Yet Another Upgrade Thread

[PCTC2]

Right now I'm RMAing an eVGA 7950GT. I have a second one coming to run SLI.
Reading up on Guru3d.com, I saw that a single 7950GT 512 beat out 8600GTS SLI. So a 7950GT SLI set up would totally kick a 8600GTS SLI's a$$.

To think I almost spent $200 on a 8600GTS. That money was better spent on my 7950GT.

But how would a single 8800GTS 320MB compare to 7950GT SLI in Windows XP? I'm in the process of a complete system overhaul and using parts from the current set up to build a secondary PC. Would I be better off with the single 8800GTS or the 7950GT SLI in my primary rig? (dual-booting on XP and Vista Ultimate, but XP is primary usage OS)

Also, is there a single-slot cooler for a 8800GTS? I have all of my PCIe/PCI slots filled and don't have room for a dual-slot cooler.

 

[MegaVovaN]

SLI = waste of money.
for what your two 7950GTs cost, you could buy ownage single card.

 

[MarcVenice]

SLI is only really good for the high-end freaks that want to SLI the top-end cards. It's not really ment for the mid-end or older generation cards, coz a single card will beat 2 older sli-ed cards, and consume less power and produce less heat.

and how could a double slot cooler be a problem with a 8800gts, you're only gonna use 1 pci-e slot this way, so it should be no problem, right ? Unless I'm mistaken in the way your mobo layout looks like...

 

[PCTC2]

@MegaVovan - I've had my first 7950GT for a while, before the G80 even existed. And I got the second used on eBay for $150. so not that much choice/money.

@MarcVenice - My slots:
1x - USB Card
16x- Graphics (First 7950GT)
1x - HDTV Tuner (Graphics card would overlap)
16x/8x - Component Video Inputs For Hauppauge.
PCI - Hauppauge PVR-500 MCE
16x- Graphics (Second 7950GT now and used to be eSATA card for external back-up harddrives. Still figuring out a way to get back to using them)
PCI - Creative X-Fi Platinum.

Sort of a problem. Cannot fit more back there. I'd have to start taking stuff out.

 

[LightningRider]

I think you should change out and get the 8800GTS if you still can. As the others said, SLI is better if you buy it with new high end cards right away to get tons of performance. It's not really the best idea to upgrade with SLI. If you get an 8800GTS you'll probably still have more performance and DirectX 10 support.

Anyways, I would get the 8800GTS if you could. Actually I did, ordered mine Sunday You might consider the 640MB model if you game at high resolutions though.

 

[MarcVenice]

The countdown has started, mine is coming in less then 24 hours !!!

 

[LightningRider]

Nice, I'm at work right now but they attempted delivery, guess I will have to go pick it up when I get home.

 

[MarcVenice]

I ordered on monday, before 4pm, because if you do, and the parts are in stock, it will ship the same day. My chosen PSU 'should' have been in stock, but after receiving contradictory information from the e-tailer, it was NOT in stock. It took all tuesday to fix that, order a different PSU, pay the extra money, and then today the money was received, and parts are being shipped.

Only problem I have with all this is that I pro actively tried getting things fixed prior to 4pm on tuesday, so they could still ship it on tuesday, but they took way to long into contacting me back and I couldn't pay the 'extra' money in time, so they could ship it the same day.

Anyways, back to OP, if you are going 1 card, 8800gts, then it will free up 1 pci-e slot, right ? That leaves extra room for the 8800gts's cooler to be double slotted. But I don't even think it is. I'll know for a fact in less then 20 hours, and I will let you know