Upgrading GPU recommendations-input-advice

Hello all fine fellows on the GS forum. So, I'm looking to upgrade my GPU(s?) for the upcoming year (DA2, Homefront, Crysis2, ME3, etc). My current setup is:

Mobo: Asus P6T Deluxe V2

CPU: CoreI7 920 @ stock

RAM: 6 GB DDR3

GPU: 2xGTX275 SLI

HD: 150GB Velociraptor (plus 2x1TB WDCaviarBlacks)

PSU: Zalman ZM850 - 850W

all housed in a Lian Li PC-V2010 Fulltower (and I will be gaming on a BenqM2700HD @ 1920x1080)

I've had this comp for almost 2 years now and bought everything at once back then. This time I'm going to upgrade piecemeal (getting an SSD) so I'm hoping my cpu+mobo+ram will last me until LGA2011 is released but right now I really want to upgrade my GPU (even though I think this never-ending current generation of consoles will drag down graphics development in games for the foreseeable future (no whining here, I own both a PS3 and a 360 but I only use them for their exclusives, red dead, alan wake, heavy rain, etc))...but I digress...

What should I choose as a GPU solution? I'm thinking of either a GTX590 (or HD6990 (btw, the only AMD card I'm really interested in), SLI'd 580's (but will I have to upgrade my psu as well?) or SLI'd 570's. Which will last the longest (ok, not fair asking about the future but predictions are welcome), price/performance, all input requested...

Well, the hd 6990 and gtx 590 aren't even released yet, but if you are willing to switch your psu, the sli 580 would most likely be the most power setup.

Altought, are you sure you really want to upgrade??? Cause to me a sli 275 still kicks ass... as long as you do not require dx11...

Do you have a budget limit???

As stated it's notan emergency upgrade but I'm getting the itch to do it and it feels sort of prudent considering I skipped a generation. Budgetwise I'm looking at not spending more than ~$1200 (this month). I'm right now looking at MSI's Twin/Frozror EVGA 570's, could be the budget way to go...

Added question: would my current PSU (see above) be able to handle 2x570's?

crossfire 6870 is really good and inexpensive setup (in comparison), and not very power hungry, its worth a look.

your video cards are stronger than a 580 gtx I believe...but since it seems you're rich then 580 gtx sli'd is the way to go

Looked at another post here that speculated that the 590 = 570 SLI. In that case is it better to go with a single 590 (which ironically is a double :) ) for temp benefits (over having 2x570's sandwiched in my case)?

Looked at another post here that speculated that the 590 = 570 SLI. In that case is it better to go with a single 590 (which ironically is a double :) ) for temp benefits (over having 2x570's sandwiched in my case)?

cfwin

no, temps are more dependent on type of cooler and case cooling, if what you say is true then GTX570 SLI would be faster than the 590, most likely. the 590 might run hot we don't know

your video cards are stronger than a 580 gtx I believe...but since it seems you're rich then 580 gtx sli'd is the way to go

blaznwiipspman1

it would be close, but a GTX580 would out perform GTX275 SLI by a slight margin.

[QUOTE="cfwin"]

Looked at another post here that speculated that the 590 = 570 SLI. In that case is it better to go with a single 590 (which ironically is a double :) ) for temp benefits (over having 2x570's sandwiched in my case)?

chris24l

no, temps are more dependent on type of cooler and case cooling, if what you say is true then GTX570 SLI would be faster than the 590, most likely. the 590 might run hot we don't know

Interesting point, but if the difference is very low between the 590 and dual 570's wouldn't a single 590 give me the opportunity to buy another one in a year or two and go quad-SLI or would it just make more sense to go with whatever generation of cards then available?

[QUOTE="chris24l"]

[QUOTE="cfwin"]

Looked at another post here that speculated that the 590 = 570 SLI. In that case is it better to go with a single 590 (which ironically is a double :) ) for temp benefits (over having 2x570's sandwiched in my case)?

cfwin

no, temps are more dependent on type of cooler and case cooling, if what you say is true then GTX570 SLI would be faster than the 590, most likely. the 590 might run hot we don't know

Interesting point, but if the difference is very low between the 590 and dual 570's wouldn't a single 590 give me the opportunity to buy another one in a year or two and go quad-SLI or would it just make more sense to go with whatever generation of cards then available?

Added question: would my current PSU (see above) be able to handle 2x570's?

cfwin

Yes, and it would handle 2x 580 as well, they are "only" rated at 244W each. You could power an electric scooter with that PSU (given sufficient amounts of extension cord ;-) ).

[QUOTE="cfwin"]

Added question: would my current PSU (see above) be able to handle 2x570's?

eBusiness

Yes, and it would handle 2x 580 as well, they are "only" rated at 244W each. You could power an electric scooter with that PSU (given sufficient amounts of extension cord ;-) ).

