Running 8800gtx SLI--worth it to upgrade?

[Woofmeister]

I think it may be time to move on from my faithful 8800GTXs (overclocked to 615/1480/2000). I can still run just about anything at 1920 x 1200, but I'm having to turn the eye candy down to get playable frame rates on the latest games (FC2; Crysis, etc.) plus, I have plans to upgrade to a 30 inch monitor in the future.

That being said, I look at the graphics charts and it just doesn't seem likely that I'd see much of a difference in moving to GTX 285 SLIs. For the money, I'd expect to see a 20 FPS difference, at least, but it just doesn't seem like it's there.

Am I right or am I just misreading the charts? It seems absurd that NVIDIA hasn't been able to make more substantive improvements in three generations of graphics cards.

For benchmark purposes, I do 14,918 in 3DMark Vantage with my current configuration.

 

[dflynchimp]

not wrong about the charts. Crysis is in general just a poorly coded game (bloated coding, like Vista). If you're not in need of the BoB (Best of the Best) then you could save yourself that e-Peen money to spend on a real girl XD. Not making fun of you here, just being realistic.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

Tom's charts are good for getting your feet wet, but in no way should you ever use them to make a decision. There are just too many inconsistencies. You will want to research other articles to get an idea of the performance gain.

However, just take a look at Anand's latest benchmarks. They don't have the 8800GTX in SLI, but the 9800GTX+ in SLI will be very comparable in the tests not going beyond the 512MB frame buffer - meaning all 1900x1200 tests should be a good indicator of the performance you could gain from GTX285s. In Crysis, you can see that the GTX285s get you +20 fps over the 9800GTXs and in FC2 you would get over twice the framerate.

Probably the most economical thing you could do is just get a sandwich card like the HD4870X2 or GTX 295.

 

[Woofmeister]

Check out the difference in FC2 at 1920x1200 between the 9800 GTX SLI and GTX 285 SLI. It's more than 45 FPS. Of course, Anand doesn't give you the minimum FPS so it's hard to tell what your consistent FPS would be.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

wish they'd include Unreal Tournament III in their benches..

 

[Woofmeister]

Well, I bit the bullet and bought two GTX 275s. There's a gain of about 15 FPS in Far Cry 2. Enable Ambient Occlusion and the 275s are slower than the 8800 GTXs without AO. There's no way that this upgrade will allow me to move to a 30 inch monitor without losing some major eye candy.

All in all, pretty disappointing and nothing like the gain I was hoping to see for a $480 investment. I hope the new GT300s come out in time for step up, but that's looking less and less likely.

 

[OCGuy]

What settings are you using.


I get playable framerates in Warhead with everything on "Enthusiast" and 4xAA. Anything over 4XAA is pretty much a joke, even though we like to throw out numbers like 8x and 16x out there.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Woofmeister
Well, I bit the bullet and bought two GTX 275s. There's a gain of about 15 FPS in Far Cry 2. Enable Ambient Occlusion and the 275s are slower than the 8800 GTXs without AO. There's no way that this upgrade will allow me to move to a 30 inch monitor without losing some major eye candy.

All in all, pretty disappointing and nothing like the gain I was hoping to see for a $480 investment. I hope the new GT300s come out in time for step up, but that's looking less and less likely.

If you had a quad core cpu you would see a 25% increase in Far Cry 2.
In this peticular game you are cpu limited.

http://*****/reviews/121-Far-Cry-2-Single-to-Quad-Core-Scaling-Page-3.aspx

http://www.yougamers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90492

 

[Woofmeister]

Originally posted by: happy medium

Originally posted by: Woofmeister
Well, I bit the bullet and bought two GTX 275s. There's a gain of about 15 FPS in Far Cry 2. Enable Ambient Occlusion and the 275s are slower than the 8800 GTXs without AO. There's no way that this upgrade will allow me to move to a 30 inch monitor without losing some major eye candy.

All in all, pretty disappointing and nothing like the gain I was hoping to see for a $480 investment. I hope the new GT300s come out in time for step up, but that's looking less and less likely.

If you had a quad core cpu you would see a 25% increase in Far Cry 2.
In this peticular game you are cpu limited.

http://*****/reviews/121-Far-Cry-2-Single-to-Quad-Core-Scaling-Page-3.aspx

http://www.yougamers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90492

I'm CPU limited? LOL
I'm running a dual core at 3900 MHz, that's 900 MHz better than a stock Q9650.
I've never heard of being CPU limited by the lack of a quad core even in games that are capable of taking advantage of quads. All other things being equal, FC2 may be able to push a few more frames on an identically clocked quad core than a dual core, but that's a very different issue than being CPU limited at 3.9GHz.

Edit Hmmm, this chart from Guru of 3D using 3xGTX 280s in SLI seems to suggest that there's a lot of headroom in moving to an i7 965 in Far Cry 2. So it looks like I'm CPU limited by not moving to the new 1366 socket rather than my lack of quad core.

