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Replacement for GTX280 SLi?

smogsy

smogsy

smogsy

Soldato
Joined
9 Dec 2006
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@ManCave
Im looking at getting a replacement for my GTX280 SLI Super Overclocked editions. i love the performance but looking for replacement for the following reasons:

There are some games that i play that don't use SLI that great.
These are:
APB
TF2

The cards are also very loud, even on desktop as they seem to run at 3D clocks even surfing the web?
The Heat from these cards are a lot, i was thinking if i had one there would be less heat also?
Games i Play to help you out:
These games are played at 2560x1600 At Max Settings which currently is normally 16QAA & 16QAF with everything on Very High i would like to contuine to do this:
L4D2
HL2
TF2 (Main)
APB (Main)
UT3
CSS
Burnout Paradise
Empire Total War


what cards should i be looking at?
And would it be worth the upgrade?

Budget - <£400
 
For single GPU card, anything less than a GTX480 would be quite a noticable downgrade from GTX280SLI. So the your best bet is get a MSI GTX480 and overclock it. MSI's GTX480 has voltage tweak, so it should overclock further than standard GTX480. Heat is probably no worse than your GTX280SLI, and fan "can be" loud, but only when under load.

As for your GTX280s being loud at idle...what kind of temp you getting on those cards? Have you clean dust out of the heatsink etc?
 
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smogsy said:
what cards should i be looking at?
And would it be worth the upgrade?

Budget - <£400
Click to expand...

Im going to have to recommend SLI GTX 460s, either the MSI or Gigabyte ones.

They are much more powerful than a single GTX 480 when SLI'd.

The MSI ones are completely silent with really low temps, you can see some of my temperature and OC results here:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=4519103&postcount=80

Vantage scores are 33000+ with physics, 28000+ without.
 
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smogsy said:
The cards are also very loud, even on desktop as they seem to run at 3D clocks even surfing the web?
The Heat from these cards are a lot, i was thinking if i had one there would be less heat also?
Click to expand...

A GTX 480 is also going to be very loud and hot. If that is an issue for you with the GTX 260s, it wont get any better with a GTX 480, but it WILL with the MSI or Gigabyte GTX 460s in SLI. They are cool, and silent, even in SLI with crazy overclocks.
 
bhavv said:
Im going to have to recommend SLI GTX 460s, either the MSI or Gigabyte ones.

They are much more powerful than a single GTX 480 when SLI'd.

The MSI ones are completely silent with really low temps, you can see some of my temperature and OC results here:

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showpost.php?p=4519103&postcount=80

Vantage scores are 33000+ with physics, 28000+ without.
Click to expand...
Read his post. He already explain he's a bit tired of hit or miss with SLI, so I'm under the impression he wants to switch back to a single GPU card. Besides, GTX460 SLI is not much faster than GTX280 SLI, unless overclocked. He's more concern about the performance than the heat and noise.
 
except for the games he plays that aren't great with sli.

sli GTX460 won't differ, GTX480 all the way, should only cost £50 for the change of card if you sell the others.
 
Marine-RX179 said:
Read his post. He already explain he's a bit tired of hit or miss with SLI, so I'm under the impression he wants to switch back to a single GPU card. Besides, GTX460 SLI is not much faster than GTX280 SLI, unless overclocked. He's more concern about the performance than the heat and noise.
Click to expand...

Oh. Well SLI performance in those games will be a problem with my suggestion, wheras heat + noise will be a huge problem with the 480.

Those things run over 95 degrees unless you set the fan really loud.

In this case, I'll say 5870 instead =D. Cool, quiet, and fast for a single card.

How dare games not benefit from SLI / Crossfire in this day and age! Someone go slap the lazy devs!
 
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smogsy said:
Games i Play to help you out:
These games are played at 2560x1600 At Max Settings which currently is normally 16QAA & 16QAF with everything on Very High i would like to contuine to do this.....
Click to expand...

Ummm, well, I really think he is gonna need SLI or Crossfire for this :x

I dont think a single card, 5870 or GTX 480 is not going to play everything maxed out at that res with 16x AA.

While a couple of games might not benefit from SLI, Im sure that the majority of the others you play will, and for that res I would think maybe going for 2 Gb GTX 460s in SLI which will fit the <£400 budget perfectly.
 
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bhavv said:
Ummm, well, I really think he is gonna need SLI or Crossfire for this :x

I dont think a single card, 5870 or GTX 480 is not going to play everything maxed out at that res with 16x AA.
Click to expand...

those games listed are simple graphically, some are source engine, one like total war probably needs decent CPU power.
 
smogsy said:
Im looking at getting a replacement for my GTX280 SLI Super Overclocked editions. i love the performance but looking for replacement for the following reasons:

There are some games that i play that don't use SLI that great.
These are:
APB
TF2

The cards are also very loud, even on desktop as they seem to run at 3D clocks even surfing the web?
The Heat from these cards are a lot, i was thinking if i had one there would be less heat also?
Games i Play to help you out:
These games are played at 2560x1600 At Max Settings which currently is normally 16QAA & 16QAF with everything on Very High i would like to contuine to do this:
L4D2
HL2
TF2 (Main)
APB (Main)
UT3
CSS
Burnout Paradise
Empire Total War


what cards should i be looking at?
And would it be worth the upgrade?

