2x GTX 460 1GB in SLI vs. GTX 480

**Kain** · 08-13-10, 05:10 PM

I understand that 2x GTX 460 1GB cards in SLI are faster and slightly cheaper than a single GTX 480, but are the "headaches" of SLI (that I have read around but not sure how "true" they are) worth it to get the 2x GTX 460 1GB cards in SLI over a single GTX 480?

JasonPC · 08-13-10, 06:02 PM

Well the good thing about SLI is you can set a profile to disable it if you do have issues with it in certain applications. Though obviously the downside is you won't get the extra performance. But any applications that have issues with SLI probably wouldn't need the extra performance since the 460 is a fairly strong card on its own.

Where the headaches come in is when the application could use the performance of two cards but has issues with it. When I had dual 8800s Empire: Total War had terrible issues with SLI and it was a game that could have used the extra performance from those cards. Though my thoughts are the game suffered from poor driver support from nvidia for those cards as the 200 series had no trouble with SLI but anything G80 or G92 just flat out sucked with SLI. So I guess down the line if you want to keep the card for a while it could become an issue, but partly it depends on nvidia's driver support.

RollinThundr · 08-13-10, 07:34 PM

Good post Kain, its a question I share as well. Being someone who's going into an SLI situation for the first time, are there any articles explaining how SLI actually works and what the process is on getting applications (games) up and running in SLI mode?

particleman · 08-13-10, 09:33 PM

SLi is a lot better than it was years ago. Most games work pretty well with SLi although there is the occassional game that does not work with it. In cases like this though you can still use SLi AA so you can at least get better image quality in games with SLi issues.

I would choose 2 460's over a GTX 480 any day.

**Destroy** · 08-14-10, 11:13 AM

Is there a list somewhere of games that have known SLI issues?

JasonPC · 08-14-10, 11:37 AM

It's easier to just check which ones are officially supported http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone2_game.html

There may be more that work but these are the ones that are officially supported by nvidia so there's no guarantee you can get it to work right with anything not on the list.

LurkerLito · 08-14-10, 12:17 PM

I like the idea of SLI but for the most part don't want the power requirements, heat or slots SLI take up. I'd personally rather have a single powerful card than 2 lower end cards eating 2x the power and generating 2x the heat for the same or just a little bit more speed and having to deal with games that have SLI issues. To each their own though

.

JasonPC · 08-14-10, 01:26 PM

Well the heat might not be as bad as you think, it depends on the cards. Yes it will run hotter than a single version of the card, but higher end single cards run hotter as well, especially the 480 when compared to a 460. Additionally in theory if both cards aren't being 100% utilized since the graphic load is being distributed to both, it should result in a lower load temperature. Reviews I have seen show the two 460s actually end up being cooler than a single 5870. And of course the 480 ends up getting scary hot http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforc...-sli-review/17. Power is a little bit of an issue though since TDP of the 460 is around 160W two would end up being somewhere over 300W while the 480 is around 265W. Not a huge difference though.

H3avyM3tal · 08-14-10, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LurkerLito

I like the idea of SLI but for the most part don't want the power requirements, heat or slots SLI take up. I'd personally rather have a single powerful card than 2 lower end cards eating 2x the power and generating 2x the heat for the same or just a little bit more speed and having to deal with games that have SLI issues. To each their own though

.

The nice thing about SLI-ing 2 460 is that they give you double the performance most of the time. With these cards it's pretty worth it (according to reviews at least).

ryoohki · 08-15-10, 06:21 PM

I just got 2 GTX 460 in SLI, coming from CrossFire 5850. I Can tell you it's way better than Crossfire in a couple of game. I had terrible shuttering in 2 games (Metro 2033 and Aliens Vs Predator). Now it's superb, even tought i OC them to 825/2075 and i'am having great performance and temps (about 67C at worst with 60% fan speed at worst)..

RollinThundr · 08-15-10, 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JasonPC

Well the good thing about SLI is you can set a profile to disable it if you do have issues with it in certain applications. Though obviously the downside is you won't get the extra performance. But any applications that have issues with SLI probably wouldn't need the extra performance since the 460 is a fairly strong card on its own.

Where the headaches come in is when the application could use the performance of two cards but has issues with it. When I had dual 8800s Empire: Total War had terrible issues with SLI and it was a game that could have used the extra performance from those cards. Though my thoughts are the game suffered from poor driver support from nvidia for those cards as the 200 series had no trouble with SLI but anything G80 or G92 just flat out sucked with SLI. So I guess down the line if you want to keep the card for a while it could become an issue, but partly it depends on nvidia's driver support.

SLI profiles are they part of the actual driver package or is it something you need to download seperately? Having just a 6800GT currently, nvidia control panel doesn't seem to have any mention of SLI anything. Is this due to my current card and board being pre sli so it just doesn't show up or will I have to do anything special day one with the new machine to get SLI up and running?

JasonPC · 08-15-10, 07:44 PM

They are included in the drivers and can be modified using the nvidia control panel profiles. It will show up as long as you have SLI enabled. You can use nhancer to further customize them but I believe nhancer is waiting on an update to work with the recent drivers.

