7900GS SLI or 8800GTS...

[aequitas]

well now that the 7900gs seems to be discontinued, i thought about picking one up before its to late but they are hard to find. best buy has the one i want for $190 after shipping and tax (which is actually more than what i paid for mine over a year ago) so i figured i might as well look at the 8 series and found an 8800gts for $200 on newegg.

seems like a no brainer but whatever i get now will be it until my next complete overhaul which means running in a dfi lanparty ut nF4 with an Opteron 165, 2GB ram and a 500W SeaSonic. so really, my question is should i get the second 7900gs while i can, thereby utilizing the BFG 7900GS OC 256MB i currently have running, or is that just a stupid waste of money since the 8800gts is bigger, better, faster, etc, etc... also i want to try and stick within the $200 range so getting an 8800gt rite now doesn't seem doable, but if both of the other cards are just a bad idea i might decide to wait it out.

my concerns:
- 7900s in SLI standing up to the single 8800
- the opty holding my graphics back
- 500W not being enough
- money

not my concerns:
- dx10 (not right now anyways)
- crysis (again, not right now)


in the end i just want the most bang for my buck and if it wasnt clear before, this card is for gaming. not mind bending, bleeding edge performance gaming, i just want bioshock, call of duty, and some others to run a little better than they do now and eventually to run at a higher resolution. thanks for any input.

 

[Arglebargle]

There are used 7900GSs in the For Sale/Trade forum for under $100. Certainly not worth that price new. Go used or not at all for that way. Unless you can get a great deal.

 

[happy medium]

Hold on to your 7900gs till the 8800gs is out. Sell your 7900gs on ebay for 80$. Buy 8800gs . They should be about 150/175.00$. More then double your performance for 100$net. Your psu and cpu will be fine.

EDITr buy this brand new 7900gs for 75 bucks!!!!!
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2137999&enterthread=y

 

[imported_Section8]

There is also a 7900GS refurb on the EVGA Marketplace for $99.99 with a 90 day warrenty.

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[WT]

You have the same hardware that I have, an Opteron 165 and a 7900GS card that I recently updated with a second 7900GS card I bought from a forum friend. Since this isn't my main PC, I don't get to really test it out as much as I'd like to, but SLI isn't as beneficial and/or user friendly as I had expected.
Yea, my 3dmark06 scores went up an appreciable bit, but I wanted SLI just as a 'been there, done that' test of what I might be missing out on. Happy medium offered the direction I would take, altho it is more more to deal with the Ebay sale, the 8800GS does seems like your best upgrade path for the money you want to invest. Keep in mind the 8800GS cards will be in limited supply, and only 3 or 4 companies will be selling them, which usually leads to inflated prices for the product.
If you can wait another two months, I'm willing to bet the 8800GT cards can be had for $199 once the newer Nv cards come out in February.

 

[SlowSpyder]

I had the same set up as you for the most part... Opteron 165, 2 gigs of ram, and a 7900GS. I was trying to decide between going SLI or getting a single better card. In the end, I decided on the single better card just because all of the horror stories I hear about SLI. I'm sure it's getting better everyday, but as of right now it seems like there are still bugs, I like my stuff to just work.

 

[aequitas]

well i was pretty sure that best buy's price was a huge ripoff and now that i have seen the various used prices i'm glad i asked around first. so now i just might get a used 7900gs since they are relatively cheap and, much like WT mentioned, i have wanted to at least try SLI seeing as i have all the other components already. i've heard the stories about sli being a pain in the azz before so should i aim for the same make and model BFG 256MB 7900GS OC i already have? or will any manuf. be suitable?

as for the 8800GS, i've looked at them, seen the comparisons to the 8800GT, and they both look grate but i'm not sure the extra $100 is really worth it for my current system. i mean, i understand the 8800s both have a G92, more memory and would probly kill 2 7900s in a game running max quality at 19x12 but wouldn't my Opteron 165 hold everything back?

 

[WT]

I made sure to buy identical cards (but you do not have to) just so that it was a perfect match. Not only that, but my cards are the Woot.com cards, and I have voltmodded them from 1.2 to 1.4v (made a huge difference in their stability) and added a Zalman vf900 to each one. It wasn't until I had ordered the second cooler that I found there were clearance issues using that setup, with the backing bolts on the lower card hitting the fan on the upper card ... OOPS. Zalman of course replied that their HSF's were not SLI compatible, so I just shaved the 4 bolts down and made the damn thing fit.
They'd OC like crazy, but with Nvidia killing the Coolbits option on the newer drivers, I haven't been able to bother with RivaTuner which just is never going to be as easy as Coolbits was to use. I found the Opty 165 (even at 2.6) was not going to cut it for modern games, which is why that PC was retired to spare gamer status. Truth be told, I should sell the rig, but I may keep it in the family and give it to my Step Mom, who is running a 10 year old PC that I have managed to keep upgraded enough to still be useful to her.