SLI vs Single

Gopher04 · 7 Nov 2010 at 09:30

Really just want opinion on which way to go, going to upgrade, and to be honest i can't really make my mind up which is the way to go so asking for help please.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SUPER OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card:

x2 SLI Mode.

Features
- Core Clock: 815Mhz
- Memory: 1024MB GDDR5
- Memory Clock: 4000MHz (Effective)
- 7 Phase PWM Design
- 6 Power Phase status LED indicators
- WindForce 2X Heatpipe cooling solution
- Voltage read points
- Memory Interface: 256-Bit
- Processing Cores: 336
- Shader Clock: 1630MHz
- Bus Type: PCI-Express 2.0
- Display Connectors: 2x Dual-Link DVI-I & 1xHDMI & 1 X Analogue
- SLI Ready
- HDCP Capable
- DirectX 11 Support
- OpenGL 4.0 Support
- PhysX Enabled
- CUDA Enabled

KFA2 GeForce GTX 480 LTD OC Anarchy 1536MB DDR5 Dual DVI HDMI PCI Express:

Chipset: GTX 480
Edition: OC
Chipset Features: 3D Vision Surround technology
DirectCompute Support
HDMI Output Support
Microsoft DirectX® 11
NVIDIA CUDA™ Technology
NVIDIA PhysX™-Ready
NVIDIA Unified Driver Architecture
OpenCL Support
OpenGL 3.2
PureVideo HD
Manufacturing process: 40 nm
Cores: 480
Core Clock: 760 MHz
Shader Clock: 1520 MHz
Memory: 1536MB
Memory Bit Rate: 384 Bit
Memory Type: GDDR5
Memory Clock: 3800 MHz
Cooling: Tri Fan
Interface: PCI-E 2.0 (x16)
Connectivity: 2 x Dual Link DVI-I
1 x mini HDMI

stulid · 7 Nov 2010 at 09:34

neither get 2X GTX470

GTX470 in sli easily beat ATI's current top end card - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/geforce-gtx470-sli.html , dont get as hot as people think, and if you overclock them they will leave even overclocked GTX460 in SLI in the dust.

yet more SLI GTX470 beating most things - http://www.anandtech.com/show/3836/msis-geforce-n470gtx-gtx-470-sli/4

with the super OC gigabyte costing £170 each a and a GTX470 cost £189, they arnt a fair bit more more expensive at all.

RavenXXX2 · 7 Nov 2010 at 09:34

Current price of 2xGiga 460 1GB = £288, for that you get 480 spanking performance, sounds good to me.

2x470 is a fair bit more expensive, will run extremely hot when in SLI and consume loads more power which you will need a beefy PSU for. Just clock the 460's if you want more performance, then it will rival 470 SLI, but without the heat and power usage.

marc1024 · 7 Nov 2010 at 10:51

RavenXXX2 said:
Current price of 2xGiga 460 1GB = £288, for that you get 480 spanking performance, sounds good to me.

2x470 is a fair bit more expensive, will run extremely hot when in SLI and consume loads more power which you will need a beefy PSU for. Just clock the 460's if you want more performance, then it will rival 470 SLI, but without the heat and power usage.

2 460s in sli can keep up with 2 470s in sli??! never heard that before. now i want my colleges bursary early

AWPC · 7 Nov 2010 at 12:34

Gopher04 said:
Really just want opinion on which way to go, going to upgrade, and to be honest i can't really make my mind up which is the way to go so asking for help please.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SUPER OC 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card:

x2 SLI Mode.

Features
- Core Clock: 815Mhz
- Memory: 1024MB GDDR5
- Memory Clock: 4000MHz (Effective)
- 7 Phase PWM Design
- 6 Power Phase status LED indicators
- WindForce 2X Heatpipe cooling solution
- Voltage read points
- Memory Interface: 256-Bit
- Processing Cores: 336
- Shader Clock: 1630MHz
- Bus Type: PCI-Express 2.0
- Display Connectors: 2x Dual-Link DVI-I & 1xHDMI & 1 X Analogue
- SLI Ready
- HDCP Capable
- DirectX 11 Support
- OpenGL 4.0 Support
- PhysX Enabled
- CUDA Enabled

