SLi vs Single Card Comparison again :)

[benser]

Hello people,

Currently using an XFX GeForce 9800 GT that geforce gave me for being a whiney bastard.

I feel the need to upgrade it, since I bought Bioshock 2 on preorder and my pc is crying at me trying to play the original Bioshock :\

I'm sure I have all the other parts i'm upgrading sorted, i'm just torn between a new single card, or an SLi setup.

The single card I was looking at was the geforce 275 GTX by xfx, and the cards I was going to sli were 2 250 GTSs, also by xfx. Price wise they're identical for from where i'm buying. I think the 275 GTX is a little overpriced tbh, but still.

But I hear that SLi is sort of double edged, it works much better with games that support it, but it'll work worse than the single card for games that don't. Either way, even only 1 250 GTS would be an upgrade over my current card, but would I lose out alot overall compared to the 275 GTX?

Any answers about sli vs single card, or recommendations about card choice would be appreciated. My budget for a card is around £200, as much as I'd love to double that for a more future proof card, I'm upgrading too much else to spare all that

 

[capt_taco]

Why not just get a second 9800 GT? You ought to get good results with that, and for half the price.

If you're starting out from scratch, I'd say it's almost always a better option to get the more powerful single card than trying to crossfire or SLI. That way you don't run into possible headaches with games that aren't optimized for multiple cards, and if you do want to upgrade later, you'll have the option of doing it cheaply by just adding a second card in SLI -- which, I might point out, is exactly the situation you're in right now with that 9800.

 

[envolva]

+1 capt_taco

I'm not sure how the 9800GT SLI will perform, but you should investigate that route. Its a bad moment to buy NVidia so you should try to spend as little as possible at this time.

The 9800GT SLI setup should give you enough performance to wait for Fermi, and future lower end launches till the end of the year.

 

[Rustyy117]

You can almost get a HD5850 for that price, its on par or slightly better than a GTX285 (Depending on what game you play)

 

[Rustyy117]

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/ATI+Radeon+5000+Series+PCI-E/Sapphire+ATI+Radeon+HD+5850+1024MB+GDDR5+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+?productId=38116&source=googleps

 

[Mousemonkey]

I'm not sure how the 9800GT SLI will perform, but you should investigate that route. Its a bad moment to buy NVidia so you should try to spend as little as possible at this time.

The 9800GT SLI setup should give you enough performance to wait for Fermi, and future lower end launches till the end of the year.

Agreed, a pair of 9800GT's will be the same as a pair of 8800GT's which are still running everything I've tried and doing it at 19 x 10 with frame rates in the high double figures sometimes into triple figures.

 

[photonboy]

What CPU do you have.

I play Bioshock with an HD3870 which is not quite as fast as the 9800GT (close) and I can play Bioshock in high quality and resolution at 60FPS mostly. I have an AMD X2-4800+ overclocked 15%.

If your CPU can not keep up with the graphics card it is a waste of money to buy a new one. On most games my CPU is at 80% (so my graphics card is at 100%). On some games my CPU is running at 100%. There is a balance gamers like to achieve where a system is CPU-bound on some games and Graphics-bound on some games.

You need a much better CPU to take advantage of faster cards. There is a chart you can Google: CPU comparison.

 

[welshmousepk]

^ this.

you should be able to play comfortably a high settings with a 9800. bioshock is not a demanding game.

if you are CPU bottlenecked, getting as new GPU wont help.

if you do go for a new GPU, an ATI card would be better value. or wait until nvidia releases their own competitors. buying overpriced and old tech right now would just be silly.

 

[benser]

Im using an AMD Athalon 64 X2 5200+

so a 2.61ghz dual core

New upgrade cpu was going to be an AMD Phenom 2 965 Black Edition, which is a 3.4ghz quad core

 

[welshmousepk]

the frequency is less important than the architecture. a phenom II is VASTLY superior to an athlon. that athlon will almost surely bottleneck your system if you go for a high end card.

id upgrade the processor first.

 

[benser]

Right, intended to do this directly after my last post but I got sidetracked

My current pc is;

Gigabyte M57SLI-S4
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+
XFX Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT
2gb of some generic *** 300mhz ddr2 ram that feels as stable as riding a bucking bronco whilst in a washing machine thats barreling down some white water
and a 650w psu, by ezcool, no model name, hurrah

Been considering upgrading to;
GigaByte MA790XT-UD4P mobo
Kingston HyperX 2Gb DDR3 1600MHz x2
AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition
XFX 896Mb nVidia GeForce GTX 275 XXX (dunno what the xxx bit is meant to be:\)

if SLi was worth it, like i said, id go for 2x 250 GTS instead. But i've not done alot of actual research, its all been comparison lists and personal knowledge.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Make sure you upgrade that PSU as well.

 

[welshmousepk]

you seem to have missed the statements regarding GPU.

a gtx 275 is a waste of cash. an ATI 5 series card offers better value/performance as well as newer features like DX11. not to mention that the 5 series will improve through driver updates.

 

[Mousemonkey]

you seem to have missed the statements regarding GPU.

a gtx 275 is a waste of cash. an ATI 5 series card offers better value/performance as well as newer features like DX11. not to mention that the 5 series will improve through driver updates.

It better do because at the moment that hasn't happened.

 

[benser]

I switched to prefering nvidia cards over ati a long time ago tbh.

Looking at HD5 670, 750 and 770.

670 looks better than 275 gtx, and is a third of the price... what? Is it the 512mb of gddr5 causing that price thing or what?

regardless im thinking the 770 of the 3, better, saves me £50.

Whats the drawback, seriously.

And more info on PSU upgrade plz, i thought 650w was fine?

 

[Mousemonkey]

I switched to prefering nvidia cards over ati a long time ago tbh.

