1
00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:14,839
so this is going to be a quick follow-up video to my GTX 660ti content now you

2
00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:21,800
can see here I've got two 660 Ti running I've got the MSI 660ti power Edition as

3
00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:24,599
well as Galaxy's custom cooled GC card

4
00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:30,080
now for those of you who don't know yes you can mix vendors in SLI yes you can

5
00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:34,200
mix different clock speeds in SLI different pcbs in SLI I mean this one's

6
00:00:32,399 --> 00:00:38,120
even running two six pin powers and this one's running a six and an eight

7
00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:42,039
different coolers in SLI the thing that's important is that the GPU is the

8
00:00:40,719 --> 00:00:49,520
same so that means you have to have a 660 Ti and a 660 Ti no 660 Ti and a you

9
00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:54,359
know 670 or anything like that no flexibility on the NVIDIA side unlike

10
00:00:51,640 --> 00:01:01,160
the AMD side breaker in a 6990 with the 6970 and trifire this doesn't work that

11
00:00:57,239 --> 00:01:04,559
way so just cuz a 690 has the same GPU

12
00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:05,479
as not that I think there's a 680 around

13
00:01:04,559 --> 00:01:11,000
here somewhere but I'm not going to worry too much about it ah there it is right was hiding um as a 680 that

14
00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:14,840
doesn't mean you can run them in SLI got to be matching gpus also it's been

15
00:01:13,479 --> 00:01:18,200
suggested to me in the past that mismatched RAM configurations are okay

16
00:01:16,880 --> 00:01:23,240
but I haven't tried it in a long time and the last time I tried it it didn't

17
00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:25,520
work so there you go all right so we are

18
00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:29,920
going to be doing like a value analysis because people ask me about this all the

19
00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:33,799
time should I buy one powerful card or should I buy two less powerful cards and

20
00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:37,880
run them in SLI so there are some trade-offs right off the bat two cards

21
00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:41,240
is going to use more power period it's going to be noisier period because you

22
00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:45,719
got more fans in this case you got four fans versus one but uh which isn't to

23
00:01:44,159 --> 00:01:52,360
say necessarily that two of these fans is louder than one of these fans but

24
00:01:48,520 --> 00:01:55,079
well whatever moving on um so yes power

25
00:01:52,360 --> 00:02:02,920
noise both worse heat is worse for having multiple cards and in 90% of

26
00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:04,920
cases multiple cards is bad never run

27
00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:08,119
two of these instead of one more powerful one that is a low-end card well

28
00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:14,000
well it's a gaming card but it's a low-end gaming card and you're definitely better off getting something

29
00:02:11,959 --> 00:02:18,560
in the sort of more bang for the buck $250 to $350 range that's where you

30
00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:24,360
usually find the best value so we're going to take two 660 Ti versus a single

31
00:02:21,920 --> 00:02:28,560
680 and find out what delivers the best performance and the best value so here's

32
00:02:26,599 --> 00:02:32,120
my first graph this is Crisis 2 1080p I'm using all my standard settings so

33
00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:36,840
this is like ubered out with high reses textures and all that good stuff so you

34
00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:42,040
can see the 660 Ti configuration actually well destroys the 680 however

35
00:02:39,840 --> 00:02:46,959
it is more expensive it's about 20% more expensive and when we actually go ahead

36
00:02:44,640 --> 00:02:52,280
and look at the performance differential it looks like the 660 Ti comes ahead so

37
00:02:49,080 --> 00:02:54,480
it's about 26% faster and 20% more

38
00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:58,959
expensive and at minimum FP if you measure minimum FPS it's about 20%

39
00:02:56,519 --> 00:03:02,319
faster there as well so let's go ahead and you know what I'll do the graphs off

40
00:03:00,319 --> 00:03:08,239
camera Battlefield 3 again was running at like uber settings 1080P and you can

