Upgrade to SLi or new GPU ?

[Deleted]

Hi folks!

I'm currently running a Palit GeForce GTX 460 Sonic (2gb).
I was wondering ... if I bought another of these and put them into SLi mode - will it outperform a GTX 560 Ti ?
I'm mainly playing SWTOR right now and it isn't running that well, so I was wondering if I could push it a bit with only low costs ^^

Other system parts:

Intel 2600k
Intel DP65DP
2x4GB Kingston Ram

I play the game in 1680x1050 with settings Low to middle, no grass and poor tree quality and get only 30-40 fps in uncrowded areas.

thanks for useful answers in advance
best wishes
theCrusader

[Deleted]

Personally, I like to do it this way when I upgrade gpu's:
Buy a high-end of the latest generation -> Next gen is released, prev. gen goes down in price, buy another one of those -> next gen is released, switch to that -> rinse and repeat

EDIT: Didn't notice the question about performance: I don't know about that, sorry, but I guess it would be about the same level at least.

[meowN]

GTX460 in SLI should be slightly faster then a single GTX570.

It would be a very solid upgrade

[Wries]

I have no GTX 580 to test with but according to anandtech's bench a 460 SLI is about equal to a 580 in GPU processing power.

[Fierae]

Wait for nVidia to release their Kepler series cards (next generation) in the next few months, then decide what is the best purchase for your money, Kepler, new AMD 7000 series, or an older card.

[meowN]

Wait for nVidia to release their Kepler series cards (next generation) in the next few months, then decide what is the best purchase for your money, Kepler, new AMD 7000 series, or an older card.

In this case I disagree. He's having performance problems and wants SWTOR to run better now, not in a few months. The upgrade will only cost around $100-$150 depending on where the card is found and will probably hold strong until the generation after the 7xx series.

[Deleted]

In this case I disagree. He's having performance problems and wants SWTOR to run better now, not in a few months. The upgrade will only cost around $100-$150 depending on where the card is found and will probably hold strong until the generation after the 7xx series.

I agree.
Usually I play one game at a time ... SWTOR really kills my GPU ... i know that the client isn't as efficient as other games but still ... i'd like it to run smooth now ...
thanks for your answers! you really helped me out ... i'm going to buy another one of the 460s

[Deleted]

Hi folks!

I'm currently running a Palit GeForce GTX 460 Sonic (2gb).
I was wondering ... if I bought another of these and put them into SLi mode - will it outperform a GTX 560 Ti ?
I'm mainly playing SWTOR right now and it isn't running that well, so I was wondering if I could push it a bit with only low costs ^^

Other system parts:

Intel 2600k
Intel DP65DP
2x4GB Kingston Ram

I play the game in 1680x1050 with settings Low to middle, no grass and poor tree quality and get only 30-40 fps in uncrowded areas.

thanks for useful answers in advance
best wishes
theCrusader

Hmmm, might be something wrong with your pc. I got a 1gb 460 with a 2500k, and i have zero issues with swtor, running everything on high/ultra, with 1920 x 1080. Do you have the lastest drivers installed etc??

Otherwise a second 460 will be a good upgrade.

[Deleted]

AMD's new cards will be out soon, i would wait for them.

[Cantii]

Hmmm, might be something wrong with your pc. I got a 1gb 460 with a 2500k, and i have zero issues with swtor, running everything on high/ultra, with 1920 x 1080. Do you have the lastest drivers installed etc??

Otherwise a second 460 will be a good upgrade.

This right here. I hear people (laughably) compare the GTX 460 to my 6870 saying it's better and it will run everything maxed out :eyeroll:

However, in this case, the GTX 460 should be having no issues with SW:TOR running the game maxed out - ESPECIALLY at 1680x1050. You should be able to max any game out at that low of a resolution with that card.

Some things to check: Are you forcing Anti-Aliasing using the Nvidia control panel? If you are, make sure you're just forcing normal MSAA and not Transparency MSAA; transparency MSAA seriously bogs down even the beefiest GPUs. Changing it to normal MSAA or just turning or off will boost performance signifanctly.

Are you using the latest drivers? The latest beta drivers? If you are, try rolling back. If not, update your drivers the right way.

Get Driver Sweeper
Uninstall all Nvidia components using the uninstaller for it, reboot into safe mode and run Driver Sweeper for Nvidia video drivers then reboot and install the new drivers. Do this to roll back drivers, too.

