Advice , 8800GTS vs X1900XTX

Hello, I am into games and after some advice -

I'm being offered 2x XFX 8800GTS (640mb) SLI Cards.

I Currently have a Radeon X1900XTX 512MB.

If i take the 8800GTS's I would need a new motherboard obviously.

Would you say this is a good deal?


(Other info: 4gb decent corsair cl2.5 ram & Quadcore intel Q6600 G0)

The SLI is a noticeable upgrade over the X1900XTX. It really depends on how much the 2X 8800GTS costs. If it's anything more than $250, you might as well get a HD4870 or a GTX280 (then you don't need to even change your motherboard).

For free, I would take them although I probably would not upgrade to an nVidia based Mb to SLI them.
A single GTS 640 will outperform your XTX and should be a decent free upgrade.

A quick look at Tom's new GPU charts (just when you think they couldn't get any worse ) shows SLIed 8800GTS 320 (there are no comparisons on SLIed 640's but they perform similarly) mostly falling between a 4850 and 4870 when the game scaled. When the game did not scale, it would fall behind the performance of a 4850.

For the cost of your upgrade, motherboard, RAM? (bye CL 2.5 I am assuming you are running PC3200 or similar?) and probably a new PSU, you might as well get a better performing 4870. If nothing else, I would upgrade to a P45 or X38/48 Intel based platform and run a single GTS 640 until you can afford another GPU upgrade. At a moderate resolution (1680x1050 and below) a single GTS 640 still has plenty of power and should provide a more than adequate gaming experience, IMO.


Welcome to the fourms, BTW.

You should try the single 8800GTS and see how you like it. It should be a decent upgrade from your current card. You could sell the other and keep your money in your pocket for an overall upgrade unless what you typed below in parenthesis is your hardware:

(Other info: 4gb decent corsaircorsair cl2.5 ram & Quadcore intel Q6600 G0)

Is that your hardware or is that what you are planning to get? Give us the general specs of your hardware and it will be easier to say what to do.

If your running the Q6600 you could sell both cards as some of the others suggested and get a single 4850/4870(x2).

If your running an older system and dont want to spend much money then run 1 8800GTS and sell the other and bank the money to start saving for some needed upgrades...

I would keep things simple and just take one of the graphics card.

Am I being stupid or does he not need to change his MB? Its a 670i board, surely that means SLI is no problem?

@ bios2, I'd take both the 8800's and some of the RAM to make 4Gb. Overclock the q6600 to say 3.2Ghz and that'd be a pretty nice gaming system. The 8800's can also be overclocked should you need a touch more performance. (can you tell i like overclocking?).

Good insight outlw6699 - its must have been the 650i version. I second both your suggestions as well.

Yep sorry typo its a 650i Ultra.

Thanks for your comments guys , I think im going to go with the following and slightly update my system :

Take the 2 8800GTS's
Take my Q6600

And buy a motherboard to support both of these, Then we can salvage the unused components for another computer.

Any advice as to what kind of motherboard would get the best out of the Q6600 and 8800GTS's ?

Apologies the mb is a 650i

Now here is a question I (Dad) would appreciate an answer on. I have been building Pc's for many a year and have always gone OTT (That's over the top for my American friends) with the components I use for my own needs (My lads now build their own Pc's for gaming and so I will be able to kick them off my machine at long last)

I do not play games and use my Pc for playing music, films, video editing internet etc. I have spent a mint over the past 10 years on a home cinema system that would blow away your local showcase but that's another story.

So now that my new build has no requirement to be the dogs thingies when it comes to playing games perhaps you could comment on the proposed items:-

CPU Intel 2 Quad Core Q9550 2.83ghz 12 Mb cache (hope this doesnt scream like my old Amd 6000+ Watching Dvd films was a pain)

Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 PCI-E - (216 Cores) This appears to be a new top end card without the heat, noise and power consumption compared to the ATI/AMD boards or indeed the GTX 280

Asus Xonar Hdav 1.3 \ Deluxe True HDMI Soundcard (When will graphics cards be able to stream uncompressed 7.1 via HDMI? )

New Blueray Dvd player - any recommendations?

My old Pioneer Dvd recorder

My old twin Western digital 160 gig hard drives WD1600YS Cav re. Sata 300. 16MB Cache. 8.9ms. running on a RAID set up.

Nebula digital Tv card. so I require a std PCI slot

Can you suggest a quality MB and Ram to suit the above components? given Home cinema is my hobby

Best Regards Ian

Large ATX hidden out of sight behind false wall

Blu-ray drive you mean? I got myself a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827136137 and I'm happy with it.

You would want to get a new software because the bundled software is literally garbage. I got myself http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] ra%20suite to play HD and it works flawlessly (on my XP, don't know about problems that come with Vista).

Emp made some really solid recommendations there, so I won't bother with that.