Faster than 8800gtx sli?

[KyleGates]

So, ran into a nice phat Newegg gift cert and am just wondering, is there anything that could be added to my system to make it appreciably faster (For gaming) than what it is now? I guess my only criteria are that I'm not an OCer so OC-able parts aren't rly needed, and "phat" is $1,000 so if its over that amount it better rly be sweet since ill be puttin my own cash into it.

My Specs:

P-Supply - 750Watt PC Power & Cooling
CPU - Core 2 Duo E8400
Mobo - EVGA nForce 780i SLi
Mem - 4GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-1066
Video - XFX GeForce 8800GTX x2 SLi
Sound - SB X-Fi Gamer
HDD - 500GB Seagate SATA PerpRec
Ethernet - Onboard Gigabit
DVDRW - Lite-On
BluRay - Lite-On
Monitor - Dell 27" WFP2707
Speakers - 5.1 Logitech Z680

 

[dguy6789]

Geforce GTX295 should be coming out soon. Get one of those.

 

[Qbah]

2 GTX285's in SLi? Once they hit retail. Will be sub 1k$ for sure. Don't think your system can take more with that 700W PSU (ie. dual GTX295).

2 GTX285s will be faster than GTX295. And since he's got money to burn...

 

[yh125d]

I think your setup is abouot comparable to a single GTX260. I'd get a couple of GTX 260-216 shader Superclocked, or a GTX 295

 

[Qbah]

Originally posted by: yh125d
I think your setup is abouot comparable to a single GTX260. I'd get a couple of GTX 260-216 shader Superclocked, or a GTX 295

How in the world can 2 8800GTXs be comparable to a GTX260 I have no idea. A 9800GX2 was equal/faster than a GTX280 and it was made of 2 8800GT cards (I think they were even downclocked for thermal reasons). A 8800GTX is a good deal faster than a 8800GT.

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: Qbah

Originally posted by: yh125d
I think your setup is abouot comparable to a single GTX260. I'd get a couple of GTX 260-216 shader Superclocked, or a GTX 295

How in the world can 2 8800GTXs be comparable to a GTX260 I have no idea. A 9800GX2 was equal/faster than a GTX280 and it was made of 2 8800GT cards (I think they were even downclocked for thermal reasons). A 8800GTX is a good deal faster than a 8800GT.

Just to back up what you are saying:

http://techreport.com/articles.x/14934

GTX260 isn't even close.

 

[Elfear]

A 4870X2 would be a nice upgrade as well. The GTX 295 looks to be a little faster from initial reports so you may want to see what those cost before making a decision.

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: Qbah

Originally posted by: yh125d
I think your setup is abouot comparable to a single GTX260. I'd get a couple of GTX 260-216 shader Superclocked, or a GTX 295

How in the world can 2 8800GTXs be comparable to a GTX260 I have no idea. A 9800GX2 was equal/faster than a GTX280 and it was made of 2 8800GT cards (I think they were even downclocked for thermal reasons). A 8800GTX is a good deal faster than a 8800GT.

Forgive me, I couldn't find a benchmark with SLI 8800's and GTX 260/80, so I cross references a couple different benchmarks. I suppose I did so poorly then

 

[KyleGates]

Originally posted by: Qbah
2 GTX285's in SLi? Once they hit retail. Will be sub 1k$ for sure. Don't think your system can take more with that 700W PSU (ie. dual GTX295).

2 GTX285s will be faster than GTX295. And since he's got money to burn...

Yeah....Ive been worried about that darn power supply...sure seemed like a lot when I got er LOL. So its lookin like there is very little that will REALLY provide a noticable diff over the dual 8800s.

However the dual 285 idea may have some merit..........

 

[Tempered81]

gtx 260 216 sli, 4870x2, gtx295 or 2x gtx285 sli

100% / 100% / 115% / 135%

$ 500 / 500 / 500 / 750

I'd just throw in for some aftermarket cooling for the CPU since E8400 overclocking is so easy...

