About 3 weeks ago I bought two 9800GTX from EVGA. They do have the stepup program but I'm wondering if its worth swapping out. If it is worth swapping out, then which to go for? The 260 or 280?

How much will the step-up set you back? According to Anand's benchmarks, your two cards should be all over a single 280.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3334&p=11

Unless you're having some sort of nagging SLI-related problem... I just don't see how you could be unhappy with your video setup.

If you swapped out those two cards for the new ones would your PSU handle it?

I would SLI them, you'll have better FPS on anything, plus the clock speeds are great on those cards.

I wouldn't even bother throwing in the towel yet till 4870 comes out.

Then compare..... GTX 280 in my opinion is a good card non sli. BUT still who wants to pay 650+ dollars for a card that get's beat (most of the time) by a 9800gx2. BAAAAAHHHHH

Good Luck.

Waste of money time and effort swapping them. You basically have the best current realistic setup. Tri-SLi does not count.

Thanks for the opinions. Right now I am using a QX6700 quad core and the two 9800 GTX have given me no problems whatsoever. Thing is, EVGA offers that stepup for only 90 days so if we were talking a 30% increase in performance, that might be worth it.

The thing is, YOU ARE NOT going to get a 30% increase with a GTX 280, in fact, your performance WILL DECREASE if you swap two 9800 GTXs for a single GTX 280. Read all the reviews, you'll see what I'm saying. The only thing that will beat your current setup (before the new ATI cards get here) will be 2 x 9800 GX2s, 2 GTX 260 or 2 x GTX 280. So if you are not planning on SLI'ing any of those combinations (and spend from 800 - 1300 dollars in the process) I wouldn't bother.

Maybe stepping up from 9800 GTX to a GTX 260 might be worth it, depending on what they charge for it.

I'm debating this myself with a single 9800GTX -- I can't see stepping up to a 280, but a 260 is a possibility. Going to wait a couple of weeks and see if the new ATI cards push the price down a little further.

The complaints about heat and noise generation are putting me off though.

wouldnt he get 2 gtx 260s? both of the cards are from evga, right? i plan on sstepping up to the 260 from my 9800gtx. its only $100 for about 30% increase.

My Leadtek Winfast A380 5950 Ultra 256mb would kick all those cards ass.

Yeah... 2 GTX 280s require atleast a 1200w PSU so 2 GTX260s will require atleast a 1000w maybe more. Also 1 GTX280 needs more cooling than an open-air set up can allow, you can bet your life that 2 GTX260 will be even worse. No, do NOT step up unless you plan on spending $200 for the cards, $300-$400 for the PSU, $100-$300 for a case with amazing cooling, then another $100 for insanely powerful and loud fans. At that point you might as well just take the side panel off your case and have a 30" industrial fan going full blast into it, about the same. Then you can enjoy your 5 FPS increase, lol

I'm thinking a step up to 2x GTX260 would be beastly. However these cards are bastards to the PSU which sucks...1000W PSU...come on, yikes.

I'm probably waiting for the ATI stuff...maybe there'll be some more sensible badass graphic solutions in there. Although I'm not holding my breath...ATI's cards have been 3rd world lately.

Well, my system is water cooled anyway. Using a the best case I have ever experienced. (Thermaltake Armor). Originally I was cooling both the QX6700 and two 8800 GTX but by adding the gpu's into the cooling scheme, the temps were to high so now I am just water cooling the cpu (with radiator and fans). My psu drove the two 8800GTX just fine and from what I understand, these new cards use less power.

Like the previous poster, I may stepup from two 9800 GTX to perhaps the GTX260. Would you agree that I could get a 30% boost from two GTX260's vs two 9800GTX?

I had a single 9800 GTX and I planned on upgrading to the 280. However, yesterday I just bought another 9800 GTX for SLi (I was expecting more from the 280).

I can tell you now, it is awesome. I'm playing Age of Conan on max setting 1920x1200 on a 25 inch monitor and all is well. My quad core handles it easily, and no heating or noise issues. I'm very happy...