[Agbeth]

So our local shop is selling old stuff for low prices but without a warranty. One of the things that attracted my attention was Gigabyte GTX 295 for 50 euros, I believe it cheap.

Right now I have 2 GTX 465 and I can't decide is a pair of GTX 295 is a worthy upgrade or not. After all its a directx 10 GPU and my is directx 11.

Any suggesions? Is it worth buying it?

Thank you for attention

[Costin Moroianu]

Depends on whether or not you deem DX11 important, supposedly the 295 is superior in terms of performance.

That said the 295 is louder and consumes a lot more power as well.

[.Volsung.]

If you do other things beside gaming, like 3d rendering or numerical computing, the GTX 295 is a power house.

If you do lots of DX11 gaming, then you should probably keep what you have.

[Agbeth]

I believe I don't have and haven't played any game that support or requires directx 11. And I have no idea how will directx 10 will be in the future games. But if 2 GTX 295 is a power house like you say I guess I should get it

[Costin Moroianu]

Don't expect any DX10 games to be honest.

TW3 will be DX11 most likely ( besides DX9 ) so consider that.

[M4xw0lf]

What? 2 GTX295 to replace 2 GTX465? DON'T do that, under NO circumstances!
The GTX295 is high among the hottest, noisiest and power-hungriest cards ever built, plus it's not even much faster than a GTX465. You're looking at a dual-GPU card with two GT200b chips, like the ones found on a GTX285.

If you want to replace your GTX465's, buy a new single GTX660 or HD7870, they are better in every imaginable way, and not that much more expensive than the 2 GTX295.

[Agbeth]

M4xw0lf said:

What? 2 GTX295 to replace 2 GTX465? DON'T do that, under NO circumstances!
The GTX295 is high among the hottest, noisiest and power-hungriest cards ever built, plus it's not even much faster than a GTX465. You're looking at a dual-GPU card with two GT200b chips, like the ones found on a GTX285.

If you want to replace your GTX465's, buy a new single GTX660 or HD7870, they are better in every imaginable way, and not that much more expensive than the 2 GTX295. ›››

I'll consider this. Its just I though 100 euros for 2 GTX 295 was a good deal, but if you put it that way I really think about this.

As for hot my GTX 465 already reaches teperatures over 100°C so if 295 is hotter I doubt water cooling will save it, though I would like to get the sound of that.

[Guy N'wah]

You may have missed the part where the OP said "50 euros". That's a bargain for these in the used parts market. You're not getting even a small fraction of a 660 for that price.

50 euros for a working 295 is a steal. If you do not need DX11 support and you have a lot of numbers or pixels to crunch, go for it.

You will have to be able to care for and feed it adequately. These things want 290 watts each and produce a corresponding quantity of hot air that has to be got rid of. Figure a 1000 watt PSU if you actually get two of them.

[M4xw0lf]

Agbeth said:

I'll consider this. Its just I though 100 euros for 2 GTX 295 was a good deal, but if you put it that way I really think about this.

As for hot my GTX 465 already reaches teperatures over 100°C so if 295 is hotter I doubt water cooling will save it, though I would like to get the sound of that. ›››

I don't believe you'd find parts for the GTX295 anymore.

Guy N said:

You may have missed the part where the OP said "50 euros". That's a bargain for these in the used parts market. You're not getting even a small fraction of a 660 for that price.

50 euros for a working 295 is a steal. If you do not need DX11 support and you have a lot of numbers or pixels to crunch, go for it.

You will have to be able to care for and feed it adequately. These things want 290 watts each and produce a corresponding quantity of hot air that has to be got rid of. Figure a 1000 watt PSU if you actually get two of them. ›››

No, I didn't miss that part. And you even get at least a quarter of a GTX660/HD7870 for 50€ ( ), so he's at half a brand new card for his 100€ GTX295s - which don't even deliver more performance. Even a new 100€ card is a better investment (even if it's a bit slower) - I wouldn't want two GTX295s in my System if they were for free.
There have been reported cases where the exhaust heat of the GTX295 would lead to instable systems due to overheating of the motherboard (where at least part of the exhaust air of the GTX295 is directed), even with a single 295.

