9800 GT SLI 8x bottleneck?

[max05]

My next upgrade will be a pair of 9800 GTs for SLI use. Im buying an SLI motherboard and wondering whether old mobos that use 8x SLI would bottleneck my system too much. Is dual x16 slots the way to go? Do the 9800s use that much bandwith?

 

[customisbetter]

If you're slots are pci-e 2.0, then no, there will be no bottleneck whatsoever. However, pci-e 1.1 at 8x will have a slight impact on frmaes. Maybe 5-10%. However, you will gain so much performance from running two cards that it won't matter. Make sure your CPU can keep up.

I would recommend an intel core CPU at about 3 ghz to elevate a CPU bottleneck.
Post your system config...

Goodluck!

 

[max05]

CPU- E7200 @ 3.5Ghz
Mem- 4 GB DDR 2 @ 862Mgz
gaming resolution- 1680x1050
OS- vista 64 bit

good point. i forgot that 8x pcie 2.0 is the same as 16x pcie 1.0

 

[V3NOM]

yeah. even GTX 260's and 4870's arent bottlenecked by the x8 pci e 2.0 bus... probably only the 9800GX2, 4870X2 and MAYBE GTX 280

 

[dragonsprayer]

why buy sli --you running 4 monitors?

if not buy a single card get the 260 216 for the same price you get better accross the board gaming and less issues with comptability with older and future games

peeeps never learn!

 

[doomsdaydave11]

SLI 9800GT's would beat the GTX260 and GTX260 216 most of the time, even at 1680x1050 (look at tom's charts). And, since he already has one of the cards, it would be way cheaper.

The 8x bus will barely bottleneck the cards. Even the 9800GX2 (toms hardware did an article a while back about that.... I wouldn't worry about it too much. Like others have said, probably around a 5% bottleneck.

 

[V3NOM]

wats with you flaming SLI dragonsprayer? SLI certainly has its place. In this case in fact, two 9800GT's beat a GTX 280 for much less price! you would be a fool to get a GTX 280 right now..

 

[megamanx00]

Well, there are cases where SLI has lower minimum framerates, but it all depends on the setup, driver, and application. For the most part though SLI seems to work well.

 

[V3NOM]

^fair enough if you game at 800x600.

 

[V3NOM]

in any case, i recommend the evga 750i FTW for sli on a budget (ish). you do realise it would be cheaper and potentially faster to crossfire two 4830's on a P45 don't you?