What do you Reckon? - 2 x 6800GS Sli OR 1 x 7800GT

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Evo

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Mar 10, 2006
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I've just bought 2 x SLI MSI Geforce 6800GS cards and I'm wondering whether I should have opted for a single 7800GT or GTX. I've tried the cards out on Farcry v1.32 and the results aren't that impressive with all detail at full at 1200 x 1600. Age of Empires seems to be much better at the same resolution. I haven't overclocked the cards yet.....and I'm not sure how I overclock both cards. The driver only shows single settings which I suppose makes sense. So I have two questions....should I swap these cards for the 7800 series? and, how do I know if games are making use of both cards?

Cheers
 
I don't know much about SLI, but would recon that games at least support the function in the program code (like COD2)

Furthermore, a single 7800Gt or GTX I would prefer above a SLI config, as these cards really deliver stunning performance. SLI with either GTX/GT is more favourable, as you would theoretically take identical top range cards and make it faster. Don't know much about the 6800GS, but I figure two of them might get you closer to one 7800GT, plus the 7800 has more tech features.
 
Yep, hold off for a single 7900 GT.

X1800 XT's should be around $300 soon, too.

A single great card is better than SLI, they are much more consistant as far as performance goes.
 
SLI IS POINTLESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't stress that enough. Now you can get the 7900GT for the price of the 7800GT. The 7900GT is also better than the 7800GTX. SLI doesn't double the performance. It shows good boosts on like a 21 inch LCD at 1600x1200 resolution, with everything possible turned all the way up. Also, if you're gonna SLI, get dual 7900 at least. Anything less than that sucks.

You'll be much better off going for a single card. Sell the two 6800GSs you have, and get yourself a 7900GT.
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PIff what ever SLI ownz j00!
play on my setup and youll change ur mind

* aSUS A8N- sli PREMIUM
* AMD Athlon 64 FX60 dual core CPU
* (case:) LIAN-LI 2100B PLUS
* BFG GEFORCE 7900GTX 512MB PCI-E... x 2 (for SLI)
* Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatal1ty
* 4 x Western Digital Raptor 150GB S150 16mb 10000rpm... for RAID 0
* 5x 250GB maxtor's Raid mode 5 for storrage
* 1KW PC power and Cooling
*2 SETS OF Corsair XMS-3500LL PRO (2 x twinX 1Gb matched pairs)
* Sony 21" CRT Trinitron

1.6 tb OF SPACE!

but once DX10 cards hit the market ill be jumping to them as well as the AM2 fx-62
 
You know, not every one is gonna spend that kind of money. Plus, a second 7900 will give you like a 20-30% boost for twice the price! No way, I'm changing my mind, Dual cards suck, SLI and Crossfire._________________
---prozac26---

AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1GHz
384mb PC100 RAM
Radeon 9550 256mb AGP
Click to expand...


..."
AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1GHz
384mb PC100 RAM
Radeon 9550 256mb AG"....
cmon man dont dish it till youve tried it ... and its way more than a 30% increase in FEAR
 
SLI is for someone who's cheap. if you can afford the 2 6800gs, you should have had the one 7800gt or 7900gt. 2 reasons someone should go with SLI: 1, you have wayyyyy too much money to blow on a system, or 2 you already have 1 lower end video card and you don't have the money to buy a greater card, so you resort to the SLI. Just my opinion.
 
I bought these cards a couple of weeks ago (when I was in the US) and didn't get the 7800GTX because it was out of my price range (coming from the UK I got more for my money than I would have in the UK). I'm just wondering that the cards may be worth hanging on to when more games come out that take account of SLi technology? Although most of the info I've read so far suggests 1 good card is better than 2 average cards....it doesn't seem to be a one horse race.

In fact without the supposed extra 20-30%, I'd say the 6800GS isn't all that good.

For an extra $40 I could have got a 7800GTX from eVGA or for $100 less I could have got a 7900GT!!

Hhmmm.....maybe this SLi stuff isn't all it's cracked up to be!
 
I also think that SLi/Xfire is just a money making scheme - surely the way forward isn't with more cards? Imagine if everyone did this, 4 heatsinks covering 4 cpu's in XXLTX form factor mobo plus a quad card setup - we going back to the days where computers take up rooms... Okay, maybe not that bad...

I say, shrink the die and focus gradually from one core to two cores engineering and from there take it forward if the benefits of two cores can come close to double performance (GPU wise). And while we at it, spend some time on good cooling options for future use aswell - as this will become even more critical.
 
Personally I still much prefer high end CRTs to TFT monitors, and I like playing in high resolutions like 1600x1200 and 2048x1536. (also, i will never use 1280x1024 as its not even 4:3...)

As such, for people like me, SLi is quite nice actually :)
 
I'd recommend a 7800GT or 7900GT over SLI with 7800GS; however as prozac continues to say "20-30% performance increase" applies to Crossfire, not SLI. The performance increase may still not be worth it for SLI, but it's much higher than 30%.
 
