geforce 8800 ultra or dual 8800 gts 320mb?

[zisman]

hi
my question is
geforce 8800 ultra or dual 8800 gts 320mb?on sli mode with assus motherbord with sli chipset.
i found the way to do comparison between the graphic cards
but how do i do comparison between dual card to singel ones?
i am looking all day for decision which one of those is the best betwen the 2?
thanks
sory about my english ......

 

[homerdog]

Ultra!!!

 

[justinmcg67]

Ultra...

 

[aevm]

Neither. The best solution is a single 8800 GTX, maybe factory overclocked. Example: BFG 8800 GTX OC2, or eVGA 8800 GTX ACS3.

You can compare a single card with two cards, but it's a bit tricky:

1. go to
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=853&model2=706&chart=298
2. write down the fps (30.5 for Ultra, 28.7 for non-overclocked GTX). By the way, this means overclocked GTX would get about the same fps as the Ultra, but it's cheaper
3. go to
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_sli2007.html?modelx=33&model1=805&model2=807&chart=358
and write them down again: 38.5 fps or 38.8 fps for SLI 8800 GTS.

Repeat for a different game, just make sure you pick the same benchmark for both URLs. Do it only for 1920x1200. At lower resolutions SLI is not necessary.

This particular comparison shows that 8800 GTS SLI does better than a single 8800 Ultra or GTX. However, some games don't support SLI, so in those games your SLI combo would be weaker than a single GTX. Also, with SLI you pay more for electricity, there's more heat, more RAM consumed by drivers, etc. The simple rule is to do SLI only with the latest and greatest cards (8800 GTX or 8800 Ultra), never with weaker cards (including 8800 GTS).

 

[zisman]

wow thanks

 

[bornking]

GTX OC

 

[homerdog]

GTX OC

... = Ultra!!!

 

[englandr753]

You will pay about the same for either setup but the benefit to do the Ultra or GTX is when and if you use this card long enough to reach max performance and want to upgrade all you will have to do is install another Ultra/GTX card and you will be good for a bit longer.

Going SLI GTS is your max performance and anything better than that will require for you to discard those two cards.

I use the GTX ACS3 KO card and it is smoking fast out of the box. I could go SLI but theres no need for that yet as far as I can see for a while but its nice to know that I can anytime I want... =P

 

[justinmcg67]

GTX OC

Which is what I own. My Foxconn 8800GTX Over Clocking Version (as they call it), is at GTX Ultra clocks. Pretty darn fast.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814186021

 

[bornking]

GTX OC is at $499
Can't be beat. Better price and same performance as the Ultra.

I win.

 

[Evilonigiri]

Yep. Unless you can find an Ultra for less than $500, the GTX is your best bet.

 

[techgeek]

General rule of thumb when purchasing graphics cards, one faster card is better than two slower cards in SLI. That is to say, spend your whole GPU budget on 1 good card. Later if you feel like going SLI, match that 1 card you have with another. The other way to look at it is, SLI isn't supported by all games (some even crash with it enabled), also nVidia is still having problems with SLI and Vista. You didn't mention whether you'll be using Vista, but it the future I'm sure most of us will be, so it's something to consider in the near term if you had planned on Vista.