2 x 8600 GT or 1 x 880GTS?

[furman]

Hi,
I haven't upgraded my PC for ages. I am looking at buying a new quadcore pc for about £1200 ish. I don't know what the standards are nowdays but I have 2 options, I can choose 2 * 8600GT cards and a 22" monitor (I have another one already) or just 1 8800GTS card. Which is better? I like the idea of 2 monitors but is it practical? Is there much difference in quality between the cards?

The full spec of the PC is:
- Quad core, do more!
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium
Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 Processor
(2.40GHz ,8MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz)
Hybrid TV Tuner - Digital & Analogue
SLI nForce 680i Mainboard
Was - 2GB , Now With- 4GB Memory
500GB Serial ATA hard drive with 16MB buffer
256MB nVIDIA Geforce 8600GT Graphics (or 2 x 8600GT or 1x 8800GTS)
22" Widescreen TFT LCD Display w/speakers
LightScribe Super Format 18x DVD Writer
Sounblaster X-FI Xtreme Gamer
T6100 - 5.1 Speakers + Subwoofer
6 USB, 2x Firewire, GB LAN
Multi-format Memory Card Reader
Logitech Cordless KB & Optical Mouse
USB Wireless Connection

Good spec for £1200?

 

[ergonomics]

would the GTS you get be 320 mb or 640 mb?

and i wouldnt risk sli. even though 2x 8600 gt's get about 9k or something in 3dmark 06. they wont be that amazing in games, as games arent always sli optimized.

i would probably go for the 8800gts, then get another later on down the line if you can afford it and if games/apps are better optimised for sli.

hope that helps

 

[Dyson]

Go for the GTS, nvidia drivers seem to give people problems as it is, without adding SLI into the mix.

 

[moogie]

GTS 640 for that spec at least imo

 

[ergonomics]

GTS 640 for that spec at least imo

depends what they use it for though. no point in sli ultra's or whatever if you only casual game.

i got a belinea 22" and a 640mb gts and it does very well at every game i own maxed, but if i didnt game i would have got a 320mb for a lot cheaper, or even an older 7 series cad

 

[Kanifee]

i asked the same question a few weeks back and was told the same thing as you go with the 8800gts so i did.
boy am i glad i did aswell dirt on 1280x1024 on ultra settings is smooth as you like the cards are amaizing get the 8800 and like they say if you have the money llater on get another and you get twice the power for waiting a while

 

[LoadsaMoney]

Definately the GTS, i doubt those 8600's in SLi would be faster, or much faster than the GTS, plus games that won't utilise the SLi will be crippled as you'll be running a single 8600, and a single 8600 is pants.

 

[furman]

I think I'll go for the 8800GTS. One of the sales staff said its better to go for the 8800 too. Thanks

Is the rest of the system ok spec?

 

[furman]

I am tempted to go for 768MB nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX - Dual DVI, HDTV, TV-Out[upg £ 300.00]

 

[setter]

if you can afford the gtx go for it, if not the 8800gts 640 is a very good card had an sli setup myself once (2x6800gt) when a good single card comes out sli aint any use unless you have a massive monitor and a very high spec system
hence i moved to the 7900gt then the 8800gts when they came out to go with my new c2d rig

 

[furman]

Ordered the system with the GTX 8800 768mb