What setup would you choose from the following?

[Anusha]

Exchange rate is US$1 ~ JPY80, but that is not really relevant because I have to get a card from Japan anyways. Out of these setups, what would you suggest for a 2600k @ 4.5 + Z68 Extreme 4 + Corsair TX850 + 1080p screen? (i cannot tolerate noise and would overclock the cards as much as reasonable)

[MultiGPU setups]

Gigabyte GTX560 GV-N560OC-1GI (2 in SLI) - used, costs 16.5k yen per card
Gigabyte HD6950 GV-R695OC-1GD (1GB) (2 in CF) - brand new, costs 22k yen per card
Asus GTX560 Ti DirectCU II (2 in SLI) - brand new, costs 23k yen per card
HD6950 IceQ X H695QN2G2M 2GB (2 in CF) - brand new, 26k yen per card
Asus HD6950 DirectCU II (2 in CF) - brand new, 28k per card

[Single GPU setups]

Afox GTX570 - second hand, 23k yen
Zotac GTX580 ZT-50101-10P - second hand 34k yen
Asus GTX580 DirectCU II - brand new, 45k yen

*second hand means, no warranty. maybe just 1 week's checking warranty. brand new must be 3 years or so.

my only issue with SLI/CF is microstuttering. otherwise i wouldn't even consider the GTX580

[3dfxrain]

Microstutter, I don't even notice it. It's lies I tell you.

[Meridian]

My advice would always be: go for a single-card solution if you can afford top-of-the-range. SLI comes later when the price drops on the card you already have and you want to eke a bit more life out of it. But there really is no point in building an SLI/Crossfire from scratch with anything, unless the result is faster than any single card solution and your bank account can take it.


M

[AMDTurbo]

Well, now days Xfire/SLI scaling has really brought it to a level where you must consider it.

I think at the end of the day it's $$$ vs performance

I was going to consider 570 or 6950/6970 until I seen 460SLI benchmarks....which beat single 580GTX (in most games)

Got a 2nd 460 for $100 bucks

$100 beats spending $400-500

Even if I didn't have a 460, I would certainly be considering XFire 6850s/6870s or 460/560s.

For 300-400 you get a LOT of performance over 580....

[3dfxrain]

Any multi-gpu setup. It'll help in games like Battlefield 3.

[Anusha]

they lowered they price of the 6950 1GB Winforce 3 by JPY1000 for as a weekend sale price. That means JPY2000 instant savings if I go with them.

guess i might go with a couple of them then. there is a second hand reference sapphire 6970 for 22k as well, but i don't want the reference cooler. and it is only one card. besides, i guess the windforce when overclocked to around 930MHz would perform on par with the 6970 anyways. i'm getting two of them, so performance should be great.

but i can wait a couple of more days to see if something cooler (i mean, hotter XD) comes up.

if you were wondering why i am looking at one store, that is because i have JPY25000 worth points there. so one card is FREE. i only have to pay for the other, that too, not full amount.