 

[dflynchimp]

Originally posted by: Woofmeister

Originally posted by: happy medium

Originally posted by: Woofmeister
Well, I bit the bullet and bought two GTX 275s. There's a gain of about 15 FPS in Far Cry 2. Enable Ambient Occlusion and the 275s are slower than the 8800 GTXs without AO. There's no way that this upgrade will allow me to move to a 30 inch monitor without losing some major eye candy.

All in all, pretty disappointing and nothing like the gain I was hoping to see for a $480 investment. I hope the new GT300s come out in time for step up, but that's looking less and less likely.

If you had a quad core cpu you would see a 25% increase in Far Cry 2.
In this peticular game you are cpu limited.

http://*****/reviews/121-Far-Cry-2-Single-to-Quad-Core-Scaling-Page-3.aspx

http://www.yougamers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90492

I'm CPU limited? LOL
I'm running a dual core at 3900 MHz, that's 900 MHz better than a stock Q9650.
I've never heard of being CPU limited by the lack of a quad core even in games that are capable of taking advantage of quads. All other things being equal, FC2 may be able to push a few more frames on an identically clocked quad core than a dual core, but that's a very different issue than being CPU limited at 3.9GHz.

Did you read the link?

If quadcores perform 25% better on a clock to clock basis it means the dual core would have to be roughly 25% faster clocked to compete on equal footing. If you OC your dual core to 3.9GHz then you probably can get decent performance, similar to a 3GHz quadcore.

 

[happy medium]

Check benchmarks for similar clocked Quad 9650's and core i7 at 1900x1200 and compare them to yours and you'll see.
Certain games (Far Cry 2 ,GTA 4) are just better with a Quad core.

With the right cpu a pair of 285 gtx's will slaughter a pair of 98/8800gtx's.

Heres some examples of what I'm talking about at Tom's Hardware.

Core i7 @ 3.2 (965 extreme)@ 1900x1200 very high Quality settings

3x gtx 280= 147fps
2x gtx 280= 120fps
1 gtx 280 = 65

Qx9770 Quad core @3.2 @ same settings

3x gtx 280's = 81fps
2x = 85
1x = 74

Why would a Quad at only 3.2 and sli'd 280's give you 85 fps and your gtx 275's be a bad upgrade. These gpu's are = in speed.
Like I said your cpu is holding you back with this peticular game.

Far Cry 2 and high end sli /crossfire is better paired with core i7.
I would think that 2- 275 gtx's are equal to 4- 8800gtx's.
You need some serious horsepower to fully utilize these gpu's.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: dflynchimp

Originally posted by: Woofmeister

Originally posted by: happy medium

Originally posted by: Woofmeister
Well, I bit the bullet and bought two GTX 275s. There's a gain of about 15 FPS in Far Cry 2. Enable Ambient Occlusion and the 275s are slower than the 8800 GTXs without AO. There's no way that this upgrade will allow me to move to a 30 inch monitor without losing some major eye candy.

All in all, pretty disappointing and nothing like the gain I was hoping to see for a $480 investment. I hope the new GT300s come out in time for step up, but that's looking less and less likely.

If you had a quad core cpu you would see a 25% increase in Far Cry 2.
In this peticular game you are cpu limited.

http://*****/reviews/121-Far-Cry-2-Single-to-Quad-Core-Scaling-Page-3.aspx

http://www.yougamers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=90492

I'm CPU limited? LOL
I'm running a dual core at 3900 MHz, that's 900 MHz better than a stock Q9650.
I've never heard of being CPU limited by the lack of a quad core even in games that are capable of taking advantage of quads. All other things being equal, FC2 may be able to push a few more frames on an identically clocked quad core than a dual core, but that's a very different issue than being CPU limited at 3.9GHz.

Did you read the link?

If quadcores perform 25% better on a clock to clock basis it means the dual core would have to be roughly 25% faster clocked to compete on equal footing. If you OC your dual core to 3.9GHz then you probably can get decent performance, similar to a 3GHz quadcore.

And a 3 Ghz Quad core IS cpu limited with duel 275/280 gtx's. Thanks for making my point.

How many fps's are you getting with your duel core @ 3.9??

Heres a core i7 benchmark @ only 2.6 with a pair of 275's and Far Cry 2 @ 1900x1200 with 4x aa getting 109 fps!!!!
2500x1600 getting 81 fps!

http://www.tomshardware.com/re...ce-gtx-sli,2298-5.html

You ARE cpu limited in this game.

 

[OCGuy]

Sorry, there is no way that a core i7 almost doubles the framerates over a C2Q.

Scaling from 2-4 cores is bad, 4-8 isnt going to be better.


And the clock-for-clock between i7 and Yorkie was only off by ~10%.

