Go 8800gt sli or new card?

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I pretty much did answer that up above when stating the GTX 275 would be a better route if priced about the same. Yes, I'd rather game on a GTX 275 or HD 4890. Shoot, I even suggested a GTX 260 (216) too, especially if it was the cheaper route.

So I'm not arguing against any of those single GPU's as a very good option. Just not crazy about his pricing of course. But IMO overall performance the 8800GT SLI combo (and slightly better 9800GX2) would trade blows with the HD4890/GTX 275 at 16x10 aa/af gaming. Not as consistent in all games, but they'd also take some wins in GPU limited situations.


It's getting harder and harder to find 8800GT SLI or the 9800GX2 is a review, but when included, they still do a good job against these bigger single GPU's until higher res/AA and amount of RAM comes into play. Look at the 9800GX2 at 16x10 or 16x10 AA/AF here:
http://ixbtlabs.com/articles3/i3dspeed/1108/i1108-video-p2.html

 


Very well said, I agree 100% with you....
 

AFAIK, it will not work without a BIOS flash on one of them. (flash the 8800GT to a compatible 9800GT BIOS) Have read success stories of people doing this, but personally never tried it. Unless you have both already, it seems far better just to buy a new/used compatible card for SLI.
 

That was one of the reasons for the link. 😉 It's a potent combo for sure.

The other reason was just to show off more current scaling of SLI vs. the older review links above.
 
Thanks for all the links!! I think its clear that there are many good options I can take at this point, but probably wouldn't go with ATI only because I have a SLI motherboard. Hmmm SLI 250 looking pretty sweet.
 

Troll much?

Yeh, I have the ZM750 and it is great. It has 4x12v rails with 20amps each, with a combined output of 60amps.



Two 8800GTs would be better than a 4890. You can't compare them directly but you can compare benchmarks.

2x8800GTs almost equal a GTX280 in performance. A GTX280 is equal to or slightly better than a GTX275, which is very similar to or slightly better than a 4890 in most games.

Thus, 2x8800GTs are equal to or slightly better than an ATI 4890.


I would choose two 8800GTs mainly because it's more performance for the money.
They would cost me $200, as opposed to ~$300 for a single GTX280, and get me equal or superior performance.
The only drawback is you need an SLi mobo.
 



Yep, you can get a GTS250 for ~$100 nowadays, a real bargin



Nice. I had two GTX+s in Sli to play Crysis @ Ultra High mod, but the 4 PCi-e connectors was a real pain in terms of cable management. With less power consumption and 1 less cable each, the GTS250 is what the 9800GTX/GTX+ should've been all along.
 



I agree with you to an extent but the 8800's are almost obsolete now at days and will not run as well as current GPU's specially now that DX11 is around the corner. I did not say what would you rather spend your money on, I asked what would you prefer.... Having an SLI mobo does not change the perspective, even though you say they are faster than a 280. IMO a 280 is better than dual 8800GT's not because of the performance, but because the 8800Gt's are low end cards that will soon lose driver support and then what? Of course everyone has their own opinions and i respect that.... The same thing is happening with the 9800GX2's, a video card life depends on driver support. Once that is gone there is not much use to them.....
 


8800GT isn't exactly a low end card. It's an upper mid-tier card based on the great G92 architecture.
It can pretty much play any game except Crysis on max. In any case, it's better than the 9400GT, 9500GT, 9600GSO, 9600GT, 4650, 4670, etc that came out recently.

I'm planning on getting one for my 2ndary rig.


As for drivers, you don't need the most up to date drivers to play a game. I am using a 7600GT that came out years ago to play Oblivion and Fallout 3 at medium-high, and it runs great.

The 8800GT probably can use the 9800GT driver since they're pretty much the same thing.
The same goes for the GTX280, which has been replaced by the 285.

And as snowburn said, drivers will be supported for years to come, and no current ATI or Nvidia card can actually run DX11 yet.
 
I didn't say there weren't any drivers out for old cards, what i meant is that Nvidia and Ati give priority to what is current. They normally leave old hardware on the back burner due to upcoming hardware and software (drivers). I have an old 5FX series card as well but the current driver that is out is not supported for Vista, so what good is the card if when i play a game I get artifacts or lag....Capiche?
 


The 8800GT is only 1/2 or barely 1 generation apart from the 4890.

8800GT/9800GT is a G92 card, it will support Vista, XP, and Windows 7 when it comes out. The GTS250 still uses the G92 core, so those cards will be supported as much as the GTX200 series or ATI 4x00 series.

As for artifact or lagging...games come out every year that get better and better. By the time dual 8800GTs start lagging in games, so will the 4890.
 
The 8800GT is almost 3 years old, the 4890 just barely came out, how can you compare both when the release dates are so far apart? G92 has nothing to do with the DX coding. Once Win 7 and DX11 come out they will have limited support and then it will be time for an upgrade. And again it is like comparing apples to oranges ex: you can compare an 8800 to a 1600XT but not an 8800 to a 4890.....
 



It doesn't matter how old the 8800GT is, because Nvidia has rebranded it into the 9800GT and has revived the G92 core. This means the drivers for the 8800GT will be up to date since it's pretty much the same drivers for the 9x00 series which came out last year, and are still being well supported today in the form of the 9800 and GTS250.


http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_190.38_whql.html

The most recent driver for Nvidia is 190.38 - It contains new drivers from GTX200 series all the way back to the 6x00 series. So even 6x00 cards are still being supported...even that will run Windows 7


As for saying it will be upgrade time when DX11 comes out, it's equally pointless to get a 4890 since that won't support DX11 either.
 


Ok either I am confused or not understanding what you are explaining here, im sorry I guess I am mixing up 2 threads here. I have one guy telling me that his 8800GT is not DX11 compatible while another guy is telling me the opposite of what you are explaining....Super confused here....
 
Your reasoning about helping out your buddy out brought a tear to me eye. :)

Go for it, mate, dual 8800gts will be more than enough.
 


ye I think I kinda got lost in the discussion too. I think it was someone else who brought up the 4890 thing or the other part.



lol

 
Bluescreen you are absolutely right and pay no attention to what I posted.... sorry, its late and trying to help 3 peeps at the same time while typing this nonsense made me even more confused.....lol....for some reason i jumped to one subject that had nothing to do with the thread and then i was trying to correct someone and ended up typing something that made no sense at all... wow.. talk about jiberish.... been here today since 9am and now its 1:38am the following day.....
 
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