2 X 8800GT SLI or Single GTX 260

[nenforcer]

I recently sold my Geforce 8800 GTS 640 which I bought just a over a year ago for a new Windows Vista 64 build.

I bought an ASUS P5N32-E SLI nForce 680i motherboard with the thought of running SLI on it eventually.

What turned out was that the HDTV Tuner I bought for the Windows Vista Media Center took up a single slot in the middle of my MB and so I cannot run 2 dual slot video cards in SLI.

In fact, I had to put my video card in the second, bottom, PCI-E 16x slot but I don't think this mattered.

Now that the 8(9)800GT have come down in price I thought of trying to run two of these in SLI for a price of around $280 shipped with $30 in rebates for a price of $250.

However, with the performance of ATI new series I see that the GTX 260 can now be had for $280 with $30 rebate for a total of $250.

Previously I ran this computer on a DLP HDTV at 1920x1080P with Windows Media Center strictly for watching television. Now I would like to finally start playing some DirectX 10 games at this resolution. (Bioshock, Lost Planet, COD4, etc).

My buying philosophy has always been to buy the newest that is currently available, which would be a single GTX 260.

I have heard some negatives about SLI like microstuttering which make is sound not really worth the configuration troubles.

I am interested in CUDA/PhysX and to me it might be cool to have a dedicated PhysX 8800GT in the future.

I was leaning towards the 8800GT X 2 because I think these will probably be the last performance single slot GPU from nVidia. I can the upgrade to a single GTX260 sometime in the future after they come out with refresh GTX 260+.

Could any of you recommended one way or the other?

 

[cmdrdredd]

The 8800GT SLI is faster than the GTX260 in every test, even faster than the GTX280 (before any overclocking is considered). The real difference will be compatibility and scaling issues in newer games and non-gaming apps.

From a pure gaming standpoint, the SLI setup is better.

 

[dmw16]

if it were me, id give up a few FPS and take the single card solution. less potential issues, failures, etc.

 

[lavaheadache]

I do have to say though, coming from sli'ed 8800 gt's to a single 4870, the sli'ed Gt's werent as good at 4xAA or definately nOT 8XAA... I would Rather have a single strong card versus 2 weaker ones

 

[scruffypup]

This is the best article I have come across so far that compares new generation cards to last generation with SLI included,... should give you an unbiased point of view, you can see the 8800 GT SLI holds its own in overall performance,.. it doesn't beat out in every test the 260 or the 4870 but is comparable in raw performance,... now it also depends on some things,...

Do you like high AA settings??? Do you want to do crossfire or SLI based system to do a similar low dollar upgrade in a year??? What games are you really concerned about getting good game play in??? 4870 or 260 would get an edge most likely in all 3

Are you worried about $$$??? Does SLI scale well in the game you like??? 8800 GT SLI would get an edge

In my opinion, unless you already have a 8800GT,... a 4870/260 choice is best,.. if you have a 8800GT and just need to add 1 more,... 8800GT and SLI will give you the same raw power and better bang for $. I can't believe I said that since I have never been a big SLI fan (and never will be until true linear scaling), but is my honest advice on how to look at it.

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: lavaheadache
I do have to say though, coming from sli'ed 8800 gt's to a single 4870, the sli'ed Gt's werent as good at 4xAA or definately nOT 8XAA... I would Rather have a single strong card versus 2 weaker ones

The 4870 is a monster when it comes to AA. Nothing can beat it.

 

[chizow]

Here's a similar thread on the topic

Originally posted by: ashishmishra
I had a 9800GX2, I never noticed any micro-stutter issues. I 'downgraded' to an eVGA GTX260-SC and I must say it is a better card in some situations where G92 either ran out of memory/bandwith, once a single GPU tanks (~0-15fps) SLI can't do much to save your gaming experience. GTX 260's Framerates are very very stable and are not all over the place. Plus the benefit of not worrying about whether SLI is working or not and just setting everything high and gaming is just wonderful......again. Not to mention the great low idle power consumption & temperature. Perfect card for 1680x1050 IMHO. Except mine doesn't overclock very well at all, even GTX 260 FTW speeds aren't fully stable

Here is my honest opinion, if you are a die-hard hardware enthusiast at heart, love benchmarking, love knowing you have the best, love tweaking games for extra performance go for the dual GPU cards like the 9800GX2 or HD4870 X2 it is a great experience. If you can swallow the power consumption/heat/noise factors I would recommend the HD4870X2 over the 9800GX2, as the single gpu in the X2 is much much better so even if crossfire doesn't scale you still are getting great performance. However, all you want to do is install your new games, crank all settings to high and go right to play not worrying about the card you have in your machine, get something like HD4850/HD4870/GTX260/GTX280.

