2 gpus?

[glbeast63]

Hey there,

I have been thinking about upgrading my graphics card and I have 3 monitors. Would it be better for me to go with 2 cards or go with 1 strong one? Also could you guys suggest card(s) that would be good for my situation? Also just so you know I have a Radeon 7790 right now and am looking to spend less then $550.

[Lays]

For playing games at high resolutions, such as 5760x1080 and above, it's usually a normal thing to have more than 1 GPU.

 

What resolution do you want to GAME at?

[Elven]

@glbeast63

 

Single GPU is always the best option. If you are wanting  to do surround/eyefinity. At least the 780/290 would be best for 1080p surround (tbh 2 cards work best for surround). 

 

Always go for a single GPU as appose to 2 lower tier cards.

[WoodenMarker]

It depends on the situation. 

As far as I know, there isn't ever a situation where a 7790 cf is a better idea than a more powerful single gpu.

 

What kind of dollars are you using?

[DoubleY]

@glbeast63

 

Single GPU is always the best option. If you are wanting  to do surround/eyefinity. At least the 780/290 would be best for 1080p surround (tbh 2 cards work best for surround). 

 

Always go for a single GPU as appose to 2 lower tier cards.

How is 1 GPU better? There are literally so little issues with SLI that I doubt you would notice it. 

SLI might have had issues in like 2007 but this is 2014. Every person that I talk to that has SLI says every issue they've ever had with SLI is

1: Games from like 2005 not supporting it

2: They forgot to enable SLI

3: Beta drivers. But, Beta is Beta for a reason. 

 

But, in THIS case 1 GPU is better because of the budget. Just trying to clear up the cloud of smoke in most peoples mind that SLI is horrible. 

[Lays]

Hey there,

I have been thinking about upgrading my graphics card and I have 3 monitors. Would it be better for me to go with 2 cards or go with 1 strong one? Also could you guys suggest card(s) that would be good for my situation? Also just so you know I have a Radeon 7790 right now and am looking to spend less then $550.

 

 

If you can spend a bit extra, you can get a 290X

 

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8866842&SRCCODE=WEBGOOPA&cm_mmc_o=mH4CjC7BBTkwCjCV1-CjCE&gclid=COKc79y5_70CFY9hfgodPZcA6w

 

It may be cheaper in different places, but this isn't a half bad deal.

[Elven]

 

How is 1 GPU better? There are literally so little issues with SLI that I doubt you would notice it

 

1 GPU is always better, if you got for the highest card you can get, of course, 

 

No need to preach about SLI cards to me. I heard that some people find it less convenient to single GPUs. I've had issues here and there with my SLI/Surround set up. Always sorted but I guess for the average user it would seem like a challenge

[MegaDave91]

OP, if you're concerned with heat and or the extra power having another card with produce, then get one high end card. Otherwise, crossfire mid tier cards to your hearts content. The problems people claim to have with SLI have been blown out of proportion (I think user error is the biggest problem), and Xfire has been improved significantly with recent drivers.

[DoubleY]

1 GPU is always better, if you got for the highest card you can get, of course, 

Would you care to elaborate? 

 

Like I said, nobody that I talk to have ever had issues. Or if they did, it's user error. 

[Elven]

 

Would you care to elaborate?

 

Would you say 2 760s in SLI would be a good price to performance scenario, over a single 780? 

 

With a single GPU, you can then add a second when you can afford to. 

 

As someone who went through the deal of using 2 midrange cards then moving up to 2 high tier cards. Yeah. 

[winningsince1337]

OP, if you're concerned with heat and or the extra power having another card with produce, then get one high end card. Otherwise, crossfire mid tier cards to your hearts content. The problems people claim to have with SLI have been blown out of proportion (I think user error is the biggest problem), and Xfire has been improved significantly with recent drivers.

