i am building a new system and i would like to run 2 nvidia graphics/ video cards in SLI. ** my question is how do you tell what cards are good for gaming and Design work? ** my current system is AGP and old, so this new sli /pci express stuff is new to me. here are my specs: new licensed copy of win xp 64 os asus m2n sli deluxe motherboard amd 6400+ dual core cpu ocg 780w power supply (2) asus 20x dvd sata drives armour va8800b case ocg reaper x (2x2 gig) pc6400 ram 2 sata 320 seagate hard drives gigabyte super cpu cooler. i am thinking 2 ndivida 8800 whatevers ( GTS /GTX?) thoughts?
SLI is half good, half suck. Spring for the fastest single GPU card out. And why the AMD CPU? It sucks in comparison to the new 45nm parts by Intel. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037
Finally, a tech question popped up on Fchat. Haha. Currently, the 8800GT is the best bang for the buck if you do gaming, etc. I have a 8800GT paired with a Dell 24" and it plays everything flawlessly at 1920x1200 except for Crysis. If you do design/CAD stuff, the "Quadros" are cards geared for that purpose - although they are essentially the same with consumer "Geforce" line except tweaked to do Raytracing, rendering, etc faster. However, your Quardo may not play games as well as the equivalent Geforce I suppose the current nVidia line up is: 8400GS < 8600GT < 8600GTS < 8800GS < 8800GT < 8800GTS(g92) < 8800GTX < 8800 Ultra (Best) AMD/ATI's offering isn't bad, especially when Crossfire'd (ATI's SLI): HD3850 < HD3870 < HD3870x2 As of now, nVidia has the performance crown, given money isn't a factor, nVidia is the way to go. The 9800x2 should be out by the end of March, and has a 30% advantage over the 88GTX. Hope this helps. I miss the AGP days
+1, if your into gaming, which looks to be a pretty good assumption considering you want to run SLI, don't skimp out and buy a "cheap" processor, while possibly spending $500 on video cards. I would rather buy one top of the line card (8800 Ultra) than 2 mid-range cards (8800 gts).
Don't you love nVidia's naming convention. The 8800GT is a G92 isn't it the GTS is a G80.. or the old revision were. Anyway, best bang for your buck right now is the 8800GT 512MB. It out performs the GTS. There are "superclocked" versions of the 8800GT 512mb that are overclocked out of the box (650mhz vs 600mhz) Also, I'd go with the Wolfdale Core 2 Duos, E8400 if you can find one in stock (or a Xeon E3110 which is the same CPU that is rebadged). Btw what kind of design work are you planning on doing? You might want to follow dhuang's advice and go with the Quadro cards instead.
good point, but a friend gave me the mother board new in the wrap as he ended up with 2 of them for his build somehow. its all his fault i am buying all this other stuff.
thanks so much for the help and replies. i graduated from a CATIA V5 training program last year and hope to be in a Design job with my current employer soon. please keep in mind my current AGP pc will run Crysis and CATIA, but not near their max settings. current pc is a amd 2800+ with a 7600 GS Gigabyte card, and 3.0 gigs of OCG platinum overclocked ram. it does tend to run a bit hot, but its stable. i fitted the motherboard last night. waiting on a few more things to come in and i will start building. i will need the video cards to finish it, but i guess it wont hurt to wait and see if there is a price drop when the new ones come out. pics of current build: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Looks good. One of those pictures is deceiving; looked like you were building your PC inside a cardboard box. I have a 8800GT up for grabs if you're interested.
Looks like you'll ready to do some major gaming. Here's a link to check to see if a game will run on your PC, although I'm sure you wont have a problem with that beast. http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest
send me a pm about it. i will admit i am not to keen with the idea if buying a used one, but it seems these things either work, or dont! the gtx requires 2 pci 6 pin power hook ups, which is why i am thinking of going with 2 640 mg GTS's or a fast GT. ( one 6 pin pwr hook up) i am starting to worry about stuff working well with Win XP 64 more than the video cards, and the tests i have read indicated they are problems with cameras, printers and other devices working in 64, and many games cannot use the power of dual gpu's in SLI mode. more reading to do i guess.
If you go the GTS route, get the 512 MB card which is based on a new GPU. The older GTS versions came in 320 or 640 MB ram configurations.
thank you. i did some reading last night, and came to the same conclusion.understanding the changes and how the affect the whole system is what i am still learning. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130318
Hey TheCarReaper, Sorry but the 8800GT isn't for sale anymore. I was thinking about retiring from gaming, but when I used Integrated Graphics with my 24", I experienced the worst image quality possible. Popped the 8800GT back in, and had my crystal picture again. Didn't think GPUs mattered that much for 2D images - I was wrong! Don't look at the 320MiB or 640MiB versions of the 8800GTS, because those are based on the older G80 core...which is the same core used in the 8800GTX. However, the GTX has a higher memory bus, and still is a performance king to this day. Do look at the 8800GT/GTS based on the G92 core, they only come in 512MiB configuration(Some 1GiB variations exist though - not worth it though). The GT is best bang for the buck right now, and the new GTS outperforms the G80 GTX in most scenarios. Also, the nVidia 9800x2 will be based on the G92 core. The 9600GT, based on the g94 is also a viable alternative, however you're probably not going to reap the performance margin you want with those mid-range cards. Good luck and have fun building!
thank you. the link is for the 8800GT 512 with the g82. $229.00 with 2 of them ( later on) i think i will have a good system for awhile. the GTS is cheaper, but i think the GT is fine for what i will be doing.
agree, but i already have the (free) motherboard, and am going with what i have on hand. this was not meant to be a "super build", i am just upgrading to whatever is new from my 3 year old agp pc. i think the 512 8800 is going to be the winner. will buy one, get the system up and running, and then by a second and try SLI. my case is huge, so cooling should not be an issue. power supply will go in as soon as it arrives. thanks for all the help.
IHO, the G92 8800GTS is the best card out right now. The 9800 GTX is a G92 GTS with the samsung ram, and a touch higher voltage for higher clocks.
the 8800gts is on the way. i will get another once the system is stable. Image Unavailable, Please Login
