• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

8800GTX x 2SLI vs 460??

TBirdUK

TBirdUK

TBirdUK

Soldato
Joined
9 Jul 2005
Posts
2,650
Location
High Wycombe
I am looking to replace my 2 SLI 8800GTX with another card (single) - what is the best way to do this - I like the look of the 460 price of circa £150 - is this best bang for buck and would it give me equivelent/upgrade to what I already have.

System is a Quad 6600 with 4GB RAM.

Many thanks
 
A GTX460 768MB would roughly be the same speed as your 8800GTX SLI, but with the advantage of not having to worry about SLI scaling, as well as having dx11 support.

From reviews, all the GTX460 768MB that were tested had no problem overclocking to around 800MHz+.

One thing to bare in mind though is the the GTX460 1GB not only has more memory than the 768MB version, but it is 32 ROPs vs 24 ROPs of the 768MB version.

Whether you are getting a GTX460 768MB or the 1GB version, avoid Palit's because lots of people have already complain about the loud fan and RMAed the card. Your best bet is probably Gigabyte for decent cooler with quiet fans, or get a MSI or Asus one so that you can tweak the voltage and overclock the card further.
 
Last edited:
TBirdUK said:
so, in short without going into fanboy area, is it the best upgrade for my kit as is?
Click to expand...
For your budget of £150 ish, I would say it is still the GTX460 768MB. If you can get a MSI or Asus one with voltage tweak and can overclock to 900~950MHz, it would be between 5850 and 5870 speed.

But to be honest, I think the 8800GTX SLI will still pretty much handle anything you throw at it, and you'd probably better off saving up more money and upgrade to 2nd gen dx11 cards when they are out.

By the way, what speed is your Q6600 at? Cause if it is not at a high clock speed, overclocking it further should get a a bit higher frame rate for your 8800GTX SLI.
 
Last edited:
The GTX460 should be faster in every case - especially as it doesn't have to rely on SLI - not massively faster but a good few percent, its also a lot newer tech with more efficent shaders.
 
Dude - man up and pay the £15 extra to get the 1Gb version - then you will have no excuses for your L4D2 performance ;)

And since you are gaming at such a funny resolution (TH2Go) if will definitely be worth that bit of extra grunt for when BF3 comes out!
 
Thanks Marine, but the reason I am upgrading is I think one of my 8800GTX has bit the dust so no SLI any more, need some more testing when I get the time to confirm but I am being forced to change, its not that I want to.

Is the 460 the best way ahead or can anyone suggest another route?
 
If you confirmed that one of the 8800GTX is indeed kicked the bucket, maybe you can try reviving it with the oven trick?

Refer to this thread:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18165803

Another owner of a 8800GTX which the card died/dying, and revived it with the oven :D It's worth a try if the warranty of your 8800GTX has already expired.

If you still need to get a new card for around £150 ish, the choice is still either GTX460 768MB, or the GTX460 1GB version (which has 32 ROPs instead of 24 ROPs of the 768MB version) at around £170 ish.
 
460 GTX is definitely the sweet spot for you at the moment - as before - the 1Gb version will have a better chance in the TH2Go configuration. Flog the 8800 GTXs and you should get most of the cash (even the dying one will fetch a bit on fleabay)

To add a little confusion you can always get involved in the fighting...
 
Last edited:
Not much of an upgrade tbh, if you need that performance I'd either just get cheapo 8800gtx to replace dead one or get something around 5870/470 area.

few % increase for 170quid? No thanks.
 
Bear in mind he will probably get around £100-120 for both cards on the bay - that's only £50ish for the upgrade...

I am a little side-tracked now though as nVidia have finally pulled their finger out and it looks like surround gaming now works (in SLi) - would be awesome if it went all the way back to the 8800GTX - but it seems only the 280 and above are allowed - if a hack let you do it I'd definitely get another 8800GTX and bin the TH2Go.
 
well, baked the 8800GTX last night and its all working again - gave it a short 3dmark run and no issues, will test more tonight but looks like I wont have to upgrade just yet!
 
I went from 1x 8800gtx to a nv470 as im now playing games at 1080p, which really stressed to 8800.
To be honest I expected a bigger bump in speed as Assassins Creed2 is hardly any faster.
Although Crysis went from 15 to 35fps at v-high.
Im thinking you wont notice much of a speed increase from 8800sli.
I nearly went for a 460 myself & glad I took the plunge for a cheap 470 at £235 as now clocked at 800c 1600s and nearly as fast as a stock 480.
Oh, the 460 has 1.9b transistors, compared to 3b on the 470/480.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom