Poll: A technical opinion, please?

[Macgyvercas]

Okay, first off, this probably should be in gaming discussion, but frankly it could fit here two. Second, let's not turn this into an Nvidea VS ATI thread. I use Nvidea, so that's what I'm asking about. Okay, with that out of the way...

I'm planning on making some mods to my computer at some time in the future (once I have money), and one of the things I'm targeting is the graphics card. The question is, which would be better: two GTX 480's set up in SLI, or one GTX 590?

Some help here would be great.

 

[Lacsapix]

this discussion can be changed to: "one better videocard or two lesser videocards in crossfire (I forgot what the Nvidianian word for crossfire is sorry.)".
I would recommend one better videocard (or the GTX 590) for the sake of your energy bills. I can't see an enormous diffrence in display but I can see (and hear) a diffrence in power consumption, two videocards in crossfire needs a better psu then most computers have.

But.....
tech geeks (like myself) can get "a hard pipi" from two videocards in crossfireX, so if you want to show of your sexy machine then two videocards and a PSU upgrade is what you want.

 

[Macgyvercas]

this discussion can be changed to: "one better videocard or two lesser videocards in crossfire (I forgot what the Nvidianian word for crossfire is sorry.)".
I would recommend one better videocard (or the GTX 590) for the sake of your energy bills. I can't see an enormous diffrence in display but I can see (and hear) a diffrence in power consumption, two videocards in crossfire needs a better psu then most computers have.

But.....
tech geeks (like myself) can get "a hard pipi" from two videocards in crossfireX, so if you want to show of your sexy machine then two videocards and a PSU upgrade is what you want.

The equivalent of Crossfire is SLI.

Also, I'm a bit lax on computer terms. What's PSU again? If you mean CPU, I have AMD Phenom II x4 965, 3.4 GHz.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

Okay, first off, this probably should be in gaming discussion, but frankly it could fit here two. Second, let's not turn this into an Nvidea VS ATI thread. I use Nvidea, so that's what I'm asking about. Okay, with that out of the way...

I'm planning on making some mods to my computer at some time in the future (once I have money), and one of the things I'm targeting is the graphics card. The question is, which would be better: two GTX 480's set up in SLI, or one GTX 590?

Some help here would be great.

You might wanna check your Power Supply Unit. Graphics cards soak up tons of power, and you'll need a good one to run SLI.

I'd also recommend asking yourself whether spending that much on your graphics right now is that great of an idea. How long are you planning until upgrading again? When you start looking at spending that kind of money you might get more bang for your buck by spending less now and upgrading next year.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Okay, first off, this probably should be in gaming discussion, but frankly it could fit here two. Second, let's not turn this into an Nvidea VS ATI thread. I use Nvidea, so that's what I'm asking about. Okay, with that out of the way...

I'm planning on making some mods to my computer at some time in the future (once I have money), and one of the things I'm targeting is the graphics card. The question is, which would be better: two GTX 480's set up in SLI, or one GTX 590?

Some help here would be great.

You might wanna check your Power Supply Unit. Graphics cards soak up tons of power, and you'll need a good one to run SLI.

I'd also recommend asking yourself whether spending that much on your graphics right now is that great of an idea. How long are you planning until upgrading again? When you start looking at spending that kind of money you might get more bang for your buck by spending less now and upgrading next year.

I don't plan on upgrading for a while, since I have more pressing matters to attend to (namely college books, and a portable hard drive for backing up data).

 

[BloodSquirrel]

I don't plan on upgrading for a while, since I have more pressing matters to attend to (namely college books, and a portable hard drive for backing up data).

I wouldn't try to go ultra-high end, then. For the cost of one GTX 590 you'll probably be able to buy a graphics card that runs any game on the market now AND a card that performs better than the GTX590 one year from now. You'll also probably get more value out of spending half of the cost of the 590 on a better processor, motherboard, or possibly a solid state drive.

Top-of-the-line graphics hardware is for enthusiasts who actually spend $2000-3000 to build a PC every year. If you've got anything resembling a limited budget, they're a poor place to put the money.

 

[Lacsapix]

The equivalent of Crossfire is SLI.

Also, I'm a bit lax on computer terms. What's PSU again? If you mean CPU, I have AMD Phenom II x4 965, 3.4 GHz.

PSU stands for Power Supply Unit.
most computers nowdays have a 600-700W power supply but if you want to SLI your Nvidia videocards you should upgrade it to a +/-900W PSU.

 

[Virgil]

The question is, which would be better: two GTX 480's set up in SLI, or one GTX 590?

I would suggest one GTX 590, for two reasons:


One video card will have fewer driver/compatibility issues than two cards in SLI will.
One video card leaves you the opportunity to add a second identical one as an easy future upgrade, when their price drops.