2 x 8800GT for 1 x 8800GTX???

Hi there gurus.

About a year ago I was one of the early adopters of 8800GTX, I paid a hefty 600€ pricetag (around $800 at the time), but I enjoyed every piece of it, from playing Oblivion with every mod enabled to playing modern DX10 games, the card was unparalleled. However this came to an end when Crysis demo came out, I was disappointed to see that I couldn't get more than 20fps (along others I guess) and it disappointed me even more that (the midrange) 8800GT was performing equally to the card of mine at the resolution I am gaming (1280x1024). So I came to conclusion that 8800GTX is a bit of an overkill for the low resolution I game and that there is not that better unless you crank up the res to the 2000s.

Additionally I found (where I live) the GTs for €200, while -at the same time- I can sell my 8800GTX for €350-400.




(1)Would I do well to sell my GTX for 2 GTs considering the resolutions I game?


(2)Would it be wise to sacrifice the 128 shaders and the 768MB of GTX for 112 shaders and 512MB?


(3)Additionally would my 750W PSU handle the GTs on SLI (consider that I also have a Q6600 oc'd to 3.6GHz drawing enough juice)?





I know that my questions may be a little too much (and I'm sorry 'bout that), but I'm sure such a question passed from every gamer's mind when he saw the 8800GT coming out. I would like to use a little of your wisdom here, thanks.

 

I would buy one 8800gt, keep the rest of the money and buy the one 9-series cards.


To try to answer your question i THINK two 8800gt in sli would be better but I'm definately not sure HOW much better. Don't know if it would matter that much in your resolution.

 

It would be a lot easier to sell 2 mid-range cards anyway. Sure not for €200 but (for) at least €150 . I ain't want to downgrade.

Also I'm a bit concerned about about AA and AF handling on these cards, I'm spoiled to not being able to play w/t either of the two. 8800GT doesn't seem too keen to play well with these on, 2 8800GTs on the other hand.....

 

Keep the GTX for now see how the new 8800GTS is going to be and also keep an eye on what ATi do. Its far too early to jump from an 8800GTX to an 8800GT SLi setup.

 

In fact, my point is, that I want to play Crysis at acceptable framerates. Also it would not cost me not a penny to make such an upgrade (I know sb that would buy my GTX for €400). The only thing I'm concerned about is if -even 8800GT sli'd- wouldn't be able to give me good framerates on Crysis.



Also -MORE IMPORTANTLY- when the upgraded GTS comes out I would not be able to sell the GTX not even for a penny, everyone would be interested for the new 1024MB GTS instead of an aging GTX. If the GTS comes out -I know- I'm bound to the GTX (can't swap or anything anymore). If I'm to do sth I would do it now, right now, there's no option to wait.....

 

You don't expect to max crysis with two 8800gt's, right?

 

On 1280x1024, why not? I mean I already have 20FPS with ONE GTX, since GT is equal to GTX in such low resolution, why should two GTs would not be able to send to the 30FPS territory? Remember that I also have a 3.6GHz Quad CPU which would help with physics and all that.

Anyway my greatest concern is -more or less- if a 750W would handle two 8800GTs even if they're 65nm (and as a result have lower wattage).

 

I've heard that the crysis demo(don't know about the full game) doesn't work well with sli.


I would think that the psu could handle it, but I'm not sure. Don't know how much those cards require. Please, don't base any big decision on this.

 

I think its a tad to early still to give an official opinion on the 8800gt in sli vs. 8800gtx, Id wait until more reliable benchmarks come out.

the 8800gt is suppose to come out today isn't it?


I honestly think the 8800gt still wont be enough to handle Crysis on Very High. I hope im wrong on this statement though.

 

Well, there is always this vr-zone review that can prove you that a single 8800GT's performance is identical to 8800GTX's on Crysis, just think what SLI would be able to do.

http://www.************/articles/Nvidia_GeForce_8800_GT_Review/5369-7.html
(edit put vr-zone dot com where's the ****)


Imagine now that you can get it free of charge, that would ideally make it a win-win scenario. However -unfortunately- things are not always that simple concerning PC hardware, that's why I'm posting on these boards...

Also what about this? http://forums.************/showthread.php?t=198371
My problem of course is if those benchs are legit and -especially- if they translate to ingame performance. The thing is that I have to act now if I am to sell my GTX, I have no option to wait, because this will lead my GTX losing it's price.

