Hello all,

I have a 73 inch Mitsubishi DLP television which has a native 1920x1080 resolution. I am currently using a GTX 295 graphic's card, which does an ok job at rendering at that resolution, but isn't DX11 capable, and is rapidly showing it's age.

I'm looking at getting a card (or cards) which can handle playing at this resolution at pretty much max settings for any game out now, or coming out in the near future. I have an i7-920, an ASUS mobo capable of SLI, and 12 gigs of DDR3 Corsair Dominator ram, and a Corsair HX1000w power supply for reference. More detailed specs can be provided if needed.

The two card setups i'm currently considering are running 2 GTX 560 Ti's in SLI, or 1 580. Cost is a factor, but not too much a concern. 2 580's, however, are out of the question. I'm trying to keep my choice at/under 600 dollars. I was considering all of the major brands (EVGA, GIGABYTE, ASUS, MSI, ETC) for both cards, but for the SLI option, I definitely want to go with 2 cards that wont dump hot air into one another.

I'm perfectly willing to consider other options, but one of those two seems to be the best way to go. I'm also willing to try to overclock the GPUs and/or CPU, but I have no experience in doing so, and the guides I read never seem to match up to the options presented to me by my BIOS.

Any help, suggestions, recommendations, etc would be greatly appreciated.

either choice will accomplish what you need. 
 
stick with a reference design such as the gtx 580 sc which pushes most of the hot air back out.

295NoWorkie

Thanks a lot for the reply, HH. Do EVGA cards come with the needed components to run SLI, or would I need to buy that separately? I glanced at your link and didn't see anything in particular that stood out, but I may have missed it.

Normally, if your board is capable of SLI, the SLI bridge comes with the motherboard it does not come with the card.  If you don't have one, you can get one here...
http://www.evga.com/produ...0-%20Hardware&sw=4
 
 

shaneduce

Welcome to the board's
I would go with one 580 now and another 580 latter. One card will perty much anything at or nere max seting's. two 580's is OMG.
btw what are all of your system spec?

when i upgrade to gtx680s (or w/e they're gonna be called) you can buy mine :D

295NoWorkie

My only concern with buying 1 card with the option to upgrade with a second later is my last buying experience. I purchased a top of the line GTX 295 right when it first came out. I figured when I needed the boost, I could simply purchase a second and catch back up on the top-of-the-line rigs at a lesser cost ... well, what good would that do me now? the GTS 295 is still a beast, but it lacks the newer bells and whistles like DX11 and other new hardware features that doubling up simply won't add.

My point is if I get 1 580 now, by the time I need to upgrade again, do you think the new 600's..or hell, 700 cards would have features that would make such a purchase pointless?

Who said you nesseceraly need to upgrade to a second 580 for SLI?
If you buy 2 card at this specific time, and you need a upgrade in let's say another 5 months, your possibillities are seriously limited because of the 2 present cards. Most motherboards do not support tri-SLI or do not support it well (in terms of PCI-e lanes available). And even if your mobo does support something like x16 x16 x8 the scaling isn't all that good with three cards.
 
If you would buy 1 580 now, you will allways have the option to go with a complete new model, or to 'simply' stick in a second one. Also single cards have beter support. No matter how many games are SLI compatible, there are allways a few that do not support it, or support it well. (seems a bit contradictory to first advise a future SLI set-up and then saying it isn't the best option . But there you have it)
 
And last I wouldn't advice a SC edition, since practicly every card can be OC'ed to the same settings with ease (sorry EVGA).
I'd rather go for a 2,5 or 3 Gb version, depending on the type they offer on the card you choose.
this is because I have found out myself (and is also well know) that some games run up to 2 gigs when playing in the highest settings. And so even my tri-SLI 580 is lagging from time to time when I play Metro2033 flat out, quite frustrating.
And my hunch is more and more major game titles will be filled up with textures and VRAM crunching contents.

So you would recommend  this card: Err...Can't post links, but two 2 gig EVGA cards at standard speeds over 2 Superclocked models, and would further recommend 1 580 over that. It's a tough call, that's for sure.
 

I suspect that GTX560s would overclock better than 580s, but why not consider a GTX570? It would run great.

Good choice.  The 560 is very capable for sure, but the 580 with 3 gigs should keep you going for come time.

That depends.
Wether you're a realist or a hardware junkie
 
The last type never buys what they need, but only what the want. Even with one or two of the best cards in their system they will run to the store the minute a new series comes out.
 
Realists go up to a point where they cant maintain a reasonable framerate on their desired settings and buy a cost/performance wise upgrade.
 
If you're one of the realists, you can keep that 580 for 2 years, maybe even three.

buy 2 GTX480s, they cost about $230-280 now each