Ok, so who got it, and can personally attest that it was worth the wait?

I use a pair of GTX 260s and everyone has always commented on the drawbacks of SLI, two of them being power consumption and heat.

Now that The Fermi Line has come out who has it and can post a real world comparison to say SLI GTX 260 and up?

The problem with most benchmarks is they don't make a 1:1 comparison with SLI, its usually this card vs. that card, even though two cards may actually be cheaper than one more powerful card. Passmark comes to mind.

I have debated trading up, but the biggest problem is two GTX 260s are compared with the GTX 295, so the only step up would be to Fermi and so far I am not convinced.

P.S. to all of the ATI fans, I don't like ATI. I won't deny their speed prowess or say that their product is inferior, I just don't like them. So please leave the fanboisms out of this thread.

Not many people have fermis yet. After the 12th you'll have a much larger user base to question.

One 480 will beat 2x260s, but not by much really. No way would it be worth $500 IMO.

While many sites have finally listed the GTX480, it won't actually be available to be shipped for a couple more weeks. You may have to wait til then to get opinions aside from the reviews, but with the power consumption, heat, and price, I'm not sure how many people will jump. If I had the money, I would atleast wait until a full coverage water block is released for that beast, but would still definitely consider it.

By the way, I think the 295 is actually closer in performance to a pair of 275's since I seem to remember reading somewhere that the 295 was basically 2 GTX275's sandwiched together.

There is the option to get one 480 and then another 480 later on to SLI, but at the current price range, one isn't worth it when you have 2x 260's.. if money was no issue at all, then upgrading your PSU and going 2x 480's would be a huge upgrade since Fermi SLI scales nearly perfect (95-100%) at high res with AA on, according to the reviews so far.

Also keep in mind the temps could cause problems unless you're using water cooling; with air cooling in the summer for example, I can see how it'd be possible for a 480 SLI system to start becoming unstable or throttle down slightly in some games. Haven't personally tested this of course but I'm pretty sure there will be some stability problems if your ambient temp isn't kept low enough in the above circumstances, since the cards already run at ~95C load and start to throttle down at 105C.

Not sure what you're implying with the ATI fans comment. Sounds like you're saying anyone who likes ATI must be a fanboy of them or something. There are people out there who like efficiency, OC potential and price : performance ratio which happens to be what ATI's latest cards are good at.

don'tknow said:

Not sure what you're implying with the ATI fans comment. Sounds like you're saying anyone who likes ATI must be a fanboy of them or something. There are people out there who like efficiency, OC potential and price : performance ratio which happens to be what ATI's latest cards are good at.

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I think the whole ATI part of the OP was just due to the fact that he doesn't want a bunch of people posting up "Just get a 5890", or whatever. It was worded in a way that sounds like he doesn't deny that their options are viable, but he just doesn't like them for whatever his reason might be. I am one of those people with similar views to the OP just based on the fact that right now, Folding performance is much better with Nvidia than ATI. If the tables somehow turn at any point, you may see me with an ATI card if the trends stay the way they are now though.

deadlysyn said:

I think the whole ATI part of the OP was just due to the fact that he doesn't want a bunch of people posting up "Just get a 5890", or whatever. It was worded in a way that sounds like he doesn't deny that their options are viable, but he just doesn't like them for whatever his reason might be. I am one of those people with similar views to the OP just based on the fact that right now, Folding performance is much better with Nvidia than ATI. If the tables somehow turn at any point, you may see me with an ATI card if the trends stay the way they are now though.

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Exactly, I don't want an argument as to why or if ATI is better. I am well aware of ATI's strengths, but I just do not like ATI and this is why I posted this in the Nvidia section.

I prefer Nvidia even if they are more expensive. I have never had luck with ATI from Video cards to TV cards so I choose to stay with Nvidia. Maybe one day I will buy a ATI product, just not now.

If I liked Lowes over Home Depot, I would probably get harassed about that as well.

As to your comment about 2X275=295, I have heard time and time again that a GTX 295 is two GTX 260 cores. But I would need to provide concrete proof to back up that statement, which I can't.

Brutal-Force said:

As to your comment about 2X275=295, I have heard time and time again that a GTX 295 is two GTX 260 cores. But I would need to provide concrete proof to back up that statement, which I can't.

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I will look around and see what I can find. It seems that the 260 or 275 would both make good candidates for it. I wish I could remember where I had heard 275's though. It may have just been something floating around the Folding forum here.

I've always heard it's 2x275, personally.


Here we go:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-295-review-bfg/2
Shader count of 2x280s, memory count and clock speed of 2x260s

Bobnova said:

I've always heard it's 2x275, personally.


Here we go:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-295-review-bfg/2
Shader count of 2x280s, memory count and clock speed of 2x260s

Click to expand...