 

[KyleGates]

Originally posted by: jaredpace
gtx 260 216 sli, 4870x2, gtx295 or 2x gtx285 sli

100% / 100% / 115% / 135%

$ 500 / 500 / 500 / 750

I'd just throw in for some aftermarket cooling for the CPU since E8400 overclocking is so easy...

K....thats a SICK list you put together there, thx! Think my PS could handle dual 285s?

 

[Elfear]

Originally posted by: KyleGates


K....thats a SICK list you put together there, thx! Think my PS could handle dual 285s?

I'll bet it would be just fine. PC Power & Cooling makes some really good PSUs and they generally have plenty of amps on the 12V rail.

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: KyleGates

Originally posted by: jaredpace
gtx 260 216 sli, 4870x2, gtx295 or 2x gtx285 sli

100% / 100% / 115% / 135%

$ 500 / 500 / 500 / 750

I'd just throw in for some aftermarket cooling for the CPU since E8400 overclocking is so easy...

K....thats a SICK list you put together there, thx! Think my PS could handle dual 285s?

Sick it may be but it's also WRONG.

GTX 295 = GTX 260 216 SLI

Just in case you didn't know (hint: look at the memory - 1792MB is 2x896MB). So I don't see how you come up with an extra 15% performance when they're the same.

In many benchmarks the 4870X2 slaps around the GTX 260 216 SLI.

I think it really comes down to two choices:
4870X2
GTX 280/285 SLI

 

[Tempered81]

Originally posted by: Denithor

Originally posted by: KyleGates

Originally posted by: jaredpace
gtx 260 216 sli, 4870x2, gtx295 or 2x gtx285 sli

100% / 100% / 115% / 135%

$ 500 / 500 / 500 / 750

I'd just throw in for some aftermarket cooling for the CPU since E8400 overclocking is so easy...

K....thats a SICK list you put together there, thx! Think my PS could handle dual 285s?

Sick it may be but it's also WRONG.

GTX 295 = GTX 260 216 SLI

Just in case you didn't know (hint: look at the memory - 1792MB is 2x896MB). So I don't see how you come up with an extra 15% performance when they're the same.

go count your shaders moron. It also has a plx chip, the same one found on x58 sli motherboards.

WRAwNG!

 

[KyleGates]

okok, not lookin for peeps ta start fightin here! Even if someone erroneously stating that two configurations are the same based purely on memory specs.

As for possible options, I am leaning towards two GTX285s, unless I can get the same performance from a single 295. but from what Im reading dual 285s should be pretty nice together.

 

[Tempered81]

well gtx 260 216 sli is sometimes faster than a 4870x2 card. And 4870x2 cards are now $399 at the egg.

295 has 480 shaders while 216 sli has 432 shaders. It also uses the NV200 plx chip, while unless you have a nehalem rig - your using 790i or slower 775 sli motherboards.

285 SLI is going to be the fastest setup by far. - Also faster than anything Ati makes. Going quadsli 295 or quadfire 4870x2 is going overboard IMO>

 

[djnsmith7]

Why not buy 2 GTX 295's & a 1000W Power Supply now, & either kick in some of your own cash ($220 + tax AR), or buy 1 GTX 295 & the PS now & the 2nd GTX 295 down the road?

If you go with both cards & the PS now, that would be one massive upgrade to your current system.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

what game do you need to play that 8800gtx sli cannot handle @ 19x12?

are you willing to pay that extra $500-$750 to play at max eye candy rather than lowering your AA/AF a tad to get acceptable frame rates?

 

[nitromullet]

for $1k...

sell: CPU - Core 2 Duo E8400
sell: Mobo - EVGA nForce 780i SLi
sell: Mem - 4GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-1066
sell: Video - XFX GeForce 8800GTX x2 SLi

buy: Intel Core i7 920
buy: Asus P6T Deluxe
buy: 6GB DDR3
buy: GTX 295

...and have cash left over. Plus, have a very upgradeable platform that's SLI and Crossfire capable.

edit: sorry, I didn't see your sig...