 

I personally dont recommend running 2 7790's. I had a 7790 and almost every 7790 has 1 GB of V-Ram. This is horribly limiting in modern AAA titles. Get one nice card such as a R9 290 or 780. You won't regret it.

[Lays]

Would you say 2 760s in SLI would be a good price to performance scenario, over a single 780? 

 

With a single GPU, you can then add a second when you can afford to. 

 

As someone who went through the deal of using 2 midrange cards then moving up to 2 high tier cards. Yeah. 

 

 

Two 760's are around ~10-20% faster performance than a 780, (in benchmarks awhile back, 660 TI were 10% faster than a titan, and a titan is a bit faster than a 780)

 

But it offers zero upgradability, and only 2gb of ram unless you spend more on 4gb versions.

[othertomperson]

Would you say 2 760s in SLI would be a good price to performance scenario, over a single 780? 

 

With a single GPU, you can then add a second when you can afford to. 

 

As someone who went through the deal of using 2 midrange cards then moving up to 2 high tier cards. Yeah. 

 

No, but only because NVIDIA have deliberately priced the 760 so that two of them costs the same as a 780. Literally the same cost to performance for either one, the only difference is one allows you to pay in two instalments and the other doesn't. If you already have a 760 then buying another one will probably work out cheaper than selling the one you've got at a loss and then buying a 780.

 

 

 

Two 760's are around ~10-20% faster performance than a 780, (in benchmarks awhile back, 660 TI were 10% faster than a titan, and a titan is a bit faster than a 780)

 

But it offers zero upgradability, and only 2gb of ram unless you spend more on 4gb versions.

 

But that has the same pitfalls as the 780, and the 780 Ti. If vram is your problem then none of these are solutions. Your options would be AMD or Titan.

[Elven]

 

Two 760's are around ~10-20% faster performance than a 780, (in benchmarks awhile back, 660 TI were 10% faster than a titan, and a titan is a bit faster than a 780)

 

But it offers zero upgradability, and only 2gb of ram unless you spend more on 4gb versions.

 

Exactly, yes the 760 in SLI does a lot better than a 780 in "certain" cases. It'll be more expensive than 1 780 and does allow upgradability.

 

single card and future proof with a 2nd card.

[Elven]

 

No, but only because NVIDIA have deliberately priced the 760 so that two of them costs the same as a 780. Literally the same cost to performance for either one, the only difference is one allows you to pay in two instalments and the other doesn't. If you already have a 760 then buying another one will probably work out cheaper than selling the one you've got at a loss and then buying a 780.

 

Well exactly. If you've got one, yes a second one would work well. 

[JAKEBAB]

How is 1 GPU better? There are literally so little issues with SLI that I doubt you would notice it. 

SLI might have had issues in like 2007 but this is 2014. Every person that I talk to that has SLI says every issue they've ever had with SLI is

1: Games from like 2005 not supporting it

2: They forgot to enable SLI

3: Beta drivers. But, Beta is Beta for a reason. 

 

But, in THIS case 1 GPU is better because of the budget. Just trying to clear up the cloud of smoke in most peoples mind that SLI is horrible. 

didnt theif not support crossfire at launch? also sli/crossfire is terrible from a price to performance ratio i think if u have 2 cards u should get the full horsepower of 2 cards by now like you said its 2014! 

 

Op in your case i would get a single 780 or 290.

[DoubleY]

didnt theif not support crossfire at launch? also sli/crossfire is terrible from a price to performance ratio i think if u have 2 cards u should get the full horsepower of 2 cards by now like you said its 2014! 

 

Op in your case i would get a single 780 or 290.

That's more the games fault, not Nvidia's.

[WoodenMarker]

Would you say 2 760s in SLI would be a good price to performance scenario, over a single 780? 

Depends on pricing. Prices/availability changes depending on where you're shopping and what parts your comparing.

