260 GTX - SLi or physx

[Netrat33]

I've been out of the game for about 2 years and want to upgrade just a bit and get an opinion from those still in the know:

• Currently running Sig
• Want to upgrade wife's video card (x1800xt on an AMD x2 4000+) Just want a little more edge to it. She games but of course not hardcore. Does want to play co-op RE5 with me though and oddly that card doesn't work.
• Currently bought 2 GTX 260 video cards. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9348725&type=product&id=1218089167038
• I'm thinking that I can use every once in a while the SLi feature and other times just have a dedicated physx card.
• I then give the wife the 8800 GT card

Questions

1. Totally didn't think about this but do you think this powersupply which I currently have should be enough for SLI? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159058&Tpk=COOLMAX CUG-700B 700W I'm assuming if I don't the worst that happens is the following questions answer themselves
2. I know the processors are pretty old but I just don't have the scratch right now to do a big upgrade (cpu, ram, mb, psu) but would I actually benefit any or is too much of a bottleneck (currently native resolution 1600x1200 with most games at mixed high, medium settings, no aa usually)?
3. Is it better to just keep my 8800 GT for physx and keep a single 260 for me and give the other 260 to my wife's computer? And yes I just want the option for physx available to me.

Appreciate any advice on the situation

 

[DanNeely]

700W will do SLI unless you've got massive overclocks/loads of other stuff in your PC. The only thing you'd get with a larger PSU would be less fan noise.

 

[element4life3]

IMO I wouldn't worry too much about physics. I would either run both in SLI or give one to your wife and just run the 8800GT for physics, but like I said, I wouldn't worry to much about it. It all depends on what games you will be playing. A single 260 will handle most games just fine and of course 2 in sli will handle them better. If your wife rarely ever plays graphically intense games, give her the 8800GT and SLI your 260s!! Hope this helps!

 

[kumquatsrus]

i believe with your cpu (which i have similar), you would probably get heavy bottlenecking with 2x 260s either way. if i were in your shoes, i would upgrade to one gtx 260, add the 8800gt as a dedicated physx processing card, overclock your wife's cpu as much as possible, and put the other 260 in her computer. you will still get some bottlenecking, but not remotely as much as if you were running 2x 260s in sli. anyway, maybe you should test out the sli with your cpu on some games that you know have excellent/ almost perfect sli scaling (cod4? devil may cry 4?) and compare fps to a single 260. if it doesn't go up very much, then there is probably alot of bottlenecking by the cpu. wouldn't hurt to try either way. if it is worth it to you, then i guess go ahead and sli. better yet, drop in some better cpus if you can. btw, what resolution for your wife's monitor? maybe if she get's a much better card, she will start playing more games with you lol. just my two cents.

 

[cannondale06]

bottleneck city with that cpu. even one gtx260 would not get close to fully utilized with that 5600 X2. sli would be an absolute waste on that cpu. also putting a gtx260 in your wifes pc with the 4000 X2 will send about 50% of its potential right down the crapper. for some perspective your 5600 X2 and 4000 X2 cpus would be like me lowering my E8500 to about 2.0 and 1.4. I know because I had a 5000 X2 before the E8500 and during all comparison benchmarks my E8500 at 1.8 easily beat the 5000 X2 which was at 2.6. heck even at 1.6 it matched and in most cases still beat it and always provided better min framerates than the 5000 X2 could do at 2.6.


with even a single gtx260 not to mention sli in games like Far Cry 2 you would really suffer compared to having a more modern and faster cpu. now looking at Batman which is a good physx game your cpu would hurt you with even a single gtx260 and adding an 8800gt for physx wont fix that that limitation. remember I said your 5600 X2 is about like my E8500 being lowered to 2.0. well I have some Batman numbers from a couple weeks ago so I can show you. as you will see even at 1080 on a single 192sp gtx260 the cpu can be quite important.


1920x1080 all very high settings, no AA and high physx

E8500 at 2.0 GTX260 at 576/1188/1990

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
2092, 63045, 21, 42, 33.183

E8500 at 2.0 GTX260 at 666/1392/2200

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
2086, 61778, 21, 40, 33.766

a gtx260 is clearly bottlenecked in this game by a cpu like yours even at 1920 with very high settings. overclocking this old 192sp gtx260 did nothing with a cpu like yours so having a gtx260 sli setup would probably net you nothing from the second card. and again adding an 8800gt for physx likely wont change those numbers because its now your cpu thats limiting the game while using a gtx260. now lets put the cpu back at stock 3.16 and see what happens.

E8500 at 3.16 GTX260 at 666/1392/2200

Frames, Time (ms), Min, Max, Avg
2742, 66301, 31, 53, 41.357

when going from the equivalent of a 5600 X2 back to a stock E8500 that results in a 50% increase in minimum framerate and 25% increase in average framerate. thats pretty huge for what essentially is a gpu limited situation at 1920x1080. thats all a 5600 X2 can do so imagine how much worse your wifes 4000 X2 would hold back a gtx260.