Quad SLi???

[Cereal]

Morning all,

I am about to build a new system, and was set on a single 8800 GTX or Ultra, but have been thinking about going for a quad SLi. What sort of performance would these give in comparison to each other?

[s_kinton]

Quad SLi really is not worth considering. The extra cards wouldnt be used most of the time. The drivers for SLi 8800 series cards are terrible at the moment. I suggest just getting a 8800Ultra single card if you must have extreme performance.

[Cereal]

I must have the performance lol!!

Thanks for the quick reply.

[GoNz0]

well u can have the performance, just dont expect it to work with many (if any) games

[Cereal]

Then, it's not worth having then is it? So the Ultra is the best way forward?

[kidzer]

Yes, a single Ultra is probably your best bet.

[Merlin4458]

definately ur best bet

[Cereal]

OK, veering slightly off thread, I'm now going to go for the 8800Ultra, prob the eVGA, and go for the 6600 quad core & either eVGA or Inno 680i mobo.

I'm now looking at the RAM. Whats the best to go for? I'm presently running XP Pro, but is it worth moving up to Vista and going for 4GB?

The system is going to be for gaming, and I'd like to future proof it as much as possible, so I can add to,rather than replace the GPU in the next 3-4 years.

Thanks again in advance!

[shaithis]

If you heed the good advise of not going SLI now, why do you want to in the future? The same principle will apply then and more so.

SLI does not really work properly, just like a second CPU core only gives you roughly an extra 50% on average (IF the app is multi-core optimised), so does adding a second gfx card.........the difference is finding games that have been written properly to use SLI is much harder then finding apps that can use multi-cores.

Tying yourself to an 680i motherboard (which I am not seeing great feedback on) to make a poor purchasing decision later, seems madness.

If there's one thing you learn about PCs and gaming is this:

You cannot future-proof yourself

[Cereal]

Well, I was hoping the Ultra would see me for a couple of years, then get whatever small boost from a 2nd, as the price should be pretty cheap in 24 months or so, rather than spend £400 plus every 2 years.

[kalniel]

The problem is that top end graphics cards are rarely limited by speed, instead they run out of features. I had a gf2 ultra that is probably still more than fast enough.. it just can't even do pixel shader 1.0..

So getting another card will help with speed, which you won't need.. but won't give you SM4.1 or SM5 or whatever the next generation of features you want is.

[Cereal]

Right then, major rethink....

Would anyone like to spec me the appropriate kit for a decent gaming rig?
I have mouse/keyboard/monitor, but looking for everything else.
Hoping for 8800Ultra as mentioned, also looking at NXZT Hush case and want system to be as quiet as possible.
Budget is (now slightly stretched) to £1100.

Thanks

[boebi]

I wouldn't get the 8800 ULTRA since the price difference with the 8800 GTX is higher then the difference in performance. If you really want extreme power, I would get 2x8800 GTX in SLI. I have a friend who is building a computer like this, only problem is that the case he ordered is to small, so be sure to get a big case (and power supply).