Dual SLI or Not?

[mdub12]

Hey all,

So I have a machine that is several years old and primarily used for media and the occasional game. As such, I am not too worried about great video performance. I have already burned through 2 cards (a 7900gt and an 8800gt) over the past ~5 years, so I am not keen on spending a bunch of money replacing the latter (future plans to build a new rig).

MOBO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131013

My question/concern is what option to replace the existing card with. I want to keep a low budget <$65, and have chosen the following two cards.

Dual SLI: Dual GeForce 9800gt http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162054

Solo Card: Geforce GT 430 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130609

My motherboard is only sporting PCI 1.0, so I am not sure if that will bottleneck the added performance from the GT 430, or if the dual 9800gt would not provide that much added performance.

I appreciate the feedback.

 

[jyjjy]

The first card you linked is a 9500GT, not a 9800GT, which is pretty big difference. SLIing 9500GTs is not a very good idea.
Rummaging around newegg for the best cheap card led me to this;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150570
If you want to go cheap just get that. It should be slightly faster than the GT 430 you are looking at and it's much cheaper. Comes with COD4 which you could Ebay for $10 if you wanted to which would lower the price even more.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

a gt430 is useless and is worse than your old 8800gt, even the 7900gt is probably faster than it. The9600 recommended above is also slower than an 8800gt. If you want something equally as good or better than your 8800 without spending much you need to get a 9800gt/gts250/gts450 or from AMD, a 5670/5750/6670.

 

[jyjjy]

If you want something equally as good or better than your 8800 without spending much you need to get a 9800gt/gts250/gts450 or from AMD, a 5670/5750/6670.

From what I'm seeing the 2.1 AMD/ATI cards are a bit iffy on his motherboard and those Nvidia cards are over his budget outside of Ebay I believe. Hence the recommendation of just going cheap with the 9600GSO as it is quite a deal for that price. They overclock well and should match a 9800GT when OCed.