I'm wanting to purchase an EVGA GTX 280. I currently run 2 X 8800GTs in SLI. I have a Dell XPS 630i Q6600. My main concern is the motherboard, being the 650i chipset which has the PCIe slots halved for some reason, form 16X to 8X. I don't understand enough about it to go into any further detail other than that is CAN bottleneck some games. I've heard a 7-20% drop in performance CAN happen also. That sounds like balls. But, if anyone knows an answer it would be much appreciated. My questions are, do you think it's a good idea to buy a GTX 280? Or stick with my current set up? And also, do you know much about the 650i motherboard and how its PCIe limitations effect performance?
DELL XPS 630i
Q6600
4GB RAM
VISTA 32
22" Dell Monitor
2X8800GT SLI
650i Motherboard
750W power supply
Cheers
Message edited by ratatatatat on 09-14-2008 at 09:18:27 PM
Your current setup should be faster than a GTX 280 on most cases, unless you get a HD 4870 X2, I don't really see a point for you in upgrading just yet.
dude i have the same xps 630i (in the sig). you dont need a gtx 280, SLI 88/9800GT kills the gtx 280 in just about everything. and the price for a gtx 280 isnt worth the amount of performance you get, and plus you already have the SLI GT's. trust me just stick with the SLI setup. especially if you game at high resolutions. SLI only gets faster and faster as the res is cranked up plus eye candy.
Keep in mind the SLI runs at 8x/8x on that board. Also a single card solution still runs at only 8x (thank Dell for that one), so changing to a GTX 280 would be an absolutely disasterous idea on 2 fronts.
UM... what if you wanted to put a pair of GTX285's in SLI into the 630i?
I wouldn't have already bought them for the XPS except for the little detail that they won't work in my other PC... the Alienware ALX. Which, BTW, you DO NOT want. It's been nothing but a very expensive boat anchor since I bought it. Anyway, the ASUS P5E3 MB it sports doesn't support SLI, much to my surprise. (Note to self: Do your research BEFORE you buy, not after.)
So now I have a pair of GTX285's and I am doing the research before I send them back... should I replace the SLI'd 8800's with a pair of SLI'd 285's? Seems to me a slam dunk these should be better. But will it work?
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