If your mobo supports Sli get a second 680 as if one goes down you still have a card to use plus its cheaper.
How you finding the monitor?
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Your thoughts please... 680 SLI and Surround or wait for GK110
- Thread starter Rusty0611
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If your mobo supports Sli get a second 680 as if one goes down you still have a card to use plus its cheaper.
How you finding the monitor?
Soldato
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Yer loving it, really sharp and the colors are lovely its a big difference over 1080p.
Will try a 120hz monitor next year as i want to build a 2nd rig and have ago at modding the case a lot.
Hows the tri sli going???
Will try a 120hz monitor next year as i want to build a 2nd rig and have ago at modding the case a lot.
Hows the tri sli going???
It was a long slog to get there,tried allsorts of card combo's B4 i realised i was trying to cut corners as costs were spiraling.
Its been worth it in the end, all the games i play maxed out and in 3D look the dogs!
Also finding it very smooth not at problematic as i'd heard it could be.
Its been worth it in the end, all the games i play maxed out and in 3D look the dogs!
Also finding it very smooth not at problematic as i'd heard it could be.
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Anyone know if I can add a 680 to my 690 for tri-sli, or shall I just get another 690
The u2711 just sold, so I'm thinking 3 cards for 3 monitors
The u2711 just sold, so I'm thinking 3 cards for 3 monitors
The hard part is not knowing what is round the corner. Using common sense I would go with 'A' but maybe the 780 is going to be the card the 680 should have been. If you sell your 680 now you would not take too much of a hit but if the 780 is THE card to have, you will take a bigger hit.
If you have the funds for purchasing what you need now, buy another 680 and 2 more monitors and enjoy them for at least 6 months without regret.
If you have the funds for purchasing what you need now, buy another 680 and 2 more monitors and enjoy them for at least 6 months without regret.
I do not think its possible to run a 680 and 690 together. I have seen the question asked a few times but no one has answered yes.
Try running your new setup with a single 690 if you do not run into any problems with vram get another 690.
Your mobo supports PCIe 3. At normal resolutions it does not make much difference but on a multi GPU multi monitor setup it can make a big difference.
Thats the thing I can't see them launching the 780 for a while yet. Get what you need now, enjoy it now, yes you take a hit if you sell later on to fund the upgrade but at least you get a substantial saving on the new price. As you say you are an image quality snob and I imagine that also means a fps snob to boot, then nothing is going to be good enough except two 680's, even three might be needed to get the max experience from what I've seen other people doing for three screen 3D 
To everyone saying 670 SLI: I already have one 680 so this isn't really an option! If I was starting from scratch it would be the obvious option but I've had my 680 since release day and don't really want to side grade to a 7970 either.
I will probably avoid AMD next generation as I'm always nervous about alleged driver issues for crossfire. Obviously nVidia aren't perfect here either by any stretch but I'd rather take my chances with them.
It's good to see such a variety of opinions though. It confirms that it's not such a clear cut choice and I wasn't being an indecisive wet blanket
I will probably avoid AMD next generation as I'm always nervous about alleged driver issues for crossfire. Obviously nVidia aren't perfect here either by any stretch but I'd rather take my chances with them.
It's good to see such a variety of opinions though. It confirms that it's not such a clear cut choice and I wasn't being an indecisive wet blanket
Soldato
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I would wait for GK110 and then grab a GTX 680
I wouldnt bother planning for sli, as when the time comes youlle convince yourself its better to sell the GTX 680 and put it towards a single GTX 780. youlle tell yourself that you dont want the hassle of sli or the power consumtion will be too much or you want the latest tech.
Say in a years time your GTX 680 is worth £200 2nd hand, to buy another for SLI would be £200 = £400 total value. A newer tech, much better power consumption card, and neary as fast as GTX 680 sli card in the for of a GTX 780, will be around £400. You do the math!
I wouldnt bother planning for sli, as when the time comes youlle convince yourself its better to sell the GTX 680 and put it towards a single GTX 780. youlle tell yourself that you dont want the hassle of sli or the power consumtion will be too much or you want the latest tech.
Say in a years time your GTX 680 is worth £200 2nd hand, to buy another for SLI would be £200 = £400 total value. A newer tech, much better power consumption card, and neary as fast as GTX 680 sli card in the for of a GTX 780, will be around £400. You do the math!
