7800 cards...

[Zcuda]

Hello everyone,
first time in the forums & still learning.
I am trying to understand more about the differences of the video cards...
I have a MSI NX7800 GeForce GTX 256 MB PCI-E & I like it. I have been looking around to buy another & don't seem to find them. Why is it that I see a lot of the 7600 GT, GS, etc & of course the 7900 series but next to nothing in the 7800 serious? Why is this? Are some of those 7600 serious cards better than the one I have?
Just looking to pair mine up to run SLi.
System= Asus A8n series MB, AMD 64 X2 4800+ , 2 GB Corsair ram, Raid 0 with 2 W.D. 10K Raptors SATA ( for games only of course) & second Hard drive is the bigger one for regular programs, 600 Watt power.
Thanks in advance, Jason

 

[mpjesse]

7800's are no longer is production. If you want to find one, look on eBay. I just sold a couple GTX's for $180.

 

[siggsy]

No, the 7600's are not better than your card it's just that they produced another couple of models after yours (and mine) and they seem to be more available.

As been said, ebay is your best bet to find another 7800gtx - either that or you can buy mine

Must admit I was looking at sourcing another card for SLi or just selling it and upgrading to a faster one.

 

[mpjesse]

Sell it an get an 8800 GTS. I had a SLI setup on a system very similar to yours, it didn't do shi*t for me. The only game that I noticed a difference in was Prey, but only at high resolutions.

 

[siggsy]

Sell it an get an 8800 GTS. I had a SLI setup on a system very similar to yours, it didn't do shi*t for me. The only game that I noticed a difference in was Prey, but only at high resolutions.

Yeah, that was what had me thinking because I have a 19" Viewsonic VX922, with it's native resolution of 1280x1024 @60hz that even Sli is not going to help that much.

 

[Blacken]

Drools. 7800GTX, I'd take it over my 7900gs any day.

 

[Blacken]

Nope. Better off with one mammoth of a card unless you have a religious vow not to use anti-alaising. 4xAA smoothens a 1280x1024 beautifuly.

 

[DukeDave]

Sell it an get an 8800 GTS. I had a SLI setup on a system very similar to yours, it didn't do shi*t for me. The only game that I noticed a difference in was Prey, but only at high resolutions.

Yeah, that was what had me thinking because I have a 19" Viewsonic VX922, with it's native resolution of 1280x1024 @60hz that even Sli is not going to help that much.

I am sorry but I cannot agree, I have tried the 7600GT's I have in both single mode and SLI and have found that frame rates improve by about 70 to 80% with SLI in nearly all cases. I like you only run in 1280x1024@60Hz.

 

[siggsy]

I think it depends on what games you play and if it's necessary to have those extra fps. I find that my 7800gtx doesn't strugle with anything that I currently play (mostly first person shooters and the wife who has exactly the same system with her playing world of warcraft). Just given me an idea - I still don't know why I don't steal her card for half an hour and try the SLi in my system, then I'd be able to answer most of my own questions (siggsy for dumbass of the year award lol)

It's all about whether it's worth spending the extra cash on another card (for SLi) for a few extra fps which for the games I play would/might be a waste and then losing money when selling both to upgrade in the future. Or selling the single card now or soon and upgrading to a 8800 card or the new R600 when it's available.

****Sorry original poster for hijacking your thread but I hope by reading this it can answer your question, or even giving you help in your own predicament that is similar to mine.****

 

[rodney_ws]

The 7800 series of video cards was made using a different manufacturing process... it costs Nvidia more to make a 7800 class card than it does to make a 7900 series that performs better... still wondering why you can't find any new cards for sale? And like previous posters said... 7800s are older than the 7300, 7600 and the 7900 series... but performance wise they're 2nd to the 7900 series (assuming we leave the 8800 series out of the discussion)

 

[mpjesse]

Sell it an get an 8800 GTS. I had a SLI setup on a system very similar to yours, it didn't do shi*t for me. The only game that I noticed a difference in was Prey, but only at high resolutions.

Yeah, that was what had me thinking because I have a 19" Viewsonic VX922, with it's native resolution of 1280x1024 @60hz that even Sli is not going to help that much.

I am sorry but I cannot agree, I have tried the 7600GT's I have in both single mode and SLI and have found that frame rates improve by about 70 to 80% with SLI in nearly all cases. I like you only run in 1280x1024@60Hz.

Exactly what is "all cases"? 3Dmark06, doom3, and quake 4? Seriously, go take a look at the VGA charts and compare SLI vs non-SLI w/ 7xxx series. It's a joke.

