upgrade advice needed current GTX460

[StoneRyno]

My system specs are in my sig. I was thinking of going SLI 2x GTX560, but then seen a post about someone wit a quad core where the fps performance was worse in SLI vs just using one GTX560. Obviously that had me concerned to post and ask for advice before making a decision on what to get. The 600 series seem to be pricy currently. Current most graphic intensive game I own that I have played is Lord of the Rings Online. Most graphic intensive that I'm aware game I plan to buy in the near future is Guild Wars 2. GW2 beta on my current card crawls at 15 fps and lower. I also plan on buying starcraft 2, diablo III, possibly other sequals to games I currently own that are coming out in the near future. For reference here is a list of all the games I own many of which I haven't played if that is relevant.

** games I completed

AI Wars (complete collection)
A.R.E.S.
Avencast Rise of the Mage

Bastion
Bioshock
BioShock 2
Boarderlands

DarkSiders
Dead Space
Dead Space 2
**Diablo: Hellfire
**Diablo II: Lord of Destruction
Dragon Age Origins: Ultimate Edition
Dungeons and Dragons: Daggerdale

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Fallout
Fallout 2
Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition
Fallout Tactics

Gothic
Gothic II: Gold Edition
Gothic 3
Gothic 3 Forsaken Gods Enhanced Edition
Gothic 4: ArcaniA
Greed: Black Border
Greed Corp
Guild Wars

Hydrophobia: Prophecy

King's Bounty: The Legend
King's Bounty: Armored Princess
King's Bounty: Crossworlds
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
**Lighthouse
The Lord of the Rings Online

Magika
Mass Effect
Mass Effect 2
Mechcommander Gold
Mechcommander 2
Mechwarrior 2: Titanium Trillogy
Mechwarrior 3 (complete collection)
Mechwarrior 4 (complete collection)
Metro 2033
Mirror's Edge
**Myst Masterpiece Edition (+ Real Myst)
**Myst Riven
**Myst III: Exile
Myst Uru Complete Chronicles

Neverwinter Nights: Diamond Edition
Neverwinter Nights 2: Platinum
Nikopol: Secrets of the Immortals
Numen: Contest of Heroes

Portal
Portal 2

Railroad Tycoon 2: Platinum Edition
Risen

Sacred: Gold
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
Scratches: Director’s Cut
Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri
Sid Meier’s Civilization IV (complete collection)
Sim City 4 Deluxe
The Sims 2 (complete collection)
Spellforce: Platinum Edition
Spellforce 2: Gold Edition
Starcraft: Broodwar
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Star Trek Armada
Still Life
Still Life 2
Syberia
Syberia 2

Titan Quest: Immortal Throne
Tomb Raider: Anniversary Edition
Tomb Raider: Legend
Tomb Raider: Underworld
**Titan Quest: Immortal Throne
Torchlight

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition
**Warcraft II Battle.net Edition
Warcraft III Battle Chest

 

[Mjolnir]

For single screen gaming at 1080p or less; stick to a single card. Multi cards is for high resolutions; multiple screens; or a cheap upgrade solution when your card gets older and you can find identical cards for extremely cheap used.

That being said; if you want to stick with nvidia; a single GTX 570 would do you well.
If you don't mind swapping to AMD; a HD 7850 is a great choice. 2GB VRAM, quiet, low low power consumption; OC's well, and a newer gen card.

Though out of the box; the GTX 570 is faster. But the 7850 OC's very well.

I'd honestly forget SLI. But a single GTX 570 is a great card for 1080p; and for 95% of games, will run them at max (or very near to) at smooth frames.

 

[azuza001]

+1 What Mjolnir said. If your able to get into the classifieds section on here there are a lot of good deals on cards as well that would be a decent upgrade for a lower price.

I did use to run 2 GTX 460 768Meg cards in SLI on a Quad Phenom II at 4 Ghz and they did do a great job but were not worth the SLI headachs. It would only work with a specific driver set (2.8 if I remember correctly) and all Nvidia driver updates would break my SLI.

Go single card.

 

[StoneRyno]

I learned after the fact that the reason GW2 frame rates were so low this weekends beta event was because of that part of the testing they were doing something about optimizing and so everyone was expected to have much lower fps than the players would have expected. But anyways considering the topic of having a single card and later turning that into SLI by getting the same card much cheaper later was the original idea why I got a SLI mobo. But both times I've hit a point where I need to upgrade there was one or more factors stopping me from being able to get a 2nd one of the cards in my system. This time around it is finding a reasonably prices one of this specific model. As I understand it I need identical spec cards for SLI. I seen no reason to pay $200 for a GTX460 when a GTX560 or newer could be bought for the same and offer same or better performance by itself. But then I had the thought in the back of my mind about the whole should I go SLI now and avoid the future repeat of the last two times now where I could'nt find a good deal to turn my current card into SLI for the cheaper of two options for same performance.

 

[Knufire]

You should be able to find another GTX460 for $120 or less. GTX460 SLI should perform somewhere in the range of a GTX580.

Any reference card should SLI with the EVGA. Just make sure it has the same width memory bus.