SLI 260 worth it?

[gulizard]

I was thinking of getting a second 260 super clocked evga card out of my taxes. I don't have a lot of money to spend really, but I figured I'd get a second card, and get a 700W OCZ PSU that is SLI certified, and it would run that. Is the performance increase with SLI worth the 224 bones I'd have to dish out for it? I would like to be able to run the latest games coming out at close to max settings, if not max settings, such as AVP3.

[Revs]

Yup, do it. Of all the cards in the 200 series, the 260's scale best in SLi. A good example is Crysis. A pair of 260's will just about keep up with a pair of 285's. I can play at 1920x1080 with highest settings (but no AA) and get 30-60+fps and is perfectly playable.

[gulizard]

Cool. Going to do it.

[trivium nate]

yeah go for it i have dual EVGa GTX 260's they play anythign on max gta iv,crysis crysis warhed on 1920x1080 resolution i dont use AA everything set to highest definitly get them

[bacon12]

I have a pair, but I would look for a used one somewhere if I were you. You also don't need another superclocked edition, just put the lesser in the secondary slot. :D

[gulizard]

Any benchmarks with this compared to the 4800x2 ati card in sli, and the 295 single vs sli?

[Revs]

Any benchmarks with this compared to the 4800x2 ati card in sli, and the 295 single vs sli?

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/nvidia_gtx295_full/

[trivium nate]

heres my gta 4 benchmark runs this game past maxed with about np

Statistics
Average FPS: 36.01
Duration: 37.79 sec
CPU Usage: 77%
System memory usage: 87%
Video memory usage: 99%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1080 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Texture Filter Quality: Very High
View Distance: 22
Detail Distance: 100

Hardware
Microsoft® Windows Vista" Ultimate
Service Pack 2
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
Video Driver version: 196.21
Audio Adapter: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
AMD Phenom(tm) 9950 Quad-Core Processor

File ID: Benchmark.cli

[hemmy]

Statistics
Average FPS: 60.14
Duration: 37.56 sec
CPU Usage: 36%
System memory usage: 53%
Video memory usage: 100%

Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1200 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Texture Filter Quality: Highest
View Distance: 100
Detail Distance: 100

Hardware
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Video Adapter: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
Video Driver version: 195.62
Audio Adapter: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz

File ID: Benchmark.cli

Ran that today. vsync off using -norestrictions for max graphics

[trivium nate]

so you beat mine o well

[Airbrushkid]

I think he beat you because of his cpu.

[trivium nate]

yeah probably

[hemmy]

Heh, you just got me interested in seeing what fps I got so I figured I would run it ;)

But I would say yes, the 260 scales very well, and was worth SLI for me - not to mention I like to fold on both cards which they are very good at.

[gulizard]

yeah probably

I get avg of 40 now. Maxed out with a single card.

[trivium nate]

well i pushed the settings all the way like past what they are supposed to be

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/3092/gtaiv2010012412532470.png

[gulizard]

I run my at 1600 by 1050 tho. Guess that makes the difference.

[trivium nate]

oh yeah

[john19055]

I hate to be the spoiler but why would you want to buy old tec when you can buy a HD5850 for as low as $275 and two of them will play any game and future ones two.I would wait and see what nvidia comes out with since you have waited this long ,if you just don't like ATI/AMD.But another GTX 260 will still probbally play any game for another year anyway.

[JasonPC]

In my experience GTAIV doesn't scale at all with SLI... It makes the framerate a little bit higher but it feels choppier. It also made a bunch of flickering at times for me.

[XMAN52373]

I hate to be the spoiler but why would you want to buy old tec when you can buy a HD5850 for as low as $275 and two of them will play any game and future ones two.I would wait and see what nvidia comes out with since you have waited this long ,if you just don't like ATI/AMD.But another GTX 260 will still probbally play any game for another year anyway.

Well, other than very limited DX11 titles right, what is it 1 out so far. But spending around 175 vs 275 he saves cash, can do SLi for now as he is propably waiting for Nvidias Fermi before deciding on what to buy in DX11 hardware and then there is the performance. In most cases it will be on par to slightly better than the single 5850.

[Apheleon]

260 SLI? Hmm. . . I would rather wait Fermi

[Blacklash]

GTX 260 Core 216 SLi is still viable, particularly if you OC. Two of those cards @ 650|2300 or greater are nice.

Another card would yield a nice performance boost, particularly if you game @ 1920x1200.

HD 5850s are around 300usd, a second GTX 260 could be had for around 175usd.

There's one that's 650|2000 out of the box for 176usd

http://www.provantage.com/gigabyte-technology-gv-n26oc-896i~7GIG90A6.htm

It does have a 216 core. At clocks like that you'll definitely have faster than GTX 295 performance.

http://hothardware.com/Articles/Asus-EAH5870-Radeon-HD-5870-Review/?page=6

GTX 295 is 576 on the core.

EDIT: I tried the Heaven bench on my GTX 260 SLi rig with the cards set down to 650|2000. I did the DX10 path because tesso doesn't work on these cards. @1920x1200 with default filtering they did 70FPS. At my normal OC they do 75FPS. My HD 5870 @ 1030|1300 turns in 66FPS under the same conditions.