[Lays]

No, but only because NVIDIA have deliberately priced the 760 so that two of them costs the same as a 780. Literally the same cost to performance for either one, the only difference is one allows you to pay in two instalments and the other doesn't. If you already have a 760 then buying another one will probably work out cheaper than selling the one you've got at a loss and then buying a 780.

 

 

 

 

But that has the same pitfalls as the 780, and the 780 Ti. If vram is your problem then none of these are solutions. Your options would be AMD or Titan.

 

 

Vram is so irrelevant, if a Titan or a 290/290x were to use over 3gb of vram, there's so many things on the screen and textures to load, that you'd have unplayable frame rates on any AAA game. 

 

Crysis 3 at 5760x1080 and ultra settings + maxed out AA uses around 3.05-3.1 GB of vram, and with a single titan that's around 25-40 FPS.

 

 

Just because you add more VRAM doesn't necessarily solve the problem, you'll still need much more GPU horsepower to drive it those extra textures etc.

[othertomperson]

Vram is so irrelevant, if a Titan or a 290/290x were to use over 3gb of vram, there's so many things on the screen and textures to load, that you'd have unplayable frame rates on any AAA game. 

 

Crysis 3 at 5760x1080 and ultra settings + maxed out AA uses around 3.05-3.1 GB of vram, and with a single titan that's around 25-40 FPS.

 

 

Just because you add more VRAM doesn't necessarily solve the problem, you'll still need much more GPU horsepower to drive it those extra textures etc.

 

VRAM isn't irrelevant because when people stick powerful cards in SLi/Crossfire it's usually to run at very high resolutions, either multimonitor or 4k and then the bottleneck is very often a lack of vram.

[Lays]

VRAM isn't irrelevant because when people stick powerful cards in SLi/Crossfire it's usually to run at very high resolutions, either multimonitor or 4k and then the bottleneck is very often a lack of vram.

 

 

Crysis with with ultra settings and 4x AA only uses 3gb of vram at 4k.  Vram is completely irrelevant above 3gb unless you're buying more than two cards.   Two 780's at 1320 mhz on the core, and 7600 on the memory will struggle to maintain above 60 FPS at 3gb of vram usage, adding 3gb extra will make zero difference.  You NEED atleast 3 cards to fully make use of above 3gb.

 

 

QUAD titans and a 5ghz 3930k STRUGGLE to provide 60 fps at 7680x1440 with 4-4.8gb of vram usage, cards DO NOT have the GPU horsepower to keep up with 6gb or even 4gb right now, unless you plan on spending well over 6000$ on monitors and GPU's

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1415441/7680x1440-benchmarks-plus-2-3-4-way-sli-gk110-scaling

[othertomperson]

Crysis with with ultra settings and 4x AA only uses 3gb of vram at 4k.  Vram is completely irrelevant above 3gb unless you're buying more than two cards.   Two 780's at 1320 mhz on the core, and 7600 on the memory will struggle to maintain above 60 FPS at 3gb of vram usage, adding 3gb extra will make zero difference.  You NEED atleast 3 cards to fully make use of above 3gb.

 

 

 

QUAD titans and a 5ghz 3930k STRUGGLE to provide 60 fps at 7680x1440 with 4-4.8gb of vram usage, cards DO NOT have the GPU horsepower to keep up with 6gb or even 4gb right now, unless you plan on spending well over 6000$ on monitors and GPU's

 

http://www.overclock.net/t/1415441/7680x1440-benchmarks-plus-2-3-4-way-sli-gk110-scaling

 

Yes, but the 780 and 780 Ti don't have 3GB, they have 2 so they will bottleneck. Hence you need Titans or 290(X)s.

[DoubleY]

Yes, but the 780 and 780 Ti don't have 3GB, they have 2 so they will bottleneck. Hence you need Titans or 290(X)s.

U wot m8

[othertomperson]

ooh

[Lays]

Yes, but the 780 and 780 Ti don't have 3GB, they have 2 so they will bottleneck. Hence you need Titans or 290(X)s.

 

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????