285 or 2 260s in SLi

**Cybs** · 04-10-09, 04:43 PM

I was at Frys today and noticed the 285GTXs are $320 and I got to thinking about my situation. I have a 26" widescreen monitor and I've noticed since I started using it, I've taken FPS hits. For a video card, I have 1 260 GTX.

So I got to thinking, could a single 285GTX push the monitor at max resolution well or would I have to go with the SLi option. If I go SLi, I have to replace my PSU also to get all the PCIe connectors I would need.

I know I can get adapters, but I'm anal about how my computer looks inside and with the adapters it'll look messy. Also, if I have to go SLi, I'll be buying 2 matching cards since an exact replacement for my card is over $300 (The very first 260 with <219 stream processors).

The math is: 1x 285= $320
SLi option= 2x260 + PSU= $500-$600

**Mcstrange** · 04-10-09, 04:51 PM

26 inch? thats pushing 1920X1200 right? A 285gtx should be able to push into that resolution without much trouble till you start getting over 8x AA

Toms has some charts showing SLI configurations, heres the overall sum of FPS in 1920x1200
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/g...00-AA,801.html

It doesnt have the 285 on there yet, but the difference between a single 280 and 2 260s is minimal and of course the 285 will be stronger still, check their 285 article numbers out:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...-285,2139.html

Really comes down to how bad the slowdown is and how high you want to crank shit up. The 260s are pretty damn powerful and should handle 1920x1200 fairly easily with plenty of eye candy and enough FPS to not matter...

**Kanati** · 04-11-09, 10:16 AM

Agree... There's no reason a single 260 should not be able to push 1920x1200 just fine in almost all games. I've been running nothing but 1920x1200 for years with no problems on games I run. I currently am running two 8800GTX cards and I can run pretty much anything (with only a very very few exceptions) on the highest settings. You have something else going on if you are seeing problems with a 260 in games like battlefield or source games.

**~~Syrringe~~** · 04-11-09, 10:36 AM

If you have a 26" monitor..by all means, go with the sli set up. You start to reep the benefits of SLI once your monitor size reaches 24"....you'll have plenty of processing power to max out your performance on that big monitor.

**SapiensErus** · 04-11-09, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by Kanati8869

Agree... There's no reason a single 260 should not be able to push 1920x1200 just fine in almost all games. I've been running nothing but 1920x1200 for years with no problems on games I run. I currently am running two 8800GTX cards and I can run pretty much anything (with only a very very few exceptions) on the highest settings. You have something else going on if you are seeing problems with a 260 in games like battlefield or source games.

I agree, I am running two 8800GTS 640's in SLI (Substantially weaker than those GTX's Kanati has) and I play on a 1200x1600 (not too much different in terms of total pixels) and they push every game I play just fine at maximum settings. If your 260 is slipping at that resolution I would suspect there is another issue.