SLI - Should I do it?

[Infiniplex Systems]

Well, I am just not happy with my current setup. It seems like I need to upgrade something. I want to go dual core AMD X2, but am I wrong when I say that people say dual core isnt good for gaming. If not, will a dual core help me out ALOT?

SLI - Should I do it? Thats the question. I am playing all the new games that came out in the last month, including BF2. I run the Dell 2005fpw widescreen. Pushing my single 7800gt at widescreen hurts it. Will SLI help this out TREMENDOUSLY, or will it be a minor upgrade? I like eye candy, and want my games to run great with it all on.

Also, if I do go SLI, will my psu be sufficent enough for the job? Thanks in advance!

 

[Fadey]

I dunno to sli or not either.. i got a 7800gtx atm.. this new one is gonna kill it , i dunno to cut my losses and sell it on ebay and wait for the new one to come out or to buy a second one for sli.

 

[Polish3d]

Upgrade to the new 512mb gtx

 

[gtx4u]

It helps ALOT on the minimum fps in some intensive scenes during high resolution + AA and AF.

 

[tuteja1986]

I am anti SLI & Crossfire ... I will not get one untill they have unifed format.. Because this make it really hard to buy Motherboards ;(

I want The new RDX200 motherboard but i know i can not use it with SLI setup which makes me angery...

I just don't want graphic card industry to become like cpu... you can ether go with intel socket or AMD socket motherboard ... I am happy with DUal GPU card like Asus Dual GPU 7800GTX

 

[Sentry2]

Hmm...tough call but I'm thinking a 512 GTX wouldn't be a bad choice

 

[Doctorweir]

Start overclocking

 

[BrokenVisage]

Originally posted by: Doctorweir
Start overclocking

FTW, screw SLi, I faced the same dilemma when I built my computer and have had success with just an X800XL and good cooling.

 

[Regs]

Well, I am just not happy with my current setup.

Yes.

Just be careful not to be impulsive.

 

[lifeguard1999]

Dual-core may or may not help out using the latest NVidia 81.85 drivers. There are rumors that it does help, but I have yet to see a good review. However, conventional wisdom says that a faster CPU is better than a slower dual-core. As Doctorweir stated, start o/c.

SLI of two 7800 GT's is roughly equal to one card of a 7800 GTX. Is that worth the money to you? Only you can decide.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: BrokenVisage

Originally posted by: Doctorweir
Start overclocking

FTW, screw SLi, I faced the same dilemma when I built my computer and have had success with just an X800XL and good cooling.

You and the OP aren't even in the same ballpark. He isn't happy with a single 7800GT, and you are thrilled with an OC'ed X800XL...

SLI of two 7800 GT's is roughly equal to one card of a 7800 GTX. Is that worth the money to you? Only you can decide.

Right now, SLI'ed 7800GT's is a pretty decent bang for the buck for an SLI rig. I also doubt that they are only as fast as a single GTX, and these reviews back me up on that:

http://www.siliconfactor.com/article.php?aid=14&page=7

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/242/12/

Edit: forgot about dual core. Dual core doesn't necessarily help you in games, but games do perform at least as well as a single core processor of the same speed. The real benefit comes if you muti-task. For instance, now instead of waiting while ripping a CD/DVD, I can play HL2 just as smoothly as I can id I wasn't ripping. Also, a dual core system just overall more responsive when running mutiple applications than a single core. You may have a use for it, you might not. Personally, I like it.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Your PSU will be fine. The dual core won't help much in current games, but I suspect next gen (early next year) games will take advantage of more than one core. How much will it increase performance? No idea yet.

For your 1680x1050 res, you've got 3 choices (provided you want to stick with nV):
1) add another 7800GT for ~$330
2) sell your GT and buy a GTX-- out of pocket ~$150
3) wait another 15 days or so, sell your GT and get a 512mb GTX-- don't know the cost yet, but let's guess an out of pocket for ~$250.

I would write off choice #2. It might be the cheapest of the 3 but the performance increase isn't huge:

BF2 at 2048x1536 4xAA
GT......36
GTX....42
2xGT...71
I am going go guess that a 512mb GTX would be somewhere in the 50-60 range.

FEAR at 1600x1200 4xAA 8xAF
GT.....23
GTX...26
2xGT... no idea but you can see here that SLI makes a HUGE difference in FEAR. Almost 2x the frames. So a 2x GT would likely be in the 40s.
A 512mb GTX should be in the lower to mid 30s I would think.

