Upgrade advice please; SLI 6800GT getting old? - Page 2

The_YongGrand · 8th Dec 2008, 10:19 AM

Get a Radeon 4850 or something equivalent. If you have your processor overclocked, that'll at least reduce the bottleneck when playing games such as Crysis.

dethalis · 9th Dec 2008, 03:25 AM

If you want to stick with sli go with the nvidia 9 series... i would probably recommend a 9800 series card if you can... Those are a huge increase over your current 6800 setup... as for vista and dx10 if you want to go vista i would recommend vista 64-bit and 4gb or more of ram... I'm currently running 4GB of ram and vista buisness 64-bit and have no issues with games i am currently playing fallout 3 on high settings with my x1950pro 256mb graphics card and love it...

If you want one of the cards you listed go 8800gt sli and thats a sweet spot on those ... the gtx just doesn't yeild a big enough performance gain over the 8800gt's and the 8800 gt runs colder...

as for brands i would stay clear of sparkle as i have never heard of them... I would recommend XFX, eVGA, BFG as i think all of those have lifetime warranty atleast i know bfg does.. So stick with this and i don't think you will be disappointed..

g0tanks · 9th Dec 2008, 04:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dethalis

If you want to stick with sli go with the nvidia 9 series... i would probably recommend a 9800 series card if you can... Those are a huge increase over your current 6800 setup... as for vista and dx10 if you want to go vista i would recommend vista 64-bit and 4gb or more of ram... I'm currently running 4GB of ram and vista buisness 64-bit and have no issues with games i am currently playing fallout 3 on high settings with my x1950pro 256mb graphics card and love it...

If you want one of the cards you listed go 8800gt sli and thats a sweet spot on those ... the gtx just doesn't yeild a big enough performance gain over the 8800gt's and the 8800 gt runs colder...

as for brands i would stay clear of sparkle as i have never heard of them... I would recommend XFX, eVGA, BFG as i think all of those have lifetime warranty atleast i know bfg does.. So stick with this and i don't think you will be disappointed..

Sparkle is reasonably well known, because you never heard of it doesn't mean it's not that good. Although XFX/EVGA/BFG are the most known brands. Just check how much warranty they give and how their customer service is then make a choice. Plus 8800GT aren't really worth it to put in SLI now imo, the smarter choice would be to get an 4850/4870 or maybe even a XFX GTX260 Black Edition (beats GTX280 on stock).

starboykb · 9th Dec 2008, 08:51 AM

I say HD4870/4850. unless you want to played PhysX feature than you should get Nvidia SLI and value 9800GTX+ card.

Adrian Wong · 9th Dec 2008, 03:01 PM

Do you really need to use SLI though? A single, fast card is much cheaper and faster than two, slower cards in SLI. Unless you need more graphics processing power than the fastest single graphics card can provide, there's really no need to do SLI or CrossFire.

I would suggest a single, fast card like the Radeon 4850 or the GeForce 9600 GT/9800 GTX+, if you have to go with NVIDIA. The GeForce 8600 series may be cheap but they are underpowered and not worth the money. Might as well just go for the 9600 GT.

dethalis · 9th Dec 2008, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adrian Wong

Do you really need to use SLI though? A single, fast card is much cheaper and faster than two, slower cards in SLI. Unless you need more graphics processing power than the fastest single graphics card can provide, there's really no need to do SLI or CrossFire.

I would suggest a single, fast card like the Radeon 4850 or the GeForce 9600 GT/9800 GTX+, if you have to go with NVIDIA. The GeForce 8600 series may be cheap but they are underpowered and not worth the money. Might as well just go for the 9600 GT.

I agree you should probably be better off getting a single fast card like a 9800 GTX+ or a HD4870.. Rather than sli.. See you would spend more just getting two 8800gt's rather than one hd4870 or 9800 GTX280 or such... if i were you get the hd4870 its the fastest card besides the hd4870x2 out right now...

Newegg.com has the xfx 8800gt for 129.99 so 2 of them before shipping is 259.98
the Sapphire HD4870 is 199.99 before shipping and the XFX 9800 GTX+ is 189.99

So i would go that route vs 2 8800gt's you will get better performance

g0tanks · 9th Dec 2008, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dethalis

I agree you should probably be better off getting a single fast card like a 9800 GTX+ or a HD4870.. Rather than sli.. See you would spend more just getting two 8800gt's rather than one hd4870 or 9800 GTX280 or such... if i were you get the hd4870 its the fastest card besides the hd4870x2 out right now...

