Right now I'm still running the system on the left. It has served me well but I'm getting to the point where I am bored with it, and honestly tired of tri-sli. There is nothing mega wrong with it, little annoyances here and there. At the fore front of that is heat/noise/power. I loved the performance it gave but I really want to go back to one card. Question is, does any single 5xx series come close to 280 tri-sli? Or am I better off waiting for the next series in terms of comparable/better performance from a single card (not a dual gpu single card solution utilizing sli)? Does anyone have experience moving from tri-sli gtx280s to something newer?
Look at these two reviews. It should give you and idea. http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-280-sli-triple-review-test/ http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-580-review/
Yes I've seen those, but I'm looking for more first hand experience. Plus the specific comparisons are somewhat hard when the benchmarks aren't the same and the comparison charts in the gtx580 article don't include gtx 280 tri sli. Your right I can get a basic idea, but not the more specific detail I was hoping to get.
Seeing the new nVidia Cards come in April id say hang on for now and perhaps during the launch you can get a cheap 580 with 3GB VRam. Tri-SLI will give you like 10% more Performance and in some situations even less than SLI.