Two 9800GT's or one GTX260?

[Sonokamome]

Aside of higher frame rates, what other aspecs of having, say two 9800GT's (Like this model for instance) than, say, a GTX 260? I ask this in light of what one person in the forums complained of playing Mirror's Edge and found that it could be possible that two cards (one for physics processing and the other just doing the usual work) would have been more better than having that one powerful GPU.

I throw this out there for people to ponder. Again, just a thought.

 

[PCTC2]

I would usually always go with the single card because not all games scale with SLI and if you're not going i7, then you need to get an SLI board made by nVIDIA. If you want a dedicated PhysX card, you can get something like a 9600GSO or GT for around 100 and get a GTX 260. Or you can get GTX 260 SLI and a 9800GT as a PPU.

 

[Denithor]

Even an 8600GT for like $50 will handle PhysX work.

Right now, 2 9800GT in SLI will generally beat a single GTX 260 unless you're playing at high enough resolution/AA to become memory limited with the 512MB frame buffer on the 9800GT (versus 896MB for GTX 260).

If I was buying new today I would grab the GTX as I expect it to have a longer usable lifespan.

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: Denithor
Even an 8600GT for like $50 will handle PhysX work.

Right now, 2 9800GT in SLI will generally beat a single GTX 260 unless you're playing at high enough resolution/AA to become memory limited with the 512MB frame buffer on the 9800GT (versus 896MB for GTX 260).

If I was buying new today I would grab the GTX as I expect it to have a longer usable lifespan.

actually an 8600gt sucks for physx. there were some review that showed a gtx260 did better handling both graphics and physx than using the 8600gt for phsyx and gtx260 just for graphics.

 

[Sonokamome]

Ah Point noted. Now, to slightly change the topic a bit: If anyone, from this next month on, sees a Socket AM3 Motherboard with a Nvidia chipset for 3-way Sli, and six SATA connections from ASUS, please let me know. I would love to hear from someone through this thread or PM me.

Links are oh-so-welcomed. Thanks in advanced!

 

[techboie]

9800GT SLi>>>GTX 260

 

[toyota]

Originally posted by: techboie
9800GT SLi>>>GTX 260

until you run out of video memory

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: techboie
9800GT SLi>>>GTX 260

 

[Antman56]

Originally posted by: techboie
9800GT SLi>>>GTX 260

Exactly. Actually

9800GT OC SLi>>>GTX 280 OC

 

[yh125d]

Originally posted by: toyota

Originally posted by: techboie
9800GT SLi>>>GTX 260

until you run out of video memory

Which benchmarks have shown to not really be much a problem for 9800GT sli, even at 19x12 with AA

Edit: and even at low res, GTX 280 usually beats 9800/8800 SLI, to antman

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: yh125d

Edit: and even at low res, GTX 280 usually beats 9800/8800 SLI, to antman

Where?

In anand's GTX 280 review 8800gt SLI edges out GTX280 1920x1200 and under. Pretty close though. GTX 260 is okay but it won't hold a candle on a 9800gt SLI.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3334&p=11

 

[Antman56]

Originally posted by: Azn

Originally posted by: yh125d

Edit: and even at low res, GTX 280 usually beats 9800/8800 SLI, to antman

Where?

In anand's GTX 280 review 8800gt SLI edges out GTX280 1920x1200 and under. Pretty close though. GTX 260 is okay but it won't hold a candle on a 9800gt SLI.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3334&p=11

Thanks for that response... that was the review that I used as a basis for my opinion.

 

[Denithor]

The problem is, people have quit testing with 9800GT SLI (and/or 9800GX2) at just the wrong time. The newest games at high resolution + high AA are starting to push cards to the end of their frame buffer.

Haven't seen this effect yet? Just take a look here. On the last chart (FC2, 2560x1600, 4xAA, Ultra High) compare the 512MB 4870 to the 1GB card. That's what happens when you run out of video buffer and the card has to access system memory. Compare the performance of the 512MB card in the last two charts (only difference - 2xAA vs 4xAA) and you'll see what I'm talking about. You cross that line and your performance is going to turn to shit. I'd expect the same thing from 2x9800GT/X in SLI because they just don't have enough frame buffer.

 

[AzN]

Who has 2560x1600 monitor? it's out of most people's budget. I doubt people who have these monitors would spend $200 on 9800gt sli setup to power their monitor.

 

[yh125d]

I used this to come to my conclusion. There seems to be conflicting data... so I think it would be safe to assume that 8800/9800GT SLI performs from slightly below GTX260 to slightly above GTX280, depending on what game/res/drivers?

 

[Antman56]

Originally posted by: yh125d
I used this to come to my conclusion. There seems to be conflicting data... so I think it would be safe to assume that 8800/9800GT SLI performs from slightly below GTX260 to slightly above GTX280, depending on what game/res/drivers?

A side note, my friends overclocked 9600GT's in SLI will a hang with a Geforce 280 (just like a GX2 does in most situations). But he is rocking a 22 inch screen (1680x1050)... so that memory buffer is no where near maxed out at that resolution. Keep in mind that drivers have become WAY more efficient sense some of those charts.

