Search
Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Solved

SLI 9800 GTX or Something Else?

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
Share

How times goes by.

It has been 3 years since I have purchased a new graphics card and about 4 since I purchased my CPU.

My Current Specs:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 running at 2.9GHz
GPU: EVGA nVidia 9800 GTX
RAM: 6 gigs of DDR2 800
MOBO: MSI P6N-SLI FI

I have had no issues with any games, until Bad Company 2 came along. I get around 20 to 30 FPS.

So my question is should I look into getting another used 9800 GTX for an SLI setup, the board would be limited to 8x per card, or should I get something like the GTX 560 or GTX 470? Would the SLI setup even be comparable to a new card?

If I should get one of the newer cards, should I keep the 9800 GTX in my machine as a physics card? If there wouldn't be much use for it in my machine, I could give it to my brother who has a 9800 GTX+ for him to setup an SLI configuration.

Thanks for your opinions!

More about : sli 9800 gtx

Register or log in to remove

Depends on what games you will play, I play starcraft 2 and having a sli system for that is useless (unless they fix that, most likely not) but for my other games it does improve performance and eye candy. I play at 1680 x 1050.

I have 2 8800gt in sli that equals to about a single gtx460.

For my next card I will probably get 1 dedicated gpu card and use one of my 8800 as a physx card.

Best solution

If you can find a 9800 GTX for say...around 100 dollars, then I would suggest that. Any more, and I would use your current card as a physx card with a 560 Ti. Don't worry about it being x8. It doesn't amount to much less performance.

You may want to consider pumping up that cpu a bit more. I know they'll run over 3.4 GHz, and it could be a close bottleneck to your graphics card.

Also, a 9800 GTX and a 9800 GTX+ will not SLI. They must be the exact same type of card.

accolite said:
Depends on what games you will play, I play starcraft 2 and having a sli system for that is useless (unless they fix that, most likely not) but for my other games it does improve performance and eye candy. I play at 1680 x 1050.

I have 2 8800gt in sli that equals to about a single gtx460.

For my next card I will probably get 1 dedicated gpu card and use one of my 8800 as a physx card.

Completely Failed!8800GT Sli cannot compete with GTX 460.and its not good bang for bucks now,considering the fact that those 8 and 9 series are old.I Would suggest going for A Gtx 4xx card or even a gtx 260,simply because they are Efficient,Produce much less Heat,Offer Better Performance.A Gtx 4xx series card supports Directx11 which is the latest installment in current games.It has Tesselation Support,Shader 5.0,Open CL and it offers much more reliable gaming experience than any other 9 or 8 series card do.
Related ressources
Ask the community

It really depends on how much you are willing to spend. If you check eBay, I'm sure you can get a 9800 GTX for WELL south of $100 (at a glance, Buy it now prices are around $80, could easily get an auctioned one for less). Obviously you won't be getting as much of a performance increase, but it should still be a pretty big increase over the single 9800 GTX.

In short, if you have the money or are willing to save, pick up a 460. If you want a cheap solution, go with the 9800 GTX.

I went from two 9800gt to a single gtx 460 due to my need of a single card. I can tell first hand that they are more or less equal in performance plus or minus 10-20% depending on clocks.

Thanks for your input!

I ordered a GTX 560 ti today.

I will post my results when I get it. If I get the chance I will try pulling my brothers 9800GTX and testing the 2 of them in my system.

With the GTX 560 ti my frame rate in Bad Company 2 went from 25-40 FPS(lowest settings) to 40-70 FPS(highest possible setting including maxed out AA), much more playable. I do have to say that my Q6600 is maxed out, 100% on all cores when I am playing; so it is probably the current bottleneck. But I can't complain about performance. I also played some Just Cause 2 and Mafia 2 with maxed out settings, with no noticeable lag. So thankfully a new graphics card was all I needed, the Q6600 is still trucking along!
Register or log in to remove
 
Ask the community
Read discussions in other Graphics & Displays categories
!