GTX670 GPU advice

[KeyboardDemon]

I have a friend that's upgrading his GTX460 to an MSI GTX670 Power Edition. He has an i7 950 on a P6x58d-e mobo, 6gb (3x2gb) and a Corsair TX750 PSU.

We were thinking about running the GTX460 as a Physx card but weren't sure if the PSU would be able to cope, or even if there would be a big enough performance gain to want to try it.

What do you guys think?

He thinks he will also be overclocking the CPU, he wants to aim at 3.8ghz using a CM 212+ and also has 10 fans with LEDs and cathodes in the case. Would that push it too far?

[rs4847]

You'll just be slowing the 670 down and wasting power if you use the 460 for Physx from my experience.

460 1GB + 670 4GB on my system barely hit 550w under load.

[KeyboardDemon]

Cool, thanks. That's good to know.

If it's well within the power limits of the PSU it would be worth trying out so he can see it for himself.

At 550 watts that leaves plenty of room for the 10 fans and a bit of a heavy overclock.

[teppic]

I think it'd be a waste of time. I'd sell the 460 - there are plenty of people on a budget who'd get some real use out of it.

[vicar]

Sell the 460 and pocket the money.

[KeyboardDemon]

Selling it seems like a good idea to me, but it's not my decision, he doesn't use eBay so the only options would be trying to sell locally through a computer exchange type place and he wouldn't get as much for it that way.

[rs4847]

Cool, thanks. That's good to know.

If it's well within the power limits of the PSU it would be worth trying out so he can see it for himself.

At 550 watts that leaves plenty of room for the 10 fans and a bit of a heavy overclock.

Manufactures tend to overstate power requirements so I wouldn't worry too much, I don't think I've seen much past 300w loaded on this rig as is assuming my plug-in passthrough meter can be trusted.

He might see some gains in really GPU intensive stuff but I don't see the point of a couple of FPS in one game over the power consumption and heat generated using a second card just for Physx.

[KeyboardDemon]

Some people just like to try things out for themselves, if it were me I'd be doing the same thing, just so I can learn about the process and not just for the immediate potential performance gains.

[KeyboardDemon]

I have just seen a couple of YouTube videos demonstrating Physx, both posted by Linus over at NCIX.

Dedicated PhysX experiment

PNY NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450 Dedicated PhysX Card Review

So it looks like the results will vary according to how well the cards match up. I'm curious about what sort of results he will get.

He said he will only run this setup for maybe a month at most, so as soon as he has got his GTX670 and has started testing I may be able to post some results.

[Phage]

He could sell it to you for whatever he'd get at a Pawnbrokers.
http://uk.webuy.com/product.php?sku=SGRANVIGTX4603

[scaryjim]

He could sell it to you for whatever he'd get at a Pawnbrokers.
http://uk.webuy.com/product.php?sku=SGRANVIGTX4603

Your link is for a 2GB version: the 1GB GTX460 is valued considerably (£23) lower...

[Phage]

Ah yes. I was rushing at it....

[rs4847]

Some people just like to try things out for themselves, if it were me I'd be doing the same thing, just so I can learn about the process and not just for the immediate potential performance gains.

Totally agree, if we all depended on other peoples opinions and experience then where would we be?

Like I said I have done this with a 460+670 and didn't find it worth it, I would be interested in learning about your friends conclusions considering he's using a totally different platform.

[KeyboardDemon]

He could sell it to you for whatever he'd get at a Pawnbrokers.
http://uk.webuy.com/product.php?sku=SGRANVIGTX4603

I'd take that deal if I could, but alas there is a large body of water that stands between us as he is in North America and while fairly technically competent he doesn't use forums at the moment.