Budget gamers and SLI?

Is it just me, or does it seem like the performance gain in SLI sucks. For the 8800GT and my 7900 GS, both of them have minimal performance increases according to the hardware chart. Why would someone buy another card, and have to potentially pay more for cooling, and a much larger power supply, when you can just get a faster card, and sell your old one (ususally). I guess what I'm asking is: Is it worth it for a budget gamer like me to pay extra (or wait for AM2+ SLI Boards in my case) for the SLI? I will never have the finest or most expensive card on the market, and for price/performance it just seems better to get a whole new card. Do you think this is the case? Thanks.

^Agreed. SLI is scaled as resolution increases and also how well the game supports SLI.

I would say 1650x1000 and up is high resolution. That is just a generalization, though. You will still see improvements when adding a card at lower resolutions, just not as much. And like Shadow said, it depends on how well the game you play supports SLI. There are many other factors, as well, such as CPU speed. But, basically, lets say you have a single 8800 GT and game at 1440x960 resolution. If you added a second 8800GT, the gains will not be as good as if you played at something higher, like above 16x10.

What card do you currently have OP and what resolutions do you play at.

^ I would say high res is 1400*1200 or higher with most of the eye candy (ie. 4x AA,etc)

Well, I'm doing some digging for when I get my new rig. Fortunately for me I will be able to sell my old rig at a decent price (A friend wants to buy it), and I am able to get almost all new hardware, with the exception of input devices, CD/DVD-RAM Drive, and headphones. I'm just want to know if there is a point to waiting for a SLI AM2+ that will eventually come out. I will be getting a 22" widescreen though, so I will want to run all my games at 1680x1050 (Though I will be happy with 1440x900). I heard that the 8800GTS shows its extra juice at higher resolutions, and that's why I'm not going with the 8800GT. I really don't have the power supply to go SLI, but I'm just checking it out (I have a VX550W). I am not planning on using my current rig with a new card, as there is obviously some serious bottlenecking. I will be upgrading to a AMD 6400+ and 4GB of RAM.

You are looking at the wrong charts. Take a look at the merged screenie below. In the GPU crushing second half of Crysis, would you rather be at 16 fps with one 8800GT, or 29fps with SLI 8800GT? That's over 80% gains at 1680x1050 2xaa/16xaf all high details in Win XP 32-bit. Oblivion I have seen higher still with near 100% scaling in the dense foliage.

OR....you can grab the 9800GX2 and have SLI on a stick, the best of both worlds = )

yes, and I totally have the same view as you. A single 8800GTS 512MB is even way beyond my definition of budget gamer, so never would I see SLI in (what I call) a budget rig. SLI 9600GT or possibly SLI 8800GS would be the least I'd ever consider and that is stil close to $250+ just for video. A $110 8800GS is a killer budget card IMO.