nVidia 8800GT 512mb SLI vs nVidia GTX260

[Sephirangel]

Hey guys, fairly quick and easy question!

At the moment, I have a quadcore system (Q6600) with 4gb RAM, Vista Enterprise edition and an nVidia 8800GT 512mb graphics card.
I built this rig about 9 months ago and want to improve on it in the graphics department and would like to know what the best card would be.

Either, buying another 8800GT and SLI'ing them, (as 8800GT's are pretty cheap nowadays) or going for a GTX260. I want to know what the performance boost of each one would be and which one would be better value!

Many thanks in advance!

 

[stridervm]

Interesting...... Part of me thinks, yes, it will be more powerful than a GeForce GTX260 as I remember the 9800GX2 always reigning in current benchmarks, and since the 9800GX2 is a slightly underclocked 8800GTS 512MB.....

Probably it's a bit weaker than that, but still more powerful than the GTX260.

 

[xxcoop42xx]

here look at this, its the only review i could find that has GTX 260 and 8800GT (no SLI tho)

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/10103-evga-geforce-gtx-260-core-216-216-sp-superclocked-edition-review-10.html

SLI 8800GT is about the same as GTX 260 (regular) the Core 216 GTX 260 will out perform SLI 8800GT by 5~10 fps, that could make or break a game for you.

 

[themyrmidon]

The 8800GT SLI will be more powerful, but later on you could SLI your GTX260, which would be immensly powerful. If you doubt you will ever do that, get another 8800GT.

 

[dirtmountain]

This is an early review of the 4850/4870 that includes benchmarks for the 8800GT and 8800GT in SLI. Great performance for the 8800GTs
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3341

 

[xxcoop42xx]

The 8800GT SLI will be more powerful, but later on you could SLI your GTX260, which would be immensly powerful. If you doubt you will ever do that, get another 8800GT.

^+1 yeah and the GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked edition is 1~2 fps slower than a GTX 280 so SLI Core 216's would own anything. and to go balls out you could tri-sli.

 

[geofelt]

I view the two solutions as somewhat comparable.
The differences will be minor, depending on the game, screen resolution, and eye candy.
Here is a good article with some comparisons.
http://www.guru3d.com/category/vga_charts/
There are some cases with 9800GT-sli which should be comparable to 8800GT-sli. See where you fit.

The cheapest choice is probably to go 8800GT-sli. You should be able to pick up a second 8800GT on e-bay for <$100.
Conversely, you could sell your 8800GT and put the proceeds to a GTX260.

Personally, I like the single fast card route if it gets you to where you want to be. Some games do not respond to sli.
I think I would sell the old card and get a GTX260-216. Get the EVGA card just in case you might want to use their "step-up" programs within the next 90 days. New and better cards are arriving constantly.

 

[Sephirangel]

hmmmm, well over here in the UK i could get a GTX260 for about £200 (~$400) so if i could get more or less the same power from SLI'ing my 8800GT then ill go for that! But im also interested in themyrmidon's opinion about thinking about the future.

What im currently thinking is, get the other 8800GT, sli'ing for about 6 months and by that time there will be a range of graphics cards far superior to the ones on the market at the moment, so going for the cheaper option right now may be better.

The games i play are, for example, Crysis, UT3, CoD4, Spore etc and i plan on getting Crysis Warhead soon so if the SLI 8800GT's will give me good fps ill go for that. I could sell my 8800GT and go for the GTX260 but i have attatched a zalman cooler onto it which i dont think is compatible with the GTX and i dont think id get much for the card since its 9 months old and ive tinkered with it.

 

[pauldh]

Add the second 8800GT. It will trade blows with a GTX280, never mind the GTX260.

Here, check out each game in this review and you'll see 8800GT SLI is the more powerful solution.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3334&p=11

 

[coozie7]

+1^
As for the future, two 8800 GT`s should keep your framerates and eyecandy sweet well into the next round of new cards.

 

[VoidNull]

$ for performance, add another +1 to the SLI 8800GT.

Unless your willing to move up to the GX280, or the 4870X2 then your really not going to see much of a difference between 2 8800GT's in SLI, and it will be a nice low cost, high performance band-aid until nVidia/Ati announce there next line up.

 

[Sephirangel]

right well from that ive decided to go with the 8800GT SLI ! thanks everybody for the help and advice =)
I am new to the forums so its been a very nice welcome! hope to chat with you all again!

Josh

 

[geofelt]

right well from that ive decided to go with the 8800GT SLI ! thanks everybody for the help and advice =)
I am new to the forums so its been a very nice welcome! hope to chat with you all again!

Josh

Just to be certain:
1) You DO have a sli capable motherboard?
2) Your PSU has at least two 6 pin pci-e connectors?

 

[Sephirangel]

Yes to both geofelt. Just need to find that damn sli bridge! think ive lost it XD