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Thread: Graphics upgrade - SLI query

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    SSA
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    Question Graphics upgrade - SLI query

    I have a single Leadtek Geforce 7600GT Extreme 256Mb DDR3 GPU/Memory clock 590/800Mhz, memory data rate 1600Mhz, RAMDACs 400Mhz, 128-bit memory bus and 12 pipes.

    For my budget of 'under £100' do you think I'd be better off:

    a) buying a second card of the same spec (around £85 from Scan); or

    b) trying to sell existing card (if so, what do you think it's worth?) and buy another, faster, card using the income from that plus the £85 I would've spent on the second 7600GT Extreme?

    My system was built 11 months ago to be 'SLI-Ready'.

    The most demanding thing I do with it is play Battlefield 2 and I'd like to be able to max-out the graphics to their highest settings. Sad really but there you go....

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    Anthropomorphic Personification shaithis's Avatar
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    A single more powerful card is the only solution.

    All SLI will ever give you (and it doesn't even do this all the time) is a smoother framerate when increasing resolution.
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    Interesting. How much more powerful would a card need to be to be faster than 2 x 7600GT Extreme as described above? 7900? 7950? 8800?

    According to SLI Zone http://uk.slizone.com/page/slizone_learn.html, this configuration yields nearly twice the frame rate. Does it not improve the quality of the image too if it enables you to increase the resolution?

    Does no one have anything nice to say about SLI?

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    Unfortunately not. SLi is a gross waste of money.

    You can't really rely on SLi Zone to be an impartial source of information, either.

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    SSA
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    I realise that

    Does anyone have any real-life benchmark data for 2 x 7600GT Extreme in SLI mode that I could compare my stats to?

    I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the best way to spend the money would be on an additional 1Gb of DDR400.

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    Mostly Me Lucio's Avatar
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    What I've found on my g.f's PC is that having a pair of 7600GT's has provided more than enough frame-rate for most games, up to and including Oblivion.

    Generally the SLI gives not necessarily a higher frame rate, but that the framerate it will run at is smoother and less lag spikes at the same resolution.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SSA View Post
    I realise that

    Does anyone have any real-life benchmark data for 2 x 7600GT Extreme in SLI mode that I could compare my stats to?

    I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the best way to spend the money would be on an additional 1Gb of DDR400.
    Yeah, some new RAM or sell and get a new card (anything other than DX10 is really a waste at the moment). Maybe even hold off and save your money for a C2D.

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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Option B definitely.

    Even moving up to just a x1950pro would provide a huge boost to performance - at least equal to 2x7600gt, and it's guarenteed to work in all games (plus you get better IQ, and HDR+AA). And you can probably afford another 1gb of RAM with the change.

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    Do you really think a DX9 upgrade is worth it at the moment, though?

    My advice - wait for the lower end GeForce 8 series cards. If you don't get one of them, I'm sure there will be price drops galore anyway.

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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    Depends on whether you mind playing the latest games on low graphical settings/resolution or not. If you do, then yes I do think it's worth it.

    No DirectX 10 games exist yet, nor are they looking to appear any time soon.

    DirectX 10 also requires Vista, which entails both additional cost and effort if you're currently running XP.

    When DX10 games do finally appear, they're going to have to run very well on DX9 as well, because the market just isn't there otherwise.

    Finally, the lower end Geforce 8 cards don't look like they'll be any faster than the X1950pro anyway, so the game experience will be more or less the same, you'll just miss that extra shimmer effect or whatever.

    If you get a good (but not ridiculously expensive) DX9 card, it'll last you to about the same point when you'll have needed to upgrade your first generation dx10 card anyway, at which point you can splash out and get vista as well as the second gen DX10 cards etc.

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