Is SLI better than one 8800 GTS?

[elrasho]

Is that time of the year again where i spend loadsa money on an upgrade. My current spec is as follows:

AMD Athlon 64 3200
1GB Corsair RAM
Asus A8N-SLI Motherboard
Sparkle GeForce 7600GT Graphics card

Im thinkin of upgrading to:

AMD X2 4800
another 1GB Corsair RAM
another GeForce 7600GT Graphics card OR a 8800 GTS card

Now im not gettin Vista till end of teh year (let all the bugs be delt with) so im not looking for DirectX10 gaming. Will another 7600GT card do the trick in SLI? Are two 7600GTs faster than one 8800 GTS?

Will I have to buy the exact same make of the 7600GT (I cant find the sparkle version anymore), or could I buy the XFX version?

Also will games like Crysys, Alan Wake, BioShock and UT2007 support SLI configurations under XP?

 

[Asuka]

8800 GTS for sure.

DX10 and its crazy powerful card.

 

[TCfromBN]

Go with the gts.

 

[[RnL]Stefan]

i'd have first said get the 8800...but seeing you dont care about dx10 for now, get another 7600gt for 150 bucks. sell it in a year and get a 8800 for half the price of now.

 

[elrasho]

Im not fussed about DirectX10, Im not gettin VISTA. So can I get any make of the 7600GT? Like an XFX one and will it run in SLI?

 

[Qonfused]

Two 7600GTs won't hold a candle next to one 8800.

 

[JNightshade]

Get the 8800.

 

[The Brick]

Wait for the 8600's.

 

[BarnyMiler]

Two 7600GTs won't hold a candle next to one 8800.

That maybe be, but the price difference makes it a tough sell.

Bottom line is, for $130 you get a second 7600 card and can run in SLI. For an additional $270 on top of that you get an unknown performance increase, and that's about it.

Kinda in a similar situation myself. Had 2 6800 Ultras in SLI that were running great, but one died, so now I'm back down to one, which still runs well, but for some reason I'm dying to do an upgrade! So I'm trying to find a card that will make the cost worth it. I think the only one that would is the 8800 GTS or GTX.

Also, see what Tom's hardware has to say:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/05/the_best_gaming_video_cards_for_the_money/page4.html

Go down to the section on the $350 price point cards. They're saying that the 8800 GTS will outperform two 7900 GS cards in SLI. Granted, your 7600 GT(s) are slightly better than the 7900 GS, but the point is the 8800 GTS will probably still outperform the pair in SLI.

"Even though it's more expensive, a single Geforce 8800 GTS does not have the extra costs associated with SLI or Crossfire, and will deliver better performance than two X1950 PRO or 7900 GS cards."​

8800 GTS Pros:

- Single card solution (can always add a 2nd 8800 GTS later)
- Better performance (slightly?)
- DX10 Compatible (not a big deal)
- Next-gen card (buys you time time till your next upgrade)

8800 GTS Cons:

- $$$ More expensive

 

[elrasho]

I dont understand how a single 8800 GTS can be faster than 2 7600GTs. Under Directx 9, surle the two 7600gts will be faster as there is no software advantage for the 8800gts.

Im thinking about clock speeds. THe ramdac is faster and the clock speed. Granted theres less memory but that wouldnt affect it that much.

Oh yeah, still dont know this, but can I but any make of another 7600GT and it will run SLI with my sparkle 7600GT?

 

[giant384]

any 7600gt will run with sli doesnt matter on brand. also 2 7600gts are about equal to a 7900gt i believe so the answer is no. the 7600gt sli is no where near it.

 

[Cole]

I dont understand how a single 8800 GTS can be faster than 2 7600GTs. Under Directx 9, surle the two 7600gts will be faster as there is no software advantage for the 8800gts.

Im thinking about clock speeds. THe ramdac is faster and the clock speed. Granted theres less memory but that wouldnt affect it that much.

Oh yeah, still dont know this, but can I but any make of another 7600GT and it will run SLI with my sparkle 7600GT?

The 8800 is faster than 2 7800's. Simply the 8800 is just a much more efficient card.

 

[Qonfused]

Most higher cards are greater than two lower. Pick any high, and any lower and it'll, in most cases, stay true.

 

[DreamThrall]

I dont understand how a single 8800 GTS can be faster than 2 7600GTs.

I believe the architecture is completely different. Instead of having pipes, there's something else... basically instead of pipes, there are a bunch of other things that can all do any given task depending on what's needed at the time. So as Cole said, its a much more efficient card. It also explains the astronomical leap in price... its all new technology, not just rehashes of old stuff.

 

[Asus]

Just look at the comparison chart with 8800GTS vs 7600GT in SLI (blue bars)

Also A single 8800GTX is better than a 7900GTX in SLI.
Both 8800GTX and GTS win over 7900GTX in SLI here

In my opinion SLI is only 'worth it' if you have 2 of the highest cards and an endless budget. IMO SLI is just too expensive (looking at the new cards) or you are putting money into something that is obsolete (buying an old card to match your other one).

 

[Iced_Eagle]

I believe the architecture is completely different. Instead of having pipes, there's something else... basically instead of pipes, there are a bunch of other things that can all do any given task depending on what's needed at the time. So as Cole said, its a much more efficient card. It also explains the astronomical leap in price... its all new technology, not just rehashes of old stuff.

I can't remember the fancy word nvidia gives it, but it's now all unified and all of the pipelines share the work instead of them being in seperate groups of pixel and vertex pipes... Now each pipeline can run both and it scales to get best performance.

Get one 8800 for sure. Also get Vista and let the card unleash itself... Everyone is being so hesitant over Vista when it hasn't even been released yet and the public can judge how "buggy" Vista is (which right now most of the bugs lie in the drivers which are consistently being released often and there aren't a whole heck of a lot of actual Vista OS issues).

 

[elrasho]

Im not willing to spend that amount of mooney on just a gfx card. Im not gonna be using Directx10 anyway coz Im gonna wait for Vista to get all its bugged cleaned.

In regards to playing games like UT2007, Crysis and Alan Wake, would another gig of ram and an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200 Dual Core Processor let me play them at 1024*768 with all settings on MEDUIM? I have a GeForce 7600GT graphics card

 

[The Brick]

No one can say for sure. But I think it would run both on medium-low.