I was just going to post that same link. The core clocks may be a little higher on the 275 than they are on the 295 (I don't actually remember the core clocks of the 275). I think I need to brush back up on my GPU's. If the price drop that I am hoping is coming is significant enough, I may actually be able to find a way to upgrade the old school 9800GT in my sig.

Bobnova said:

I've always heard it's 2x275, personally.


Here we go:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/geforce-gtx-295-review-bfg/2
Shader count of 2x280s, memory count and clock speed of 2x260s

Click to expand...

From your article. I think you and Deadly are right.

-So that makes it a bit of a hybrid in between two GTX 260 and 280 graphics cards. One thing is a fact though, it's an awful lot of computing power for sure.

So relatively speaking, a 295 would be a very minor upgrade, Fermi maybe what? Another 10% or so?

I dont see a good upgrade for you without switching to ATI. Maybe in time when prices drop the performance gain will justify an NVIDIA upgrade.

I read somewhere (obviously take this with a grain of salt) that there are lower end Fermi cards destined for June. As for myself, running Dual 260's like you Brutal, if I were to upgrade to Fermi I would wait. Just for price sake. Now with that being said, assuming the 200 series prices will drop thanks in part to Fermi, I'd get two 295's and call it a day. Not like I need DX11 anyways.


My 2 cents.

LMFAO

Your joke just made my sig thanks for the laugh

You are such a nut

Why do I have to justify not liking ATI? I have a TV card sitting here that is only 3 months old and the drivers will not work in anything other than Windows XP?

Why is it whenever someone post in a NVIDIA section of the forum all of the ATI guys show up?

This is getting ridiculous, if someone started a thread AMD vs Intel, the thread would get locked. Please anyone not interested in answering my question without bringing up ATI, please get off of my thread.

Brutal-Force said:

Why do I have to justify not liking ATI? I have a TV card sitting here that is only 3 months old and the drivers will not work in anything other than Windows XP?

Why is it whenever someone post in a NVIDIA section of the forum all of the ATI guys show up?

This is getting ridiculous, if someone started a thread AMD vs Intel, the thread would get locked. Please anyone not interested in answering my question without bringing up ATI, please get off of my thread.

Click to expand...

First off, calm down man. The people who are posting about ATI here, are not doing it in any rude fashion or fanboy way. They replies here are much in the middle and leaning on the side of a consumer and basing decisions on price. I have bought nvidia for years now, and this year I switched to ATI. I don't know why so many people claim to have issues with ATI but my 5850 is running excellent, and hasn't given me any driver trouble.

I don't like being called a fan boy or assumed a fan boy just because I CHOSE product A and try to give advice about it in the section of product B. One could say that the refusal of good advice that isn't based on fanboyism, in itself, is being a fanboy.

Maybe a lot of people here have a realistic budget to follow and can't have the luxury of just choosing a brand based on loyalty. I do not think I am alone in thinking that I have to compromise my choices because I have to be realistic about prices of things I buy.

BOTTOM line. If you want more power, get fermi. It does deliver, the benchmarks have shown that, this series of fermi however does run hot, is loud, and costs a lot of money compared to ATI cards that do not.

If you want a result that is inline with ati products with out these "so called" driver issues you think you are going to have, then wait 6 more months or something when they can revise their cards, consume less power, generate less noise, and cost maybe a bit lower.

Right now your only real nvidia upgrade would be 2x285s, or 2x470s, or 2x Something Else.
A 295 is a small upgrade, a 480 doesn't beat a 295 by much.

There is no single card that is a worthwhile upgrade for you that isn't ATI. It's not fanboyism, it's the cold hard fact.

If you want a while you can get 2x450s or somesuch, which will hopefully by less of a disaster then fermi.

I, for the record, have never had ATI driver issues, and Nvidia's driver release prior to this one killed GPUs, if that isn't a driver issue i don't know what is

Hang on to your 260's until Fermi gets a die shrink.

jason4207 said:

Hang on to your 260's until Fermi gets a die shrink.

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lol.

2014?

Bobnova said:

Right now your only real nvidia upgrade would be 2x285s, or 2x470s, or 2x Something Else.
A 295 is a small upgrade, a 480 doesn't beat a 295 by much.

There is no single card that is a worthwhile upgrade for you that isn't ATI. It's not fanboyism, it's the cold hard fact.

If you want a while you can get 2x450s or somesuch, which will hopefully by less of a disaster then fermi.

I, for the record, have never had ATI driver issues, and Nvidia's driver release prior to this one killed GPUs, if that isn't a driver issue i don't know what is

Click to expand...

seriously man.

@Brutal-Force.

You need to take a chill-pill.