KFA2 GeForce GTX 480 LTD OC Anarchy 1536MB DDR5 Dual DVI HDMI PCI Express:

Chipset: GTX 480
Edition: OC
Chipset Features: 3D Vision Surround technology
DirectCompute Support
HDMI Output Support
Microsoft DirectX® 11
NVIDIA CUDA™ Technology
NVIDIA PhysX™-Ready
NVIDIA Unified Driver Architecture
OpenCL Support
OpenGL 3.2
PureVideo HD
Manufacturing process: 40 nm
Cores: 480
Core Clock: 760 MHz
Shader Clock: 1520 MHz
Memory: 1536MB
Memory Bit Rate: 384 Bit
Memory Type: GDDR5
Memory Clock: 3800 MHz
Cooling: Tri Fan
Interface: PCI-E 2.0 (x16)
Connectivity: 2 x Dual Link DVI-I
1 x mini HDMI

What monitor/res do you game @ ?????

Core i7/X58 based systems offer the fastest SLI experience so you really need one of those to maximise the FPS. Remember you also need a decent PSU for SLI so unless you already have one of those the cost starts to add up but if your current setup is not ultra high end & full of premium components you can get away with a GTX460 as a like for like replacement of your current GPU usually.

If less than 1920x1200 SLI is pointless as the difference over a single card is not worth the cost. Even then I would always go for a superfast single GPU card like the GTX480 as even now SLI is not always supported & some games have issues with mutli gpu plus the costs are double but the scaling is only 90%+ in most games (with Core i7/X58) for 100% more cost

coupe69 · 7 Nov 2010 at 13:04

AWPC said:
Core i7/X58 based systems offer the fastest SLI experience so you really need one of those to maximise the FPS.

The difference between PCI-E 2.0 @ 16x and 8x is minimal, we're talking a few frames difference, it's certainly not night or day and you certainly don't need core i7/X58 for SLi or CF.

A good P55 mainboard and a core i5 will be almost as quick as a core i7 and X58 board with SLi or CF but at a far cheaper price point.

Take a look at this comparison test for more information on PCI express scaling.

Gopher04 · 9 Nov 2010 at 21:21

Thx's for the reply guys, can i ask, how much difference its makes on certain things so i have a better understanding which way to go:

Video Memory Installed (sli) 1024MB GDDR5 vs (sinlgle) 1536MB GDDR3
Memory Interface (sli) 256-Bit vs (sinlgle) 320-Bit
Memory Clock (sli) 3600Mhz vs (sinlgle) 3800Mhz
Core Clock (sli) 780Mhz vs (sinlgle) 760Mhz
Shader Clock (sli) 1560Mhz vs (sinlgle) 1520Mhz
Processor Cores (sli) 336 vs (sinlgle) 480

the 1st figures are for each 460 sli card vs single 480, so if i go sli do all the figures double up? i know about the memory but not the difference between gddr5 vs gddr3, and what happens to the rest in sli? and whats more important? and this is on a monitor running at 1600x900.

Greebo · 9 Nov 2010 at 21:58

RavenXXX2 said:
Current price of 2xGiga 460 1GB = £288, for that you get 480 spanking performance, sounds good to me.

2x470 is a fair bit more expensive, will run extremely hot when in SLI and consume loads more power which you will need a beefy PSU for. Just clock the 460's if you want more performance, then it will rival 470 SLI, but without the heat and power usage.

There is some truth in what you say with reference to power and heat but no way can SLI gtx460 keep up with SLI gtx470. At stock in some games the GTX470 are 50% faster.

Overclocked my GTX470 in SLI are about 5% to 10% behind overclocked GTX480's in SLI and beat a single GTX580 by 15 to 50%. In fact, overclocked I reckon they would match stock gtx580's in SLI. The 460's won't come near.

So if you have the right mobo, cooling in the case and a decent enough psu (my 850W psu runs these plus i7 950 at 4.5Ghz, two water pumps, 6 hard drives plus other things no problem), two GTX470 for £330 is the way to go IMO. They will last you for a good few years.