 

[happy medium]

Looking at the benchmarks it looks like the scaling for the Q9770 with no aa is either borked or cpu limited.

A look at the 1900x1200 with 8xaa the scaling is better and seems more legit.

http://www.tomshardware.com/re...i7-gaming,2061-11.html

And we are talking about 2 to 4 cores not 4 to 8?
What has 8 cores anyway?

Heres a guy with a e8400 @ 3.9 testing Far Cry 2 with a 4780x2 +1 4870 for tri-fire.

Quote:

For my testing I used 1920X1200 Res, 4X AA in every title, and 16AF as well.
All settings are at max unless otherwise specified.




Far Cry 2: (Ranch Small 3 loops)

X2: min: 43 --- X3: min: 43
X2: avg: 61 --- X3: avg: 62
X2: max: 95 --- X3: max: 98

Very small increases here, possible CPU starved ? Maybe an update to a Quad core would unleash some better results

I know 3 gpu's have poor scaling but a .08% increase?
Yes he was cpu starved! .

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Woofmeister
Check out the difference in FC2 at 1920x1200 between the 9800 GTX SLI and GTX 285 SLI. It's more than 45 FPS. Of course, Anand doesn't give you the minimum FPS so it's hard to tell what your consistent FPS would be.

Guess what Anand was using for the test system?
Yes you guessed it, Core i7 extreme @3.2 .


http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3517&p=5

look at the % increase Adding the second Gpu. wow


Happened to read the comments at the bottom of this page. The guy with the e8400 @3.9 said this.......

Update, just added a Quad Core 9650 @ 3.8Ghz, many of the benchmarks that were CPU limited have been raised significantly. Such as World in Conflict and <<<<Far Cry 2, however Crysis saw no gains, seems like it is not Quadcore optimized afterall.


http://www.tomshardware.com/fo...2-4870-fire-benchmarks

Just for kicks why not take out 1 275 gtx and do some comparison benchies?
Scaling with this game should be at least 60% with 2 cards.
I bet your fps drop less then 60%.

One more chart to seal the deal.

This is e8400 @ 3.0 vs core i7 @ 3.2 (which is close to a Q9770 in performance).

The gtx 260 sli is completly flat lined at 54fps @ all resolutions with the e8400 @ 3.0. Do you think your 900 mhz overclock will make up for that with gtx 275's? I think not.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/...-performance-review/10
This shows definit cpu limitation

 

[Woofmeister]

OK, OK I give! Playing a bunch of different games tonight only confirmed it. I'm CPU limited despite my overclocked E8400. I need core i7!

I'm wrong, you're right.

Bet you don't see that very often on the Internet.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Woofmeister
OK, OK I give! Playing a bunch of different games tonight only confirmed it. I'm CPU limited despite my overclocked E8400. I need core i7!

I'm wrong, you're right.

Bet you don't see that very often on the Internet.

As you can see my system is quite outdated and I'm currently doing research on a new build.

I contiplated grabbing a e8500 (for only 150$) overclocking it to 3.8/4.0 and running duel 8800gt's since I already bought 1 8800gt for 55$, but noticed a trend with newer games starting to utilize 3 and 4 cores so now i'm looking at a q9550 (if the price goes down) and a good p45 board to save some cash. My ideal system would of coarse be a core i7 920 @ 3.8 and a x58 board but Its too much money especially with ddr3 ram prices.
Bare bones it's like 600$ Ram,cpu,motherboard.

Hey, your lucky all you have to do is sell your e8400 and grab a nice quad 9650 @ 3.8 (easily done) for a good upgrade.

Good luck, nice chatting with ya. Happy

Edit: This discussion taught me alot. Thanks

 

[Woofmeister]

Originally posted by: happy medium

Originally posted by: Woofmeister
OK, OK I give! Playing a bunch of different games tonight only confirmed it. I'm CPU limited despite my overclocked E8400. I need core i7!

I'm wrong, you're right.

Bet you don't see that very often on the Internet.

As you can see my system is quite outdated and I'm currently doing research on a new build.

I contiplated grabbing a e8500 (for only 150$) overclocking it to 3.8/4.0 and running duel 8800gt's since I already bought 1 8800gt for 55$, but noticed a trend with newer games starting to utilize 3 and 4 cores so now i'm looking at a q9550 (if the price goes down) and a good p45 board to save some cash. My ideal system would of coarse be a core i7 920 @ 3.8 and a x58 board but Its too much money especially with ddr3 ram prices.
Bare bones it's like 600$ Ram,cpu,motherboard.

Hey, your lucky all you have to do is sell your e8400 and grab a nice quad 9650 @ 3.8 (easily done) for a good upgrade.

