9800 GX2 video card or 2 8800GTX in SLI

[Magoo]

As the title suggests... I'm just about to purchase a new system and at present i thought i would buy 2 8800GTX 768mb in SLI, but was wondering if i should hold off a month and get a 9800 GX2.

Which would be the better combo

Many thanks

 

[edgedemon]

9800 GX2 is rumoured to run very hot so you will need good cooling.
If it was me, Id go for the GX2 rather than the GTX - newer tech.
Can you hold off for a month and wait for the benchies?

 

[Magoo]

will need good cooling.

will be water cooled on both combinations

 

[Vertigo]

Depends what res you're running. If you're at 1920x1200 or above with lots of AA then the GTX still has the legs on the GT/GTS. The G92 cards have more "pixel processing" power in the core but are bandwidth bottlenecked at higher resolutions with AA.

 

[Magoo]

which combination would run Crysis better?

 

[LoadsaMoney]

9
If it was me, Id go for the GX2 rather than the GTX - newer tech.

Its the same tech, and the 2x GTX's should be faster.

 

[Andric]

if your water cooling think 2x gtx better - afaik the 9800x2 has the cooler in the middle of the 2 pcb sandwich - be hard to use custom cooling with that if true.
Else go radeon x2 - that has custom blocks already and from reports scales very well while sli has probs with scaling

 

[Monkeynut]

I'd go for a Radeon X2 if I was you.

OT: LoadsaDrivers, how well is your sempron rig holding up?

 

[Vertigo]

which combination would run Crysis better?

Crysis is an anomaly at high resolutions in that the GT/GTS will outperform the GTX. This is because Crysis makes much more use of the GPU's "pixel processing" power and the G92 core outstrips the older G80 here. Most other titles rely more on memory bandwidth at high resolutions and thus the GTX will have the legs of the GT/GTS.

The answer to your original question depends a lot on these questions:

1. What resolutions are you going to play at?
2. Are you going to use AA?
3. What games are you going to play?

Also bear in mind that the GX2 will probably street at around 350 quid here, making it a good 100+ quid cheaper than two GTXs.

 

[Smirnoff]

Go with a single card, 9800 GX2 or 3780x2 and a intel chipset board, P35,X38,X48. The SLI boards are just not worth the hassle compared to intel chipsets. Also the 9800 GX2 is rumored to cost upwards of £350 so i'd go for the 3780x2 personaly. Crossfire scales so much better than SLI and 2x 3870x2 on an Intel chipset is going to be a lot less hassle than any Nvidia card on a 780i platform.

 

[chaparral]

The SLI boards are just not worth the hassle compared to intel chipsets.

As in what way do you think that the SLI motherboards are not worth the hassle compared to intel motherboards

 

[Monkeynut]

I think he means the 680i chipsets.

 

[chaparral]

I think he means the 680i chipsets.

That would make me even more confused...as the 680i SLi is what i have been using for the about the last 10months

 

[Smirnoff]

780i is just as bad as the 680i board, just look in the striker 2 thread, the whole line of Nvidia chipsets is a joke.

 

[chaparral]

780i is just as bad as the 680i board, just look in the striker 2 thread, the whole line of Nvidia chipsets is a joke.

I been well pleased with my EVGA 680i SLI motherboard..and i most likely be buying a EVGA 780i or 790i for my next motherboard...

 

[Magoo]

1. What resolutions are you going to play at?
2. Are you going to use AA?
3. What games are you going to play?

1. See below but my monitor supports 1920 x 1200 so that would be good
2. Hopefully yes
3. Crysis, COD4, HALF-LIFE, QUAKE, UNREAL TOURNAMENT, ETC..

WOULD LIKE TO BE FUTURE PROOF FOR AT LEAST A COUPLE OF YEARS!!

My Spec will be:

Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz 6MB Cache 1333MHz FSB Liquid Cooled
Operating System: Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
Motherboard: NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
Graphics Processor: 768MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800 GTX x2 Sli ? Liquid Cooled
Memory: High Performance 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2GB - 2 x 1024MB
Power Supply: 1000 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply
System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 1.0 TB Serial ATA 3 Gbit/s 7,200 RPM with 32MB Cache
Primary CD ROM/DVD ROM: 20X Dual Layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Writer
Physics Processor: AGEIA PhysX™ Physics Processing Unit PCI-E
Sound Hardware: High-Definition 7.1 Performance Audio - Standard
Monitor: 24" Dell UltraSharp Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor - Supports Blu-Ray
Ozma 5™ Headphones

 

[P373]

wouldn't bother with a physx card tbh... Unreal 3 mite see a little improvement but would probs better off spending the money on a quad

 

[lay-z-boy]

Swap the 8400 for a q9xx0 quad core (yorkfield)
Swap the 680i for a 780i
Get rid of the PhysX processor
Make sure to get the 2408 not the 2407
4GB of ram ideally, some games at very high settings eat into that
Don't get those headphones, they are absolutely terrible.

Should be sorted. Personally I would go for a 9800GX2. Would allow for an easy sale if you want to upgrade or quad sli if you want to pair it up with another.

 

[LoadsaMoney]

I'd go for a Radeon X2 if I was you.

OT: LoadsaDrivers, how well is your sempron rig holding up?

Its holding up great, i only use it for the internet, which is all i was using me Connie, 8800 GT etc... for, as there was/is no new games, as they keep getting delayed, and no new cards, as Nvidia/AMD are still chucking out their old 2006 cards 2x years later, so i got shot, as i didn't need all that just for the net, as it didn't make it go any faster.

 

[Magoo]

Make sure to get the 2408 not the 2407

Sorry what does this refer too!