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Forums - PC Discussion - Question about SLI and power consumption

Tecmo on 11 February 2015

Hi all:

          I have a question for all you PC Gurus out there. I wanted to upgrade my PC with another GPU (SLI) as my old one is all most three years old. Now my question is will I have enough power to run both cards or will I have to upgrade my PSU to do the SLI? Or if you think I should just buy a new (but modestly priced) card.

My Specs are:

MOBO: P8 P67 Pro

CPU: Intel I-5 2500k

GPU: GTX 570 HD SC

PSU: Corsair 650W

Optical Drive: 1 DVD

HDD: 1 TB

Thanks for the help!



I started making videos for youtube; check them out.

Contra (No Deaths): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_OdnbGgupM

Super C (No Deaths): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHoJrHWATgU

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (Mike Tyson TKO): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4L7oDV79aw

Systems owned: Atari 2600, NES(3), Top loader NES, Yobo NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Sega Gamegear, Sega Nomad, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Playstation 2, Wii, PS3 (slim 120 GB), Wii U

You should congratulate me. I destroyed the vile red falcon and saved the universe. I consider myself a hero.

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NiKKoM on 11 February 2015

http://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/geforce-gtx-570-sli-review,13.html

need at least a 750w... the huge power consumption and low v ram would make it better to just get a newer card



 

Face the future.. Gamecenter ID: nikkom_nl (oh no he didn't!!) 

Tecmo on 11 February 2015

Thanks for the reply and the website. Looks like I will be purchasing a new card in the near future. Now the question becomes which one for my aging system.



I started making videos for youtube; check them out.

Contra (No Deaths): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_OdnbGgupM

Super C (No Deaths): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHoJrHWATgU

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (Mike Tyson TKO): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4L7oDV79aw

Systems owned: Atari 2600, NES(3), Top loader NES, Yobo NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Sega Gamegear, Sega Nomad, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Playstation 2, Wii, PS3 (slim 120 GB), Wii U

You should congratulate me. I destroyed the vile red falcon and saved the universe. I consider myself a hero.

Captain_Tom on 11 February 2015
Tecmo said:

Hi all:

          I have a question for all you PC Gurus out there. I wanted to upgrade my PC with another GPU (SLI) as my old one is all most three years old. Now my question is will I have enough power to run both cards or will I have to upgrade my PSU to do the SLI? Or if you think I should just buy a new (but modestly priced) card.

My Specs are:

MOBO: P8 P67 Pro

CPU: Intel I-5 2500k

GPU: GTX 570 HD SC

PSU: Corsair 650W

Optical Drive: 1 DVD

HDD: 1 TB

Thanks for the help!

Fermi is a very power hungry archtecture (Most power hungry ever in fact).  Why not just get an R9 290?  It will be quite a bit more powerful than 2x570's, and it will have 4GB of VRAM instead of 1.25.



NiKKoM on 11 February 2015
Tecmo said:
Thanks for the reply and the website. Looks like I will be purchasing a new card in the near future. Now the question becomes which one for my aging system.

All depends on how much money you are willing to spend.. 



 

Face the future.. Gamecenter ID: nikkom_nl (oh no he didn't!!) 

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Tecmo on 11 February 2015

@NiKKoM Didn't want to spend more than $250 - Was thinking about the GTX 960 SSC

@Captain_Tom I've always gone with NVidia cards - Is AMD just as good? Are there huge differences between the two manufacturers?



I started making videos for youtube; check them out.

Contra (No Deaths): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_OdnbGgupM

Super C (No Deaths): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHoJrHWATgU

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (Mike Tyson TKO): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4L7oDV79aw

Systems owned: Atari 2600, NES(3), Top loader NES, Yobo NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Sega Gamegear, Sega Nomad, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Playstation 2, Wii, PS3 (slim 120 GB), Wii U

You should congratulate me. I destroyed the vile red falcon and saved the universe. I consider myself a hero.

fatslob-:O on 11 February 2015
Tecmo said:
@NiKKoM Didn't want to spend more than $250 - Was thinking about the GTX 960 SSC

@Captain_Tom I've always gone with NVidia cards - Is AMD just as good? Are there huge differences between the two manufacturers?

