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What do you guys recommend?

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I have 2 BFG Tech GeForce 8600 GTS OC 256mb cards. I am buying a new motherboard for them to SLI on. But my friend suggested i sell both of those and buy a 8800 GTS 640mb instead of using 2 8600 in SLI. what is your guys recommendation... should i put them in my new motherboard and sli, or should sell them and get just the one graphics card?
 
SlI is a real pain in the ass, so beware of that going into it. I would sell them and upgrade to an 8800GTS.
 
SLI isnt worth it, unless you have a lot of money and SLI the 2 best cards out there. 1 Bigger badder card > 2 lesser. The lack of dual monitor ability combined with some games actually losing FPS in SLI = not worth it.
 
In your case SLI is a waste. Too bad you didn't get a 8800GTS the first time and saved $120
 
The problem with SLi is it does not give double the speed for 2 cards, more like 5-20% (pulled these from the air, but they seem close to me). A faster card will give greater performance and be more stable and less buggy.
 
2 8600's in SLI will cost more AND perform much worse than an 8800gts (64 shaders total vs. 96 shaders.) So yeah, sell them and get the GTS.
 
Originally posted by: krotchy
SLI isnt worth it, unless you have a lot of money and SLI the 2 best cards out there....
Click to expand...

And even then....it's really not worth it. I cant see having any better performance in a game with a single top of the line card versus having 2 of the same. It wouldnt be anything noticeable in the game.

To me..SLI and Crossfire just arent going to last.
 
Originally posted by: xtremeskier97
Originally posted by: krotchy
SLI isnt worth it, unless you have a lot of money and SLI the 2 best cards out there....
Click to expand...

And even then....it's really not worth it. I cant see having any better performance in a game with a single top of the line card versus having 2 of the same. It wouldnt be anything noticeable in the game.

To me..SLI and Crossfire just arent going to last.
Click to expand...

I agree I just didnt feel like typing it out 😀

 
No.

Don't SLI.

I regard SLI as, essentially, marketing hype.

Use what you already have, and make the best of that, conserving $ as best you can.

Don't sell out at a loss, then turn around & pay the currently inflated "leading-edge" premium price for a new gpu.

Not worth it. Losing proposition.

Use what you have as best as you can. Save $!
 
First off, for your situation, do NOT get 2 8600s. Bad idea. Sell them and get an 8800.

Second, those that say SLI is a waste and only gives 20% improvement are wrong. Granted, it depends on the game (CPU limited games will show less benefit than GPU-limited games) and resolution (1280x1024 won't show as good of an increase as 19x12).

There's an 8800gtx SLI review that demonstrates this well. However, I wish they would have used the 8800gts as well because the GTX is so powerful that you can only see real benefits at SUPERhigh resolutions.

I wouldn't grab SLI GTXs unless I was running a 30" LCD. 24" LCD users should see a good increase as well once newer games come out.

If anyone knows of some good GTS (640mb) SLI reviews, post them. I think one could make a strong case for grabbing 2 EVGA GTSs for $700 instead of the GTX for $650. I wonder how much better the GTSs would perform over the GTX.
 
Nevermind, found one. Looks like that even though the SLI GTSs are faster in many cases, it just doesn't appear to be worth it over just buying a single GTX.

For example:

Splinter Cell CT (HDR)
1600x1200
GTS SLI......159.4
GTX............121.1

In just about every case, except with Oblivion, there doesn't appear to be any justification to go with SLI over a single GTX. In Oblivion, the benches show that it could be considered unplayable at 24fps with a GTX and moves up to 34 with SLI, making it more playable. But that's a stretch.
 
EDIT: I'm an idiot and didn't read your post. Please ignore.

OP, I'd go for the single-card setup. Cheaper and faster.
 
Two more reasons to go with the 8800:

I read in MaxPC that there are situations or games where you will want or need 512 megs of video memory...256x2 SLI does not make the amount of memory available as 512 megs.

SLI will leave you with only one PCI slot.
 
Oh, forgot about one more reason...

The 680i has been a source of great tragedy. The newer BIOS updates are supposed to have taken care of the data corruption issues, but there is still some grumbling around the 'net about how the chipset is still a bit unstable.

I don't know about any outstanding issues with the 650i.

If you currently have a current Intel chipset, such as the 965 or 975, those are solid and reliable. I'm just not sold on nVidia for chipsets yet...they need more baking time.
 
the single 8800gts will be faster, the one thing you will be loosing is dual link hdcp (only relevant if you want to watch blue-ray or hdvd on a 30inch display). The 8800's are hdcp compliant but only over single link (I suspect they will fix that with the ultra's but..., seems kind of silly as anyone who could use the dual link hdcp wouldnt buy an 8600/8500 as it isint designed for gaiming at that high a res).
 
SLI is mainly an enthusiast feature... for people who like to tinker and try to get as much performance per dollar as they can. Or for people who have the money to buy the best of the best.
 
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