Which is faster? GTX 295 or 8800 GTX's in SLI

[Knighthis]

Howdy,

I'm thinking of upgrading to a new GTX 295 to replace my two 8800 GTX's in SLI.

I'm a few months away from moving to an X58 platform, and thinking a new 295 might give me a nice boost leading up the a i7.

How much faster do you think this would be?

Thanks!

Steve

 

[kayawish24]

common man offcourse you know which one is faster!!!!gtx295 is faster i think ....i am also planing to buy 3 rd 8800gtx to make tri sli

 

[L1qu1d]

1 295 GTX is pretty much 2 260 GTXs (better than).

so it would be noticeably better than 2 8800 GTXs.

 

[cjl]

The 295 would be faster, yes. I'd question whether it is enough faster to be worth it, but it would definitely have the edge.

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

If you just add a third 8800 GTX, it would be pretty damn close and save you a good bit of money.

 

[rubio1904]

Tri sli will cost a bit on your electric bill though. I was in the same dilema as you and I ended up going with 295 GTX for my I7 rig. I measure the power usage on my gaming rig. My computer with 24" monitor, speakers, playing Crysis at 1920 x 1200 AAx2 equals no more then 480 watts. VS Tri SLI will use at least 800 watts. Thats just the computer by itself without moitor and speakers.

 

[spathotan]

The problem with tri-sli isnt the power bill going up (73 cents). The problem is the poor scailing beyond two cards.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

You'll need a 1000watt PSU for triple SLi. And make sure the 8800GTX even supports triple SLi.

 

[Kkkk1]

I'd buy the 295 which will leave you space to upgrade again to another 295 in future.
People speak alot about scaling and going to tri SLi is a very hardcore market and maybe the drivers aren't that optimised. I don't know this for sure so maybe anyone with tri SLi would care to comment?????

 

[Bluescreendeath]

2x295 will scale even worse since that's Quad SLi.

Even in games and drivers with good SLi support, the more GPUs you have the greater the diminishing of the return value.

If the 1st GPU is at 100%, then for SLi, the 2nd GPU will maybe get 80% return, the 3rd maybe 60% return, and the 4th GPU might only get 40% return...and this is the best case scenario.

And the drivers for Quad Sli are always iffy...

 

[spathotan]

Quad GTX295 isnt that bad, but its not great either. Its defenetly not worth $1000.

@OP, once L1qu1d sees this thread he can give you some more help. Hes probably more experienced with SLi than anybody else here.