3 way sli gtx 260 or single gtx 295?

Ok the second poster is has no idea what he is talking about so forget whatever he said. Two GTX 260's will rape a single GTX 295 hands down in everything. Next, there is no need too waste a whole GTX 260 just for physx and you CANT pare a GTX 295 with a 260 in SLI.

Currently the top 4 cards nvidia has to offer are GTX 260, 280, 285 and 295.

The 280 is the same as the 260 but w/ a few extra processing cores and 1gb dedicated instead of 896. The 260's overclocked can give a 280 a run for it's money (meaning it does better than its way cheaper). GTX 280's don't have much overclock room so a 260 that's overclocked to the max vs a 280 overclocked to the max wont have any more than a 3-4% increase in performance.

Now for the GTX 285, IT is the exact same thing as the GTX 280 but built on the 55nm die so it takes less power, runs cooler (does not like as much voltage though), the only advantage that the 285 has is that it's 55nm tech can higher clocks but even then don't expect more than a 10% increase in performance even after spending WAY more than a 260.

The GTX 295 is a double GPU in one card, it's two subspec 260's that run extremely hot and can't OC for crap unless your got liquid. Two GTX 260's can be had for cheaper and perform better.

3 way SLI or 4 way SLI takes WAY to much power and would also bottle neck pretty much all processors no matter how good. Stick with a cheap and highly effective card with the most bang for your buck. Get two 260's from a good manufacture like EVGA or XFX.

EDIT: Make sure you get the newest GTX 260, as they made 3 versions of them and unlike the 280 where they changed it's name to the 285 when they switched too 55nm the 260's never changed name.

First version had 196 cores and was built on 65nm

Second version had 216 cores and was also built on 65nm

Third and final version also has 216 cores but is built on 55nm which allows a slightly higher clock (around 50mhz on all 3), takes less power, less heat, ect...

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