Newegg.com has the xfx 8800gt for 129.99 so 2 of them before shipping is 259.98
the Sapphire HD4870 is 199.99 before shipping and the XFX 9800 GTX+ is 189.99

So i would go that route vs 2 8800gt's you will get better performance

For around $260 I strongly recommend this card: Newegg.com - XFX GX260NADBF GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Just get take a look at this review: XFX GTX260 Black Edition Review - Overclockers Club

dethalis · 9th Dec 2008, 11:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by g0tanks

For around $260 I strongly recommend this card: Newegg.com - XFX GX260NADBF GeForce GTX 260 Black Edition Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Just get take a look at this review: XFX GTX260 Black Edition Review - Overclockers Club

Thats probably your best bet as you have an nvidia chipset on that motherboard and it will allow you later to sli another one with it... but for now just one will do you just fine..

ussff · 15th Jan 2009, 05:33 AM

Sticking with the budget to mid range and (SLI) NVIDIA - purely cos I've got the motherboard and extra juice in my PSU already with my twin 6800GT's.

I so nearly stuck 2 8800GT's in the basket last night, then I came across the 384MB XFX 9600 GSO XXX, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), 1900MHz GDDR3, GPU 680MHz, 96 Cores for under £70 each.

Two of them for £140 or one 512MB XFX 9800 GTX+ XT, PCI-E2.0, 2200MHz GDDR3, GPU 765MHz, 128 Cores for £147. I just cant fault sticking two of them in and having a play.... what do you think? Finally, I should be able get Far Cry 2 off the LOW settings

and see whose shooting at me from the grass!

I'm also going to move up from my 2Gb Ram (pc2700) - Mobo will go to pc3200 and if I want to go to 4Gb I've got to replace all 4 of the 512Mb sticks. Does the 333 to 400 make a difference? My budget option is to bump to 3Gb pc2700 and then I'll only be buying 2Gb instead of 4Gb and keeping to my overall £200 budget.

This should take my AMD Dual core 4200+ and Asus A8N SLI Premium to the end of its life.... I may yet be convinced to try Vista on it with more RAM to see the DX10 shine but I'm stuck on XP sp3 at the minute.

Thoughts on this please....

edit - PS, currently overclocking as well - I have had it over 2600 (knocking down the multiplyer) but it overheats with current CPU cooler and PC is located in its cupboard under the desk

and shuts down within 20 minutes of gaming. Nice and stable at 2420Mhz after hours of FarCry2 though....

Chai · 15th Jan 2009, 07:56 AM

I never want SLI in my system. Always prefered single card over SLI, unless SLI is much faster.

8th Dec 2008, 10:19 AM	#11 (permalink)
The_YongGrand Hyperactive Join Date: 12 Feb 2005 Location: Somewhere in 甲洞... Posts: 2,880 Reputation: 1187 Rep Power: 19	Get a Radeon 4850 or something equivalent. If you have your processor overclocked, that'll at least reduce the bottleneck when playing games such as Crysis. __________________ Intel Core 2 Duo E7200, 2GB DDR2-667 RAM, Gigabyte 945GCMX-S2, Sapphire ATi Radeon HD4850 512MB DDR3 Intel Pentium Dual Core E2140, 2GB DDR2-667 RAM, Asus P5B-E Plus, nVidia Geforce 7950GT 512MB DDR3

9th Dec 2008, 03:01 PM	#15 (permalink)
Adrian Wong Da Boss Join Date: 10 Oct 2002 Location: In front of my ASUS F8V notebook! Posts: 33,150 Reputation: 3730 Rep Power: 78	Do you really need to use SLI though? A single, fast card is much cheaper and faster than two, slower cards in SLI. Unless you need more graphics processing power than the fastest single graphics card can provide, there's really no need to do SLI or CrossFire. I would suggest a single, fast card like the Radeon 4850 or the GeForce 9600 GT/9800 GTX+, if you have to go with NVIDIA. The GeForce 8600 series may be cheap but they are underpowered and not worth the money. Might as well just go for the 9600 GT. __________________ Dr. Adrian Wong Tech ARP \| Blog @ Tech ARP \| The Free Trade Zone DYKT : The only offshore account I have is at the sand bank? We need PROGRAMMERS and TECHNICAL WRITERS! Contact us if you are a hot shot programmer or technical writer! My items for sale : 50x SD Card \| Memory Stick PRO \| Cyclone Energy Saver \| Seiko SS watch \| Tiger/Carlsberg beer jugs \| Travel Speakers \| Motorola V600 \| Nokia N90 SOLD! \| New Lowepro Mini Trekker AW Other items for sale @ the FTZ : Zalman CNPS9500 LED @ $20 \| Zalman CNPS7700 Cu @ $20 \| Zalman CNPS7000 Cu @ $20 \| Swarovski bracelet watches \| Dell 17" LCD \| Hi-Fi speakers \| English DIVX movies \| HP LaserJet toners! \| Office chairs

