Afraid to get a 2nd 9800 GTX

[shening]

Heya,
Im looking to upgrade my graphics card and I'm not sure what to do.

I have a EVGA 750i FTW mobo with a E8400 @ 3.6 Ghz, and a 9800 GTX. With a good 750W PSU so that isnt a problem. I play on 1680 res, games like COD4, Assassin's Creed, Left for Dead, and crysis sometimes. Also I'm looking forward to play the new COD, Assassin's Creed 2, Boshock2 etc.

I have the option to get a second 9800 GTX+ for 89$ but again, I'm not sure If its better to wait and replace my 9800 GTX with something else later on. Also I'm afraid of stuttering, still heh, since I've never had SLI.

Thanks in advance,
Sebastian

 

[tkgclimb]

I"m in the same dilemma, and I've been told that it will increase performance by about two fold (assuming you have at least pci-e 2.0 8x sli and nothing else in your system will bottleneck it) but is in an old card. I'm going to wait for the new gtx 300 series or 5000 series to come out. As for SLi, I think it's pretty easy to do as long as all your hardware supports it.

 

[smoggy12345]

Dual 9800's is descent setup but if you play on Full HD resolutions i would expect that setup not to be so great on the next generation of games. If you are on a 19" monitor or smaller i would say your safe for a couple of years.

 

[swifty_morgan]

Stuff that 9800 where the sun doesn't shine. Even in sli it's the weakest link in your system. Get something that's faster with more video memory on it....... At 16x10 you'll truly notice the difference.... that's what I game at. 275/280/285, etc.

 

[roush2fast]

I ran your setup for a long time and I play similar games. I also ran into your situation when I was considering another card. I went ahead decided on SLI and ran dual 9800 for about a month. Set up is as simple as connecting the bridge and enabling SLI in the CP. I never experienced any "micro-stuttering". My 3dmark 06 score went from 14+ to 18+. Cod4 and Crysis loved the setup. I quickly got bored though and found a sweet deal on an EVGA GTX260 core 216 and picked one up. I can honestly say I like the single card solution much better. Game play seems much smoother and it's not such the space heater anymore. If I were you I would sell your 9800 and pick up a 260 at Egg for $150.00 after rebate if it's in your budget. If it’s not in your budget $89 is a good deal so go for it. It will perform better than your single card. Anything more is a waste of money with nexgen around the corner.

 

[megamanx00]

Depending on the ventilation in your room I'd get a second 9800GTX/GTX+, but if you have poor ventelation then you'll get hot quickly and your system won't be too stable if its running too hot. In that event you would be better getting a faster single GPU. I'd go for the second 9800GTX/GTX+ but that's just me.

 

[shening]

Sweet, thanks for the advices, I appreciate it.