Tom's Hardware comments on SLI You have to bear in mind that the 450 is selling above its 'real' price as its just been launched. It'll probably reach £80 in a couple of months - which'll make it seem a bit better. SLI then offers a GPU choice at £160 that should beat a single 460.
Have we met! You should try Grid on a 8400gs on my CRT at 800x600 Will be ordering a 460 v soon though.
My GTX465 is sat in the corner crying..... Well actually it would be if it didn't have 448 SM, 40 ROPS, 1280mb memory & a 320bit memory interface.... GTS 450SLI is pointless given the current price. A HD5850 or GTX470 would make a much better purchase and would offer more consistant performance in the majority of games.
You are better getting 2 cards and sli'ing them. you get more performance for much less money with sli you also get much much better scaling than with crossfire very few games have issues with sli now. 2xgtx460's beat down the gtx 480 into the ground - for less money - heck with over clocking you get close to 5890 performance. having said that if you go 3x or 4x you get deminishing returns (and not possible with <470) if nvidia comes out with a 2x460 then I'm in for a 2x460 system now and a 2x2x460 system down the road - perfect. 450 will be down to 80quid soon enough I bet - and then it would make sense.
sure, if the card ever gets to 80 £ then in SLi it might be an equivalent, or maybe even slightly faster than a single 460. 2x80 same price as a single 460? in theory what you say sounds true. In reality the card is still 96£ on Scan, two cards will require an SLI compatible mobo, will use more power than a single 460, will require a stronger PSU with more connectors. We are talking about relatively budget systems. Instead of a Gigabyte UD2, one gtx460 and a corsair CX 400 you would need UD4 or 5, two 450s and a PSU which costs twice what the CX does. Oh and you get two GPU fans spinning and although SLI drivers have progressed massively, they are unlikely to ever reach the level of reliability of a single GPU. So, no. Even if the card reaches 80 £ it will be utterly, utterly pointless to SLI.
Sh*t this thread is full of crap! Look the GTS450 is a cheap card destined for the lower end of the midrange market and that isn't being argued. Of course the price will drop, that's no surprise. What is being argued and pointed out is just how BAD a choice it would be to purchase two of them and SLi them. If you can save a little more cash then get a GTX460 variant, as its a know winner at its price point. Also this is a little of a mute point, but most new budget builds would be aimed at a Athlon X2 240, as shown in the affordable all rounder, and SLi wouldn't be an option on an AMD build. And anyone still running a older SLi capable system something from the days of nforce 4 or 680i should seriously consider updating there plateform first, before purchasing a pair of GTS450's. Not that they'll bottleneck anything it would just be wiser spending.
Looking at the new SLI benches on Guru3D the GTS450 is consistently on par with the 5850 and sometimes beating the GTX 470 so if it hit's £80 as other's have speculated, £160 for 5850/GTX470 performance (with those cards currently sitting at £230-240) isn't too shabby.
Except that even at 160 for a pair you need to factor in 30-40 extra for SLI mobo over a single PCI-E slot one and another 20-30 for the PSU. Suddenly you are much closer to 220£ and that is including the price drop which, btw, is purely speculative for now. And that is even before we get to the power draw and possible game support problems. SLI/Crossfire are a nice way to give you extra power, but it does so at a cost. That cost is almost constant, whether you want to SLI two 460s or two 240s, you will end up paying almost the same premium for the ability to run SLI. To spend this premium for the ability to run low end cards over non-SLI systems with a single mid/high end card is pointless. If you GPU budget is 150-200£ SLI should not be considered.
I disagree with both points. I've had two SLI set ups so far (GTX 260s and 480s) and have had no issues with reliability (apart from one occasion with my 480s; reinstalling the drivers fixed everything), I've a friend who also has had a couple of SLI rigs (GTX 275s AND 470s) - no complaints from him. As for SLIing 450s, it's a very real choice for those who already have SLI capable boards and happens to have a powerful enough PSU. No arguments there.