15th Jan 2009, 05:33 AM	#19 (permalink)
ussff Newbie Join Date: 7 Dec 2008 Posts: 14 Reputation: 0 Rep Power: 0	Sticking with the budget to mid range and (SLI) NVIDIA - purely cos I've got the motherboard and extra juice in my PSU already with my twin 6800GT's. I so nearly stuck 2 8800GT's in the basket last night, then I came across the 384MB XFX 9600 GSO XXX, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), 1900MHz GDDR3, GPU 680MHz, 96 Cores for under £70 each. Two of them for £140 or one 512MB XFX 9800 GTX+ XT, PCI-E2.0, 2200MHz GDDR3, GPU 765MHz, 128 Cores for £147. I just cant fault sticking two of them in and having a play.... what do you think? Finally, I should be able get Far Cry 2 off the LOW settings and see whose shooting at me from the grass! I'm also going to move up from my 2Gb Ram (pc2700) - Mobo will go to pc3200 and if I want to go to 4Gb I've got to replace all 4 of the 512Mb sticks. Does the 333 to 400 make a difference? My budget option is to bump to 3Gb pc2700 and then I'll only be buying 2Gb instead of 4Gb and keeping to my overall £200 budget. This should take my AMD Dual core 4200+ and Asus A8N SLI Premium to the end of its life.... I may yet be convinced to try Vista on it with more RAM to see the DX10 shine but I'm stuck on XP sp3 at the minute. Thoughts on this please.... edit - PS, currently overclocking as well - I have had it over 2600 (knocking down the multiplyer) but it overheats with current CPU cooler and PC is located in its cupboard under the desk and shuts down within 20 minutes of gaming. Nice and stable at 2420Mhz after hours of FarCry2 though.... Last edited by ussff : 15th Jan 2009 at 05:57 AM.

15th Jan 2009, 07:56 AM	#20 (permalink)
Chai Administrator Join Date: 6 Oct 2002 Location: Maranello Posts: 28,128 Reputation: 4649 Rep Power: 82	I never want SLI in my system. Always prefered single card over SLI, unless SLI is much faster. __________________ Chai (Contributor & Forum Admin) http://www.techarp.com/

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Upgrade Advice Please!	Gazza	General Hardware	8	27th Aug 2007 10:27 PM
Need advice on card upgrade	jmacken37	Graphics Cards & Displays	6	20th Jul 2006 02:26 PM

9th Dec 2008, 03:25 AM	#12 (permalink)
dethalis Just Started Join Date: 5 Dec 2008 Posts: 31 Reputation: 0 Rep Power: 0	If you want to stick with sli go with the nvidia 9 series... i would probably recommend a 9800 series card if you can... Those are a huge increase over your current 6800 setup... as for vista and dx10 if you want to go vista i would recommend vista 64-bit and 4gb or more of ram... I'm currently running 4GB of ram and vista buisness 64-bit and have no issues with games i am currently playing fallout 3 on high settings with my x1950pro 256mb graphics card and love it... If you want one of the cards you listed go 8800gt sli and thats a sweet spot on those ... the gtx just doesn't yeild a big enough performance gain over the 8800gt's and the 8800 gt runs colder... as for brands i would stay clear of sparkle as i have never heard of them... I would recommend XFX, eVGA, BFG as i think all of those have lifetime warranty atleast i know bfg does.. So stick with this and i don't think you will be disappointed..

9th Dec 2008, 08:51 AM	#14 (permalink)
starboykb Getting there Join Date: 6 Oct 2008 Location: Brunei earth Posts: 158 Reputation: 0 Rep Power: 2	I say HD4870/4850. unless you want to played PhysX feature than you should get Nvidia SLI and value 9800GTX+ card.