[Deleted]

Are you forcing Anti-Aliasing using the Nvidia control panel? If you are, make sure you're just forcing normal MSAA and not Transparency MSAA; transparency MSAA seriously bogs down even the beefiest GPUs. Changing it to normal MSAA or just turning or off will boost performance signifanctly.

I didn't touch any option in the nVidia control panel.

Are you using the latest drivers? The latest beta drivers? If you are, try rolling back. If not, update your drivers the right way.

I'm actually using the latest beta drivers. 290.36

---------- Post added 2012-01-03 at 01:12 AM ----------

I'm actually using the latest beta drivers. 290.36

i just realized that 290.36 weren't the latest drivers
I updated to Beta Drivers 290.53 with a clean install. I gonna test TOR in the next few days and let you know if something has changed.

---------- Post added 2012-01-03 at 11:20 AM ----------

So ... the driver's working pretty neat!

Still 1680x1050 resolution but with settings "High" except for Shadows (Low).
I disabled "Bloom" and "Depth of Field" and set Grass Quality to 0 (I don't like grass sprouting 2 meters in front of me when I close in on it ).
Tree Quality I set to 50.

The game runs stable at about 60 fps.

But I also encountered some bugs ...
I reduced the shadow quality because I would draw remaining shadows onto the ground ...
Imagine I cruise on my speeder and the shadow I cast remains on the floor ... so i draw a broad black line behind my back ...

Also when I set Shadows to High my graphics card will overheat within 30 minutes ... yep ... overheat ...
Same it does when i go to 1920x1200 resolution ... 30 minutes of playing and BANG ... shutdown due to overheating.

will those 2 problems cease to exists once i upgrade with the 2nd GPU ?

[Deleted]

well ... I finally decided not to buy another graphics card and wait for the nVidia 600 series.
The game is running so far and I guess it will do.
I instead decided to improve loading times by buying a new Motherboard with Intel Z-Chipset which uses my SSD drive as a cache ... looking forward to it

[Fierae]

Good choice I'm doing the same then I'll pick which is best, either AMD or nVidia. I update the blog in my sig as news comes out in case you were interested

[BicycleMafioso]

With that resolution and CPU, upgrading your GPU would serve little purpose to the likes of the GTX 560Ti. Wait, or go big.

[Mekks]

turn off shadows in TOR that should speed you up some. SLI is ok but it is a crap shoot depending on the drivers/game. WoW for example does not like SLI/Xfire and can even slow you down in some spots.

[Deleted]

WoW for example does not like SLI/Xfire and can even slow you down in some spots.

yep ... that is one of the reasons i don't quite trust SLi ...
back in the day i had 2x 7800GT in SLi and was playing WoW ... had to disable one card to have it running properly ...
guess SLi and Xfire are for FPS games with insane graphics in the first place ... since it is those who support the technology ...
if you compare that with SWTOR ... the TOR client doesn't even tage advantage of multi-core cpus ... there are lot of tests out there indicating that SWTOR forced on one core runs smoother ... weird ^^

Edit:
also i came to the conclusion that Palit is a crappy graphics card manufacturer ... and i won't buy any Palit products ever again ... even if it is a bit more expansive I'll return to buying quality from MSI ... all my previous GeForce cards were MSI and i never had any problem with them.

[Fierae]

SLI/Crossfire issues like that have mostly gone now - other than things like MARS 2 SLI which is extreme.

I've not experienced any issues for quite a few years now that couldn't be put down to user setup error.

[BicycleMafioso]

SLI/Crossfire issues like that have mostly gone now - other than things like MARS 2 SLI which is extreme.

I've not experienced any issues for quite a few years now that couldn't be put down to user setup error.

You != industry.
Micro stuttering is very much still present. It's less frequent on higher end equipment, but put two HD6870 together, or two GTX 550Ti.

[Wries]

You != industry.
Micro stuttering is very much still present. It's less frequent on higher end equipment, but put two HD6870 together, or two GTX 550Ti.

And play with framerate limiter or vsync (anything that keeps them from being 100% taxed and as a bonus don't render unneeded frames) and whouppa problem solved.

[BicycleMafioso]

And play with framerate limiter or vsync (anything that keeps them from being 100% taxed and as a bonus don't render unneeded frames) and whouppa problem solved.

No. The problem itself is unsolvable, and while that should help to reduce it, it hardly solves it.