Honest opinions needed please

Hey everyone,

Currently in the process of upgrading my gpu power or maybe all together.

Here's a quick run down of my specs.

i5 2500k
P8P67 PRO
G-skill Ripjaws 1600 Mhz 2x4 GB
850 HX Corsair PSU
MSI GTX 560 TI 1GB

After doing some research seems all the threads I could find are based on a synthetic benchmarks which have very little to do with real life performance and of course Metro 2033, Crysis and the typical suspects.

Basically nothing in detail to let me make up my mind, so here I am hoping someone will be able to educate me on the presented matter.

Please be patient and I will try and explain possible scenarios.

I will not be using multi monitor or a 120hz even but rather 1080, playing a very extensive range of games.

Budget up to 650 (including sale value of my card)

Possibility to grab another card such as the one I own for 250 (cheapest solution)

Sell of what I have and purchase 3GB Msi Lightning Extreme

580 1.5GB

1 or even 2x570

Apparently MSI just released a card like mine featuring 2GB vram but I am a little worried about no increased memory interface. (2 of them sound nice)

Sli seems like a good option but how well does it really scale and what % of games does it really support. Getting a lot of yes everything is great with no proof answers but then seeing otherwise on many forums.

The most memory demanding game I own is GTA IV with heavy mods which looks like will cross into 1.6-1-7 GB barrier and next to none sli support and Metro 2033 of course.

I really need some answers before i go off and buy another 560 ti tomorrow for 250 and maybe make a decision I will come to regret.

Keep in mind that if running in sli and have more then 60 fps (monitor limited) I will try and downscale from 2560x1440 to make the game that much better and not let the extra frames go to waste.

Thank you all in advance for taking your time.

 

Personally I would say your system is pretty well speced already. Unless you are going to overhaul completly and spend $2000+ you wont get any better than what you have. If you want to spend some money you could drop an i7 2600K in and get another GTX560 for SLI. For the cost of it I would also consider swapping out your RAM to put in some 2133Mhz RAM in. You will probably have to manually overclock it in the BIOS though. Only other thing I can think is adding an SSD but I would only do that after you have done the other above.

 

Already running a 64GB Crucial M4 as the boot drive, 500GB Black Caviar for Games and 2TB Green Caviar on sata 6GB Intel Ports and 3GB for the game drive respectively.

The cpu is sporting a massive NH D14 cooler so overclocking is not a problem and 2600k has no real benefit over 2500k gaming wise...

Tested and tried at 4.7 GHZ but no need for it at the moment.

DRAM timings are indeed set on manual in bios since I opted for that over X.M.P to further take down the heat of cpu.

Just really wanted a little bit more gpu horsepower but was a tad suspicious of running out of video memory If i was going to make use of anything over 60 fps and downscale games from 1440p not to waste all those extra gained frames where possible, and get to that magical 60 in a few really heavy tessellated games.

 

Hi

As you already stated that the games you play mostly don't support SLI, your best option is to get a beefier graphics card.

As you said, your processor isn't going to make a difference gaming-wise.

I'd recommend this card... it's a BEAST and definitely within your budget.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500199