I've been running my GTX 285 sli setup for months and I haven't had a problem. Although I've just changed to HD 5870 crossfire, as heat and power draw are issues with Nvidia cards aswell as the GTX 480 being too much of a flop to even consider.
defo not going with the gtx 4 series, but what do you guys think about a deal im looking at...an evga gtx 275 for my 4770 and $100. sounds like a deal to me...
Ebay is where it's at, you can still find GTX280s for quite cheap, although they are admittedly hot, they're still decent chips.
I was holding off on upgrading to see what Fermi did, and now that I've seen it... I'll be going for an ATi. I haven't had one since my epic 9800 Pro but with Nvidia shooting blanks I see no reason to go that route. If Nvidia were to release a mid-range fermi in the 5770 range that was faster, then I would consider it. I doubt that's gonna happen, and I don't have the willpower to wait anymore to see what they flop next.
NO NO NO and NO as I firmly Hate Nvidia but hatred aside Fermi is a horrible design and a step backwards in comparison to the evolution of Pc tech as Fermi is too hot too much of a watts hog and cost way too much for very little in return. don't forget if you want to Sli you need a 1200 watt PSu vs. 750 for a HD 5870 crossfire and yes there is a huge price difference in a 1200 vs 750 watt PSu. Plus there are like zero games that require all this raw power anyway as a HD 5970 or Hd 5870 crossfire set up is pure OVERKILL (unless Eyefinity is invoved). So NO Fermi is totally out of my DX11 equation as Fermi is too worthless to even lower ATi's prices.
Lolwut. Anandtech measured 851 watts power draw with GTX 480 SLI loaded with Furmark, which has very preciously little common with any real world applications. Crysis could "only" suck in 668 watts for instance. Besides, If one has 1k+ EUR which two of these cards would cost to preorder atm, I doubt splashing some 200+ EUR more on a decent power supply really is an issue.
and a 600w is enough for 5870 crossfire. i plugged in my GTX260 (which draws same as 5870 during load) while using 5870 with my nearly 3 year old Corsair Hx620. zero problem it's really a shame ATI didn't release a 5890 to combat gtx480.
They still might. I'm not basing that on any inside knowledge, it just makes sense to me that they would.
I just realised, I need to ask, out of the people who said yes, how many are buying the card JUST for folding?
Folders proabably buy or use more economical solutions via: 9600GT, GTS250. The higher up cards do take quite a bit of power.
Hmm. At one of the largest, if not the largest, etailer in the States the cheapest 5970 is $699.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&Description=5970&bop=And&Order=PRICE The GTX480 is $499.99: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...on=GTX480&name=Desktop Graphics / Video Cards That's a huge 40% price difference. http://www.anandtech.com/show/2977/...x-470-6-months-late-was-it-worth-the-wait-/19 Looks to me like the 5970 is the exact same temperature under load at Furmark, and 15% hotter when not gaming. Doesn't look like it "runs cooler" to me. Also, the GTX480 is .1 db quieter at idle, and only .5db louder at load. That's not really "quieter" for the 5970 either. There seem to be some issues with your post. Of course the 5970s performance advantage is tempered by the multi GPU disadvantages (microstutter, profile issues, vsych/triple buffering issues) and it lacks several NVIDIA proprietary features (3d Vision, 3d Vision Surround, PhysX, CUDA, forced ambient occlusion, uniform AA in UE3 games), but it does offer single card Eye Finity. The 5970 doesn't seem to be the "slam dunk" you make it out to be, more like a card with pros/cons that costs a whopping $200 USD more.
If I was to buy another gpu folding would be so far down the list of reasons it wouldn't get on the list.
But there's quite the performance difference. With that said the GTX480 was supposed to compete with the HD5870, which it does so somewhat successfully, in frame pumping. But people nowadays aren't looking for the fastest card, they're looking for the card that's fast yes, but also worth the money, a loud card which sucks up power and is hot vs. a slightly weaker card that's much less so is obviously not the 1st choice.
Expensive - Power Hungry - Hot = NOT A lot of things to sort before even being remotely considered - Folding Freak or not!