[QUOTE="eBusiness"]

[QUOTE="cfwin"]

Added question: would my current PSU (see above) be able to handle 2x570's?

swehunt

Yes, and it would handle 2x 580 as well, they are "only" rated at 244W each. You could power an electric scooter with that PSU (given sufficient amounts of extension cord ;-) ).

Performancewise the benchies I looked at seems to give 580 SLI a 10-15% gain over 570 SLI and to me that doesn't justify getting the more expensive cards if I also need to add a new PSU to the 580's. Still I'm a bit conflicted, my philosophy is if I'm going to spend money to buy something why not spend some more to get the very best, ahh the agony of choice.

Also, how about the amount of VRAM, the 570 comes with 1280 mb and the 580 with 1536 mb (although Gainward has the 3 Gb Phantom card). I can't see myself upgrading monitors to 2560x1600 in the forseeable future (especially not for $4k :( ) nor am I getting eyefinity or 3D vision surround.

[QUOTE="swehunt"][QUOTE="eBusiness"]

Yes, and it would handle 2x 580 as well, they are "only" rated at 244W each. You could power an electric scooter with that PSU (given sufficient amounts of extension cord ;-) ).

eBusiness

Thing is that theese cards are restricted via drivers, they will automaticly restrict the card if programs like furmark are started.

TDP: Thats not at all a value over how much it can draw but rather the value over how much that gets converted to heat.

@ Wiki

Performancewise the benchies I looked at seems to give 580 SLI a 10-15% gain over 570 SLI and to me that doesn't justify getting the more expensive cards if I also need to add a new PSU to the 580's. Still I'm a bit conflicted, my philosophy is if I'm going to spend money to buy something why not spend some more to get the very best, ahh the agony of choice.

Also, how about the amount of VRAM, the 570 comes with 1280 mb and the 580 with 1536 mb (although Gainward has the 3 Gb Phantom card). I can't see myself upgrading monitors to 2560x1600 in the forseeable future (especially not for $4k :( ) nor am I getting eyefinity or 3D vision surround.

cfwin

crossfire 6870 is really good and inexpensive setup (in comparison), and not very power hungry, its worth a look.

chris24l

If you don't feel like spending that much money on a 6990, get this.

How much would the electrical draw increase on upgrading my psu from 850w to a Corsair 1200w be?, Is it only whenever the components pull the juice or is it a constant draw?

Thing is that theese cards are restricted via drivers, they will automaticly restrict the card if programs like furmark are started.

TDP: Thats not at all a value over how much it can draw but rather the value over how much that gets converted to heat.

@ Wiki

swehunt

It does seem like the GTX 580 cards tend to overstep their TDP in Furmark, exactly how much is impossible to tell from power socket measurements, but somewhere in the 260 to 280W range I'd guess from the numbers.

As for heat vs. power, it's basic physics, what goes in comes out. Noise and electromagnetic radiation wouldn't even amount to 1W, so for all practical matters the heat produced is equal to the power spent.

In any case, the PSU in question is rated 768W @ 12V, with up to 336W for each PCIe rail, even if the graphics cards does consume 600W it will still power the system just fine.

[QUOTE="cfwin"]

[QUOTE="chris24l"]

no, temps are more dependent on type of cooler and case cooling, if what you say is true then GTX570 SLI would be faster than the 590, most likely. the 590 might run hot we don't know

swehunt

Interesting point, but if the difference is very low between the 590 and dual 570's wouldn't a single 590 give me the opportunity to buy another one in a year or two and go quad-SLI or would it just make more sense to go with whatever generation of cards then available?

x2 x2 is not necessarily bad. Scaling has gotten better with each generation. It's not like you won't see any benefit from four GPU's.

[QUOTE="swehunt"]

Thing is that theese cards are restricted via drivers, they will automaticly restrict the card if programs like furmark are started.

TDP: Thats not at all a value over how much it can draw but rather the value over how much that gets converted to heat.

@ Wiki

eBusiness

It does seem like the GTX 580 cards tend to overstep their TDP in Furmark, exactly how much is impossible to tell from power socket measurements, but somewhere in the 260 to 280W range I'd guess from the numbers.

As for heat vs. power, it's basic physics, what goes in comes out. Noise and electromagnetic radiation wouldn't even amount to 1W, so for all practical matters the heat produced is equal to the power spent.

In any case, the PSU in question is rated 768W @ 12V, with up to 336W for each PCIe rail, even if the graphics cards does consume 600W it will still power the system just fine.

How much would the electrical draw increase on upgrading my psu from 850w to a Corsair 1200w be?, Is it only whenever the components pull the juice or is it a constant draw?

cfwin

Good points Swehunt, many thanx. If I'm getting 2 580's I'll definately be OCing my CPU, especially since I'll only use it until we see some decently priced socket 2011 mobos+cpus.