SLI IS POINTLESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't stress that enough. Now you can get the 7900GT for the price of the 7800GT. The 7900GT is also better than the 7800GTX. SLI doesn't double the performance. It shows good boosts on like a 21 inch LCD at 1600x1200 resolution, with everything possible turned all the way up. Also, if you're gonna SLI, get dual 7900 at least. Anything less than that sucks.

You'll be much better off going for a single card. Sell the two 6800GSs you have, and get yourself a 7900GT.
Click to expand...
Right on brother!

SLi is worthless unless you get the two BEST cards on the market at the time. Don't get a 7800GT now and then plan to add another one in a year when they are down to $150, by that time you can spend $250 and get something way better.

SLi does NOT double the performance. What it does is take the workload off of one card at high resolutions with eye candy. For example, a 7800GT might be able to play a certain game at all Medium (hah, unlikely); by adding another, you can play at all high. You will not see much of a difference in FPS, if any at all. By splitting the workload you will get maybe a 30% increase, 35% tops. Unless you just won the lottery or you're super rich, SLi is pointless.

And yes, just because Prozac has a dated system doesn't mean he's an idiot. I'm 13 and I've never driven a car before, but I bet I can explain how a car works better than alot of drivers out there. Just because they haven't done something doesn't mean they don't know about it.
 
I have to agree with opposing sli. The sli is not really worth it. Even if you get two of the best card you pay for a second card where it's only using like 30 percent of it's max potential. I noticed a trend; the 6800ultra sli was beaten by a single 7800gt or gtx. This leads me to think that most if not all next generation cards will beat any sli setup you got with one card.
 
Ok......I'm gonna haver a look at prices for the 7800 (hopefully) GTX and see how much I can get for my 2 6800GS cards.....any takers? ;-)

I must admit I got pretty excited at the though of having 2 GPUs........let's just say it was a bit of an anticlimax. I'll do some benchmarks over the next week and post back here, then we'll really see if it's 30% or more. Cheers for your input.

Now......should I buy AMD or Intel......just kiddin!

Evo
 
I don't recommend SLI to most people, but the performance increases with SLI vs. one card of the same caliber is much larger than 30% in nearly every game I own.

As far as 6800GS SLI vs. a 7900GT, I'd go with the GT.
 
If your looking at a 7800GTX as your replacement, then keep your
6800GS'. Those in SLI will outpreform a 7800 single card solution by
a considerable margine. The only way your going to upgrade to a single card solution is the X1900 or 7900 series.
 
You act as if you've had first hand experience with SLI... :lol:
In my experience, SLI often increases performance greatly, but I'd still chose the 7900GT over the 6800GS pair.
 
Sorry Prozac, but your wrong bud. A single 7800 will never come close to SLI 6800GS'. Unless of course you play your games at 800x600 or 1024x768.

SLI GS's pull anywhere from 10-12k points in 3Dmark05. While the last I checked, pushing good overclocks will get a 7800GTX to 9k.

Of course I'm not basing my opinion off a single benchmark, real world preformance will reflect these results as well.
 
Before I do, you realize I own a 7800GT and I can tell you first hand the GS's outpreform it by a long shot, granted its no GTX....that being said, give me a little while and I'll be right back.


EDIT:

http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/editors_choice.html

Here's one....however I'm finding some of there scores to be a little off
in terms of synthetic preformance. At any rate

6800GS SLI 13 benchmarks taken
Single 7800GT 10 benchmarks taken

I'm going to look for some more sites, becuase what really caught my attention was how little the 3Dmark 05 scored increased from one 6800GS to SLI (Its too low to be accurate)

A quick opinion on the matter.

I perfer single card high end solutions when compared to SLI midranged preformance. For several reasons really, but the biggy being the cost of the two midranged products is usually the same amount, or more than a single high end GPU. And next having one single high end card gives you an upgrade path for another high end...if desired.

Yes, you can look at those numbers and say "Well, its too close to call".
Which to be honest, is quite the opposite in my opinion.
Notice the resolutions and settings the 7800GT wins by.
Usually 1024x768 or 1280x1024 with NO AA or AF, and leading by somewhere from 1-4 FPS.

While on the other hand we have the SLI GS's. Where they hold a pretty
considerable frame rate advantage over the 7800GT in their victories.
This is the kicker: The GS's pull ahead when you turn up the resolution and eye candy.

So you must ask yourself, do you purchase high end solutions (7800GT or SLI) to play @ 1024x768 no AA or AF? Hell no (at least I hope you dont, becuase I sure as hell dont)

All things considered 6800GS SLI >single 7800GT

I'll provide more proof later.
 
I own two! :)
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Nice. Yes a 7800Gt is a great card. However If I had been able to find an X1800XL with a decent warranty, I would have taken that over a 7800GT =)

On another note: I have an X1900XT that I'll be ordering in about 2 weeks. I"m very excited too see what that will produce.
 
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