Money no object- Fastest 8800 Ultra, or 8800GT SLI?

[CGrieves]

As the title, money is no object here- for performance, reliability and practicality, given the choice between the fastest 8800 Ultra available, or two 8800GTs SLI'd, which would you choose?

I say again: Cost is irrelevant here.

 

[eyetrip]

Umm, then two Ultra's in SLI if money is no issue...

 

[CGrieves]

Between those two choices!

 

[gt_junkie]

Since i've seen reviews stating crossfired 2900xt's beat an ultra and that the GT's are midway between GTS and GTX performance i'd say 2 GT's should perform better than a single ultra.

On top of that you could say you had SLi too!

As i've got a P35 ,mobo i could only use a single nvidia card or go the crossfire route though!

gt

 

[Tooks]

Well, from the few reviews where 8800GT's have been SLI'd, they are beating a stock 8800GTX by approx 30% to 40% at 19 x 12.

So, I would say the 2 GT's would be quicker than 1 Ultra, as long as you accept the usual pro's and con's of an SLI setup...

 

[andyuk1]

As the title, money is no object here- for performance, reliability and practicality, given the choice between the fastest 8800 Ultra available, or two 8800GTs SLI'd, which would you choose?

I say again: Cost is irrelevant here.

u can buy my gtx for £1000.i will even throw in the leads

 

[SABRE70]

Regarding the fact that almost every games didn´t use sli, I believe a single Ultra its preferable

 

[helmutcheese]

The SLI set up if it actually worked in most games properly and gave 100% extra performance.

 

[ergonomics]

get the 2 8800GT's, faster than 1 ultra anyway in a sli optimized game, then clock them up even more. cheaper as well.

 

[DavidB]

Buy a budget card and wait for the next gen of cards out soon.

 

[[TW]Fox]

Between those two choices!

So obviously then cost is not irrelevent?

 

[gt_junkie]

Regarding the fact that almost every games didn´t use sli, I believe a single Ultra its preferable

Using ntune or similar you can run sli configurations on non-sli games and get great results.

My GX2 gave around a 70-80% increase in performance when compared to a single 7900gt.

SLi is not as poor as many would have you believe. I'd also like to point out that i am no nvidia fanboy. I've used both ATi and Nvidia cards over the years and was very happy with each.

gt

 

[CGrieves]

So obviously then cost is not irrelevent?

Yes, it is. I am in the position where I can have either of the two mentioned setups at no cost to me. So cost is irrelevant, but I am limited to those choices. QED.

So far, having lived with SLI in the form of a 7950GX2 (which is a great card and has only really chugged with the introduction of the Crysis demo) I am leaning towards the Ultra, simply because I can ditch the PCI card that is running my auxiliary monitor and go to a simpler setup with a single card that won't have any issues with games that dont support SLI.

I'm not one for waiting for the next generation of cards- there's never a "good" time with PC peripherals. I have the opportunity now, so those are my choices.

 

[james.miller]

you mentioned reliability....... SLi isnt in the running then.

 

[CGrieves]

you mentioned reliability....... SLi isnt in the running then.

Oh, I dunno- I've never had an issue with the 7950GX2, although I suppose that is a "single" card solution in a sense, but still SLI. Though I admit I leave it up to the driver to decide which games work with SLI and which won't.

If "true" multi-card SLI setups are really that unreliable though, then I guess that makes my mind up. Any other comments on that?

 

[willhub]

If money is no object, do this, get one of thoe Tri-SLi mobo's, get 3 EVGA 8800Ultras Superclocked.

 

[IceShock]

imo, get a ultra as it will support things that sli does not and you will have a spare pci-e slot incase you want another ultra in the future.

 

[Arcane]

Another vote for the GT's

 

[lay-z-boy]

Out of an 8800 ultra and two 8800gt's, I would take the gt's any day.

Then again, if you had the money to potentially get another ultra down the line then I would get one of those.

 

[CGrieves]

Out of an 8800 ultra and two 8800gt's, I would take the gt's any day.

Then again, if you had the money to potentially get another ultra down the line then I would get one of those.

Yep good point. Thanks to all for the input. Reading up on the 8800GT SLI review, it looks like the twin setup only really comes into it's stride at very high resolutions, and I'm not upgrading my monitors at this point, so I think I'll do the Ultra thing and perhaps SLI that when the prices crash (fairly soon at this rate).

Ta!