 

[Zcuda]

Hello eveyone,
Thanks for all the input. No worries about hijacking the forum its info for me to digest. It's not that I can't find other 7800 cards. I thought that with the older ones you had to have the exact same card to connect them for SLi. I need to do more homework for the next card. I think I will look into maybe selling it but, definately look into buying one of the other newer style cards that maybe are already dual setup. Not that I will go to the quad at a later date but, maybe the dual will make me happy enough LOL. I do play the first peron shooters a lot, Frycry, CoD1 & 2, Fear, MoH, Flight simulation & believe it or not I still have some friends that play starcraft which I do jump in with them now & then but, the card is major over kill for that game LOL. Thanks for all the fast responses everyone. Much faster than I thought it would be. Any input on the newer cards that run Nvidia for under $400.oo. Duals? maybe 512 mb? thanks all, Jason

 

[DukeDave]

I am sorry but I cannot agree, I have tried the 7600GT's I have in both single mode and SLI and have found that frame rates improve by about 70 to 80% with SLI in nearly all cases. I like you only run in 1280x1024@60Hz.

Exactly what is "all cases"? 3Dmark06, doom3, and quake 4? Seriously, go take a look at the VGA charts and compare SLI vs non-SLI w/ 7xxx series. It's a joke.

This is about the only time I have had an issue with anything on THG. I cannot make heads or tails out of the comparisons for sli and non sli in the VGA charts, the ratings are almost the same.

I have 3DMark05 and 06, the scores I get sli are 05-9197 and 06-4767, I have not bothered to try it single card. Comparing the results with other users who are not running sli, there is approx a 1500 to 2000pt difference in 3DMark06 scores for similar configurations.

In my own experiments playing at 1280x1024@60Hz I have found the following to be true:

FEAR max settings - single 7600GT is unplayable, drops to as low as 15fps but with sli it never drops below 38fps.
Halflife 2 - very little difference single or sli.
Doom 3 ultra high - have not tried it single but sli has not stuttered once during approx 30hrs game time.
FarCry (v1.33) max settings - as for Doom 3.
NFS Most Wanted max settings - as for Doom 3.
Call of Duty 2 max settings - frame rate is too low with single card, can't play with all of the nice stuff turned on, sli is smooooth.
V8 Supercars 3 max settings - works great either single or sli.
And an oddball Simcity 4 Rush Hour - would stutter during the driving missions with a single card and the screen redraw rate was too slow, had to wait for the buildings to draw when zooming out, not so with sli.

So, as you can see, for me sli has worked quite well, I run most of the games with the default settings in the drivers and have not had any issues with the system since I put it together a couple of months ago.

This is my opinion and I do not recommend sli for everyone, there are more things to go wrong and there can be a bit more involved in getting some games to run at thier optimum, not to mention the added cost of a second card. The addition of the extra card does make a difference though, if the game you are playing is limited by the GPU you are using, for a game that is cpu limited, like Halflife 2, there is little to no difference by adding the second card.

 

[Dahak]

Try looking at www.evga.com and check out their selection.You might just find one in their decently wide selection of NVIDIA graphics cards,now they are also into mainboards.Goodluck.

Dahak

AMD X2-4400+@2.4 S-939
EVGA NF4 SLI MB
2X EVGA 7800GT IN SLI
2X1GIG DDR IN DC MODE
WD300GIG HD
EXTREME 19IN.MONITOR 1280X1024
ACE 520WATT PSU
COOLERMASTER MINI R120

 

[siggsy]

Hello eveyone,
Thanks for all the input. No worries about hijacking the forum its info for me to digest. It's not that I can't find other 7800 cards. I thought that with the older ones you had to have the exact same card to connect them for SLi. I need to do more homework for the next card. I think I will look into maybe selling it but, definately look into buying one of the other newer style cards that maybe are already dual setup. Not that I will go to the quad at a later date but, maybe the dual will make me happy enough LOL. I do play the first peron shooters a lot, Frycry, CoD1 & 2, Fear, MoH, Flight simulation & believe it or not I still have some friends that play starcraft which I do jump in with them now & then but, the card is major over kill for that game LOL. Thanks for all the fast responses everyone. Much faster than I thought it would be. Any input on the newer cards that run Nvidia for under $400.oo. Duals? maybe 512 mb? thanks all, Jason

It seems you play very similar games to myself

It used to be for SLi that you had to have another card from the exact same make/model/manufacturer but that's not the case anymore. You can connect any other 7800GTX to run in SLi even if it hasn't got the same clock speeds, as the SLi system will put both cards at the slowest paced card.