8800 GTX upgrade question

[gurt666]

Hi everyone,

I am currently using a Dell XPS system, 3.2 ghz core duo, 2gb ram with the 30" monitor and 2 x 7800 GTX in SLI mode.
I was considering upgrading my graphics card to either 1 or 2 8800 GTX cards and wanted to ask if you think there will be a noticable difference.
Is 1 8800 GTX card be considerably better than my 2 x 7800 GTX? If is is, I may start with 1 8800 GTX and add another at a later date but if teh performance gain will be small I may just leave it as it is for now.

In addition, is it worth waiting for teh next version of pci-e? Is it supposed to be released soon?

Thank you all for your help!

 

[jonrem]

GeForce 8800 in SLI @ the Tech Report
This article has some benchies that might help you make a decision.

 

[gurt666]

Thank you very much.
However, if you had to give your opinion:
8800 GTX Vs. 2 x 7800 GTX
What would be better? I really need to know if investing $600 now would improve my gaming experience considerably.

 

[gurt666]

Sounds amazing! However, i have been reading through these boards and saw a lot of posts mentioning a direct impact of the CPU on the GPU performance, or bottlenecks.
I have a dual core 3.2 (not dual core 2). Will that slow down a 8800 GTX and maybe even put it on part with my 7800 GTX SLI'D?

Thanks again!

 

[jonrem]

I'd say go for it if you've got the $. It should give you a pretty nice boost with 1 and 2 in SLI would be insane on that 30" beast.

 

[gurt666]

Sorry, I have Pentium D 3.2Ghz.

 

[jonrem]

Oh, didn't catch that. I need to read more closely. I was thinking C2D. Yeah like RobsX2 said you'll be bottlenecked

 

[gurt666]

So you're basically saying that on my current CPU setup I would not gain much from using one 8800 GTX over the 7800 GTX SLI that I have?
I wasn't planning on upgrading my PC at this point, it's too expensive to buy everything from scratch, I only thought about boosting my gaming performance by getting the 8800 GTX... A bit disspointing I'd say :-(

 

[gurt666]

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate your time.
I guess I will start considering selling my rig and building a new one.
I will have to post a separate question though on buying a brand Vs. building a rig myself plus config. recommendations.

Oh boy...

 

[gurt666]

Hey Rob, looks amazing! some massive cooling going on there
I could really use some advice on choosing the right components and building my rig.
I don't think that I want to go into water cooling yet (pretty scary to me, never done that before) but definately it's a must for me to choose the right board, ram, case and psu.
Would be great if I could contuinue this discussion with you without spamming the boards with this message for ppl who don't care.
If that works for you, you can send me an email to flames@gmail.com and we can continue there.

Thanks a lot!

 

[licious]

Build your own, its fun, you get exactly what you want and it comes out tons cheaper than buying something from Dell or Dellianware or Falcon.

 

[gurt666]

Yeah, I am definately going to give it a chance and build my own.
Now the questions of which parts to buy begin...
Is there a recommended website/store for buying all the components from?

 

[jonrem]

These are two of the best:
Newegg
ZipZoomFly

 

[stan116]

Very big diff,but be aware that the new 8800GTX's have two 6pin power connectors on each card.I do not think your dells power supply has four 6 pin connectors.I have two 8800GTS's as well as two 8800GTX's. I stepped up from two 7900superclocked GTX's and there is a really big diff.I had to go with a CoolerMaster 850W RealPower Pro It has the Quad power connectors,as well as one of the only power supplys that have six 12Volt rails.IOt runs steady 850 watts at 85% and max's out at 1000W.Besides haveing two 6 pin power connectors,it also setup to run two SLI bridges.I think the reason for that is going to have something to do with the card that will be getting placed in the middle PCIe slot for Phys.You must have noticed that alot of the new boards have 3 PCIe slots. One at each end for your SLI and the middle is going to be for the phys card,And i am not talking about the PhysX cards that are now out.This will be something diff.

 

[licious]

Places like xoxide and frozencpu get overlooked, but they are specialty case/cooling stores. Check them out, they have great stuff, I put silenx fans in my work PC (Precision Workstation 380) and it went from sounding like a turbojet to barely audible hum.

Some of the newer 850W and up are now carrying 3-4 6 pin connectors. Thermaltake and Mushkin have Quad +12v rails now as well (probably due to the 8800GTXs), but yeah for the longest time Coolermaster was the only one with it.

Modular cabling is a must, especially if you have raging OCD when it comes to your case interior.

 

[gurt666]

Thank you so much for all the answers!
I took a look at all the links and the selection is huge... got me a bit more confused as to where to start...
I think that I am going to start another thread and ask qustions about system configurations.

Thank you all again!

 

[XrayMan]

Go with Newegg. Don't go with Zipzoomfly. I ordered from them and paid for 2 day shipping, and 5 days later its not even shipped yet. Newegg got me an item 2 days after ordering it. I hope this info helps you as i didn't have the luxury of being warned about this, like you are now. Good luck with everything.