Specs of the ol LAN (13 PCs and counting), and a few Benchs, can be found at:

TGUpdate

...guess you're not big on selling your gear.

 

[KyleGates]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
what game do you need to play that 8800gtx sli cannot handle @ 19x12?

are you willing to pay that extra $500-$750 to play at max eye candy rather than lowering your AA/AF a tad to get acceptable frame rates?

Well, as for AF I like crankin it, AA though I keep at a nice 2x...really, thats it. At 19x12 games like Farcry an Crysis (maxed) have areas that drop the framerate waayyy down though and Id like ta see if I can eliminate that. But, in addition, the 8800GTXs will be distributed to some other PCs on the LAN ....so boosting my main systems performance while helpin a few others ramp up would be nice!

 

[Tempered81]

http://74.125.47.102/translate...rmancerating_qualitaet

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardwa...-295-quad-sli-review/6

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: jaredpace
http://74.125.47.102/translate...rmancerating_qualitaet

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardwa...-295-quad-sli-review/6

Looking at that second benchmark there...the GTX 295 trades blows with the GTX 260 216 SLI setup (wins half, loses half) and loses to the GTX 280 SLI setup in every case.

Now, I'll grant you that it does have the shader count of GTX 280 SLI -- but it definitely has the memory from GTX 260 SLI. It's a hybrid between the two - see this quote from the first page of that review.

There are the full 240 stream processors enabled on each of the GPUs, meaning 480 in total. These are clocked at 1,242MHz ? the same speed as they are clocked on the GeForce GTX 260 (both revisions). As the texture units are associated with each stream processing cluster, there is a full allocation of 80 per GPU, 10 per stream processing cluster and 160 in total. When combined with a 576MHz ?core? speed, this results in an impressive texture throughput of 92.2 GigaTexels per second.

Each chip backs out onto 28 ROPs (or render backends), making a total of 56 in total and, like previous GPUs derived from Nvidia?s G80 graphics processor, they run at the same speed as the texture units and setup engine. This means there is a 448-bit memory interface per GPU and Nvidia has kitted each GPU out with 896MB of memory (1,792MB in total) clocked at 1,998MHz effective.

What we?re looking at, then, is essentially a pair of GeForce GTX 260-216 graphics cards in SLI, but with 240 stream processors per GPU instead of 216. This was something that confused us a little because, when we reviewed the GeForce GTX 260-216, we came to the conclusion that it was running out of memory bandwidth ? there were many scenarios where the GeForce GTX 260-216 wasn?t discernibly faster than the original GeForce GTX 260.

So I apologize for saying you were wrong, it seems we were both partially right.

 

[Tempered81]

Yes we were... here is a graph using a game that scales well with multi gpu from ati & nvidia - using all of the most high-end gpu setup tri sli 280's , crossfire x3, quad sli, and quadfire...

http://www.firingsquad.com/har...ce/images/cod42560.gif

 

[KyleGates]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
for $1k...

sell: CPU - Core 2 Duo E8400
sell: Mobo - EVGA nForce 780i SLi
sell: Mem - 4GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-1066
sell: Video - XFX GeForce 8800GTX x2 SLi

buy: Intel Core i7 920
buy: Asus P6T Deluxe
buy: 6GB DDR3
buy: GTX 295

...and have cash left over. Plus, have a very upgradeable platform that's SLI and Crossfire capable.

edit: sorry, I didn't see your sig...

Specs of the ol LAN (13 PCs and counting), and a few Benchs, can be found at:

TGUpdate

...guess you're not big on selling your gear.

Just got back from vacation....(well, moving my mother across the state is better than work..right?)....anyhow, yeah Not big on selling the old equipment. Heck once I get this upgrade done my 8800s will go nice in some other machines.


I think I may have settled on the 285's. My only concern now is power. Do I upgrade to a 1kw PS or try it with the 750w that I have now.

 

[bamacre]

If it were me, I would keep what you have and get a nice Intel SSD and upgrade that E8400 to a Q9650.