Advice , 8800GTS vs X1900XTX

[bios2]

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)

 

[B-Unit]

Depends what they'll cost ya.

 

[johnyeah]

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).

 

[bios2]

Sorry i forgot to mention : Im being offered them free of charge as my farther is upgrading his rig.

 

[outlw6669]

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.

 

[johnyeah]

If you can sell them and then get a single video card like the HD4870.

 

[englandr753]

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...

 

[bios2]

Ok Dad here...

I am changing my system and have offered my son (bios2) for free! the following spec components:-
Asus Cross-hair board
2x XFX 8800GTS (640mb) SLI Cards
3.25Gb corsair xm dominator pc2 6400 DDR2 Ram
AMD 6000+ 64 x2 dual core 3.01ghz CPU

My sons existing MB = XFX 670i ultra
2gb TwinX XMS2 PC2 6400
Quadcore intel Q6600 G0 CPU
Radeon X1900XTX 512MB

What he wants to know is given his CPU is faster than my old AMD is it worth swapping his old components for mine?

 

[johnyeah]

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

 

[B-Unit]

Hmm, with the 'Ultra' moniker on the 670i board one would think it could do SLI. Damn nVidia and there goofy naming schemes.

Long story short, the Q6600 is the better CPU, so given the choices, I would probably keep that and simply add one of the 8800GTS.

 

[emyyhh]

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?).

 

[outlw6669]

I think there must be a typo there.
Guessing you probably ment 650i Ultra which does not support SLI.

If I had to chose between those two systems (and could not overclock I assume) I would go with the AMD SLI system.
For gaming, the AMD X2 6000+ is staring to get old but it still has nearly the same amount of power as a stock Q6600 in lightly threaded apps. In this situation, the more powerful GPU setup will net higher performance than a single GPU and a more powerful CPU.

If the typo goes the other way and you have a 680i based Mb, rip the two 8800GTS 640's out of the AMD platform and pair them with the Q6600.

 

[emyyhh]

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

 

[jeremyrailton]

ok, here's the most efficient, performance-enhancing route.

The son should use dad's RAM to get himself up to 4gb

IF son's mobo will oc the q6600 to ~3.2 or above, keep that mobo.

Now we have two 8800gts's, one x1900xtx, one high-end AMD mobo, and one pretty decent AMD processor to sell via craigslist or ebay.

Take that money, buy the son a 4870, and use any remaining cash for your own upgrade. Or you can go all out and buy the son a 4870x2

 

[bios2]

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 ?

 

[outlw6669]

The cheapiest way would involve a 750i SLI motherboard like This ASUS P5N-D for $140.
As long as you are not into overclocking, it will do everything you need it to do.

 

[bios2]

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

 

[englandr753]

Is your case a standard ATX or a micro ATX case? Since its for a media center its usually a micro atx but I dont know if you already have your case or not...

 

[bios2]

Large ATX hidden out of sight behind false wall

 

[emp]

As I hear Ati's AVIVO is actually better (and free) compared to Nvidia's Purevideo, so I'd check out Ati cards instead. If you're concerned about Ati cards temperature, then you must remember that they are being built on the newer A12 silicon that is designed to sustain those temperatures, but you can always get a non-reference cooler model (Sapphire, ASUS, HIS, and Powercolor come to mind) that can get those temps really low (that's what I did with my HD 4850.)

I'd go with the Q9550, but get an aftermarket cooler (Xigmatek HDT 1283 with Noctua or Scythe S-Flex fans come to mind) with a silent fan, that way you won't run into any noise issues while playing your favorite movies.

One more thing I'd like to suggest you is that since you are a video enthusiast and I'm sure you want to see full HD videos, those take a lot of space. Given the fact that you are already planning a RAID array, I'd suggest two Western Digital 640GB drives to provide you with all the storage you'll need.

If you do decide to get an Ati card, then I'd suggest a nice P45 motherboard or maybe even an X38 board (X48 isn't worth the money, since it has almost the same capabilities as X38s, but with a $150 premium on them). And 4GB of DDR2 1066 ram.

Links to products I mentioned:

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041

XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003

XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233019

Scythe S-FLEX SFF21E 120mm Case Fan - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185005

POWERCOLOR AX4870 512MD5-PPH Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131117

OR

ASUS EAH4870/HTDI/512M/A Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121276

DFI LANPARTY DK X38-T2R LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813136045

OR

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128344

OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227289

 

[johnyeah]

Blu-ray drive you mean? I got myself a http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136137 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/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681620017SF&Tpk=ultra%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.