gtx 260 or 2x gts250? Tweet

[braid]

Hi folks!
I finally saved some money and the time has come to buy a new vga.
And of course, I want to "play" in octane with it hehehe

I was thinking about buying a gtx 260, but its hard to find it here in my town. But yet, I think I can buy it if I want to.

The question is:

1-How much the gtx260 is faster then a gts250 in same situations, I mean, in a same scene, same resolution and settings; how many time the gts250 would take to render vs the gtx?

*the gts 1gb costs U$130,00 and the gtx260 U$220,00 here...

2- is there a estimated time for octane be able to handle/render in print resolution (more than 4000px) with 1gb of video memory or less?

3- In the other hand, there is a possible use of two gts250 for leaving the system without lags while rendering, which is a good thing, is not?

4- let's not forget that I still have to model/make scenes in my main 3d app, which is Modo, and I dont want to loose the capacity to handle heavy scenes (texturing+hi poly models/replicas). Which makes me afraid of the 2x gts250 (not sure if the SLI will make any improvement in viewports...)

I think thats all for now,
thanks

[radiance]

Hey,

A GTX260 would be the way to go, especially if you want to render large scenes at high res.
i'd try to find the one with 1.8GB memory.

You can determine the approximate difference in renderspeed of cards by comparing the GFLOPS rating,
if you go the the geforce articles on wikipedia you can see the relevant GFLOPS ratings for the different cards.

I'd get say a GTX250 for your display and a GTX260 or so with a large memory for your 2nd octane rendering gpu.
current versions can render a decent scene at high res with 1GB memory.

Radiance

[braid]

thank radiance,

but for now, buying a gts+gtx its too expansive for me. I'll have to choose. But, I think I'll go with the gtx...
Just for curiosity: if I have a old 6600gt + gtx260, Can I switch the priority on the fly? I men, when use the gtx for octane can I choose 6600gt for system, and when not rendering, I can use the gtx for system? Can I do it by any software control? or only by rebooting, change the slots etc etc etc...


thanks

[radiance]

thank radiance,

but for now, buying a gts+gtx its too expansive for me. I'll have to choose. But, I think I'll go with the gtx...
Just for curiosity: if I have a old 6600gt + gtx260, Can I switch the priority on the fly? I men, when use the gtx for octane can I choose 6600gt for system, and when not rendering, I can use the gtx for system? Can I do it by any software control? or only by rebooting, change the slots etc etc etc...


thanks

i'm not sure if this will work. it has never been tested. (using a 6000 series together with a cuda capable gpu)
you will have to manually attach/reattach the display to use the card in question as a display adapter.

Radiance

[braid]

hmm and in case of using the gts + gtx is ok to alternate by software?

[radiance]

hmm and in case of using the gts + gtx is ok to alternate by software?

no you need to connect your display to the card you use for display,
you can't use a card that's not connected to your monitor to display.

Radiance