I thought we are talking new builds. If you already have a sli capable mobo and PSU then you also already have a GPU. Few people with such setups go for low end cards so if you have an SLI capable rig chances are you are running at least a G92 based GPU or something better. For such people 450 is not much of an upgrade. Assuming the prices will drop (something everyone seems to take for granted here), 2 450s for 160£ will give similar performance to a single 460 1Gb for the same price. Except they will use more power, likely create more noise and if you ever want to upgrade it means you have to ebay both cards first. If you go for a single 460 you wil use less power, have similar performance, and an easy option of adding a second 460 if you need it somewhere down the road. That was for upgrading existing SLI rigs and with the cards retailing for 80 instead of 100£. For new machines paying for SLI capability just to put two 450s in there is a waste of money.
450 is meant to be good in according to the performance/ cost ratio. sure it's not really impressive if you have the money to get something like 2 480s in an sli rig. however, you gotta look at it from the lower budget consumers point of view. having two of these babies will power pretty much most if not all processes which consumers want. for people who want something more like gamers or 3d programmers or graphics designers or whatever, i'm pretty sure they'll know to get something other than these and might go for a pair of 460s or 470s or even 480s. i see where you are coming from though with the disappointing performance. when looking at something developed for a more extreme niche like the 480 or 5970, the 450 pales in comparison but they aren't terrible cards; they support dx11.. they can be overclocked fairly well and for people who don't use their pc intensively should do the job.
also about the "being flamed in another thread".. that's pretty unfair on your case.. everyone's entitled to an opinion.. don't take it to heart ^^
Didn't mean to come off as questioning you! Really was just wondering why you'd say that, and now I know, thank you! Why do you say that? My 5870 costs more than the two GTS450s in question. In fact, two GTX460s offer pretty equivalent performance at equivalent prices. Do I have more sense simply becuase I chose the single card option? Blanket statements and biases can often lead to missed opportunities.
We're not arguing SLI 450 against SLI 460 or SLI 470 or SLI 480. What everyone is saying is that for the same price as 2 x 450s, a single 460 has similar performance, costs less, uses less power, and requires less additional components. For most budget consumers, a single midrange card like a 460 or HD 5770 on 500w PSU and a regular mobo is a better choice than SLI 450s, a 700w PSU, and a SLI-capable mobo.
The lowest card I would buy 2 of, is the GTX460 and thats simply for the best value cards for the performance and NVsurround. 2 X 450 isn't far off the HD5870 which I would regard as the min for multi monitor gaming but as you said, there are better single card solutions which would allow the path for future upgrade and multi monitors. In honesty tho Im not impressed with the 450 either. When folding results are released and release prices drop, ill see what I think then.
Again, spot on Just seems like a few newer members can't seem to read What nvidia should have done with the GTS450 is created a single slot design, that can be scaled down easily onto a half height PCB, and aimed it at the higher end of the HTPC market, or a full height model purely for folding, Tesla anyone? lol!
@ altron i know that the topic wasn't posted to compare the sli of 450's against 460s, 470s or 480s i was just saying that in terms of sli you'd be getting more out of these better models in terms of performance to money ratio (mainly in the case of 460s). i totally agree with what you're saying about the single card being better than buying two 450s given that the cost would be similar to getting a better single gpu though. i should have just probably sticked to the topic and answered the question more concisely. i apologise. for clarification, it would be easier to power just 1 gpu; would require less from the psu in terms of connections and power and would probably output less heat than running two lesser end gfx cards which collectively cost similar amounts to that 1 midrange gfx card and therefore, in general, the single gpu is a better option.. furthermore, if you get an sli mobo this is likely to cost more than a similarly speced mobo (obviously the chipset would differ) without the sli function; but performance also depends on other factors as well such as monitor size and resolution and whether you plan to run with certain settings toggled on. moreover, if you in the future decide to upgrade and get two more cards for sli configuration which MIGHT in the future run better than a single gpu solution for similar prices then you can't without upgrading your mobo if you bought a non-sli compatable mobo. but you know your budget you should be able to decide this before you purchase parts yourself.
@ Burnout21 thanks for questioning my literacy just because i wanted to say something about the 400 series cards.. next time i'll just not say anything. seems the topic already has enough answers anyway
