MSI GTX 560ti 448 core SLI'd vs 1 GTX 580?.. Which is better?

I am looking to upgrade my MSI GTX 275 twinfrozr card and have settled on 2 possible options.

1) SLI 2 of the N560GTX-Ti 448 Twin Frozr III PE/OC GeForce GTX 560 Ti - 448 Cores (Fermi) 1280MB 320-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

for $560...

--OR--

2) Run a single EVGA 03G-P3-1584-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

for $530.

--System specs--

MSI 990FXA-GD80 mobo
AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4Ghz processor
8GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 RAM
HAF 932 Blue Edition Case
800w psu
1TB HDD
MSI GTX 275 TwinFrozr 896 MB
and I have a 42" 1080p Philips TV connected by HDMI

--Conundrum-- :bang:

:question: My only question is which GPU setup would be better for gaming?

I firmly believe that if the video option is there it should be maxed or its not worth having. (including AA and AF)

My game of choice is deffinately Skyrim on max settings and I would like to run the 2k mod (nearly doubles requirements for the game but makes it even more life-like). I'm not scared of doing some OC and I have read a single 560ti 448 card can exceed the GTX 580 specs fairly easily. But getting in to the realm of SLI vs single card makes me unsure which is better.

 

A single OC 560 448 can come close to a stock 580 but you can also OC the 580 so I don't see that as a point on making a decision. At your resolution, almost without exception the SLI 448's will give you better performance. The exceptions being where you might be vram limited.

 

If you want to run skyrim at 1080p and with skyrim HD then the 560ti4 48 will be sufficient according to the author of that mod as he uses a gtx 570, but that means you won't be able to use any other mods like vurts flora etc. without noticeable texture streaming. So if skyrim with mods is the game you're most interested in then you would be better served going with a card with more vram over two cards with less vram.

The gtx 580 at 3GB is ideal for something like skyrim but will produce lower frames in many other games at 1080p, though you will have the option to sli it later down the line without having to worry about vram limitations.

Though I would think the best thing to do at this point would be to wait it out for another month or so for Nvidia's new gen kepler cards to be released as they should provide better performance for the price and increased vram. If you are not willing to wait then perhaps also look into AMD's 7950/7970 3GB.

 

It's not a good time to spend a lot of money in GPUs. March/April the new performance cards from NV will be out, 2GB VRAM, better perf than tham the 580/7950 and proly lower prices. If not and you have 550$ then the 7970 is your card.

 

Thankyou. My GTX 275 is causing me no end of headaches due to the limited vram.

I was also wondering whether or not the SLI 560ti vrams would be combined (i.e. 1280+1280=2560) or if it would still only reflect a single card's.

 

Nvidia vs ATI

I have always used Nvidia cards in one form or another and I mostly stick with the MSI manufacturer. My Mobo is MSI and perfer to stay with MSI to prevent any tweaking issues.

I have looked at and like the ATI 7xxx gen cards but I think I will be sticking with the NVIDIA GTX line (personal preference only )

And thankyou for the tip on timing. I was wondering when to expect some drop in prices.

 

In SLI and Crossfire, the GPU memory is mirrored. In other words , the same information is loaded in to each cards memory. So effectively, the frame buffer size is equal to the memory size on each GPU. Or more simply in your case, 1280MB.

 

sli 560 ti 448 will be much faster than a single 580

 

What do you mean by "faster"?
Are you refering to FPS? or something else?

And if it is FPS your refering to, is that considering I play on a 42" 1080p Flatscreen TV?

A little more detail than "faster" would be great.

 

A 448 comes close to a 570 and a 570 is 10% slower than a 580, so running those in SLI would be yield a significant performance increase over a signle 580. Also with the latest 295.71 drivers SLI is functioning perfectly, even with v-sync off (MW3-BF3 CERTIFIED), feels as stable as a single card.

So yes definately 2x448.

 

sli is a ridiculous feature only invented to rip the public of even more cash. its always a better choice to go with a single card for many reasons that are obvious, the best reason being you are only getting about 25% of the sli'ed cards performance for 100% of the price. go with a 448, rip the cooler off and replace the tim with something decent then overclock. then you have just as much real world playability for half the price.
the evga classified 448 is plenty for skyrim with your mods of choice. then when kepler comes out sell it for 200.00 and get one of them. the 580's are overrated.

 

^^^so I am only getting 25% improvement over a single card? how are the 580`s overrated?

 

Um.. SLI with mid range cards gets you highend performance for much less...

 

exactly. in real world gaming you are getting only 25% extra framerates over a single card. thats across the board, just like everything else, every game is different, but never much more than 25%. thats also on games that actually push the master card.
all you have to do is look at a full range of benchmarks of actual game play with the 560ti through 580's to see how those cards are overrated. got my 560ti sc for 200.00 new on sale and play every game that i play on ultra at 1080p. how much you got into your cards, lol.
now if you want to compare synthetic benchmarks then sure, go for it. myself, i live in the real world.

 

not in games because most games still arent multithreaded. then the mirrored vram is hard to swollow.
its funny how many people still think that two cards in sli yields twice the available vram.

 

links, proof? master card? never heard that term with sli. which games do you play on ultra settings?

 

where did this guy say that the ram was not mirrored?:nerd:

 

Hahaha what a noob, is cambria back already?

 

I must not live in the real world when getting more then 25% FPS boost :nerd: THE MATRIX!

 

Never implied anything of the sort.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-560-sli-review/1
Sure looks like SLI does better than 25% I think you have OCing and SLI results mixed up.

I'm done here, it's starting to look like another Cambria thread