Stream Processors? Could someone help me decide?

[v3rax]

I currently have (1) MSI 9600 GT.

I have an SLI motherboard so I thought I might buy a second 9600GT and run SLI.

I was also considering selling the 9600 GT I have and buy 1 9800GTX instead of doing the SLI.

In some of the benchmark tests I have read, they show (2) 9600GT's in SLI out performing a single 9800gtx.

However, I noticed in one review that the 9600GT only has 64 stream processors vs 112 on the 9800GTX

What differences might I notice if I went with the (2) 9600GT's in SLI vs the single 9800gtx as far as how the Stream processors figure into the equation?

I play most FPS games.

 

[taltamir]

well... physX on cuda is coming quick, and it runs on the shaders. so extra shader power would be a key for playing physx games.
Also, SLI has scaling issues in many games, and other bugs that don't exist for single cards. So that is another choice to make there...

Generally speaking you should only SLI a top end card to avoid the bugs and scaling issues. (a game only scales well with SLI 6+ months after being released).

So upgrade to a 9800GTX, and if you need more power, SLI those... HOWEVER

You really shouldn't do EITHER of those... as the next gen of cards are supposed to be released soon: RV770 - June 16; GT200 - June 18
The last major upgrade to architecture was 2 years ago (with all subsequent releases being shrinking and minor improvements)...
the next one is June 16th-June18th.... Wait 31 days.

 

[v3rax]

Wow, very informative, Thank you very much!

Gives me more to think about.

I appreciate you taking the time to help me out.

 

[Denithor]

If you were going to upgrade today you'd be best off with an 8800GTS 512MB instead of the 9800GTX (same shader power, slightly lower memory bandwidth, cooler running, cheaper).

However, taltamir hit it right on head, the next gen cards are less than a month away so I will second his suggestion to just wait and see what they provide (and how they are priced). If nothing else they should drive down the cost of the current cards nicely (which we are already starting to see, with 8800GT going for $140 and a 3870 recently at $110).