Budget - <£400
Click to expand...


Regarding the sound in SLI the only time my 2 cards make more sound is when i launch into games for example GTAIV or Battlefield Bad Company 2, rivatuner takes care off the GPU fans and the temps when idle or 60-70 IDLE .
just my thoughts .
 
Schnippzle said:
OP states that his 2 main games don't support SLI :P
Click to expand...

Yea, I kind of read 'replacement for SLI' and jumped at the GTX 460 suggestion :p

Skim reading ftl.

So if SLI is a no go, and heat and noise are too big a concern issue, its either the 5870 or wait for HD 6000.
 
bhavv said:
Oh. Well SLI performance in those games will be a problem with my suggestion, wheras heat + noise will be a huge problem with the 480.

Those things run over 95 degrees unless you set the fan really loud.
Click to expand...
I think the people that complain the most about the heat and noise are people that DON'T actually own the card, whereas people who actually own the GTX480 all pretty much confirmed while it is still hot, it's over exaggerated by people who don't even own the card. One of the main reason the card get that hot is the default fan speend profile doesn't increase fan speed much until the temp gotten too high, which can fixed be using custom fan speed profile. Also gaming wise, it usually only around in the 80C ish...you'd might hit 90C+ only if you run furmark as entertainment.

And you know what? GTX480 is actually no hotter than a 4870x2...and you don't see people crying like there's no tomorrow about the 4870x2. The whole heat and noise situation has be blown out of proportion because ATI fanboi feel the need trash Nvidia for trashing sake...even Raven who been trashing Fermi for ages during the time he owned a 5870, he quiet down after he ACTUALLY got GTX480 to see for himself rather than just read reviews. Sure the heat and noise is there, but nowhere near as most people claim.
 
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Alfie said:
I wish people would stop saying the GTX 480 is loud and hot. It just isn't.
Click to expand...

Well, its louder and hotter than every other card since the 4870.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/graphics/review/2010/05/04/Zotac-GeForce-GTX-480/p2

The OP also asked for a card that produces less heat and noise, I dont see the GTX 480 as being a good solution for that.

stulid said:
look at the conclusion of this GTX460sli vs review, especially the higher 2560X1600 results.

www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/gf-gtx460-sli_12.html

one GTX480 is better, higher minimum framerates in most games.
Click to expand...

Thats using rubbish reference cooled and stock speed 460s though, not the far more impressive MSI / Gigabyte / Asus versions clocked to 850 Mhz+.

I wouldnt buy, nor do I recommend buying the ones in that review.

Ok, in that review, they also didnt overclock the CPU, it was running at 3.33 Ghz, which seriously cripples GTX 460 SLI performance.

Here is a better review with the same CPU clocked to 4.0 Ghz, and some better quality GTX 460s (EVGA) ones, where the GTX 460 SLI beats the GTX 480:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-460-sli-geforce-gtx-480,2694-11.html

With an MSRP of $250 and a Web price around $230, GeForce GTX 460 1GB graphics cards were already known to be great mid-priced performers. Doubling these up in SLI gives us the same MSRP and Web price as a single GeForce GTX 480. But does this give us more performance? You bet!

The GeForce GTX 460 SLI configuration absolutely obliterates the GeForce GTX 480’s performance scores, landing a 26% performance coup de grace upon its big brother after continuously battering it with wins in every benchmark at every setting.
Click to expand...

Those GTX 460s are also only clocked at 700 mhz, not even close to the 850 Mhz that the MSI / Gigabyte / Asus cards can manage while remaining at under 80 degrees per card.
 
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Marine-RX179 said:
For single GPU card, anything less than a GTX480 would be quite a noticable downgrade from GTX280SLI. So the your best bet is get a MSI GTX480 and overclock it. MSI's GTX480 has voltage tweak, so it should overclock further than standard GTX480. Heat is probably no worse than your GTX280SLI, and fan "can be" loud, but only when under load.

As for your GTX280s being loud at idle...what kind of temp you getting on those cards? Have you clean dust out of the heatsink etc?
Click to expand...

Hm, you're a bull**** poster Marine, did you realise it yet? GeForce 480 is loud and there's no doubt about it. It heats up a lot with stock cooler. Also, the MSI has its voltage tweak but it doesn't matter. See, all reference cards can be voltage adjusted and all cards are reference designs as for now :eek: Being Nvidia fanboy, I would expect you to have a little more knowledge about your team.


To the OP, the 480 is your best bet tbh, none other single GPU cards will give you similar performance in those games and only 5970 is other option (or two 5850s) but in that case, you might as well get dual 460s setup which would outperform a single 480. You don't want multi GPU configuration thus I suggest getting a single 480 and a third party cooler for it.
 
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