I think paying for the extra 9800GT (both should get overclocked) would be the more cost-effective route...

With all that said, anyone of those setups would be good

 

[Denithor]

Actually, if you don't exceed frame buffer the 2x9800GT in SLI will smash the GTX 280. Dual 8800GTS/9800GTX(+) will do an even more convincing job as they have the full 128 shaders (256 shaders versus 224 for SLI 9800GT, 192/216 for GTX 260 and 240 for the GTX 280).

Links of interest:
9800GTX+ review
MultiGPU page 1
MultiGPU page 2

 

[AzN]

Originally posted by: yh125d
I used this to come to my conclusion. There seems to be conflicting data... so I think it would be safe to assume that 8800/9800GT SLI performs from slightly below GTX260 to slightly above GTX280, depending on what game/res/drivers?

That chart looks whack to me. You can see dozens of reviews where 2 8800gt hang with GTX 280 and put GTX 260 in the dust for anything below 1920x1200.

 

[Denithor]

Those results are completely whacked. At several points I saw things like - 2x9800GT 1GB losing to 2x9800GT 512MB - 2x8800GTS (G92) losing to 2x8800GT (riiiight) - and even a 2xGTX 280 losing to 2x9800GT. Hmm...don't think so.

Check out those links I posted above instead. Much better idea of what happens at the high end.

The only thing to keep in mind when considering 2x9800GT vs 1xGTX 260 is future & resell value. If you go with a GTX 260 today you can always add a second later to really boost your performance. If you've already got two lower-end cards in there - your only option is ditch both & buy something newer.

 

[Antman56]

Originally posted by: Denithor
Actually, if you don't exceed frame buffer the 2x9800GT in SLI will smash the GTX 280. Dual 8800GTS/9800GTX(+) will do an even more convincing job as they have the full 128 shaders (256 shaders versus 224 for SLI 9800GT, 192/216 for GTX 260 and 240 for the GTX 280).

Links of interest:
9800GTX+ review
MultiGPU page 1
MultiGPU page 2

Strong Post :thumbsup:

 

[Sonokamome]

Judgin from what I'm looking at, and seeing the Tom's Hardware list of results, I have to say that there is validity in the possibility for two cards surppasing a particular superior card if other hardware and software factors are taken into consideration (we are talking about DIY rigs right?). But yet, I agree that it does defy the usual suspect of that, usually with mutli-gpu solutions, is that you have slightly better performance than a recent top card. But as a consequence, you pull more power and there are certain possibilities of bottlenecking due to memory constraints.

But, again, the possibilities, depening on the hardware set up to make up the mutlti-GPU solution based PC, of there being of what Tom's Hardware shows are vaild. The questions are then of how frequent such instances.

What I would like to know is the exact set-up(s) were used to have those numbers.

 

[yh125d]

After checking out those links denithor, I am very surprised at just who well the 8800GT/9800GT fares today, despite being a 2007 card. I only wish they ran cooler with a single slot HSF

 

[cusideabelincoln]

There really needs to be benchmarks using the latest drivers. I'm sure there are some available.

9800GX2 benchmarks - 9800GX2 can beat the GTX280, but is slower in most of the benchmarks. Overall probably a better solution than the GTX260, but it's hard to say how the SLI 9800GTs would do. Will keep searching for recent benchmarks.

9800GTX+ in SLI - 9800GTX+ SLI is faster than the GTX280 when it scales. Otherwise it seems to be a bit slower than a single GTX260 in the game benchmarks Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3.

Another 9800GTX+ SLI set of benchmarks - Seems like it trades blows with the GTX260, although the GTX260 would be a better option since it remains playable in games like Crysis and FC2 while the 9800GTX falls behind. In the games where the 9800GTX SLI is faster, the GTX260 still provides playable framerates.

 

[dookulooku]

Sonokamome, are you interested in actually playing games, or just benchmarking games?

I don't think anyone who has used both a 8800GT/9800GT SLI and a GTX 280 would pick the former over the latter. The latter gives you much better minimum frame rates, and a much more consistent frame rate.

Stop looking at just average framerates -- look at playability. There's never a case where a G92 SLI setup is playable while the 280 isn't, while there's cases where the 280 is but the G92 SLI isn't.

 

[Sonokamome]

dookulooku: I think I have not made myself clear. The thing is I've read the comments so far and I've come to the conclusion early on that one modern and powerful GPU solution would be better than using a multi-GPU solution using graphics cards from two or three years prior. In the last comment I gave I was just simply acknowledging yh125d's comment of there being possibilities (which you also mentioned of there being in some instances) where such set ups- older model GPU's being used in multi-GPU solutions- beat a single modern GPU card in performance.

So in other words, playability was on my mind before benchmark numbers to begin with; I just did not make this explicit with my comments, and for that I apologize.

From what I saw, and given the other misc needs that I might have for having a GPU to begin with aside of gaming (i.e. BD-disc playback, or any HD playback for that matter) I can say that a single GPU solution is really the only practical and economic solution.