Seeking Upgrade Advice

[Roadhog]

Originally Posted by Vanzagar

Just to clarify, does SLI tax a system more than a single card solution of similar horse power... for example would my system run near the same with 2x HD6970 vs. HD6990 or would my system perform better with the single card solution or the HD6990?

If so why is that?

It would be the same.

What i'm saying though is your cpu is fast enough for a single card. Down the road if you want more speed upgrade your cpu and buy another gpu.

[Pennyboy]

The advantage of a single GPU is you don't need to wait for drivers to come out with profiles whenever a new game is released for SLI and Crossfire, although Nvidia and ATI are pretty quick at realeasing new drivers for a new game sometimes you do have to wait. Plus when I ran an SLI system a few years back there was times when I would update my drivers for the new profiles for a new game but then driver has caused problems BSOD in other games or other weird glitches.

[Intel17]

Originally Posted by Vanzagar

Just to clarify, does SLI tax a system more than a single card solution of similar horse power... for example would my system run near the same with 2x HD6970 vs. HD6990 or would my system perform better with the single card solution or the HD6990?

If so why is that?

It's not a question of "taxing" the system as much as "introducing a bottleneck".

So if you have an HD 6990 or 2x 6970's or whatever super-powerful-graphics-setup, the graphics cards will have the capability of pumping out more FPS. However, the CPU is also able to pump out only a certain number of FPS (that's why review sites measusre CPU performance in low quality mode). If the max amount of FPS a CPU can pump out is LESS than what your GPUs are capable of at a given setting point, then you are limited to whatever your CPU can pump out. Reverse argument applies if the CPU can pump out more frames than the GPU (you're limited to whatever your GPU can pump out).

[Vanzagar]

Originally Posted by Intel17

It's not a question of "taxing" the system as much as "introducing a bottleneck".

So if you have an HD 6990 or 2x 6970's or whatever super-powerful-graphics-setup, the graphics cards will have the capability of pumping out more FPS. However, the CPU is also able to pump out only a certain number of FPS (that's why review sites measusre CPU performance in low quality mode). If the max amount of FPS a CPU can pump out is LESS than what your GPUs are capable of at a given setting point, then you are limited to whatever your CPU can pump out. Reverse argument applies if the CPU can pump out more frames than the GPU (you're limited to whatever your GPU can pump out).

yes I know all about that, here's a good article on it (couple years old now):

http://benchmarkextreme.com/Articles...alysis/P1.html

That's exactly why I'm asking... what I don't know is where the break down is, for example for a GTX580, what would be the lowest cost processor that you could be that would NOT create a bottleneck.... or in my case what I'm trying to figure out, is given my CPU=Quad Q9550, what is the best possible GPU I could buy that doesn't become bottlenecked?

I don't think hardly any sites provide this kind of detailed reviews but it would be nice if a few took specific cards and tried a bunch of CPU's and graphed the FPS...

[Intel17]

What kind of budget do you have for everything?

[Vanzagar]

hmmm, good question, I'd say about $700 for upgrading...

[Intel17]

All right. So, honestly? My vote is to go with 2x GTX 560 Ti. Your CPU, yeah, it isn't top end, but it's no slouch either. And if you're willing to overclock it a bit, maybe pick up a new cooler (Noctua NH-D14 is pretty incredible), you can pump yet more life out of that system. The 2x 560Ti will get you more performance than a GTX 580 (for GTX 580 price), but it's not so overkill as to be held back by your "old" Q9550.

In any case, you will be seeing MASSIVE improvements from your current setup. I guarantee it.

[Vanzagar]

Originally Posted by Intel17

All right. So, honestly? My vote is to go with 2x GTX 560 Ti. Your CPU, yeah, it isn't top end, but it's no slouch either. And if you're willing to overclock it a bit, maybe pick up a new cooler (Noctua NH-D14 is pretty incredible), you can pump yet more life out of that system. The 2x 560Ti will get you more performance than a GTX 580 (for GTX 580 price), but it's not so overkill as to be held back by your "old" Q9550.

In any case, you will be seeing MASSIVE improvements from your current setup. I guarantee it.

Thanks Intel17, I appreciate the advice... I'm gonna wait a little and see how the GTX590 does in terms of heat and noise, I'm sure it will perform a bit better than GTX560 SLI and very close to GTX570 SLI,

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforc...i-sli-review/7
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforc...-sli-review/11

Plus it'll be a single card solution leaving me to upgrade my CPU and add another GTX590 in a year or two...

If the GTX590 really sucks then I'll go with GTX560 SLI or GTX570 SLI... thanks again...

Vanz

[Intel17]

Sweet. Let us know what you end up doing!