6800 GT or two 6600 GT's in SLI

[groo028]

which is better? a single 6800GT ($374) or 2 6600 GT's in SLI ($179+$179) ?

does the DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D (138$) support two 6600 GTs or do i need to the Asus A8N-SLI (175$) for it?

Thanks!

 

[MDE]

Single 6800GT would perform the same and let you add another down the road.

 

[Corporate Thug]

get the 6800Gt, then you can get another 6800 GT in the future when games become more taxing

the DFI baord is the way to go

 

[Matthias99]

As the last half-dozen threads about this have all concluded, the single 6800GT is better. It doesn't die at high res with AA/AF, it will hold its value longer, and you can theoretically get another one at some point and have a 6800GT SLI.

I think you could trivially mod that board to become a "real" SLI board, but AT's review of this then said that NVIDIA was updating their drivers so this would no longer work. YMMV; check out the Motherboard forum if you want more info.

 

[fstime]

Anything less than a 6800GT sli is a waste. Go with the GT. And I completly agree with the above, the 6800GT shouldnt die out as easy with AA/AF and at a high res.

 

[Reiniku]

if you want to make full use of a working vp but run at gt/ultra performance then 6600gt sli is the way to go (or 6800vanilla sli )

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

It's a good question.

1. 2 x 6600GT should outperform a 6800GT by a not insignificant margin....in theory. Maybe the drivers just need to be refined some more.

2. 2 x 6600GT are cheaper than a 6800GT by $50 which isn't exactly chump change.

3. They'll also be easier to sell individually down the road and don't stand to lose much value when newer cards come out.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
It's a good question.

1. 2 x 6600GT should outperform a 6800GT by a not insignificant margin....in theory. Maybe the drivers just need to be refined some more.

They have significantly more fillrate/pixel shader power -- which is why they run faster at 3DMark05 than a single 6800GT. However, they have WAY less bandwidth (less than a 9800Pro!), which kills it in a lot of real-world situations where the limitation is not completely shader power, and they're definitely at a big disadvantage if you run with AA/AF.

2. 2 x 6600GT are cheaper than a 6800GT by $50 which isn't exactly chump change.

He quoted $375 versus 2x$180. Not a huge difference. Remember that you also have to buy an SLI motherboard to use the 2x6600GTs, and that makes up the difference and then some.

3. They'll also be easier to sell individually down the road and don't stand to lose much value when newer cards come out.

If anything, the 6600GTs will probably lose more of their value (proportionally) than the single 6800GT. Cheaper cards tend to drop further and faster in value, and (in theory, at least) the existence of 6800GT SLI might keep the resale value on it higher (though it's hard to say how much of a factor this will be, especially if the next-gen cards are a lot faster than this generation).

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

3. They'll also be easier to sell individually down the road and don't stand to lose much value when newer cards come out.

If anything, the 6600GTs will probably lose more of their value (proportionally) than the single 6800GT. Cheaper cards tend to drop further and faster in value, and (in theory, at least) the existence of 6800GT SLI might keep the resale value on it higher (though it's hard to say how much of a factor this will be, especially if the next-gen cards are a lot faster than this generation).

No way. If 6600GTs drop below $160-170 where they are now, there would be no low end market. Who would buy any other card under $300 but a 6600GT if they were $130-140?

6600GTs are always dropping to $160 or below. Check the HD forum.

All I said was that, given the theory of SLI, two 6600GTs should outperform a 6800GT. I know it doesn't right now in real world applications. Sure a 6600GT is half the specs of a 6800GT, but it's also two GPUs sharing the load instead of one and a 6600GT, even with half the specs, is well over 50% of the performance so if 85% gain is realized, it should surpass the 6800GT. Maybe I've got it wrong, but it will be interesting to see what new drivers bring about.

 

[BW86]

Originally posted by: MDE
Single 6800GT would perform the same and let you add another down the road.

yup. :thumbsup:

 

[Sparky19692]

It's a no brainer even looking into the future. 6800 GT is the only way to go.

1. if the next round of cards is good the 6600gt SLI's will be worth $30 each they will be the bottom.

2. If the next few gens of cards a good. you can add a second 6800GT for a lot less then and run SLI

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

Originally posted by: Sparky19692
1. if the next round of cards is good the 6600gt SLI's will be worth $30 each they will be the bottom.

You're apparently unfamiliar with video card manufcturing cycles. NVidia didn't create the 6800 to throw out the 7800 the following year. :roll: The next batch of cards will be highend and valueline version of their current crop.

Think about it. If they release a $300 card that falls between the 6800GT and the 6600GT, nobody will ever buy a 6800GT again and they will drop like rocks. The 6600GT is already in the mid to high $100's and will survive as a mid range product.

NVidia has already saturated the low to mid range market with the 6200, 6600, and 6600GT. Nobody even thinks about the X700 so why would Nvidia feel the need to add another mid range card? It will be the Ultra and 6800GT that will get sacrificed if anything.

And your statement that 6600GTs will be $30 each is just stupid hyperbole. 9500 Pro's are going for $80 still and that was, what, three years ago? If 6800GTs drop in price, I'd rather be buying (2) of them at that lower price than just (1).

 

[n yusef]

Two 6600GT's can't perform as well as a at higher 6800GT resolutions because the framebuffer is 2*128MB instead of 1*256MB. The memory isn't combined with SLI, so that makes a big difference at higher resolutions with AA/AF. 6600GTs also have 1/2 the bandwidth of a 6800GT, and once again, it isn't shared. At 1024*768, the 6600GTs have the win, but at 1280*1024 with AA/AF or higher, the added framebuffer and bandwidth of the 6800GT make it the better buy. SLI has some problems that you may not want also.