Personally I would get the monitors and see how the single 680 handles Surround for now. You will have to drop some settings (often ones that make little to no impact to the game itself) or accept a lower framerate. There is no getting around this as the current crop of top end cards are not fast enough for max settings & 60fps in every game out there. As long as you can compromise though you can have a perfetly playable experience in the vast majority of games.
680SLI is an option but even then certain games you still won't be able to max out and achieve 60fps average. BF3 with 4xAA at this resolution will absolutely crawl (if you are lucky - it just crashes out on me) as you will be out of VRAM. The only option is 7970CF or 670 4GB SLI (680 4GB is laughably expensive).
Unfortunately with the power of the cards available you will have to make some compromises unless you have umlimited funds.
@ Rusty - it's a shame you live (relatively speaking) so far away. Otherwise I would have suggested popping round so you could "taste test" Surround before committing to anything.
680SLI is an option but even then certain games you still won't be able to max out and achieve 60fps average. BF3 with 4xAA at this resolution will absolutely crawl (if you are lucky - it just crashes out on me) as you will be out of VRAM. The only option is 7970CF or 670 4GB SLI (680 4GB is laughably expensive).
Unfortunately with the power of the cards available you will have to make some compromises unless you have umlimited funds.
@ Rusty - it's a shame you live (relatively speaking) so far away. Otherwise I would have suggested popping round so you could "taste test" Surround before committing to anything.
Thanks for the info Oweneads (and the offer!)
Yeah I don't think I'm going to go 680 SLI after sleeping on it. The VRAM worries me at only 2GB because as you say, even now, you can hit the cap and stutter to a complete halt.
What was the performance for yourself with 680 SLI and 2x MSAA? (BF3 -can't find your graph)
If you could SLI it with a 680 then that'd be good!
Yeah I don't think I'm going to go 680 SLI after sleeping on it. The VRAM worries me at only 2GB because as you say, even now, you can hit the cap and stutter to a complete halt.
What was the performance for yourself with 680 SLI and 2x MSAA? (BF3 -can't find your graph)
Good price on a 690 on today only, might be worth considering although I would be looking to get more vram. Decent price though if you can say that about a £750 GPU
If you could SLI it with a 680 then that'd be good!
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Just installed the Skyrim Texture Pack Combiner (http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/20801/#content) last night and managed to hit the wall@1080p on 2gb, it's not a constant though, when I switched on AB, I was surprised to notice my vram sitting at 3995MB when the stutter was hitting.
Thankfully, most of the time, it sits around 1.9Gb per gpu, but when it hits the wall, fps plummet with a couple of stutters, then recovers.
It is a stunning looking mod though.
Never thought this would happen@1080p on 2Gb ram but just goes to show it can.
If you could SLI it with a 680 then that'd be good!
You need to hack it for it to work, if indeed it still is hackable:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158907
Here you go:
Note 1 - GTX670SLI proxy for 680SLI - The Asus cards I have / had run at 1130Mhz boost "stock" so they perform identically to a stock 680 allowing for a margin of error.
Note 2 - GTX680 OC performance shown at the bottom of the graph. There are no results with 4xAA for the 670/680 cards as they ran out of VRAM. A single HD7970 overclocked to 1125/6600 only managed 32fps average.
With 2xAA GTX670 SLI is perfectly playable. 4xAA doesn't really add anything bar a performance hit.
AFAIK (and I'm fairly positive), I've read a few interviews where reps say you can use a 680 and 690 for Tri-SLI. I'm also sure I saw you can use a 670 with a 690 aswell, but I wouldn't put my house on it.
I would suggest this aswell considering the £300 for the vtx model, serious bargain. Although I'd say he'll stick to green since the XL2420T's support Nvidia 3D vision but not normal 3D. And his 680 is a decent clocker so it would be a shame to sell it for a weaker one.
To everyone saying 670 SLI: I already have one 680 so this isn't really an option! If I was starting from scratch it would be the obvious option but I've had my 680 since release day and don't really want to side grade to a 7970 either.
I will probably avoid AMD next generation as I'm always nervous about alleged driver issues for crossfire. Obviously nVidia aren't perfect here either by any stretch but I'd rather take my chances with them.
It's good to see such a variety of opinions though. It confirms that it's not such a clear cut choice and I wasn't being an indecisive wet blanket
This has been the case up until about April (for me anyway). Since then drivers for 2 cards have been getting a lot better but the same drivers don't do well for 3 cards apparently. This is the only thing that's stopping me from getting a 7990 and selling my weaker 7970 when it comes out.
yep!
Thought so, thanks mate.