@OP: If I was in your position I would wait to see what the die shrink does for the GTX 280 before I make a decision. Single GPU is always the best way to go if the performance is very close with multi-GPU.

I thought that reply was particularly informative from someone who had used both. There's also a few others who have come from "faster" multi-GPU solutions and ended up going back to a single GPU for compatibility, reliability and consistency.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I was browsing through the old (not real old) AT review of the GTX260/280 and I don't see anywhere that the 8800GT SLI setup isn't slightly faster than the GTX260. The only game that the 260 did overtake the SLI setup was Quake Wars.

What exactly is needed before you choke the 8800GT and the GTX200 series takes over?

 

[BlueAcolyte]

You just need to run out of memory on one of the cards, SLi and Crossfire do not share framebuffer.

 

[OCGuy]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
I was browsing through the old (not real old) AT review of the GTX260/280 and I don't see anywhere that the 8800GT SLI setup isn't slightly faster than the GTX260. The only game that the 260 did overtake the SLI setup was Quake Wars.

What exactly is needed before you choke the 8800GT and the GTX200 series takes over?

Overclock the GT200, play with AA. Also, the GT200 has some great power saving features introduced. And you can always drop another 260 in later (which is a monster setup), leaving you an upgrade path.

Single card solution is always the way to go.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
I was browsing through the old (not real old) AT review of the GTX260/280 and I don't see anywhere that the 8800GT SLI setup isn't slightly faster than the GTX260. The only game that the 260 did overtake the SLI setup was Quake Wars.

What exactly is needed before you choke the 8800GT and the GTX200 series takes over?

Overclock the GT200, play with AA. Also, the GT200 has some great power saving features introduced. And you can always drop another 260 in later (which is a monster setup), leaving you an upgrade path.

Single card solution is always the way to go.

So which is it? hehehe.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
I was browsing through the old (not real old) AT review of the GTX260/280 and I don't see anywhere that the 8800GT SLI setup isn't slightly faster than the GTX260. The only game that the 260 did overtake the SLI setup was Quake Wars.

What exactly is needed before you choke the 8800GT and the GTX200 series takes over?

Overclock the GT200, play with AA. Also, the GT200 has some great power saving features introduced. And you can always drop another 260 in later (which is a monster setup), leaving you an upgrade path.

Single card solution is always the way to go.

Yeah, but when it comes down to it. The dealbreaker is the price really. Which is a better value for the money. With an 8800GT being only about $100 if you look hard, it's not a bad deal to just SLI it and sit for a bit longer. Maybe hold out for the next release cycle and see if they don't offer something better.

Again it's going to be about compatibility with games, SLI and CF setups sometimes have kinks that prevent a perfect experience.

 

[exar333]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: Ocguy31

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
I was browsing through the old (not real old) AT review of the GTX260/280 and I don't see anywhere that the 8800GT SLI setup isn't slightly faster than the GTX260. The only game that the 260 did overtake the SLI setup was Quake Wars.

What exactly is needed before you choke the 8800GT and the GTX200 series takes over?

Overclock the GT200, play with AA. Also, the GT200 has some great power saving features introduced. And you can always drop another 260 in later (which is a monster setup), leaving you an upgrade path.

Single card solution is always the way to go.

So which is it? hehehe.

If you can get 2x8800gt's for ~225-250 after rebates, i would go for that. Otherwise, grab a gtx260.

 

[poohbear]

Originally posted by: scruffypup
This is the best article I have come across so far that compares new generation cards to last generation with SLI included,... should give you an unbiased point of view, you can see the 8800 GT SLI holds its own in overall performance,.. it doesn't beat out in every test the 260 or the 4870 but is comparable in raw performance,... now it also depends on some things,...

so, erm, where is this article u're speaking of?

as to the OP, if u have an 8800gt like alot of ppl do (it was the best card for the $ for a looong time. prolly still is considering they're $125 new after rebates), then just buy another one like ppl suggested. The jump from 8800gt to gtx280 really doesnt justify the cost. It doesnt provide double the frame rates like most next gen cards do over prev gen.

 

[scruffypup]

LOL sorry about the missing link,.... that is what I get for multitasking and posting late at night sometimes,...

http://www.tomshardware.com/re...e-comparison,2007.html