Good luck, nice chatting with ya. Happy

Edit: This discussion taught me alot. Thanks

I've actually thought about purchasing a Q9650, but I don't think it makes much sense right now to spend the money on the LGA 775 socket rather than saving the money to move into the i7 920 later on. I'd obviously need a new MOBO and RAM for the 920, but at least I'd be getting some future proofing. That and a lot of extra performance judging by the charts.

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Woofmeister

Originally posted by: happy medium

Originally posted by: Woofmeister
OK, OK I give! Playing a bunch of different games tonight only confirmed it. I'm CPU limited despite my overclocked E8400. I need core i7!

I'm wrong, you're right.

Bet you don't see that very often on the Internet.

As you can see my system is quite outdated and I'm currently doing research on a new build.

I contiplated grabbing a e8500 (for only 150$) overclocking it to 3.8/4.0 and running duel 8800gt's since I already bought 1 8800gt for 55$, but noticed a trend with newer games starting to utilize 3 and 4 cores so now i'm looking at a q9550 (if the price goes down) and a good p45 board to save some cash. My ideal system would of coarse be a core i7 920 @ 3.8 and a x58 board but Its too much money especially with ddr3 ram prices.
Bare bones it's like 600$ Ram,cpu,motherboard.

Hey, your lucky all you have to do is sell your e8400 and grab a nice quad 9650 @ 3.8 (easily done) for a good upgrade.

Good luck, nice chatting with ya. Happy

Edit: This discussion taught me alot. Thanks

I've actually thought about purchasing a Q9650, but I don't think it makes much sense right now to spend the money on the LGA 775 socket rather than saving the money to move into the i7 920 later on. I'd obviously need a new MOBO and RAM for the 920, but at least I'd be getting some future proofing. That and a lot of extra performance judging by the charts.

I think of it this way. If you sell that nice overclocking e8400 for 160$ (which you could), and buy a q9650 for 320.00$, thats only 160$ upgrade and you allready have the cooler for it. Once you overclock that quad to 3.8 (easily) your system will be complete and more balanced.
It will also play most future games at high detail. Next year at this time Nvidea and Ati will have single cards out about as powerfull as your 2, 275gtx's. So no loss there. I'll bet that Core i7 systems will be more reasonably priced by then because the Core i5's are comming out to.
You system will be fairly top notch for about the next year or so.

By late next summer Core i7 cpu's, motherboards,and ddr3 will be much cheaper. Nvidea and Ati will be refreshing there cards to be cheaper, use less power, and produce less heat, and Windows 7 will be mature. All good reasons to upgrade.!!!

Go for it man!

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: Woofmeister
Edit Hmmm, this chart from Guru of 3D using 3xGTX 280s in SLI seems to suggest that there's a lot of headroom in moving to an i7 965 in Far Cry 2. So it looks like I'm CPU limited by not moving to the new 1366 socket rather than my lack of quad core.

Woofie, make sure you look at that chart you referenced earlier before you decide on which quad to get.

i7 scales much much better than C2Q for multiGPU setups. If you want the most out of those shiny new 275s you're going to have to pony up for new mobo/ram/cpu.

Medium - if planning dual GPU setup this applies to you also. Don't save $100 and get a system that won't perform like you want.

 

[Woofmeister]

I'm headed to Micro Center today to buy a core i7 920 on sale for $199 plus tax. I also ordered an LGA1366 Bolt-Thru-Kit for my Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme cooler.

Still looking for a good deal on an Intel X58 Mobo and RAM, but it looks like the decision has been made.

Big thanks to everyone on this thread for the "intervention." Sometimes it's hard to admit that your setup is no longer cutting edge.

 

[TidusZ]

Originally posted by: Woofmeister
Well, I bit the bullet and bought two GTX 275s. There's a gain of about 15 FPS in Far Cry 2. Enable Ambient Occlusion and the 275s are slower than the 8800 GTXs without AO. There's no way that this upgrade will allow me to move to a 30 inch monitor without losing some major eye candy.

All in all, pretty disappointing and nothing like the gain I was hoping to see for a $480 investment. I hope the new GT300s come out in time for step up, but that's looking less and less likely.

I'm too late, was gonna try to talk you out of it. sigh.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

How do the Phenom II's scale with multiple gpu's?

 

[happy medium]

Originally posted by: Woofmeister
I'm headed to Micro Center today to buy a core i7 920 on sale for $199 plus tax. I also ordered an LGA1366 Bolt-Thru-Kit for my Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme cooler.

Still looking for a good deal on an Intel X58 Mobo and RAM, but it looks like the decision has been made.

Big thanks to everyone on this thread for the "intervention." Sometimes it's hard to admit that your setup is no longer cutting edge.

Please let us know how much more fps it gives you . Most people won't be able to admit that this upgrade is worthy. Mostly because they have have just a dual core system.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

^Depends on the game. Far Cry 2 favors quad cores and it really likes Core i7. Other games may not see such an improvement.