To revive or not revive

[amddiesel]

Would anyone sli this rig or pop in a 4870x2?

Amd x2 4800@2.65(reduced oc from 2.7 to prolong life)
Asus A8n32sli deluxe
2 gigs dual channel ddr400
BFG 8800gt oc
Silverstone strider 600watt psu
Coolermaster Cm 830 (big boy case) with 7 120mm fans

Im still very happy with this rig and still pumps out 80-90fps with my favorite game EvE at 1680x1050 with all eye candy turned on

Questions
1. Would anyone pop in another 8800gt oc?
2. Would anyone pop in a 4870x2? Does the mobo need to be crossfire for this to work or will one pciexpress slot still work?
3. Am I retarded to even think of upgrading this rig..(3 years ago it was the cream of the crop with my old ati 1900xtx...wow time has flew by me)

Its been about a year for me seaching these forums as Im waiting for intel core i7 or new Amd offering to come down in price at the end of 2009

I know I will here about the great "bottleneck" issue but playing games at 1680x1050 i feel the videocard will be doing all the work

 

[Mousemonkey]

Even at that res I found that two 8800GT's were too much for a 3800 x2 @ 2.5ghz so a 4870x2 would most likely overwhelm it as well. IMHO of course.

 

[Reynod]

1. Yes
2. Not worth it

It is still a good rig but at 2.65 the 2 8800's would be about the best you could get out of it .... for the money spent (2 X 4850's seems a bit excessive and the 8800's are really cheap now.

Good luck.

 

[amddiesel]

Thanks for the replys
The only thing i feel i will encounter is excessive heat.. Those darn 8800gt's dump that heat inside the case.Also have to mention im using riva tuner to ramp up the gpu fan to cool the sob's

 

[Reynod]

I cut away all of the meshing behind my fans on the case so I get better airflow ... and tidy up all of the cables inside with some looming plastic.

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Any multi card setup is always harder on your cpu, and wont give the best fps, unless your cpu is usually a quad at 3Ghz, or a duo at much higher. Your res is somewhat low to see max performance, even for your AMD, but youll still see a nice improvement, just no where near what youd see with a much faster duo , or faster quad

 

[amddiesel]

Any multi card setup is always harder on your cpu, and wont give the best fps, unless your cpu is usually a quad at 3Ghz, or a duo at much higher. Your res is somewhat low to see max performance, even for your AMD, but youll still see a nice improvement, just no where near what youd see with a much faster duo , or faster quad

To get 12 more months could I go to just a faster single card setup like a 4870(not x2)

 

[amddiesel]

ok ive narrowed it down to 4870 or gtx 260
Care to comment against these 2 cards and my current setup

 

[megamanx00]

I would just get another 8800GT and SLi them. Your case should be able to move the heat. Too bad your board is socket 939 since the AM2 version could accept the Phenom CPUs with a BIOS update. I would only consider putting in a 4870 or 260 if you are going to do a new build relatively soon. If you are going to wait three or 4 months to build a new rig then the 4870 and 260 will be replaced with their refreshed counterparts. The 55nm 260 is expected to be a significant improvement as is the upcoming faster version of the 4870 so by then the 4870 or 260 you buy today will have decreased in value while you can spend much less today to simply upgrade to a second 8800GT that will give similar performance as the other two cards on your current system.

 

[swifty_morgan]

Build: A8Nsli32-deluxe - 939/4800,oc2.6 - 4gig oczPlat. .......... I have both of those cards and have tried them both in this machine. The4870 is about max for this setup. Seemed to play well until I got greedy and cranked up the goodies. I also had some texture problems and some older games not loading. I swapped it out for one of my GTX260's. The card doesn't miss a beat and there are no problems. You will however not get all either of these cards can give with this setup. My opinion.....GTX260........or get a second 8800 until you can do a major upgrade in the next couple of years.

 

[jitpublisher]

Ohhhh man. It's kind of like six of one, or half a dozen of the other.
If you can find an 8800GT for ~$90, I would say do that. If you have to pay more than $100, I would just bite the bullet and get a GTX260.
That's my 2 cents, good luck with whatever you do.