Quake4 2048x1536 4xAA/8xAF
GT......28
GTX....35
2xGT...43
A 512mb GTX would probably be about 40.

None of these resolutions match your native, but reviewers have been slow to implement widescreen resolutions into their benchmarks. But you can see the overall flow of performance between these setups on these games.

I think your best bet, though most expensive one, would be #1. SLI the GTs. The downsides would be-- increase of heat, noise, and power draw; and the fact that some games show no increase in fps with SLI (though you have other options there such as SLI AA for 16x etc); cost.

I've assumed a lot of things, such as the cost of the 512mb GTX being around $550, as well as its possible performance. So take it for what it's worth.

 

[obeseotron]

The numbers I've seen do show a nice jump when the cpu is actually a factor with the newer nvidia drivers and dual core. You could get a decent price on ebay for the 3700+ so that might not even be too expensive. You could also sell the 7800gtx (do it RIGHT NOW, the you'll get a lot less in 2 weeks) and pick up the 7800gtx 512mb which is suppossed to have a major clockspeed advantage, would be faster in every game without hassle of SLI. Graphics technology advances so fast that locking yourself into a $900 gtx 256mb sli setup seems like a bad investment. It will be very fast for a long time, but will show it's age on the features side much more quickly than its performance becomes a problem. WGF2/DX10 cards will be out by this time next year for Vista, you'll probably wish you had AA with HDR, the most advanced features may require 512mb, etc.

 

[gtx4u]

Originally posted by: BrokenVisage

Originally posted by: Doctorweir
Start overclocking

FTW, screw SLi, I faced the same dilemma when I built my computer and have had success with just an X800XL and good cooling.

yeah good luck playing FEAR and Quake 4 at 1600x1200 4xAA and 16xAF with everything maxed :roll:

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: obeseotron
The numbers I've seen do show a nice jump when the cpu is actually a factor with the newer nvidia drivers and dual core.

But not playing at the settings he wants to play at-- 16x10 4xAA/8xAF. As you can see here, an X2 4400+ at 16x12 in Quake4 gets 53.3fps while a lowly A64 3200+ gets 52.6. Virtually no difference.

You could also sell the 7800gtx

He has a GT not a GTX. Without knowing the exact specs of the new 512mb GTX, and with my admittedly very limited knowledge of video cards, I don't see this new card beating an SLI 7800GT setup.

 

[gi0rgi0]

I have a 7800gt also and im thinking of adding another one. This may be the best solution seeing how there becoming cheaper by the week.
The guy that said sli'd gt's are only as fast as gtx needs to get a clue. Not sure about the new 512 it might be $700. I'll have to wait and
see about that since I could do the stepup but that would cost me about $200-$250 and maybe 2 gts would still perform better.
And to the other shmuck with that x800xl that thinks its the shiz, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[drifter106]

Originally posted by: lifeguard1999
Dual-core may or may not help out using the latest NVidia 81.85 drivers. There are rumors that it does help, but I have yet to see a good review. However, conventional wisdom says that a faster CPU is better than a slower dual-core. As Doctorweir stated, start o/c.

SLI of two 7800 GT's is roughly equal to one card of a 7800 GTX. Is that worth the money to you? Only you can decide.

I would like to see some documentation on the 2 7800'gt's equal to 1 gtx. I have looked extensively the past couple of weeks in regards to the 7000 series card and I never ran across that. If anything I was pleasantly surprised to find the evga 7800 gt co right on the heals of the gtx in many an application...these benchmarks show that the gt is rougly 10-14% behind the gtx (depending on resolution and eye candy). Far cry from the gt needing to be sli'd to stay up....benchmarks

OP...unless you change your monitor, the best your gonna do is 1680 x 1050. You may want to take that into consideration when you look at some of the benchmarks that these cards can do...you go to far and its gonna be overkill and utilization of your card (s) will not be realized.

 

[n7]

No.

 

[frank84]

personally OC is the way i think....

just my opinion..

 

[Boze]

Well... I would recommend either buying yourself another 7800GT card, or upgrading to the 512 MB GTX when it comes out... that's probably your best bet. You could upgrade to an FX-57 if price is no concern, that should help your gaming as well... depending on what games you play.

 

[Jon855]

Don't do it. ALI's POS IMHO