This sli upgrade worth the $1,000? (3d vision surround)

[funsoul]

Hi Folks

Took the 3d plunge this past year and really enjoy the experience. Tried to do it 'on the cheap' (relatively) using my existing rig and adding a GTX 460 768 card, Nvidia's 3d vision kit and one of the Alienware 120Hz monitors. (As an aside...I wish 1920x1080 format would just die...those extra 120 pixel rows make a huge difference in screen real estate!)

Am now thinking of adding 2 more monitors for 3d surround but given the expense in monitors plus the cost of an additional videocard, am thinking it'd be great to build off what I've already got rather than going for a full platform upgrade.

My current gaming rig specs are in my sig. My thought is keep my current setup and get sli working on the board by following this guide:
http://xdevs.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.30
(the guide's been off-line for a few days now so if anyone knows a mirror, it'd be much appreciated)

Given that I went with the 460/768, the only card that it can be sli'd with is another 460/768. That'd put the grand total for the upgrade at around $1,000.

Now...the questions....will my dual-core e8500 (running smoothly at 4.2GHz) be a bottleneck using a pair of GTX 460 768's? Will a pair of these videocards actually be able to run games with high settings at 5760x1080? (Bear in mind that with 3d, 2 frames are displayed at a time, so a rig that'd run a game at 80fps will only deliver 40fps in 3d.)

Don't want to blow a grand on something that'll leave me unhappy so would welcome thoughts....should I just hold off on 3d surround and plow the money into a Sandy Bridge setup?

tia for your ideas, feedback, etc.
-funsoul

 

[EarthDog]

A newer CPU will definately push those cards betters. I have my doubts of that card being able to push that resolution with 3D...highly doubt it.

I would drop the coin on a SB setup, yes.

 

[Theocnoob]

Hi Folks

Took the 3d plunge this past year and really enjoy the experience. Tried to do it 'on the cheap' (relatively) using my existing rig and adding a GTX 460 768 card, Nvidia's 3d vision kit and one of the Alienware 120Hz monitors. (As an aside...I wish 1920x1080 format would just die...those extra 120 pixel rows make a huge difference in screen real estate!)

Am now thinking of adding 2 more monitors for 3d surround but given the expense in monitors plus the cost of an additional videocard, am thinking it'd be great to build off what I've already got rather than going for a full platform upgrade.

My current gaming rig specs are in my sig. My thought is keep my current setup and get sli working on the board by following this guide:
http://xdevs.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.30
(the guide's been off-line for a few days now so if anyone knows a mirror, it'd be much appreciated)

Given that I went with the 460/768, the only card that it can be sli'd with is another 460/768. That'd put the grand total for the upgrade at around $1,000.

Now...the questions....will my dual-core e8500 (running smoothly at 4.2GHz) be a bottleneck using a pair of GTX 460 768's? Will a pair of these videocards actually be able to run games with high settings at 5760x1080? (Bear in mind that with 3d, 2 frames are displayed at a time, so a rig that'd run a game at 80fps will only deliver 40fps in 3d.)

Don't want to blow a grand on something that'll leave me unhappy so would welcome thoughts....should I just hold off on 3d surround and plow the money into a Sandy Bridge setup?

tia for your ideas, feedback, etc.
-funsoul

Plow into SB.

 

[MattNo5ss]

I'd hold off and purchase a newer SB setup. I don't think 768MB of vRAM will be able to push that high res with good visual settings.

 

[funsoul]

Yeah...had real concerns which is why I wanted to ask you folks. Sounds like wait and do a SB build then save up for needed cards. It was a nice dream, though!! hehe

Thanks for your thoughts...definitely appreciated!
-funsoul

 

[Suppressor1137]

Also, when you go to buy a new vid card, get a 2 gb vram model or more(feb has the kepler coming out, so it might be the new standard, idk yet.)

 

[funsoul]

Thanks Suppressor1137. Yeah...decided to postpone until I can build a new rig. Did upgrade the video card to an MSI N570GTX (1,280MB vram). At 1920x1080 can crank up the eye candy and still get pretty reasonable framerates.

Am also holding off on adding monitors for now...just can't justify the expense atm.