08-13-10, 05:10 PM	#1
Kain Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Dubai, UAE Posts: 1,264	2x GTX 460 1GB in SLI vs. GTX 480 I understand that 2x GTX 460 1GB cards in SLI are faster and slightly cheaper than a single GTX 480, but are the "headaches" of SLI (that I have read around but not sure how "true" they are) worth it to get the 2x GTX 460 1GB cards in SLI over a single GTX 480? __________________ Intel Core i7-3930K Corsair Hydro Series H100 with 2 x Scythe GentleTyphoon 1850 rpm fans GIGABYTE GA-X79-UD3 16 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 MHz EVGA GeForce GTX TITAN Superclocked Signature Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD Crucial m4 256 GB Western Digital Caviar Black 2 TB Pioneer BDR-206DBK Corsair Professional Series Gold AX850 Corsair Obsidian Series 650D Samsung SyncMaster S23A700D Corsair Gaming Audio Series SP2500 Microsoft SideWinder X4 Logitech G9x Microsoft Windows 8 Pro 64-bit

08-13-10, 06:02 PM	#2
JasonPC Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 2,103	Re: 2x GTX 460 1GB in SLI vs. GTX 480 Well the good thing about SLI is you can set a profile to disable it if you do have issues with it in certain applications. Though obviously the downside is you won't get the extra performance. But any applications that have issues with SLI probably wouldn't need the extra performance since the 460 is a fairly strong card on its own. Where the headaches come in is when the application could use the performance of two cards but has issues with it. When I had dual 8800s Empire: Total War had terrible issues with SLI and it was a game that could have used the extra performance from those cards. Though my thoughts are the game suffered from poor driver support from nvidia for those cards as the 200 series had no trouble with SLI but anything G80 or G92 just flat out sucked with SLI. So I guess down the line if you want to keep the card for a while it could become an issue, but partly it depends on nvidia's driver support.

08-13-10, 07:34 PM	#3
RollinThundr Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 95	Re: 2x GTX 460 1GB in SLI vs. GTX 480 Good post Kain, its a question I share as well. Being someone who's going into an SLI situation for the first time, are there any articles explaining how SLI actually works and what the process is on getting applications (games) up and running in SLI mode?

08-13-10, 09:33 PM	#4
particleman Registered User Join Date: Aug 2002 Posts: 370	Re: 2x GTX 460 1GB in SLI vs. GTX 480 SLi is a lot better than it was years ago. Most games work pretty well with SLi although there is the occassional game that does not work with it. In cases like this though you can still use SLi AA so you can at least get better image quality in games with SLi issues. I would choose 2 460's over a GTX 480 any day.

08-14-10, 11:13 AM	#5
Destroy Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 3,993	Re: 2x GTX 460 1GB in SLI vs. GTX 480 Is there a list somewhere of games that have known SLI issues? __________________ Vista64 Home Premium Gigabyte GA-EP35C-DS3R CPU E8500 with Corsair H50 cooler HIS 6970, always 19x10res Memory 8 Gig OCZ 1000@1024 Display Westinghouse 37" LVM-37w1 LCD monitor

08-14-10, 11:37 AM	#6
JasonPC Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 2,103	Re: 2x GTX 460 1GB in SLI vs. GTX 480 It's easier to just check which ones are officially supported http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone2_game.html There may be more that work but these are the ones that are officially supported by nvidia so there's no guarantee you can get it to work right with anything not on the list.

08-14-10, 12:17 PM	#7
LurkerLito Registered User Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 1,550	Re: 2x GTX 460 1GB in SLI vs. GTX 480 I like the idea of SLI but for the most part don't want the power requirements, heat or slots SLI take up. I'd personally rather have a single powerful card than 2 lower end cards eating 2x the power and generating 2x the heat for the same or just a little bit more speed and having to deal with games that have SLI issues. To each their own though . __________________ Main PC: Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe ; Intel i7-3770k ; GSkill Ripjaws X Series 16GB DDR3 2133 (2x8GB) ; Seasonic X Series X-1050 PSU ; Corsair H100 ; EVGA GTX-670 ; Mushkin 240GB SSD system drive Old PC: ABIT IP35 Pro ; Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 ; Patriot 6GB (3x2GB) DDR2 800 RAM ; EVGA GTX480 SC ; Antec P190 Case ; EnzoTech Ultra120 CPU Cooler

08-14-10, 01:26 PM	#8
JasonPC Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 2,103	Re: 2x GTX 460 1GB in SLI vs. GTX 480 Well the heat might not be as bad as you think, it depends on the cards. Yes it will run hotter than a single version of the card, but higher end single cards run hotter as well, especially the 480 when compared to a 460. Additionally in theory if both cards aren't being 100% utilized since the graphic load is being distributed to both, it should result in a lower load temperature. Reviews I have seen show the two 460s actually end up being cooler than a single 5870. And of course the 480 ends up getting scary hot http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforc...-sli-review/17. Power is a little bit of an issue though since TDP of the 460 is around 160W two would end up being somewhere over 300W while the 480 is around 265W. Not a huge difference though.

08-15-10, 06:21 PM	#10
ryoohki Registered User Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 72	Re: 2x GTX 460 1GB in SLI vs. GTX 480 I just got 2 GTX 460 in SLI, coming from CrossFire 5850. I Can tell you it's way better than Crossfire in a couple of game. I had terrible shuttering in 2 games (Metro 2033 and Aliens Vs Predator). Now it's superb, even tought i OC them to 825/2075 and i'am having great performance and temps (about 67C at worst with 60% fan speed at worst)..

08-15-10, 07:44 PM	#12
JasonPC Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 2,103	Re: 2x GTX 460 1GB in SLI vs. GTX 480 They are included in the drivers and can be modified using the nvidia control panel profiles. It will show up as long as you have SLI enabled. You can use nhancer to further customize them but I believe nhancer is waiting on an update to work with the recent drivers.