Well I was going for a 480gtx... [dual SLI 460s]

[dangel]

...but from what I can see 2 x 460's (1gb) look like a much smarter buy. Is the SLI scaling really as good as they say? I've been a single gpu bloke for many a year and am dubious about the dark art of multi-gpu configs.

The downside is i'd probably prefer a dual gpu single card - which doesn't exist (yet) - because that would mean just one copper block for watercooling etc.

Anyone else thinking about this route?

My 280 is still holding it's own nonetheless..

[kalniel]

If you're going to play graphical show-piece games that nVidia have stuck their marketing claws into then I think SLI will be no problem at all - Crysis 2 etc. for eg.

But if you're wanting to play obscure eastern european games, or oddities like FSX then you get a lot more chancy.

However I would be really surprised if a dual GPU card doesn't come out from nVidia. They still don't have the performance crown, and they hate that. My instinct tells me they're kind of waiting for ATIs 6000 series to see how fast they need to clock it to regain the crown.

[dangel]

If you're going to play graphical show-piece games that nVidia have stuck their marketing claws into then I think SLI will be no problem at all - Crysis 2 etc. for eg.

But if you're wanting to play obscure eastern european games, or oddities like FSX then you get a lot more chancy.

Surely there's some stuff in-between those two?

Yes I want to play Crysis 2 - but it's more about me wanting to move up to DX11 and have something a stack more powerful than my 280. I'm not (as I said) in a massive rush but the dual 480 benchies are impressive - scaling appears to be far better than previous gen cards. Traditionally i've stuck with high end single gpu parts - but the 480 has it's downsides (although it's the king in this category). OTOH it's price is likely to drop, and soon.

[GoNz0]

remember you cant upgrade to 4 460's but you could start with one 480 and add another in later!

as for scaling my 480's scale very well indeed so i assume the 60's follow suit

long gone are the days of my 8800gtx's not scaling well at all these get straight in there and do what they should do

[kalniel]

Surely there's some stuff in-between those two?

Can't think of much on the PC - it's all console fodder in between

Could wait for the 6000 series as that'll certainly encourage a drop in 480 prices.

[dangel]

Could wait for the 6000 series as that'll certainly encourage a drop in 480 prices.

True - not sure if we'll see ATI lead with mid or high end cards tho. Much rumour abounds..

[badass]

My 280 is still holding it's own nonetheless..

I'd wait then.

[scaryjim]

... long gone are the days of my 8800gtx's not scaling well at all ...

You didn't bother mentioning that when you sold me one though, did you...

[GoNz0]

you gain between 50 and 75% with them in SLI, the 480's can hit 90-100%

its not a case of 10% gains like the initial 8800 drivers did

[Urban-UK]

I'm in the same boat as you, got a q6600 and a gtx280, I'm itching to upgrade graphics cards, but as you say the 280 is still holding its own, cpu doing fine aswell

your right though dual 460 would probably be the smartest buy at the moment, and from what I've seen they do scale well

I'm going to wait a little bit, new ati cards out soon, and nvidia are bound to make a dual 460 single card

[GoNz0]

i think the 6600 would bottleneck a 480

[scaryjim]

A Q6600 at stock *might* bottleneck a lightly-threaded game, but I find it unlikely, tbh. A Q6600 @ 3.6GHz, on the other hand, isn't likely to bottleneck anything

[Biscuit]

A Q6600 at stock *might* bottleneck a lightly-threaded game, but I find it unlikely, tbh. A Q6600 @ 3.6GHz, on the other hand, isn't likely to bottleneck anything

I might have got this wrong but... I found that the Q6600 at stock bottlenecked my GTX260 SSC. I figured this out by playin on COD4, i checked the average FPS then started overclocking. Once i got to 3.2, any more increase didnt seem to significantly raise the FPS so i took it that was the sweetpoint for lifting the bottleneck on the GPU.

[tao65]

The 460 SLI driver is not good now, maybe you should wait, as nvidia does not want everybody going for 460 SLI and ignore 480

[scaryjim]

I might have got this wrong but... I found that the Q6600 at stock bottlenecked my GTX260 SSC.

I guess that depends - what resolution and what were your FPS before you started overclocking? Anything over 60fps and your display is bottlenecking your performance first

I'm surprised if there are games out there that can seriously task a 2.4GHz Core 2. Mind you, I tend to buy games several years behind the cutting edge, so maybe I've just not caught up to the games that'd cause mine to struggle (that and I'm on a GTX8800 which obviously is somewhat less potent...)