Opinions wanted: GPUs - single or SLI?

With WoD approaching quickly I've been looking at my system and thinking it's time for an upgrade. I'm a five-boxer.

Currently I'm running a GTX 690 with an i5 processor and 16gb of RAM. (Not posting from that computer and don't remember exact specs) I can cap out the RAM and max the processor. The 690 never gave me the graphics settings I wanted, no matter what I did to it. If I put all five toons to minimal settings, I can usually keep the main toon at ~60fps if I put the others cap at 20fps. All I can get on the main toon for visual upgrades before it starts to bog down is a slight increase on the view distance and spell effects. Past that I start to see drastic fps hits.

My current setup is all 5 stacked on one screen while using a dxNothing (ISBoxer) window to view all the screens. Of all the things I've tried, this helps keep frame rates highest.

Now, the real question: I'm thinking of upgrading from the ground up. I'm looking at 32gb DDR4 RAM, a fancy new Mobo, and an i7 processor. Now I'm stuck on the gpu. Is it best to go for one massive gpu, or would it be better to grab a couple in SLi? I do know that more RAM on the gpu is going to be beneficial. However, I've heard of some people saying that integrated RAM isn't fully utilized in a multi-card setup.

I'd love to know people's thoughts on this and would like to know what other people are running to 5-box and what kind of frame rates they are able to achieve and on what kind of settings. If you know of certain cards or SLi combos that work well, that's the information I'm looking for.

Thanks.

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However, I've heard of some people saying that integrated RAM isn't fully utilized in a multi-card setup.

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With SLI, the RAM is mirrored -- both cards need the same data in order to push the graphics harder. So if you have 2 4GB cards in SLI mode, you have 4GB of RAM, not 8GB of RAM. But it is still "fully utilized".

For multiboxing, SLI > Crossfire, so good on you for not going ATI/AMD here. SLI works in windowed mode, Crossfire does not.

I don't have specific suggestions on cards, but the above information is helpful/important to this discussion anyway.

Other than that, generally I recommend people stick to one card because they may not be prepared for caveats that come with multiple GPUs. For example, if you decide to put on multiple monitors you may lose SLI just from that, and splitting up the two cards has performance implications as far as the different possible Window Layouts (described under http://isboxer.com/wiki/GPU_Management). One powerful card will generally give better overall options for multiple monitors because of that.

Hey Lax :) Huge fan of ISBoxer.

Yeah, I've been a fan of Nvidia for years now. I don't even look at ATI cards anymore.

From what you said, perhaps that's why I've never been satisfied with the GTX 690 when boxing. With the dual cores, it's basically an SLI configuration in one card. When I'm not boxing, I get great performance on Ultra or in other games.

Tonight I'll go through that GPU management link and see if there's anything in there I didn't know before and can try. I'd still prefer to tune my existing rig before upgrading. I think we all know how expensive that can be :)

R9 290 is pretty sexy.

I'd second both NVidia as the preferred brand and a single-card solution over SLI.

Thanks for the second opinion, Ugh.

I think I'm going to wait until the new 900 series comes out next month and see how those compare to the current models. The 780Ti is looking pretty good right now, and even if the new models aren't worth the extra money for the upgrade they would give, the price of the Ti will probably come down a bit.

Yep. I usually do my upgrades to units that are about 2 releases behind the latest hardware. Gets rid of that "new car depreciation" fee. ;)