SLI not an upgrade path.

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: BTA
It would be an upgrade path if they didnt screw up their pricing scheme.

They still want $350 for a single 6800GT, yet you can get a 7800 for $600. That's $100 less than buying two 6800GT cards.

They should have done price cuts on the 6800's before releasing the 7800.

Actually there are numerous places and rebates to obtain a PCI-e 6800GT at 300.00 or just under. I can start a whole new thread on 6800GT PCI-e pricing if you wish.

BUT!!!!! If you already have a single PCI-e 6800GT and an SLI board, you would only have to shell out another 300.00 for a second one instead of a full 600.00 for a 7800GTX. Thats a lot of money at one sitting to hand over. 300 is a little easier to swallow and the performance, judging from Rollo's benchmarks, with 2 6800GT's do not dissapoint. Shown here.
As you can see, the SLI'd 6800GT's perform in the neighborhood of the single 7800GTX.
Sometimes better, sometimes worse.

Why not sell the 6800GT he already has for ~$200-250 and get a new 7800GTX?

Why not indeed!! The options are plentiful. Excellent addition Jack. He could buy another 6800GT and SLI them, (one step) or sell his current 6800GT in FS/FT or Ebay, ship it out and hope all goes well, wait to get paid possibly by a money order if not paypal, and then go and spend 600 dollars to get just a smidge better performance than a second GT would have added. So, yes. Options are out there, its all a matter of preference.

 

[Munky]

I'm not a fan of sli, but I do agree that for those who want the highest level of performance regardless of the price sli is the way to go. Besides, dual 6800's in sli was the only way nvidia could beat an x850xt pe . And if you want the absolute best eye candy, with transparency SSAA, you need dual 7800's in sli already.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: BTA
It would be an upgrade path if they didnt screw up their pricing scheme.

They still want $350 for a single 6800GT, yet you can get a 7800 for $600. That's $100 less than buying two 6800GT cards.

They should have done price cuts on the 6800's before releasing the 7800.

Actually there are numerous places and rebates to obtain a PCI-e 6800GT at 300.00 or just under. I can start a whole new thread on 6800GT PCI-e pricing if you wish.

BUT!!!!! If you already have a single PCI-e 6800GT and an SLI board, you would only have to shell out another 300.00 for a second one instead of a full 600.00 for a 7800GTX. Thats a lot of money at one sitting to hand over. 300 is a little easier to swallow and the performance, judging from Rollo's benchmarks, with 2 6800GT's do not dissapoint. Shown here.
As you can see, the SLI'd 6800GT's perform in the neighborhood of the single 7800GTX.
Sometimes better, sometimes worse.

Why not sell the 6800GT he already has for ~$200-250 and get a new 7800GTX?

That is a good option. There are places a 6800GT SLI rig will significantly beat a 7800GTX though, such as Doom3. However, it looks like they're mainly on par, and of course with the 7800GTX there are no games where you don't get it's level of performance.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: AnnihilatorX
From the very start wise people know that SLI isn't really an attractive upgrade path.

Here is the deal with SLI imo.

Ill give you an example of my buying habits the past 38 months. I usually bought a new machine about every 12-18 months. In this case I have bought and built 3 machines dedicated for gaming. This cost me a total of 3440 or about 1100 bucks a machine.

In the fall I am going to try a different route and build a single expensive machine and make it last me 36 months. Previous to SLI this was an impossibility because your GPU would fall too far behind the curve. The machine I am planning on building will be an X2 with 2GB a ram and a 7800GTX.

I am guessing in 18-24 months that single 7800GTX wont cut the mustard in the newest games anymore and that is when a second 7800GTX will be purchased that should give me enough of a bump to last me another 12-18 months. On top of that the 7800GTX should run me around 150-250 bucks for a 20-80% increase in video performance.

At the end of 36 months if all goes well I will have spent 2000 dollars instead of my ~3400.

That is the beauty of SLI IMO.

 

[T9D]

Dont expect to keep getting double the increase in speeds on cards. We are spoiled right now. It wonts stay that way forever. And eventually they are going to start hitting some brick walls and only be able to give us much smaller speed bumps.

I'd also like to points out that I would have never bought my $400 GT when I did if I could have SLI'd my 9700 pros. I would have just bought another 9700 pro for about $100 and been happy with that and had a great Performance increase. Would have saved $300 right there.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: tk109
I'd also like to points out that I would have never bought my $400 GT when I did if I could have SLI'd my 9700 pros. I would have just bought another 9700 pro for about $100 and been happy with that and had a great Performance increase. Would have saved $300 right there.

See? This is a PERFECT example of why SLI is not an upgrade path......errrr....ahhhhh....never mind....


LOL