From 7800 GTX SLI to Single 8800 GTX - Should I Upgrade?

[BadB55]

Hi,

I am new here. Thanks for taking the time to read my post. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

About 18 months ago I purchased a Mach V from Falcon Northwest. It came with two Nvidia 7800 GTX 256 MB video cards configured in SLI. My processor is an AMD FX-57 (overclocked to 2.98 Ghz). I have 2 GB of RAM. My PSU is 600 Watts.

I am absolutely blown away with what the new 8800 GTX is capable of. So my question is, should I upgrade from my 7800 GTX SLI setup to a single 8800 GTX? I want to do 8800 GTX SLI but I would be into nearly $1,500 (2 cards + new PSU). I don't really want to spend that kind of money unless I am building a new system.

I am an avid gamer. I am currently playing STALKER and BF2142. I have a 22" widescreen monitor so I like to game at 1680 x 1050 resolution. STALKER is really chugging at that resolution with dynamic lighting enabled. It is fine if I turn off the dynamic lighting but I don't want to turn it off. It looks great with everything enabled.

Would I see much of a performance boost over my current configuration by moving to a single 8800 GTX?

Thanks in advance for any helpful responses.

 

[KeithTalent]

Yes you would definitely see a performance boost, but the real question is, do you need the performance boost?

What are you playing and at what resolution?

Edit: there is some discussion on this in the green forums here: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=80977

 

[BadB55]

Thanks for your response. While you were responding, I edited my post to say that I am currently playing STALKER and BF2142. I like to run my games in widescreen at 1680 x 1050. For the first time, I am getting performance problems with STALKER. I am feeling the need for speed!!!

Thanks for that link - that discussion is right on.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: BadB55
Thanks for your response. While you were responding, I edited my post to say that I am currently playing STALKER and BF2142. I like to run my games in widescreen at 1680 x 1050. For the first time, I am getting performance problems with STALKER. I am feeling the need for speed!!!

Thanks for that link - that discussion is right on.

Then definitely go for it if you have the cash, I am planning on doing the same very soon if ATI doesn't sort things out with R600.

 

[TanisHalfElven]

stalker is taking a a hit form your single core fx-57. stalker like dual/quad core. my advice get a s939 (if that what you have) dual core instead of a 8800gtx. you could ofcourse do both.or if you wanna stay under 500 get a 8800gts 320 and a dual core.

 

[Matt2]

I think people are jumping the gun on all of the sudden "needing" a dual/quad core CPU.

Just because two games came out that like multi-core processors doesnt mean that in 99% of the games coming out in the next year arent going to see the most performance improvement out of a new GPU.

 

[BadB55]

Thanks for all of the responses and advice. I think I am going to go for it. Frys has the eVGA 8800 GTX in stock. I may slip by at lunch and pick one up. I will let you guys know how it turns out.

EDIT: Can you beleive that a single video card can cost $650? There was a time, not too long ago, that the best computers were falling in price. Not any more I guess.

 

[Insomniator]

There is a good chance that you wont see any difference. If your CPU is holding you back, then you could put 8800GTX's in SLI and you wont see an improvement.

 

[KeithTalent]

Originally posted by: Insomniator
There is a good chance that you wont see any difference. If your CPU is holding you back, then you could put 8800GTX's in SLI and you wont see an improvement.

His CPU will not be holding him back in this case and he will definitely see a difference, particularly at the resolution he is playing at. The FX57 at 2.98 is no slouch, it's not like he is running a P3.

KT

 

[BadB55]

So, I purchased the 8800 GTX, brought it home and installed it and the most recent Nvidia official drivers. My benchmark program is still 3DMark 03. I ran the gaming benchmarks and did not see much of an improvement - just under 30,000 marks. I was quite disappointed and thought that I may have just wasted $700.

But then, I fired up some games that I was having trouble running in 1680 x 1050 - STALKER and NWN2 - and BAM! These games ran BUTTER SMOOTH. Before, I was dropping down into the low teens on fps. Now, I run all of these games at 50 fps or better. STALKER runs at around 60 fps (vsync off). It is like a new world of PC gaming for me. In short, I am very impressed and happy with the increase in performance.

Can anyone help explain why my benchmark didn't increase significantly but the game performance went up so much? There are systems on Futuremark that score 90,000 marks. Is it my processor that is holding back the benchmarks? Or is it the nature of the older 03 benchmarking software?

I am going to upgrade to 06 today and run some benchmarks with it. I will let you know the results.

EDIT: One more note, are the official drivers any good? Should I go with some of the BETA drivers that are floating around???

Thanks.

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: Insomniator
There is a good chance that you wont see any difference. If your CPU is holding you back, then you could put 8800GTX's in SLI and you wont see an improvement.

If his CPU were holding him back, he wouldn't see a big difference in performance (like he mentioned) with dynamic lightning disabled.

 

[BadB55]

I downloaded and installed 3D Mark 06 and ran my first test. Here are the results:

Main Test Results

3DMark Score 7646 3DMarks

SM 2.0 Score 4148 Marks

SM 3.0 Score 4528 Marks

CPU Score 1145 Marks

Graphics Tests

1 - Return to Proxycon 34.117 FPS

2 - Firefly Forest 35.012 FPS

CPU Tests

CPU1 - Red Valley 0.36 FPS

CPU2 - Red Valley 0.582 FPS

HDR Tests

1 - Canyon Flight (SM 3.0) 44.538 FPS

2 - Deep Freeze (SM 3.0) 46.025 FPS

It looks like my processor is the weak link in my system. I am, however, pretty happy with how my system stacked up overall. I wish I had run the same test with my 7800 GTX SLI stuff installed.

What do you guys think about the results?

 

[KeithTalent]

3DMark means nothing to me, but I am very happy to see your games are running smoother! Congrats!

 

[nitromullet]

3DMock 03, 05, and 06 are pretty much useless for getting an idea of how your rig will perform in games. In 06 they added the cpu/ppu (PhysX chip) comparison which makes it even more so because it weighs the cpu score too heavily in the overall rating. Additionally, 3DMock is run at a lower resolution than you game at and without AA/AF.