Should I go for 8800GT SLI? Two systems and their staying power...

[EricVPI]

I've decided I can't wait until Penryn cheaper cores in Jan to have a computer; I must have it now! (or within a week or two...) I know I'm going to get an E6850. But I'm not sure how much I should spend to extend the longetivity of my computer.

Should I get a single 8800GT and a 22" LCD, and keep that until Nehalem and the new 9800 GTXs are released whenever in in 2008? Or should I spend more cash and get two 8800GT's (which will probably outperform an 8800GTX for about the same price) and get a 24" LCD and hope that lasts me maybe until sometime in late 2009?


System for 8800GT (single) and 22"LCD is gonna be approx $1600-1700. SLI 8800GT and 24" LCD is going to be about approximately $2300-2400.



Or maybe I should get a single GTX and a 22" for about somewhere in between? But that seems like its staying power would be too much "in the middle"...

 

[Maziar]

if u want to go with technology , u cant every buy a new thing
get a 8800GTX and a 22" monitor , i have E6600@ 3.0 , 8800GTX, LGM228WA (1680x1050 ) and i love it

its been a time since "Future Proof" has died

btw no one exactly knows who 8800GT is going to perform

 

[eternallydead]

you should wait for the actual 8800GT bench marks, nVidia can sell the 8800GT for less due to the die shrink, and less cost of materials.

 

[aevm]

I'd get a Q6600 instead of E6850, if future-proofing is a priority. It will be slower for a year or so but faster after that.

You can't get the 8800 GT yet, and you said you wanted your PC now.

Get a GTX, a 24" monitor, an eVGA 680 A1 motherboard, and a PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W Crossfire.
(Crossfire means it has the 4 PCI-E connectors you need for two 8800 GTX cards, it can be used for SLI too.)

This way you will be all set for a while, and later you can add a second 8800 GTX. If you're going to try SLI you might at least do it with GTX cards - they're more powerful than GT cards and their drivers have a year of fixes already.

Edit: if you get a 24" monitor you probably won't be happy with a single GT card. Even a single GTX card is a bit challenged there, in some games, if you enable all the eye candy. Here's a sample:
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=706&model2=719&chart=298

 

[Maziar]

Q6600 vs E6850 :
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3038&p=8

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/core2quad-q6600.html

 

[EricVPI]

Two GTXs simply too much cash on top of a 24" LCD.

And I know you can't get an 8800GT yet, but you will be able to in about two weeks, which I can wait for. I CAN'T wait for the Nehalem or the fabled 9800GTX.

I've been looking at the 320mb 8800gts SLI benchmarks and they more or less trounce a single 8800 GTX. Even if the 8800GT slightly underperforms compared to an old 8800GTS 320, I imagine two for about the same price as a gtx (2x250) would be a good deal.

My old PC is a 7800GT and I can't run anything at a decent res with eye candy. What I don't want to do is sink a buch of money into a new PC and have it only be able to run Crysis at 35 fps @ 1680x1050 with eye candy (if it would even get that high).

 

[nickr336]

8800GT is not released yet. So, no sense to talk about it. If you have money to burn, then get 2 GTXs and a 24" LCD. Otherwise don't. Do you realize that the price of LCD doubles going from 22" to 24". That's right, you gain 2 inches and the price doubles. One 8800GTX is more than enough for any game. If one or two years from now there is a game that requires more, you can get 9800GTX or whatever for less than you would pay today fro 8800GTX. It's simple mathematics, man. Don't make it complicated.

 

[aevm]

All righty then, scale down to 1680x1050. That would be a 20", 21.6" or 22" monitor, I guess.

Your best choices are either a single 8800 GTX or a pair of 8800 GT. Keep in mind that some games won't support SLI, and in those the single GTX will be better. Also, with SLI you (usually) need a more expensive motherboard and PSU. However, in games where SLI works, it's great indeed. Here's Oblivion again, this time at 1600x1200:

32.5 fps for single 8800 GTX at 1600x1200
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=706&model2=740&chart=297

45 fps or 50 fps for 8800 GTS SLI (depending on OC and RAM)
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_sli2007.html?modelx=33&model1=805&model2=806&chart=357

I understand that the 8800 GT will be somewhere above the 8800 GTS, so the benchmark for 8800 GTS OC may be just perfect and you'd get around 50 fps with 8800 GT SLI at that resolution in that game. BTW, I don't have benchmarks for Crysis but I'm guessing they will resemble Oblivion's more than anything else.

TBH right now it looks smart to get the two 8800 GT cards. I'd wait until they are released and some reliable site reviews them. Just to make sure the drivers are OK and SLI works, you know...