Thoughts on buy one now, get second later SLI...

[DrMekon]

If you cant get 2 cards now is it worth it?

If you spend say, in my case, £300/350 on an Nvidia (7800gtx 256) now, and try to get another one when they are a bit cheaper in 12/24 months time for about half that amount... would they still compete with the technology available then??

Would they still cut the mustard, when new higher spec cards, with more features, DX10, memory, speed etc... or would you be better off just selling the card and putting whatever you get (plus the £150/200 for the second one) towards the best you can get at that time with the same £300/350 budget?

I suppose what Im asking is do you think that a new card in say 18 months time for about £300/350, would be better than the 2 7800gtx's that I would be able to have at that time??

Im wondering cos im getting an DFI Expert, but have always been a fan of ATI.. which seem to give you more for your money than the nvidia counterpart... and am concerned that if I get an ATi card, then I am losing the ability of running SLI... hence the question above!!!

After a couple of months of waiting to build a new rig for my Opty 146 CABNE ... I can wait no longer.. and am ordering all my stuff soon, in fact next week... However, Nvidia new cards due out in March which will inevitably have a knock on efffect... and am tempted to wait for a decent VGA until then to keep SLI an option...?????

 

[semi-pro waster]

Based on last generation something like 2x6600gt cards = 1x6800gt to all intents and purposes so I'd guess that say 2x 7800gtx will probably compare to 1x top end next generation but that is a very very rough guess.

In general I'd say that SLi isn't worth it, I'd just get a good card now and when the time comes to replace it I'd get another good card but with SLi you do have the option at least of adding to it for a relatively cheap performance boost. I normally leave my PC for a while though and replace the whole thing in one go.

You could always get a Crossfire compatible motherboard and a Crossfire edition graphics card if you really prefer ATI, maybe the Sapphire motherboard would be worth looking at.

 

[DrMekon]

Ive heard only bad things about Crossfire boards.. they are too "new" and they in no way compare to the likes of DFI/ASUS Nforce etc... one thing I know for sure, is Im stayin away from crossfire, hence my dilema...

Think I will still wait til March to decide on a high end card... but if ATi have best perfomance/cost ratio.. I will go with them...

 

[Dureth]

I wouldnt bother with SLI unless you want 2x topend cards right now. If your buying 1 now and 1 later then generally you can sell your current card and get the new top end card for the same price as buying a 2nd older card. Obvious which is the best bet.

This is even more of a factor with things like the 6600gt. There was never a point in getting a 2nd of these. By the time you wanted to buying an 850xt was cheaper (after you sell your old 6600gt).

 

[HangTime]

The trouble is, you can never be sure that you will easily be able to get hold of another card the same in 12/24 months time.

Personally when I upgraded to s939 I went for a non-SLI board because I felt I would unlikely to use the feature. The increased power consumption, heat production, and space requirement of SLI makes it unattractive to me.... when my 6800GT gets too slow I'll either sell it and by a single fast card to replace it, or more likely be moving on to a new motherboard anyway (AM2/DDR2?). Plus remember that SLI seems to vary in effectiveness from game-to-game.... in FEAR for example, the gains are huge (something like 80%+), whereas some other games benefit little from it. Not to mention bugs/driver/compatibility issues which can occur.

 

[FrankJH]

I had exactly this thought when upgrading last time and I got a non sli board at the time ( I knew things like usb2 and sata 2 would be available by the time I upgraded) as well as a 7800GT a few months back

I just got given an insurance cheque to replace another pc that was stolen and thought great I can get an SLI rig ---- but after looking at the still relatively high prices of GT's (not that far off what I paid for mine 3 months ago) as well as adding in cost of mobo and new psu etc, it was cheaper and better performance wise to go for a X1900XT instead!!! ( I also have the basis for another pc which is also good)

Ok so if you leave it longer and you also get the SLI board originaly - you save a little, but new cards are coming out every 6 months, so in your time scale you will be two generations behind before you upgrade and from that point of view it wont be worth it in my opinion - I would guess that you would get better performance out of a new £300 card in 12 months or more ( and also you may want to upgrade your mobo for any new developements like digital audio or ddr2 etc)

 

[ACESHIGH]

SLI usually is not worth it IMO.
By the time you need to upgrade it is more worthwhile to sell your original card & get the next generation card which will be faster (just as fast).
SLI = hotter temps & more noise also.


On a side note though, the MSI & ASUS ULI based crossfire boards do not have problems & are good performers.

 

[BigDom]

On a side note though, the MSI & ASUS ULI based crossfire boards do not have problems & are good performers.

Not strictly true, some people are complaining about the Asus but when you look at their issues it's primarally hard core clockers complaining. I personally love the board and it works great for me and it does clock pretty well as can be seen by OCUK running one in their mega rig.

 

[man_from_uncle]

The SLi is really a matter of timing I think. There are only really 2 options at the moment as far as i can see.

1) The 7800gt which is currently just over £200 but will likely drop by 20-40% in the next 6 months as the 7800gtx gets pushed down by the 7900. In 6 month time £140-160 to go SLi might be a good option. It'll be cheaper than going to an X1900XT which is probably the first card to be decent enough by itself to be a better option. The 7800gt should also still be in stock come the summer time.

2) The 6800gs is a lot cheaper but as it gets pushed down the food chain you will probably be able to start picking these up for less than a £100 in 6 months. This'll still be cheaper than a 7800gtx i think and offer comparable if not better performance (in many applications at least).

All the other options are either going to be too slow, too expensive, or too hard to purchase. And even then, going with a 7800gt or 6800gs will probably only be a good idea if you plan to upgrade in the next 6-8 months.

Personally i will just see how it goes. I went for the 7800gt because it was probably the best value high-spec card regardless of the SLi option (in fact it probably still is). Maybe it 6-8 months i'll get another if the price is right, but if it is not.....maybe 7900gt.