7900gt sli vs. 8800gts 640mb

tauzins

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so i got a really hard decision i can get a sli setup of 7900gt's (used) for 250 bucks or i can get a brand new 8800gts 640 for 350 bucks... i was wondering what you guys think is the best choice for me?

seeing as though the new 89's will be comming out like q4 of this year maybe? and im looking to run crysis with my computer so i want the best thing to do. either get the sli and upgrade to a 89 or get a 88 and stick with it.

i have a amd 64 x2 3800
2gb ddr500 crucial teamextreme ram
580watt mushkin psu 4rails
lanparty n4 mobo
 

senor_bob

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The 8800 for sure. The 320MB might even work if you're not at super high res, but the 640's not a bad deal any more.

If you want to upgrade to 8900 you'll actually be able to get something for the 8800 as well.
 

tauzins

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ok so y not the 7900gt's its SLI in case u guys didnt read that part, o and ill be using the 1280x1024 resolution.


im hoping to run everything flawless and wanting the card or cards to last me a while

the thing about 88 is that i dunno if they are any good for dx 10 games
 

sirheck

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ok so y not the 7900gt's its SLI in case u guys didnt read that part, o and ill be using the 1280x1024 resolution.


im hoping to run everything flawless and wanting the card or cards to last me a while

the thing about 88 is that i dunno if they are any good for dx 10 games

At 12x10 the 79,s in sli are just fine even one is.
But with one card you have less heat and power draw.
And the 79,s wont even render dx10.

Its up to you.
 

sirheck

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the thing about 88 is that i dunno if they are any good for dx 10 games

No one really knows that as there are only maybe 2 games out that
are dx10 and its hard to say as they (the games and vista)
will only/hopefully get better with updates/patches.

M.S. should be putting out a major update this morning for vista.
 

Track

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ok so y not the 7900gt's its SLI in case u guys didnt read that part, o and ill be using the 1280x1024 resolution.


im hoping to run everything flawless and wanting the card or cards to last me a while

the thing about 88 is that i dunno if they are any good for dx 10 games

Why not get the 7900GT SLi?

1. They are used. Chances are they will die on u much more quickly, and when they do ur stuck with them cause there is no warranty.
2. You can get the 8800 GTS 320 for 250$ and it's as good or better than 7900GT SLi
3. If u buy the 8800 GTS 320, u will have room for another one later on, where as if u buy the 7900GT SLi, u wont have any room for an upgrade.
4. The 8800 GTS 320 is DX10, and SM4.0. Thats worth an extra 50$ easy, but u get it for free.
5. eVGA step-up program for the 8800 GTS 320 means u dont even have to buy another 8800 GTS 320, but actually get a newer better card instead.
6. Better, newer drivers for the 8800 series cards.
7. Anti Aliasing 16xQuality, MUCH better Anisotropic Filtering - pretty much perfect.
8. Much better performance for Anti-Aliasing and high-resolution textures due to CSAA Anti-Aliasing and 60GB+ of memory bandwidth.

I could go on..
 

tauzins

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to the comment above.. the cards are unregistered i can get a lifetime warrenty on them. they are from on my friends friend which wants to randomly get a 88gts.

but the point is that i i want a card to work for dx 10 games if thats what im buying like the 88's we dont know. for the 89s we have a better chance. so im soo confused on which ones to get. need more opinions.

also we know the 88's are good at DX9 games not the DX10 GAMES so really we cant compare able dx 10 and 9
 

Track

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to the comment above.. the cards are unregistered i can get a lifetime warrenty on them. they are from on my friends friend which wants to randomly get a 88gts.

but the point is that i i want a card to work for dx 10 games if thats what im buying like the 88's we dont know. for the 89s we have a better chance. so im soo confused on which ones to get. need more opinions.

What?

I gave u more than 8 great reason, what are u waiting for?
 

tauzins

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umm u said i would have no room to upgrade... uhh hello? the 89's

BASICLy its either get sli 7900gt's and upgrade to 8900 or get an 88gts 640 and dont upgrade
 

Track

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umm u said i would have no room to upgrade... uhh hello? the 89's

What the heck are u talking about?? Of course u can upgrade by getting rid of the cards u already have, but thats not the point. The point is leaving the card u have in there and adding another.

You would have to throw out the cards to upgrade from 7900GT SLi. If u had the 8800 GTS 320, u could just another one on top of that and that would be a hell of a lot better than an 8900.
BASICLy its either get sli 7900gt's and upgrade to 8900 or get an 88gts 640 and dont upgrade

Get the 8800 GTS 320 and another one when u feel like it.
Why is that so hard to understand??

And there IS NO 8900, and there probably wont be for either a very long time, or ever.
 

tauzins

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the point was, that we have no given proof that the g80 will run dx 10 games any good for all we care it can be another fx series where it ran the dx 8 well but sucked balls on dx 9... so basicly the 88 can run dx 9 awsome but suck on dx 10.

and dont u even say thats impossible.
 

Track

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the point was, that we have no given proof that the g80 will run dx 10 games any good for all we care it can be another fx series where it ran the dx 8 well but sucked balls on dx 9... so basicly the 88 can run dx 9 awsome but suck on dx 10.

and dont u even say thats impossible.

The FX series was a Pseudo-DirectX9.0 series. They were NOT true DX9.0 card and they had limited support for it.

The 8 series is a DirectX10 series. They ARE true DX10 cards and they have just as good support for DX10 as they have support for DX9.0.
 

tauzins

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well for a game like crysis do u think that the 88 will be able to run it from med or high settings?

i understand the 320 is prolly better to get then upgrade if i want the 89 but im still leaning more to the 640mb.
 

Track

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well for a game like crysis do u think that the 88 will be able to run it from med or high settings?

i understand the 320 is prolly better to get then upgrade if i want the 89 but im still leaning more to the 640mb.

Yes, u will be able to run Crysis @ 1280x1024 with everything on 'Very-High' using an 8800 GTS 320. Not sure about AA, because the game has to be optimized.

The ONLY reason to buy the 640MB version is if u have a 24" monitor or larger.
 

tauzins

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not to be rude, but from what i remember im pretty sure the ammount of textures on the screen also effects the ram of the graphics to. Or the amount of units or w/e on the screen at 1 time.

or when new games come out it will last longer if i get the 640mb b/c it will be most likely wanting more gpu ram for the game.
 

Track

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not to be rude, but from what i remember im pretty sure the ammount of textures on the screen also effects the ram of the graphics to. Or the amount of units or w/e on the screen at 1 time.

or when new games come out it will last longer if i get the 640mb b/c it will be most likely wanting more gpu ram for the game.

Things that an extra 320MB will help u with (in order of important):

1. Higher resolutions.
2. Anti-Aliasing.
3. Higher-Resolution textures.
4. Anisotropic Filtering.

Yes, 640MB will allow u to run ur games at 1600x1200 or higher, and imput higher levels of AA.
But since u cant go beyond 1280x1024 (even though I reccomend u buy a new bigger monitor), and because 4xAA is enough for anything..
I reccomend that u save the 100$ and spend it on an E4300. Its not worth 100$ anyway.
 

tauzins

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so even when i play crysis with that resolution i wont notice any decrease in performance from 320 than the 640?
 

Track

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Not much, no. Of course we dont have the game yet, so we dont know.

Its true that the 640MB version is more 'future-proof', but 100$ for 320MB is just not worth it.