Hi Guys,
I've got an NVidia GTX660 2gb which runs the game reasonably smooth on Medium settings, I have the opportunity to buy an identical GFX card and run them in SLI, would this be worth it for FC4? Or should I just get a better card such as GTX780 or GTX970?
I'm also thinking of upgrading my Core i5 3750k to and i7 and doubling my 8gb DDR1800 to 16gb.
Any help appreciated!
Cheers.
ps. Should also mention I do have an ATI 7950 as well, but this suffers a from stuttering (mostly when driving,) Much like I had with Watchdogs so not expecting them to fix that any time soon! It's a shame as it seems to have potential to run the game at pretty much Ultra settings.
You are likely to see minimal gains from the cpu/ram upgrade.
I would recommend checking for some benchmarks for those gpus to see which is the best choice, especially as SLI won't always scale well.
You should investigate the performance gains vs the costs of each option altough I would say to choose a 970 over a 780 as it has more vram and uses less power for almost identical performance (also for reasons unknown to me, the price of 780's has not dropped in line with expectations and they currently get less performance/price ratio than a 970)
Take it from someone who learnt the hard way, don't bother with SLI or Crossfire!Originally Posted by fitzsteve Go to original post
I used a pay bonus to stick another 280X in my machine. Some games it works on (BF4) but there can be flickering or other graphical issues. Most games it doesn't work with on launch (Shadow of Mordor is an example, it did get added after though) and Ubisoft games it seems will never work with it. Watch_Dogs stutters worse with CF on for me, none of the patches or AMD driver updates did a single thing.
What I learnt is that it's just better to pay out more in one go and get a top, or near top, range GPU to begin with.
my suggestion would be to get a GTX970, something like the msi gtx 970 4g o/c gaming cardOriginally Posted by fitzsteve Go to original post
your cpu is still strong as its an I5 and shouldnt bottleneck the GPU. Your 8gb ddr3 ram is also just fine for the present games
i run the msi GTX970 card with an I5-4670k cpu and 16gb ddr3 1600 ram
i get a solid 100fps in FC4, 70fps in unity and capped at 140fps in BF4
a single high end (4 gb) GPU will always outperform 2 x 2gb GPUs in crossfore or SLI
people have the misconception that 2 x 2gb cards in sli/crossfire equals a total of 4gb VRAM, this is not the case as the PC sees only 2 x 2gb running in tandem, so a total vram of 2gb
+1Originally Posted by silverzz Go to original post
Maximum PC just rated the GTX 970 as their: Upgrade of the Month. They advised an upgrade to the 970 if you have a GTX 680 or something slower. Saying the 970 doesn't need much power, can overclock nicely, and is wicked fast.
NOTE: If you go with a 970, do some more research and make sure it's compatible with your motherboard and case. No sense in spending money on something then plugging into a motherboard slot that has only half the necessary bandwidth and end up bottle necking all that GFX power you just paid for. Also, if you've got one of the smaller cases, the size/width/length of the 970 might be an issue. Good luck and have fun!
SLI GTX 970s and no issues at all, ever, with SLI. Until this game of course, but NOTHING works for me in this game so it isn't a good reference.
My cards are the MSI GTX 970 4G and I heartily recommend them.
I upgraded from SLI EVGA GTX 670 FTW.. They were good cards but the 2GB ram was an issue at 1440P.
If you're at 1080P a single 970 would be my choice in your situation. Ram and CPU are fine.
I would definitely upgrade your GPU if you can.
Originally I was on a GTX 760 2GB with a i5 3570K and on High at 1080p I was getting around 45-50fps (About 30-35fps on Ultra). I upgraded to a GTX 970 and my fps were basically doubled. It happily plays at 60-70fps on Ultra (With soft shadows and HBAO+) and dips to 50 fps for a moment when its loading stuff in.
I would recommend against SLI as a general rule for gaming at less than 1440p. Its less power, less heat and less game support issues. Also your CPU is a powerhouse despite being a generation and a half behind. Ivy Bridge to Haswell for performance was not huge, they overclock better if you ever need to and they run cooler
EDIT: The GTX 970 I went for was a Galax GTX970 Black Edition. Because it is very well priced (£269), has a 5+2 phase power, runs cool (60C~) and can get to 1.4Ghz easily if you decide to overclock.
Thanks guys, I think I'll go for a 970 in the long term. (Maybe instead of the ATI card) My friend is sending me the other GTX660 so I'll let you know how I get on in the short term.Originally Posted by J_Wise Go to original post
Yes I think there is something to be said for a single card over 2 in SLI. Simpler is better and less problematic. I run (2) Gigabyte GTX 770s with 2 GB video RAM each, in SLI and have a problem playing this game in ultra video setting where I continually have ghosting of images where a previous image will remain faintly on the screen as I am moving around. This is particularly annoying in dark scenes, like where it is supposed to be night as it obscures the scene. I have been advised by another forum member that this is due to the SLI. I don't know how credentialed this guy is who says this but if is true then NVidia will probably address it in an upcoming SLI profile. If you can get a GTX 970 for 269 pounds (that's not on my keyboard), then I guess that is about $600 and that's a reasonable deal. I spent $800 for my 2 cards new, but they retail much less now. Take your best shot and spend a little extra for the higher RAM model. I am partial to Gigabyte because of their quieter cooling fan set up. But I don't really think manufacturer matters that much.
Incidentally, my system sees the total video RAM of 4 GB when I do a System Information report and so I assume the RAM is combined when gaming.
Now if you can get a GTX 660 used in good order for around $50 why not throw it in there in SLI and give it a try? It might improve your gaming for much less money! I used to game with a pair of Gigabyte Super Overclock GTX 260s in SLI. One I bought new and the other used for about 1/3 the price and I had a great time playing Battlefield 3 on ultra settings, smooth as silk.
Good luck mate! Cheers![]()
Memory does not add in SLI.Originally Posted by daejenkins Go to original post