(edit put vr-zone dot com where's the ****)

 

GTX vs. GT response

If you are considering SLI, do you have a "32" board? Full pipelines to both cards? Also, do you have enough room to cool those bad boys? If you have the GTX now, I assume you know how hot it can get. Add that to an oc'ed cpu (nice btw)... Do what ever you want, I say keep the GTX. It's been fine UNTIL the crysis demo came out. They still have some work to do on that game.

 

Hey,

Why u put the stars there? I haven't gotten any trouble just posting the complete URL. Sure it will be fin as long as it is not PIRATED SW or PORN.

* Hoping I am not missing some rule somewhere.... *

With my experience of SLi one will most likely see more improvement in minimum framerates, than getting higher ones. A little more consistent.
Having said that, I only added a card to my rig, and not downgraded like what is being suggested here.

Why not sell the GTX and get an ULTRA and try some overclocking (if possible)?

PS. With my rig I cannot play Oblivion with 4x AA (or FUll HDR) @1024x768 and hope of getting a framerate of more than 25 odd (except when looking at a wall that is! ). Turning off SLi makes that value drop only by a few frames (5-8) which raises questions on how much improvement an SLi solution really provides...

 

Two things. 1) 8800gt is not a downgrade cause it uses G92 core (so its not really a true 8800 series)2) Sli is only good for hi res. I would wait as well and see what ati has to offer probably; their crossire setups will prolly work better for you.

 

If you mean that PCI-E slots are 32x, then no, I have 680i's 16x, but I think it hardly would make any difference in those entry cards, the PCI-E's bandwidth will start to be utilized -in fact- in the 9800 series.

1) G92 may well be 65nm but it's also 16 Stream Processors short (112 in opposition to 128) and has both narrower Bus width (256bit instead GTX's 384bit) and less memory (512MB instead 768MB)
2) SLI is as good for high resolutions as it is for AA and AF, I won't use the high resolutions but I will happily use the AA and AF options. Also I don't plan to migrate from my board, I know X38 is better but I'm perfectly happy with my 680i and I find no need to upgrade just yet, so crossfire is not an option for me only SLI. Also I want to make a "quiet" upgrade (swap one card for two) not a system revamp. Thanks for your recommendations anyway.

 

Ok then I suggest just to wait for other G92 powered cards to come out. Since the price is so good on the 8800gt maybe the faster G92s will be a good price as well.

 

Yeah but by then it would be impossible to sell the 8800GTX. The thing is to act NOW, so that I would be able to sell the card and in return take the other two. If I wanted to spend money I would take a couple 8800 ULTRA and I would SLI them, but I don't.

All I want is to get a costless upgrade, my question is will it be an upgrade or a downgrade?

Regardless, I will go my way and prolly sell the GTX, I just want to collect opinions along the way that may change my mind along one or another way. It may also be proved useful to others who think as I do.

 

My advice is to stay with your single 8800GTX

SLI can help in some cases, but it also has some quirks that you simply dont have to worry about with a single card e.g. Triple Buffering does not work at all with SLI, and if you like vsync enabled this should matter to you.

Regards,

Greggy

 

Sorry no vsync user here. Also as demonstrated by the benchmarks, I won't see a difference between the GTX and the GT even if only one card is utilized at 1280x1024. By having two will only make the system faster than with GTX. Also GT draws less watts (less strain to the PSU) and it costs €200 (for me) less. I don't see why it is a bad move selling the GTX for two (or one) 8800 GT. It maybe is, but I want a demonstratable proof of this, vsync is not a probl for me, AA and AF however is.

 

Id say stay with your card too. Dont get desperate. SLI and Crossfire arent always that what they are made out to be. You dont always get perfect scaling and in some games any at all.

I would say stay with your GTX and when the new generation cards come out buy one of those

 

Maybe you could sell your GTX for two Evga 8800GT's?? Then do the step-up program to two GTS's or whatever comes out from nvidia which is better?? I'm considering selling my GTS for the new rev. one mid November, but an Evga branded one so that I can step-up to a 9800GTX or something when they arrive..

Ok what I am trying to say is, You can probably do what you want to do on a no lose basis as long as you stick to Evga and the step-up plan is available..

HyBrId