Looking at HD5 670, 750 and 770.

670 looks better than 275 gtx, and is a third of the price... what? Is it the 512mb of gddr5 causing that price thing or what?

regardless im thinking the 770 of the 3, better, saves me £50.

Whats the drawback, seriously.

And more info on PSU upgrade plz, i thought 650w was fine?

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3658&p=5
Is DX11 worth that much to you? and EZCool PSU's are crap, it will go pop.

 

[benser]

I clearly dont know anything, I cant even see why the 295gtx would perform that well based on its spec unless that extra 800mb is making that much difference

 

[hallowed_dragon]

It better do because at the moment that hasn't happened.

What the hell are you doing? This is another thread in which you start flaming with ironic/sarcastic comments. You of all should know that problems appear in every generation of cards no matter what the manufacturer of the GPU is. All this, 'driver didn't improve', bla bla bla. How do you know? Do you own a 5xxx series card? I have seen on so many sites people really happy with their cards and which saw improvements with each driver update.
But no, you come in with your acid comments and try to pretend to be impartial. I understand you don't like ATI, but please refrain from comments that don't help the OP at all. Even with your graphs I have no idea what did you show. The 5850 which was recommended in this thread seems to be the best choice for the OP and what you do:

Is DX11 worth that much to you?

Come on. I admit every second that I hate nVidia, but I will recommend cards from them if the OP will be better suited with one. You on the other hand...

 

[Mousemonkey]

I clearly dont know anything, I cant even see why the 295gtx would perform that well based on its spec unless that extra 800mb is making that much difference

The cards from ATi and Nvidia cannot be compared just by using specs as each have different architecture and due to who pays which developer some games will favour one over the over.

The GTX don't look so funky now does it?

 

[benser]

Okay, I dont want an ati vs nvidia war going on here.

Lets entirely forget about the card im actually after.

Would 1 card be a better choice than SLIing 2 cards of similar power combined?

 

[Mousemonkey]

What the hell are you doing? This is another thread in which you start flaming with ironic/sarcastic comments. You of all should know that problems appear in every generation of cards no matter what the manufacturer of the GPU is. All this, 'driver didn't improve', bla bla bla. How do you know? Do you own a 5xxx series card? I have seen on so many sites people really happy with their cards and which saw improvements with each driver update.
But no, you come in with your acid comments and try to pretend to be impartial. I understand you don't like ATI, but please refrain from comments that don't help the OP at all. Even with your graphs I have no idea what did you show. The 5850 which was recommended in this thread seems to be the best choice for the OP and what you do:

Is DX11 worth that much to you?

Come on. I admit every second that I hate nVidia, but I will recommend cards from them if the OP will be better suited with one. You on the other hand...

Get a grip.

 

[hallowed_dragon]

Get a grip.

That is your reply? To get a grip? Ok. Then please answer me one question...why did you make that comment?

Is DX11 worth that much to you?

Do you go on recommending a another 9800GT? Knowing SLI/X-fire heat issues? And add that to his old card...hmm...nothing wrong can go there.

 

[Mousemonkey]

That is your reply? To get a grip? Ok. Then please answer me one question...why did you make that comment?

Is DX11 worth that much to you?

Do you go on recommending a another 9800GT? Knowing SLI/X-fire heat issues? And add that to his old card...hmm...nothing wrong can go there.

I said another 9800GT would give a better result than a single one which is not quite recommending he go and buy one and as I've been running SLi rigs for the last six years without heat issues I think you're spouting rubbish and if you are so sure that everyone is enjoying happy times with their 5 series card please tell this poor soul that, I wonder if they will agree with you completely on the whole driver thing.

 

[hallowed_dragon]

I said another 9800GT would give a better result than a single one which is not quite recommending he go and buy one and as I've been running SLi rigs for the last six years without heat issues I think you're spouting rubbish and if you are so sure that everyone is enjoying happy times with their 5 series card please tell this poor soul that, I wonder if they will agree with you completely on the whole driver thing.

Wow. You showed me someone with problems. Who would have guessed that there are people like that . Where did I say everyone? Please highlight the part. As I said. There will always be problems. 90% user generated and 10% card problems. You just showed me an example of that 10%. Good for you... Have a cookie. Do you want me to go to the nVidia forum and see problems(and those will be for the older generation)? I won't. You know why? Because it is not relevant.
Yes, I agree another 9800GT will bring better result than a single one, but as other posters said, why the hell would you invest in older generations when you will do a full system upgrade in the future? You will end up with current generation CPU, mobo and wait...old generation GPUs. Good plan.

 

[Mousemonkey]

I switched to prefering nvidia cards over ati a long time ago tbh.

Looking at HD5 670, 750 and 770.

670 looks better than 275 gtx, and is a third of the price... what? Is it the 512mb of gddr5 causing that price thing or what?

regardless im thinking the 770 of the 3, better, saves me £50.

Whats the drawback, seriously.

And more info on PSU upgrade plz, i thought 650w was fine?

Wow. You showed me someone with problems. Who would have guessed that there are people like that . Where did I say everyone? Please highlight the part. As I said. There will always be problems. 90% user generated and 10% card problems. You just showed me an example of that 10%. Good for you... Have a cookie. Do you want me to go to the nVidia forum and see problems(and those will be for the older generation)? I won't. You know why? Because it is not relevant.
Yes, I agree another 9800GT will bring better result than a single one, but as other posters said, why the hell would you invest in older generations when you will do a full system upgrade in the future? You will end up with current generation CPU, mobo and wait...old generation GPUs. Good plan.

You seemed to have missed this post where the 5770 was asked about in relation to the GTX275 and I think you'll find that both of those cards were in the charts that I then posted, and if you are unaware of the article here on THG concerning the 5 series issues then I suggest you do some reading.