Big.Wayne · 10 Nov 2010 at 01:32

stulid said:
neither get 2X GTX470 >>> if you overclock them they will leave even overclocked GTX460 in SLI in the dust

RavenXXX2 said:
Just clock the 460's if you want more performance, then it will rival 470 SLI, but without the heat and power usage.

marc1024 said:
2 460s in sli can keep up with 2 470s in sli??! never heard that before

Greebo said:
no way can SLI gtx460 keep up with SLI gtx470. At stock in some games the GTX470 are 50% faster.

Single Cards

SLI

Rroff · 10 Nov 2010 at 01:35

Greebo said:
There is some truth in what you say with reference to power and heat but no way can SLI gtx460 keep up with SLI gtx470. At stock in some games the GTX470 are 50% faster.

Overclocked my GTX470 in SLI are about 5% to 10% behind overclocked GTX480's in SLI and beat a single GTX580 by 15 to 50%. In fact, overclocked I reckon they would match stock gtx580's in SLI. The 460's won't come near.

So if you have the right mobo, cooling in the case and a decent enough psu (my 850W psu runs these plus i7 950 at 4.5Ghz, two water pumps, 6 hard drives plus other things no problem), two GTX470 for £330 is the way to go IMO. They will last you for a good few years.

Upto and including 1920x theres less than 10% difference on average between a well overclocked GTX470 SLI and a well overclocked GTX580 SLI. 2560x and above the 580 SLI pulls away a bit more tho but the 470s aren't hideously behind - especially when you consider they are less than half the price.

jigger · 10 Nov 2010 at 01:47

Always go for the single fastest card. Its a lot less hassle and don't have to suffer hit and miss performance.

Rroff · 10 Nov 2010 at 01:49

^^ We are talking SLI not crossfire here

(strictly tongue in cheek comment).

arc@css · 10 Nov 2010 at 01:49

Big.Wayne · 10 Nov 2010 at 02:14

Gopher04 said:
Really just want opinion on which way to go, going to upgrade, and to be honest i can't really make my mind up which is the way to go so asking for help please.

GeForce GTX 480 Full GPU Load Sound - [H]ardOCP.com

drunkenmaster · 10 Nov 2010 at 02:25

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4008/nvidias-geforce-gtx-580/11

For the sake of it(mainly for Stulid) theres a current review showing a quanifiably slower single card in the 6870 consistantly showing at worst, basically on par with 470gtx sli, at best quite a bit ahead, with often better minimums, better averages, better performance, with a whole lot less noise and heat/power to deal with.

Realistically an expensive 480gtx is pointless, 460gtx 1gb sli, 470gtx sli, or 6870/6850 xfire are all GREAT value setups right now, performance/value, they both beat the 580gtx and do it significantly cheaper. Better performance, better value, money saved, whats not to like.

Current 470gtx pricing has crashed through the floor so is exceptionally good if you went single card, theres literally no competition price/performance till maybe a 6950 in a few weeks. In dual card 460/6850/6870 scale noticeably better to the point where 470gtx is still cheap, still pretty much on par value wise and still great performance, it just doesn't have the lead it has in single card.

Honestly right now, single card, hands down 470gtx till the end of the month, for the price of a 480 or lol, a 580 you can get two of anything else that will beat them hands down across the board.

Big.Wayne · 10 Nov 2010 at 03:13

Greebo · 10 Nov 2010 at 08:21

I still say it's worth the extra £40 for the gtx470's looking at those graphs.

You are getting up to 40% better performance for 14% more money. It's normally the other way round when buying single cards.

The gtx470's are vastle underpriced atm for performance/£.

cyber69 · 10 Nov 2010 at 10:04

I would recommend a gtx460 sli solution having recently purchased 2 of the superclocked EVGA cards. I have always in the past bought a single graphics card.

I would recommend either getting a single gtx580 or 2 x gtx460's and avoid the gtx470 altogether. Other people will tell you different of course.

The EVGA versons I got also expel the heat out of the case instead of dumping it inside.

Big.Wayne · 10 Nov 2010 at 13:24

Greebo said:
There is some truth in what you say with reference to power and heat

Greebo said:
I still say it's worth the extra £40 for the gtx470's looking at those graphs

Greebo · 10 Nov 2010 at 13:33

I like you Big Wayne. I post things and then you quote me and add the proof to back me up!