Honestly would rather go with the R9 280X ...

AMD isn't bad so that's for sure ...



vivster on 12 February 2015

Doing SLI with an outdated performance GPU is NEVER EVER a good idea. Just NEVER.
SLI brings more problems than it solves and an outdated GPU will not give you the performance boost you may want.

To name a few reasons:

- Extended power only usable when the game has an SLI profile, meaning newer games without it will not be playable at first
- Missing features of newer cards will drag you down
- Inefficient power usage
- Not nearly enough VRAM. You have to considered that even though the power doubles, your VRAM does not. A card with the power of 2x570 and just 1.2GB VRAM is a joke

The only time I can recommnd any form of SLI/CF is when the power of the currently strongest GPU on the market is not enough and you need multiples of that.

If it is about budget go with the best AMD card you can currently get for your money.



If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

vivster on 12 February 2015
CGI-Quality said:
vivster said:
Doing SLI with an outdated performance GPU is NEVER EVER a good idea. Just NEVER.
SLI brings more problems than it solves and an outdated GPU will not give you the performance boost you may want.

To name a few reasons:

- Extended power only usable when the game has an SLI profile, meaning newer games without it will not be playable at first
- Missing features of newer cards will drag you down
- Inefficient power usage
- Not nearly enough VRAM. You have to considered that even though the power doubles, your VRAM does not. A card with the power of 2x570 and just 1.2GB VRAM is a joke

The only time I can recommnd any form of SLI/CF is when the power of the currently strongest GPU on the market is not enough and you need multiples of that.

It actually depends on the need. For compute, SLI/CF are fantastic. If it's strictly for gaming, it will be for bragging rights at most.

I'd love to see someone bragging about getting a second 570 today^^

I can only laugh at people who build SLI/CF with less than top of the line GPUs. For gaming of course. That's like taping 2VW Golfs together and pretending it's a Ferrari.



If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

Tecmo on 12 February 2015
vivster said:
CGI-Quality said:
vivster said:
Doing SLI with an outdated performance GPU is NEVER EVER a good idea. Just NEVER.
SLI brings more problems than it solves and an outdated GPU will not give you the performance boost you may want.

To name a few reasons:

- Extended power only usable when the game has an SLI profile, meaning newer games without it will not be playable at first
- Missing features of newer cards will drag you down
- Inefficient power usage
- Not nearly enough VRAM. You have to considered that even though the power doubles, your VRAM does not. A card with the power of 2x570 and just 1.2GB VRAM is a joke

The only time I can recommnd any form of SLI/CF is when the power of the currently strongest GPU on the market is not enough and you need multiples of that.

It actually depends on the need. For compute, SLI/CF are fantastic. If it's strictly for gaming, it will be for bragging rights at most.

I'd love to see someone bragging about getting a second 570 today^^

I can only laugh at people who build SLI/CF with less than top of the line GPUs. For gaming of course. That's like taping 2VW Golfs together and pretending it's a Ferrari.

Well, my main aim is just to use it for gaming, so after what you and everyone else has said I'll just get a new card. I am very new to the building/upgrading your own PC so that's why I was asking about SLI. I didn't know if it would be better/more cost efficient to do it than buying a whole new card.

I know the card is old (that's why I want to upgrade) so I definitely wouldn't be bragging about it. Anyway, prob just going to get the R9 280X unless someone has a better suggestion for around the same price.



I started making videos for youtube; check them out.

Contra (No Deaths): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_OdnbGgupM

Super C (No Deaths): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHoJrHWATgU

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (Mike Tyson TKO): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4L7oDV79aw

Systems owned: Atari 2600, NES(3), Top loader NES, Yobo NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Sega Gamegear, Sega Nomad, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, Gamecube, Playstation 2, Wii, PS3 (slim 120 GB), Wii U

You should congratulate me. I destroyed the vile red falcon and saved the universe. I consider myself a hero.