[Agbeth]

Guy N said:

50 euros for a working 295 is a steal. If you do not need DX11 support and you have a lot of numbers or pixels to crunch, go for it. ›››

Its not just working its brand new. Its that the shop doen't give a warranty on it, because they have no parts for it and not going to replace for something of the same power but newer

[Guy N'wah]

Agbeth said:

I'll consider this. Its just I though 100 euros for 2 GTX 295 was a good deal, but if you put it that way I really think about this.

As for hot my GTX 465 already reaches teperatures over 100°C so if 295 is hotter I doubt water cooling will save it, though I would like to get the sound of that. ›››

Just because the 465 overheats doesn't mean the 295 will. The 465 was a terrible design that did not last because, among other faults, it overheated frequently.

If it has a well-functioning stock cooler, and there is plenty of air for it to suck and a place for the hot air to go, it will be fine even if it runs at 95C all day.

Your dealer is right; you cannot get aftermarket parts for a '295; they were never common, and even coolers that are claimed to fit everything will not fit. So you will have to run them on the stock coolers.

[Crying Jester]

Quote

As for hot my GTX 465 already reaches teperatures over 100°C

Holy crap. And its not malfunctioning in that temperature?

GTX 295 technically has better performance than GTX 465, but I'm not so sure about buying 2 GTX 295. Especially if your shop does't give you a warranty it may be a little risky (imagine your GPU being damaged because of temperature with no warranty and no possibility to fix it, due to no parts).

I'd save another ~100 euros and go with GTX 660. I'm using one right now (I got it for about ~200 euros in a pretty decent OC version), and I'm very satisfied with it. Quite silent, very cool, and gives a decent performance.

2x GTX 295 for this price seems nice, but no warranty, overheating and the fact that its an old GPU that is not used very commonly now would discourage me from buying it.

Better save some money and buy HD 7850, GTX 660, HD 7870, depending on your wallet and demands. Newer usually means more reliable in case of computer parts.

[Geralt The Riv]

Look I have 2 660ti in sli but if those 295s came my way for THAT price I would snag them for spares or a second build. That is a GREAT Deal. 295s are good cards. My brother had one for 5 years then his daughter ripped the cord out and ruined thecard. So i gave him my spare gtx560.....

[M4xw0lf]

Your 660Ti SLI Setup is a lot faster than 2 GTX295 and gets along with about half the heat, a third of the power and a quarter of the noise. Running two of them means Quad-SLI and quad SLI means bad or no scaling plus all sorts of driver problems - this card is 4 years old, any problems you encounter will not be fixed anymore by driver updates.

[Agbeth]

Thank a lot for these suggessions. Never thought that GTX 660 will be such a popular answer, must be great.

Forgot to mention I'm playing on 1280*1024 resolution so probaly 295 would make much of a difference

I guess I will keep my 465 for a year or two, then maybe I'll get a pair of those Radeon HD 7870 or GTX 660 or maybe something from the nvidia 5 series

[Aver]

Well, on Sony's conference about PS4, creators of Havok announced that Havok will be able to fully use AMD GPU (like PhysX is now able to use nVidia GPU), so there is possibility that in the future, AMD users will have much more advanced physics in the games.

Hopefully nVidia will be able to optimize their cards too, but you should keep an eye on it.

[Costin Moroianu]

I think that's relevant for consoles more then anything. They will use AMD gpus after all.

I wouldn't worry about Havok not running well on Nvidia cards.

[Aver]

Costin Moroianu said:

I wouldn't worry about Havok not running well on Nvidia cards. ›››

Well, if someone would ask me if it will be running well on nvidia cards, I would answer probably. If someone would ask me if I want bet money on that, I would say "no". ;P

[archaven]

Well IF i'm you.. i forget about PC altogether.. How about PS4? Since more and more developers are joining the devil.. *ahem* Blizzard *ahem* and CDPR also officially making TW3 for PS4.

I think you won't go wrong with that.. and also you get alot more exclusive games in PS4 where you will never get in PC. And whatever PC games has it will be available for consoles anyway.

It will save you the hassle of long term upgrading.

[Aver]

archaven said:

And whatever PC games has it will be available for consoles anyway. ›››

No.