8800GT (512mb) v's 2 x 7950 GT SLi

Your rig is actually pretty good. People can (and will) throw lots of statistics at you, but the most important ones deal with gaming fps and quality settings. As of now, you can probably run any game maxed out at high resolutions just fine. The only exception is Crysis, which no setup can run perfectly yet. You could get an 8800gt, but you probably wouldn't see much of an improvement over your current hardware. If, however, you were to run 2 8800gt's in sli, you'd see some definite benchmark improvement. Whether or not that translates into a better gaming experience is debatable, but you'd be able to run DX10 and see if you like it.

Personally, I'd wait just a little while longer until a single card comes out that will offer you significant added power for future game titles. As they say, you don't need to upgrade until your gaming performance actually starts to suffer. Nvidia's 9-series is supposed to be entering the market soon, and then we'll have a better picture of what's what.

Go here http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_sli2007.html then go here http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html Each has benches for each solution. Same games, apples to apples, enjoy

Hi i totaly agree with them i have a 7950GT single now im using 2GB of Ram dual channel and E4300 on a nfoce 680i i overclocked everthing and the only game i just can´t run on max is Crysis...

You know what, a single 8800GT will beat dual 7950GT by alot in many new games I bet. 79x0"s seem to tank in some games compared to the X1950, or newer generation cards.

No direct comparisons, but lets look at some situations:

100% scaling of 7900GT SLI would still only be 50% of the 8800GTX in this COD4 test: http://www.firingsquad.com/hardwar [...] /page3.asp

100% scaling of 7950GT would be less than an 8800GTS 640MB in UT3:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] i=3128&p=4

And 100% scaling of 512MB 7900GT doesn't come close to a 640MB GTS in this UT3 test:
http://www.legionhardware.com/docu [...] id=693&p=5

100% scaling of 7900GT is nowhere close to a single 8800GT in this crysis test:
http://www.legionhardware.com/docu [...] id=698&p=2

100% scaling of 7900GT is not close to an 8800GT in this test:
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardwar [...] /page6.asp

So I was on the side of no don't upgrade like everyone else, but when I think about it, there are valid reasons to upgrade. Possible way better performance in the new games where you would hope your 7950 sli would shine. Much better image quality, especially texture filtering. The ability to run fsaa and HDR at once in games like Oblivion. Plus probably better performance too as the 79x0's cards had such low min framerates outside in Oblivion. Notice the 7950's are typically left out of Oblivion testing now in reviews where they are stil used, because current cards are playable with aa+HDR, but GF7's don't support it. Example: http://www.firingsquad.com/hardwar [...] /page7.asp

Also it comes down to cost. You may be able to sell your pair of 7950's for more money than a single 8800GT would cost you new. Benefits of the 7950 are you can later power 2 other systems with OK performance when you upgrade this one, but I assume that to most other people this isn't a benefit like it is to me.

Anyway, if you play Oblivion, Crysis, COD4, UT3, etc., and you can get all the money for the 8800GT by selling your cards and maybe even make a profit, then I would say it would be well worth the hassle of selling and upgrading. Shoot, you then could head toward 8800GT SLI if you want since your mobo supports it.



edit: Shoot, and I see you are running vista which brings up more benefits. DX10 effects of course for one. But more important is driver support down the road. In Vista especially, I see a single 8800GT being taken care of by NV's drivers team way more than sli GF7's will be.

Think about it.

I vote stick with your setup like others have said. I have a buddy who has 2 7950GTO's in SLI and it still kicks butt. The only thing you are missing out on is DX10 but then again you have to have Vista and who wants that?

Yeah, wait to upgrade until the next wave of cards comes out. The 8800 GT is good, but I am sure the new gen of cards will be worth the upgrade. Just hope it isnt more than a year away!

that's the beauty of supply and demand. they're hoping a guy like you will come along wanting to get a second card for SLI. Since the cards aren't made anymore and are hard to find, they're hoping you're willing to shell out the dough. also, they probably paid a lot for the cards when they bought 'em, and are trying to recover some costs. I pity the foo who pays that much for old tech.