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SLI or not ?

Maximum Triceratops

Maximum Triceratops

Maximum Triceratops

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Hi all, after a bit of advice....
I have a Gigabyte p35c ds3r, 8GB of Geil black dragon, Q6600 @ 3ghz and a GTX 470.

I am thinking of buying an Asus p5n mobo and another gtx 470 to go sli with.

This a good idea? and would I see a decent performance hit or would it be better to just get a better single card?

This is my attempt to prepare my rig for BF3 :p for the least amount of cash :D or maybe I need a better cpu all together?

Some advice would be much appreciated and I know the specs for BF3 arent out yet.

Thanks in advance.
 
Personally I'd say no. Asus nForce boards are in the main terrible and most nForce boards struggle to provide the amperage to run a Q6600 stable at anything beyond stock.

Personally I'd say try and source either one of the EVGA 750i or 790i boards or a 790 board if you want to go SLI with the Q6600 (not to be confused with the AMD 790 boards) - someone was selling a XFX 790 cheap in members market that was still available last time I looked.
 
Well, sli 470's would be the best way to get more performance in BF3 for sure.

However, a better cpu will lift the performance as well.

As far as I can tell, bfbc2 does all the physics calculations on the cpu, and if BF3 is similar then a better cpu will help too.

Also you need a cpu fast enough to feed two 470's.

But if you had a choice, between sli or new cpu, then for gaming, you'd go down the sli route. Its just your not getting all the power out of them due to cpu bottleneck, especially at only 3Ghz.
 
Yeah as above 3gig is about the minimum to make 470 SLI useful, you really need atleast 3.6gig to put 2 of them to best effect, with your setup it would probably save a lot of hassle going for a GTX480 and clocking it a bit as thats about the upper end of what the CPU is gonna feed and the p35c ds3r is so much better than your average nForce board.
 
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Mr Maximum Triceratops,

Your situation is similar to mine....

Although I have a more capable cpu, the gpu's we have are roughly comparable.

I am thinking rather than going xfire etc... Im thinking of upgrading to a Sandy bridge or Bulldozer when they come out.

The beauty of this is that your be in a better position then to go sli as your have a cpu powerfull enough to keep up and feed the cards the data they need.

This will also get more out of your existing 470, rather then getting another 470 and starving them of data.

But dont take what I'v said above as gospel. There must be loads of people with experience of the Q6600 cpu and they can tell you if it is worth going sli.

Thinking about it, its probably a good gamble to take. Buy a second 470 for sli, and IF when BF3 comes around you think the pc isnt doing the job, then upgrade the cpu/mobo etc..
 
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opethdisciple said:
Mr Maximum Triceratops,

Your situation is similar to mine....

Although I have a more capable cpu, the gpu's we have are roughly comparable.

I am thinking rather than going xfire etc... Im thinking of upgrading to a Sandy bridge or Bulldozer when they come out.

The beauty of this is that your be in a better position then to go sli as your have a cpu powerfull enough to keep up and feed the cards the data they need.

This will also get more out of your existing 470, rather then getting another 470 and starving them of data.

But dont take what I'v said above as gospel. There must be loads of people with experience of the Q6600 cpu and they can tell you if it is worth going sli.

Thinking about it, its probably a good gamble to take. Buy a second 470 for sli, and IF when BF3 comes around you think the pc isnt doing the job, then upgrade the cpu/mobo etc..
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input mate, might just go for i5/i7 and keep the gtx470 to see if it runs bf3 ok if not then go sli. Either way its gonna cost :(
 
I agree with the above posters. I have a Q6600 at 3.4 with a 480gtx and if I were to go sli I would, apart from needing an sli compatible mobo, invest in a new cpu. Clocked at 3.4 I find the performance very good, but I doubt two of them would deliver that close to what they could if I were to run an i5 / i5 SB.

I have the same cpu cooler as you so I think, providing the chip is capable, anything up to 3.4 - 3.6 is quite possible. So, while you decide to upgrade or not, I would be inclined to get a bit more out the cpu, 3.2 or above should deliver noticeable gains. What revision is yours? :)
 
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Its the better one b3/go stepping is it? not sure what to do now :/ how would say a gtx 580 compare with 470 sli and would my Q6600 bottleneck it?
this would work out even cheaper I think, sorry for all the questions btw im a bit out of the fold with computer hardware, I do appreciate all the responses :)
 
GTX470 SLI (stock) is a little over 20% faster than a stock GTX580, but a heavily overclocked 580 is roughly in stock GTX470 SLI performance ballpark.
 
It would be a bit mad replacing a GTX470 with a 480 , and a 580 would be a poor value upgrade at the same time. Many 470s will hit 750 core on stock volts, which leaves them only a hair behind a stock GTX480.

I think a Q6600 at less than 3.7Ghz will be a bottlekeck a lot sooner than a GTX470 will be, so I would look at upgrading that first.

I think a 580 would be significantly bottleknecked by a Q6600 at low clocks.

The 580 is £350. You could get a second 470 and a beefy powersupply for that, with cash leftover to give the the cards some nice aftermarket coolers.

SLI 470s would significantly outperform a 580. However I would not do anything to your GPU atm and maybe think about upgrading your CPU in the future first, or overlocking it higher.
Also 470s should hit 700 core on stock easily enough.
 
Maximum Triceratops said:
Its the better one b3/go stepping is it? not sure what to do now :/ how would say a gtx 580 compare with 470 sli and would my Q6600 bottleneck it?
this would work out even cheaper I think, sorry for all the questions btw im a bit out of the fold with computer hardware, I do appreciate all the responses :)
Click to expand...

I guess you need to weigh up between whether you are happy to stay with (ideally a higher overclocked Q6600) and applying an overclock on your 470, or if you simply want to make the eventual transition now to a new mobo and cpu. Also, it depends on your budget at present and how much you really are happy to spend. Personally I'd see what you can get out of your Q6600 before you make any decisions. If you get a good overclock on it you should see a massive jump in cpu demanding games, online for example. However, since 470's overclock so very well, I don't know whether you'd see enough gains to simply sell your card and replace it with a very expensive top of the line 580.
 
Yeah many 470s will hit 800MHz with very little voltage adjustment which puts them into stock 480 performance territory, but the 480 will overclock beyond that - and its about as good as his CPU would push without a decent overclock on it - my thinking was if he sold the current 470 replacing it with a 480 wouldn't be that expensive (and most LGA775 nForce boards really aren't worth the hassle).
 
Rroff said:
Yeah many 470s will hit 800MHz with very little voltage adjustment which puts them into stock 480 performance territory, but the 480 will overclock beyond that - and its about as good as his CPU would push without a decent overclock on it - my thinking was if he sold the current 470 replacing it with a 480 wouldn't be that expensive (and most LGA775 nForce boards really aren't worth the hassle).
Click to expand...

Yeah, that probably is his best / cheapest option to give a bit more longevity out of his cpu. :)

Glad I bought what I did! :)
 
Does it make sense to go sli with my gtx470 and buy a Q9550/9650 and overclock it? I am figuring this will cost around £200 after I sell my old mobo/cpu.
I think maybe this is the best/cheapest way to go without going the i5/i7 route, all this for 1 game :D
Rroff I take on board the advice on the mobo and will seek out the EVGA instead, thankyou all.
 
I'd stick clear of nForce boards if possible, the EVGA 7x0 boards are liveable with but by no means perfect and some people have had ok results with the XFX 790, aside from the gigabyte 6x0 boards (which aren't worth considering for quad cores) most of the other nForce LGA775 boards are pretty dire.
 
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