41
00:03:05,239 --> 00:03:11,920
see the 660ti again just destroys it in

42
00:03:08,239 --> 00:03:13,879
terms of average FPS but the minimum FPS

43
00:03:11,920 --> 00:03:18,440
was a little bit closer so it doesn't look like as compelling a value as as it

44
00:03:16,879 --> 00:03:23,519
at first appears when you look at the averages however that still does show

45
00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:28,840
that the 660ti does present a better or SLI does present a better value than a

46
00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:32,879
single 680 in this particular title as long as you're willing to make those

47
00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:37,920
trade-offs in terms of power consumption as well as

48
00:03:34,959 --> 00:03:45,239
noise again running a game at 1080p with ultra high details and again we see at

49
00:03:41,720 --> 00:03:49,519
that minimum FPS level a 20% improvement

50
00:03:45,239 --> 00:03:51,599
from the 660 Ti SLI config over the 680

51
00:03:49,519 --> 00:03:56,439
we see about a 47% Improvement in average FPS but it almost looks like

52
00:03:54,280 --> 00:04:02,200
NVIDIA knew what they were doing when they were pricing out a single GTX 680

53
00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:08,319
versus 660 Ti SLI because they're delivering pretty much the performance

54
00:04:04,799 --> 00:04:10,799
that you'd expect for the Dual uh the

55
00:04:08,319 --> 00:04:17,880
Dual GPU configuration versus the single one um you know what here I'll just do

56
00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:19,400
this last one uh on okay no I won't do

57
00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:23,680
this on camera I need two hands and there's Metro 2033 where we actually see

58
00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:27,960
about a 30% Improvement in both minimum and average FPS so this is the clear

59
00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:32,680
winner so what's neat about this cross-section of games is that these are all well they're all Shooters they're

60
00:04:30,759 --> 00:04:37,680
all demanding uh which or two isn't a shooter actually they're all demanding

61
00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:42,639
and they all demonstrate that the 660 Ti not only scales consistently in SLI but

62
00:04:40,919 --> 00:04:47,600
presents a compelling value versus buying a single higher in GPU that is to

63
00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:51,400
say that's not to say though that it's necessarily the better option because

64
00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:55,880
two of these is 600 bucks one of these is 500 bucks and for that 20%

65
00:04:54,039 --> 00:05:00,479
Improvement you are trading off extra heat and extra power consumption so it's

66
00:04:58,280 --> 00:05:04,520
up to you personally I think SLI cards look more bling bling

67
00:05:04,639 --> 00:05:11,919
and yeah I think that's probably all else that it's got going for it but uh

68
00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:17,520
remember guys when you're trying to figure out if a dual GPU configuration

69
00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:20,840
makes sense you just want to look at performance per dollar that's pretty

70
00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:24,560
much the only Factor here because they've now got the same features they

71
00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:28,639
both support 3+ 1 videos out even when you add another card if you're running

72
00:05:26,280 --> 00:05:34,639
an SLI you can only plug the uh you can only plug in 3 plus one in SLI and this

73
00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:38,759
one also supports 3+ one off of a single card um you also want to remember that

74
00:05:36,919 --> 00:05:43,319
things like memory configurations are important so when you're running two

75
00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:47,160
cards in SLI two 2 gig cards does not

76
00:05:43,319 --> 00:05:48,840
equal 4 gigs of video memory okay so

77
00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:52,000
they both have to share the frame buffer which means that you still only get

78
00:05:50,160 --> 00:05:56,000
effectively two kicks so bear that in mind as well so I know this really

79
00:05:54,319 --> 00:05:59,440
didn't have a clear-cut conclusion because basically performance per dollar

80
00:05:58,199 --> 00:06:04,440
they're very very similar it just comes down down to do you want a little bit more performance or do you not want a

81
00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:07,840
little bit more performance thanks for checking out this episode of L's Tech

82
00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:13,680
tips and don't forget to subscribe for more unboxings reviews and

83
00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:13,680
other computer videos