Graphics Card Noob

[xWilDx]

Hi, After severely hours researching ive come to the conclusion that Nvidia's graphics cards always come out on top compared to ATI/amd's graphics card i was going to opt for crossfire but the more i researched the more i noticed a pattern emerge, Nvidia Sli always topple ATI crossfire and yet i still dont understand why they use gimmicks for graphics cards with the phrases "crossfire ready" or "Sli ready" i thought all you had to do was buy 2 identical cards (making sure you have enough room)and slot them into your pci slot or do you have to have special connectors?

 

[Tempered81]

If you have enough money, buy this:

two 3870x2 cards for crossfire-x setup.

really fast q6600, e8400, or qx6850

4 gb of ram

intel p35 or x38 motherboard.


that will be a very fast ATI crossfire setup that will compete against anything nvidia makes.

 

[Rike]

You have to have a motherboard that will support the dual graphics combo of your choice. Thus far, if a mobo is "SLi ready", it won't do Crossfire and vise versa. You need to be sure your power supply can handle all the parts you're throwing at it as well.

 

[xWilDx]

Jaredpace i noticed you managed 32,000 in benchmark tests with 2x3870's and ty for your comment but would'nt 2x8800gt's in Sli be way faster? with a qx6600 on a p35 mobo? im stuck either an x38 with crossfire or an nvidia 780 mobo? bearing in mind i love online gaming.

 

[sutahz]

Originally posted by: xWilDx
Jaredpace would'nt 2x8800gt's in Sli be way faster? with a qx6600 on a p35 mobo?

Originally posted by: Rike
You have to have a motherboard that will support the dual graphics combo of your choice.

xWilDx, P35 is intel => crossfire, as is X38 and the upcomming X48. you need a 600 or 700 series motherboard w/ a nvidia chipset to run SLi. Q66, not QX66. Since you want 8800GT's, a 790i motherboard is what you should be getting. Enjoy your 180FPS.

 

[Tempered81]

yeah, read what sutahz said. I didnt get that 32,000 score either. that came from people with overclocked cpus and gpus on extreme cooling.

The best bet for stock performance is either 2x 8800gts512 or 3x 8800ultra on SLI motherboards, or 2x 3870x2 on crossfirex on Intel motherboards.

sli = nvidia motherboards, crossfire = intel & other boards with 2 or more pci-e slots.

 

[xWilDx]

Lol i dont know how you guys put up with all the jargon its brain freezin shiz sli=nvidia = Im doh! i didnt realise lol

 

[xWilDx]

Well you are obviously right about mentioning MoBo's i forgot to mention that im a sufferer of amnesia and its now a final decision i want the 850ai Qsli Mobo featuring 4 slots for gpu's and is ddr3 /ddr2 compatible with 2200 fsb that plays crysis at 100 fps( just dreaming ) lol ok its definately the 780/790 sli MoBo and i think with all comment s im either going to get 2 8800gts or 1 Ultra i will see how much the pocket money lasts on my build ty guys