One good video card or SLI two decent ones?

Question

I was told I can ask computer hardware related questions here. I currently have two Geforce GTX 470s that are SLId.

I have dual monitors and a TV plugged in. The monitors are on one card and the TV is on the other.

My question is, would it make more sense to buy one good graphics card like the GeForce GTX 780 Ti or two decent cards that are SLId together like GeForce GTX 770

This is strictly a gaming rig and the occasional programming / photo shop user.

My main concern with one card is, will I still be able to have 3 outputs? The two monitors are DVI and the TV is an HDMI mini.

I haven't decided on a motherboard CPU combo yet if that makes any difference.

Solution 1

First off, check the output ports on one graphics card - it depends on the manufacturer. If I could guess, I'd say any high-end card right now would have at least three ports, but whether or not those ports are the right ones is up to you.

There are variables to consider.

Price:

Usually, a twin-card setup is far more expensive than a single-card setup. But because you are comparing the 770 to the 780 Ti, that is not the case here.

During its introduction the GeForce GTX 780 Ti is second most expensive card in NVidia's line-up. I'm not sure if the price has gone down today, but I do know that the 770 received some price cuts. You might be able to buy two 770's, for the price of one 780 Ti.

Performance:

Here is where things take a dip. SLI's performance doesn't actually do that well for its price, graphics quality wise - you will still be held back by the individual cards' weaknesses. If the 770 can't turn on X feature in Y game, it unlikely that adding another similar card will address that.

Where SLI shines is with the use of multiple monitors - SLI will increase your Frames Per Second (though it will never double it).

For comparison, the 780 Ti can't do 4k resolutions at 60fps. As multiple monitors can be treated as a extra-wide monitor with an incredibly high resolution, certain setups might choke even the 780 Ti.

Power Consumption:

No brainer. Twin 770's are sure to bring your bill up, as well as your noise levels. Might be something to consider.

Conclusion:

The 780 Ti is a beast, and in standard clock settings, is the fastest single graphics card that I know of. The 770 is no slouch, but individually, it cannot match the 780 Ti. However, two 770's, while still unable to match the 780 Ti, might be cheaper, and will likely produce better FPS's over multiple monitors.

Solution 2

I would go with one video card. SLI, from what my friends and I have seen, is just too much of a hassle. This is due to bad support from games and other technical issues, such as the 2nd card not giving that much of a boost. The second cards cost/effectiveness is just to low, in my opinion.

Comments

[Ronnie]

The 780 has 4 ports, DVI, DVI-D, HDMI and mini hdmi so I think I'll be good there. I'm not concerned about doing any 4k stuff. I was always under the impression that SLI was the card x2 but I guess not. I'm really leaning towards just getting the single 780ti. I can get it amazon for 710 and free shipping right now.

[Ronnie]

I have an 8 core i7 @ 3.07 ghz, asus rampage 3 and 16gigs of ram. I feel like my system is still pretty quick. I'm just lacking in the graphics department. Maybe I just buy the video card for now and wait on the cpu and mobo..700 is a lot of coin to drop for one item :|

[Ronnie]

yeah I feel like I dont see or feel much difference when I enable SLI on my two cards now

[Ronnie]

4 cores, sorry. Its 4 cores and 8 threads

[Ronnie]

That is what I am thinking. I really just want to be able to play bf4 on higher settings than medium right now. I think this card will do the job. Thanks for your input Zack