Video card suggestion

[Praytus]

I had planned on purchasing a barebones from Monarch (cheaper then building my own with amex discount) but there was an incompatability with the build between the DFI Lan Party Ultra D and the 2x1GB patriot ram I had chosen. After a couple weeks of testing, then offered to upgrade my board to the Asus A8N SLI (non-deluxe) for free.
At the time, I had been planning on purchasing an X850 XT (non PE) card, looking solely at playing EQ2 with it. Since I now have an SLI board, I'm looking for recommendations for SLI specific to EQ2.
2x6800 Ultras is outside of my budget, but 2x6800GTs is well within.

Can anyone shed some light or make a recommendation on performance with this system? What, if any, performance increase would you expect to see in EQ2 with 2x6800GTs over the X850 XT? 2x 6800NU?

Any assistance would be appreciated.

 

[Minimite11]

Im not a big fan of SLI, better spending your money on 1 good gfx card, rather than 2 ok ones...

 

[MobiusPizza]

How good of a support SLi is in EQ2?
I am not a fan of SLi either; It's an immature technology that doesn't work on all games. It might work great for EQ2 and it might not. Some games even run unstable with SLi setup. Plus there are more problems like noise, power consumption and heat
Anyway I would think X850XT or even X800XL is more than enough to play EQ2

Save some money till your next upgrade. You'd be happier.

 

[Muhadib]

I play EQ2 as well and have found that the highest quality settings were developed for hardware that dosen't exisit yet (over 512MB on card). Knowing that is key in finding some settings that work well for what you have.

The SLI question is just a matter of money. If you want it, and have the money, fire it up!

My advice to you is give this EQ2 video settings page a shot first, then see if your money is still burning a hole in your pocket.

My EQ2 Looks and runs great with the rig in my sig. (50FPS+ 1280 x 1024)

One other strange thing I have also found is that the "memory leak" issues seem to be fixed with the .NET Framework version 2.0 beta. The diffrence is like night and day after you install this sucker.

Hope this helps.

 

[Vegito]

Originally posted by: Minimite11
Im not a big fan of SLI, better spending your money on 1 good gfx card, rather than 2 ok ones...

or 1 good one and later one slap another in one when you see it for 10 bucks on ebay

 

[Praytus]

Well I'm not really worried about the next best thing. As long as its not 30 days away I'm happy to spend money where it best fits.

I should also add my PSU is a Neopower 480, and I'm not concerned with noise or heat issues.

 

[Praytus]

Anyone else?

 

[w00t]

SLI = dum

sli is a waste there is no game that can really use its potential and it will never be mainstream it also uses alot of power since 2 nvidia cards which nvidia cards already use alot.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: w00t
SLI = dum

sli is a waste there is no game that can really use its potential

Unless you play at a really high resolution and use AA/AF. Most games made in the last couple years (unless they are incompatible with SLI for some reason) show fairly dramatic improvements at 1600x1200 with full AA/AF, as well as at higher resolutions (useful if you have a 2405FP or a big CRT that can do 1900x1440 or higher). If all you want to do is play Counter-Strike, or if you have a 19" LCD and can't run higher than 1280x1024, then yes, it's probably not going to do much for you.

and it will never be mainstream it also uses alot of power since 2 nvidia cards which nvidia cards already use alot.

It does use a lot of power and cost a lot of money... personally, I wouldn't find it worthwhile. If you cut the prices of today's cards in half it might be, but by the time that actually happens, NV50/R520 will be out.

 

[Praytus]

I play at 16*12 on a CRT.