[QUOTE="eBusiness"]

[QUOTE="swehunt"]

Thing is that theese cards are restricted via drivers, they will automaticly restrict the card if programs like furmark are started.

TDP: Thats not at all a value over how much it can draw but rather the value over how much that gets converted to heat.

@ Wiki

swehunt

It does seem like the GTX 580 cards tend to overstep their TDP in Furmark, exactly how much is impossible to tell from power socket measurements, but somewhere in the 260 to 280W range I'd guess from the numbers.

As for heat vs. power, it's basic physics, what goes in comes out. Noise and electromagnetic radiation wouldn't even amount to 1W, so for all practical matters the heat produced is equal to the power spent.

In any case, the PSU in question is rated 768W @ 12V, with up to 336W for each PCIe rail, even if the graphics cards does consume 600W it will still power the system just fine.

He'll only get that high by running Furmark, during normal gaming the cards won't exceed TPD, an i7 2600K is rated at 95 W, but actual use seems to be in the 50 to 60W range. Even with a good overclock it probably won't hit more than 100W. If you start messing with the video card clocks too I'd get worried, but dual GTX 580 is nothing more than what the PSU is made for.

[QUOTE="swehunt"][QUOTE="eBusiness"]

It does seem like the GTX 580 cards tend to overstep their TDP in Furmark, exactly how much is impossible to tell from power socket measurements, but somewhere in the 260 to 280W range I'd guess from the numbers.

As for heat vs. power, it's basic physics, what goes in comes out. Noise and electromagnetic radiation wouldn't even amount to 1W, so for all practical matters the heat produced is equal to the power spent.

In any case, the PSU in question is rated 768W @ 12V, with up to 336W for each PCIe rail, even if the graphics cards does consume 600W it will still power the system just fine.

eBusiness

He'll only get that high by running Furmark, during normal gaming the cards won't exceed TPD, an i7 2600K is rated at 95 W, but actual use seems to be in the 50 to 60W range. Even with a good overclock it probably won't hit more than 100W. If you start messing with the video card clocks too I'd get worried, but dual GTX 580 is nothing more than what the PSU is made for.

1) TDP has little to do with the mamimum powerdraw, check my erlier post where i also linked to wikipedia where a kind soul have been writing what it actually does mean.

2) He have a i7 920 as of now that is a 130w *TDP (*witch isnt exsactly the same as powerdraw as explained already) CPU!, and he'll be OCing it. Can you explain about where you got the 2600k from?

3) The PSU was made before GTX580 ever were in productions, it could never be made for that purpose, and no it wasnt made to run over it's specifications at all.

Your argumenting for the kiks of it, why not helping the TC make a good desition instead.

[QUOTE="eBusiness"]

[QUOTE="swehunt"] Besides, noone want their PSU to be running 80-90% of it's capacity, it'll be loud/hot and possible shorten it's lifespan by a significant way. SLI'ing thoose cards need a stronger PSU thats just how it is. Iv'e seen two people with SLI'ed gtx580 on hx850 witch actually were needed to replace to a better PSU because they ended up short on the wattage while OC'ing. According to Anadtech the second card added 351w, running a loss of 15% (witch is quite high for a PSU in a testrig but anyway = 351 x 0.85) we can find out how much the card actually draw itself, this means 298w on a card alone! So anyone with experience know leaving only 170w for a I7 CPU is not recomended, he WILL run outta juice if he want to OC that PC and with thoose two cards he needs to OC to get the most out of them, after a OC on thoose cards and on the CPU he will experience cutout's, imagine spending all that money and still not be able to play games!swehunt

He'll only get that high by running Furmark, during normal gaming the cards won't exceed TPD, an i7 2600K is rated at 95 W, but actual use seems to be in the 50 to 60W range. Even with a good overclock it probably won't hit more than 100W. If you start messing with the video card clocks too I'd get worried, but dual GTX 580 is nothing more than what the PSU is made for.

1) TDP has little to do with the mamimum powerdraw, check my erlier post where i also linked to wikipedia where a kind soul have been writing what it actually does mean.

2) He have a i7 920 as of now that is a 130w *TDP (*witch isnt exsactly the same as powerdraw as explained already) CPU!, and he'll be OCing it. Can you explain about where you got the 2600k from?

3) The PSU was made before GTX580 ever were in productions, it could never be made for that purpose, and no it wasnt made to run over it's specifications at all.

Your argumenting for the kiks of it, why not helping the TC make a good desition instead.

Very good input all round, I thank you. Decided to go with a pair of Gainward GTX580's and a new Corsair AX1200W PSU, will hopefully stand me in good stead for a couple of years (about the same amount of time that I've used my 2 GTX275s). This time I'm actually going to try and sell these cards (and my current PSU) to try to alleviate the financial burden of elongating my e-peen :)