£350-450 to spend on GPU - Idea's please

[RobertH]

I'm going to have this system:

i7 2600k @ 4.7
Corsair 850w
8gb RAM
SSD
ASUS P8Z68-V PRO

I'm mainly going to be playing Dead Island & BF3.

I'm happy to SLI/X FIRE in a year or 2's time!

Looking around, the GTX 580 looks the best for the money?

[eyezpy]

You might as well go for SLI/CF if you planning to get the 580. Two of these 560Ti or 6950 will perform better then one 580.

However, after playing the BF3 beta, I am keeping the one 560Ti for now as i runs smooth on high setting on 1080p and will upgrade, hopefully early, next year for the next gen. A friend brought two 560Ti, but that's because he wanted to play BF3 in 3D.

[pooley]

Yep go for the 580, IMO always go for the best card you can afford so you can SLI/CF it later on.

[shaithis]

Do not go xfire/sli in a year or 2 time.....It's really not worth planning like that at all.

By then, you will find it hard to source another 580 and you will not want 2 x 2 year old beastly gfx cards in your system.

[scaryjim]

With the improvements in SLI / crossfire I'm finding it increasingly hard to recommend a single top end card nowadays. In most games 2 6870s or 2 GTX560 (non-Ti) will outperform a GTX580, and they'll leave you beer money out of £300. Take a step up to the GTX560 Ti / HD6950 and you'll get a bit more performance and an outlay that drops nicely into your £350 - £400 budget.

As shaithis says, the problem with getting a single GTX580 now and then trying to add one a couple of years down the line is that there's no knowing if you'll be able to get a GTX580 down the line, or how much you'll have to pay if you do. And by the time you find one, the chances are that you'll be wanting to upgrade your whole rig anyway.

[kalniel]

Yep agreed. Don't get the 580, get 2x 560ti or 2x HD6950.

[eyezpy]

If you are planning to SLI 580 later on then better make sure you get a big power supply.
Unless you just want the best single card right now, I still think two 560Ti would be better. It will out perform one 580 and cost less.
In two years time graphic cards would have progressed 2 generation, with the with the next in sight, maybe even DirectX 12. Would you still want to SLI 580 then?

[shaithis]

I would still get the 580 or a lesser card......you haven't specified a resolution you want to game at...

Seriously, unless you are a real techie, you will find SLI/CFX will sooner or later annoy you....even as one of the more tech-savvy who are willing to spend hours messing with SLI/CFX profile settings, it still miffs me thinking about the number of titles I have had issues with over the years - all because of either SLI or CFX. Both are as bad as each other.

Unless you are running at 2560x1600 or higher, then it's even moot as dual cards for 1920x1200 or below is pretty much wasted anyway...and even at 2560x1600 you can get by with a single gpu in the vast majority of titles at very high settings.

I run a 2560x1600 screen and have done since 2007, which is why I have had a fair few of these dual GPU setups. I am even HALF considering one now for BF3 but I just keep thinking of how many new games are out/coming out and keep think " that!.....How many niggles do I want to put up with?"

[RobertH]

I forgot to add, I want to game in 3D HD !! Prob 23 or 24" Single screen.

[scaryjim]

I forgot to add, I want to game in 3D HD !!

If you want 3D (although I have no idea why you would) you're probably better off sticking with nvidia - whilst AMD do have 3D support, it's all third party and you need to sort it yourself; nvidia essentially provide an out-of-the-box experience (but it's expensive, as you need a compatible 120Hz monitor and active shutter glasses). There's all sorts of issues and caveats with 3D, and I'd strongly recommend you do a lot of research before making a final decision...

[shaithis]

Mixing SLI and 3D? Hehe good luck with that! Both have their fare share of issues when taken separately......add them together and

[eyezpy]

I think the SLI drivers has come a long way since 2007!
I first tried SLI with voodoo 2 and then 6600 GT, which i admit was both useless.
Couple of close friends have gone for SLI this year. One went for SLI GTX 460 for a triple monitor set up, no complaints from him. Another went for SLI GTX 560 Ti reading for BF3 3D at 23". BF3 is not out yet, but I doubt he will be disappointed judging from the articles on hexus recently.
If you do go for nvidia 3D, make sure you get their 2nd gen glasses. Not sure if and second gen 3D monitors is available yet, but the glasses are compatible with current ones.

[shaithis]

Yes they have, and I have been using them on SLI and CFX systems.....I change hardware a LOT....so if you think my opinions are based in 2007, then you are sadly mistaken.

My last dual GPU setup was 5870s which I sold not long ago to buy a 580.

If you friend never uses VSync, is lucky enough to only play games with perfect support for multi-GPU etc, then he won't have issues.

Otherwise you can look forward to micro-stutters, full-on stutters, flashing textures, missing textures, negative scaling, tearing or just plain old "computer says no"

And that's before we even talk about heat and noise generation and inherent issues in 3D that no driver is going to fix (i.e. developers adding effects cheaply that are 2D instead of 3D)

Just look around the nVidia forums and tell me SLI "just works"

[Pob255]

This is a tough choice, esp if you throw 3d into the mix, 3d adds quite a bit of total load to the system.
And as with many multi-monitor setups, single cards are often not enough and really does need a multi card setup.

If you want 3D (although I have no idea why you would) you're probably better off sticking with nvidia - whilst AMD do have 3D support, it's all third party and you need to sort it yourself; nvidia essentially provide an out-of-the-box experience (but it's expensive, as you need a compatible 120Hz monitor and active shutter glasses). There's all sorts of issues and caveats with 3D, and I'd strongly recommend you do a lot of research before making a final decision...

I'd fully agree with jim here do some research into it before going down the 3d path.
One thing I'll sugest is have a look at the zalman trimon monitors, personally speaking they are the best 3d monitor system, granted not perfect, but by using a interlaced polarized screen instead of shutter glasses you don't get the added flicker of the shutter glasses (which is often something that causes the headaches you get) you don't get sync issues (where you suddenly get the 3d inverted because the glasses went out of sync with the screen)
Down side is the cost, the panels are not made in great quantity so the monitors are not as cheap and there's a smaller range of models.
(note you don't need 3rd party software with nvidia cards the trimon works with the nvidia 3d drivers, it's only ati cards that need the 3rd party drivers)

[scaryjim]

... the trimon works with the nvidia 3d drivers ...

Really? Didn't know that. Then I'd definitely go down that route personally - if I was going 3D I'd definitely be using trimons...

[jigger]

I would be tempted to hold out for the 7000 cards now. £450 seems a lot to spend at the moment.