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Worth getting a 2nd 7800gt?

man_from_uncle

man_from_uncle

man_from_uncle

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Joined
9 Jan 2006
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1,375
Hi all,

I am a man of very little will power with a largely untouched christmas bonus.

I've got a single 7800gt that i've been very pleased with indeed, but am now considering getting a second and going SLi. I've got a 19' crt monitor, so i can play up to 1600x1200 and where i can that is exactly what i want to do. Anyone got any idea what the performance increase will be like if I get a second 7800gt? (Oblivion is coming out in a couple of weeks and I am thinking about what that might require to run well on high settings).

Thanks.
 
No, sell your 7800GT for about £140ish and use the other £190 you were going to buy a second 7800GT with and get an ATI X1900-XT/X for the same money but much better performance.
 
To be honest, i think the jury is still out on whether 2 7800gts are beaten by an X1900 of any description. I've seen and heard conflicting statements but i've only seen a couple semi-reputable comparisons and the 7800gts seem to hold their own. I've also got to consider that if I buy a second hand card it might well cost me a fair bit less than going with a single X1900 and selling my old one.

I appreciate the insight though and i am eagerly awaiting the release of the 7900s for exactly the reason that Loadsamoney doesn't think that my timing is very good.
 
chances are with the 7900's coming out and the ati range dropping in price second hand 7800gt's should be getting cheap enough to try SLI. just an idea :)
 
I highly doubt that selling your 7800GT would be an issue, £140 is going to be £70-90 less than a 7900GT and if it's boxed like new then great, new 7800GT's are still £180+

I hear what you are saying about the 1900XT's not being faster but fro what I have seen with the higher 1600x1200+ resolutions then the X1900 is a real killer when you have AA & AF on at a decent level.

I guess you'll just have to bite the bullet and find out by buying another GT :D
 
Buying a second hand 7800gt might just be the ticket for me if I can pick one up for less than £150. Below is the link to a guy who ran two 7800gtxs in SLi then one X1900XTX. I know that i will be lucky to get within 90% of what 2 gtxs will do.....but have a look for yourself. I think the gts would do ok.


http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17543178


The only case really to me for spending that bit extra and getting a X1900 is that it'll probably run cooler and keep the ambient temperature in my case lower.
 
I'd say its DEFINATELY worth getting a second 7800GT, the difference for me from going from one 512MB 7800GT to two was immense.
 
I am now extremely tempted. It's that type of encouragement that I really need (or don't need depending on if you are my girlfriend or not). The only thing holding me back is.......to put it simpley.....one 7800gt so far has been more than powerful enough. There is still room for improvement given that i've got a bit old crt monitor, but it has been such a pleasure over my old 6800 and geforce mx400 (that's right!) before that, that i haven't fully gotten bored of what one card can do.

Sadly though I don't think any amount of wonderlust for a single card will make having two any less cool. In fact I've already measured my case and rearranged my hard disks so I can fit another graphics card in. It's all just a matter of time now I think.
 
Sounds to me like you have already made your decsion, you are just waiting for someone else to tell you it's ok.

2x 7800GT more cables, more clutter, more to go wrong, more to sell when you upgrade, more heat, more electricity, basically a lot more of everything vs. a 1900XT or a 7900GTX but just not that much of a gain in performance against one of them.
 
Journey said:
2x 7800GT more cables, more clutter, more to go wrong, more to sell when you upgrade, more heat, more electricity, basically a lot more of everything
Click to expand...

Erm, have you EVER run an SLI setup? :confused:

Mine has no more clutter, infact my case is probably tidier than any normal machine you have seen. More heat? nope, my case temps went up by 1ºc, and my CPU by NOTHING. More electricity says maybe, but compared to a more powerful card anyway, maybe not, also im running a 580W PSU thats handling the load fine, so I cant be usint THAT much power.
 
Eh???

Another card, another PCI-E connector, a whole other card producing heat and using electricity, how can your case have less in it yet have more in it, David Copperfield? Paul Daniels?
 
man_from_uncle said:
Ito put it simpley.....one 7800gt so far has been more than powerful enough. There is still room for improvement given that i've got a bit old crt monitor, but it has been such a pleasure over my old 6800 and geforce mx400 (that's right!) before that, that i haven't fully gotten bored of what one card can do.

.
Click to expand...

If you are satisfied with the one card then I think you will be dissaponted with another 7800 gt in sli.

unless you can get one uber cheap then I would sell your existing one and get a faster single card solution.

this will be cheaper in the long run.

there have been loads of people reading on thses forums that said the cost was simply not justified in games.

Double the cost did not mean double the performance.

with the price of the x1900 for 269 + vat the decision becomes abit more clear.

this card beats 7800 gtx in sli.
 
I didnt say it had less, i said it wasnt messy, doesnt produce any noticable increase in heat, and sure as hell doesnt go wrong.
 
So what you are saying is you were forced to tidy up you terrible mess of a case when you bought your second card :p Tut tut you should be ashamed!

Nevermind though, at the end of the day a second card does mean more setup, 2x as likely for something to fail and like I said earlier not a lot if any increase in performance over a 1900XT or 7900GTX???
 
2x as likely to fail, or twice as redundant ;)

I wasn't forced to do anything because I keep my cases tidy anyway!
 
buy yourself a tft ws 20" monitor they are just great somehow my graphics seem better:) ive just sent my card back because it was faulty since i got it, temp 80-90c with out running anything and 110c-117 sometimes even shutdown, my tv out looks like untuned tv picture, i got the card in august but didnt want to send it back because i just got bf2. hoping to get my full money back because it was faulty since i got it.
 
man_from_uncle said:
I am now extremely tempted. It's that type of encouragement that I really need (or don't need depending on if you are my girlfriend or not). The only thing holding me back is.......to put it simpley.....one 7800gt so far has been more than powerful enough. There is still room for improvement given that i've got a bit old crt monitor, but it has been such a pleasure over my old 6800 and geforce mx400 (that's right!) before that, that i haven't fully gotten bored of what one card can do.

Sadly though I don't think any amount of wonderlust for a single card will make having two any less cool. In fact I've already measured my case and rearranged my hard disks so I can fit another graphics card in. It's all just a matter of time now I think.
Click to expand...
lol i can sympathise on the girlfriend part, im currently trying to persuade the missus that me buying a new pc now would mean when the insurance pay up for my 'broke' pc she'll get a new pc to annihilate her sims 2 collection :D
 
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