max fps and the 7970 has the edge there. at the end of the day both cards will do the job admirably, and do what your looking for really well. I had to make the choice 670 or 7970 and went back to Ati/amd and i'm glad i did, had a few teething problems at first but thats all sorted and i'm more than happy.

andybird123 · 30 Jul 2012 at 11:14

Nickolp1974 said:
good price for a good card, and at the op's res is a winner but any higher and the 7970 has that one.

I'm not sure what you mean by any higher res and the 7970 has that one?
I game at 2560x1440 on twin 670's at 4xMSAA and it's sliky smooth never drops below 60FPS... a single 7970 can't do that and twin 7970's would have been over £100 more expensive...

Nickolp1974 · 30 Jul 2012 at 11:53

they would have been more expensive but not now. so in the benchmark tables why are the 7970's always top, single, sli, tri, quad.
at the end of the day if the OP likes to overclock go with amd if not then the 670 is the better buy.

andybird123 · 30 Jul 2012 at 12:08

Nickolp1974 said:
they would have been more expensive but not now.

7970's are generally more expensive than the 670 equivalent, so I don't understand what you mean here

Nickolp1974 said:
so in the benchmark tables why are the 7970's always top, single, sli, tri, quad.

are you talking heaven benchmark?
because yeah AMD cards seem to favour the heaven benchmark quite heavily where as games like BF3 favour Nvidia cards, so it depends what you "play" more, heaven or BF3 or whatever - always worth checking the specific games you play most before making a purchasing decision

Nickolp1974 said:
at the end of the day if the OP likes to overclock go with amd if not then the 670 is the better buy.

and as for overclocking - the nvidia cards overclock just as well if not more so than AMD cards so that is just a bizare comment - both my EVGA 670's hit 1200+ with ease and from what I've read this is about the same sort of level that 7970's hit (depending on how lucky you get)

anyway, there are already 20 other AMD vs. nvidia threads so this is where I bow out of this one

passey89 · 30 Jul 2012 at 12:09

got sli 570 its amazing ammounts of power.

is more powerful than every single card out there

Nickolp1974 · 30 Jul 2012 at 12:14

latest graph thing i could find

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1979/4/

Rusty0611 · 30 Jul 2012 at 12:36

Nickolp1974 said:
latest graph thing i could find

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1979/4/

Which backs up what Andybird was saying.... Not the other way round.

That is the 670 with a mild overclock (1097) has a higher minimum, maximum and average than a 7970 Ghz edition. Before you say the 7970 is not overclocked, it is. Just via a new BIOS.

Nickolp1974 · 30 Jul 2012 at 13:57

Rusty0611 said:
Which backs up what Andybird was saying.... Not the other way round.

That is the 670 with a mild overclock (1097) has a higher minimum, maximum and average than a 7970 Ghz edition. Before you say the 7970 is not overclocked, it is. Just via a new BIOS.

on this graph i would say that a fairer comparison would be 670 sc @ 967/6208 v Ghz 1050/6000, and there not min,avg,max there resolutions and at op's res, Ghz wins increasing to 1600p Ghz wins, and like i said earlier there is really nothing in it, personal preference
And one final note BF3 is ment to be the ONE game where nvidia excels, and does it really excel according tothis http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1979/4/

I'm happy with mine and i'm sure andy is with his so OP a few frames here and there wont make a difference, they are BOTH great cards.