2 6600gt`s or 1 6800 ultra

arnold873

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Feb 18, 2005
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for a sli capable MB would it be faster with;
2 6600gt`s costing approx 400
or
1 6800 ultra costing 560+
and is it speed increase (if any) worth an extra 140+

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spitoon

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Mar 10, 2003
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Most of the benchies I have seen have shown the single 6800U to beat out the SLI'd 6600's...

I think the nice thing about it is that if you get the 6800U now, you have the option of adding another one at some point down the road...giving you a nice performance boost. If you go with 2 6600's right off the bat, you'd have to buy 2 6800's down the road if you wanted that boost.

I don't think the driver issues are fully sorted out for SLI yet either, and SLI profiles seem to be scarce...many games don't even support it...yet.
 

arnold873

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true, but wouldn`t it have to be the same exact card and revision?
i also know amd doesn`t use sli but could i use a single ati in an sli MB?
do you think the driver issues you mention will become MB issues in future incarnations of the tech?
anotherwords do you think the asus MB i`m interested in might not support features of sli that a newer version of an sli board might?

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cefoskey

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Guys....

SLI doesnt show a performance increase in nearly all situations. The games need to be written to use SLI if you are going to see anywhere near equality between those two options. Keep that in mind.

<font color=red>SLI is great, but a fast single card is consistently greater.</font color=red>

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sh1ft3d

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Looks like the horse is dead already, but based on what I've seen in benchies, read, and heard from other people who have tried both going the single 6800 Ultra route would be the better option.

--------------------------------------------
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cleeve

Illustrious
a single 6800 Ultra is a much faster and consistant solution than two 6600GTs.

In some cases, using two cards in SLI mode does not always provide a framerate boost... and in other cases the performance increase is minimal. It changes on a game-by-game basis, whether the SLI drivers work well with the game or not.

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pauldh

Illustrious
Ya, good answer. 1 6800U for sure. But honestly, if he is in the USA, how about saving over $100 and getting an even faster card in the <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-483&depa=0" target="_new">X850XT</A>

<A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm05=658042" target="_new">3DMark05</A> <A HREF="http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=3781954" target="_new">3DMark03</A>
 
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Lol.

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pauldh

Illustrious
:smile: Yeah, probably. He'd be about the only one who could self justify the extra $100+ dollars on a slower card because it is made by the right company and could possibly be used in SLI down the road. Personally I hate seeing folks spend more than they have to and not get the most for their money. But hey, it was just a suggestion, it's up to the original poster. It's my opinion that a X850XT for $100+ less is the obvious better choice just like my 6800U AGP for $100 less than X800XT was the clear better choice. Anyway, IMO Forget SLI if it's going to cost an arm and a leg up front just to have the option later to use it, and upgrade to R520/NV whatever down the road instead. Personally I think one R520 will end up beating 2 6800U's in SLI in just about every game. But who knows, we shall see. Can you imagine spending $560 each on two 6800U's to have a $599 R520 smoke them in even SLI optimized games? Sure could happen, as could the posibility of spending $560 on one 6800U now planning to add another, and not being able to find a match later when you want one. Alot of IF's, considering the cost. But hey, who knows, maybe SLI will pan out quite well down the road.




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