8800 Ultra vs Twin 8800GTX

[Rollo]

Well, I can see why, if you're getting the cards for free

Actually I bought the 6800SLi set , one of the 7950GX2s, and one of the 8800GTXs. (although NVIDIA did give me another one later) I bought two Asus A8N 32 mobos, a Silverstone 750 watt quad rail, and a BFG 600 watt, not to mention a lot of other stuff.

Yeah, sure, I get some parts free from NVIDIA. I also spend a lot as well.

So I don't think your point is valid.


BTW- are people who get their cards as gifts from family members opinions invalid as well? Point being- you didn't/couldn't refute anything I said, all you could do is say "It's not true because you get free cards".

[Rollo]

Get a single 512MB 8800 GTS, then when the new 9800 series is released sell it and buy one of those instead. 2x GTX or Ultra now is a pointless waste, especially this late inthe game, only those with more money than sense say otherwise.

People with 19X12 or 25X16 monitors say it's not a waste of money, because we like to run AA.

[Richdog]

People with 19X12 or 25X16 monitors say it's not a waste of money, because we like to run AA.

Wait... don't you get your cards free?

[Fraz]

Actually I bought the 6800SLi set , one of the 7950GX2s, and one of the 8800GTXs. (although NVIDIA did give me another one later) I bought two Asus A8N 32 mobos, a Silverstone 750 watt quad rail, and a BFG 600 watt, not to mention a lot of other stuff.

Yeah, sure, I get some parts free from NVIDIA. I also spend a lot as well.

So I don't think your point is valid.


BTW- are people who get their cards as gifts from family members opinions invalid as well? Point being- you didn't/couldn't refute anything I said, all you could do is say "It's not true because you get free cards".

What don't you understand here exactly? I think that spending £800+ on graphics cards, and making a rig that is SLI capable is more trouble than it's worth. If you don't, fine. Go ahead. I really don't care. .

If they are free, then I'd gladly try it assuming I had a computer capable of doing it (which I don't, only having a single pci-e 16 bandwidth slot), but even then (as you can see from the other thread you and I are disagreeing in), I'd still wouldn't do in the long term as it's just not necessary and it's a blatant waste of power. Obviously your cards weren't as free as I was initially told - I'm sorry for someone else posting false information...

[Rollo]

What don't you understand here exactly? I think that spending £800+ on graphics cards, and making a rig that is SLI capable is more trouble than it's worth. If you don't, fine. Go ahead. I really don't care. .

If they are free, then I'd gladly try it assuming I had a computer capable of doing it (which I don't, only having a single pci-e 16 bandwidth slot), but even then (as you can see from the other thread you and I are disagreeing in), I'd still wouldn't do in the long term as it's just not necessary and it's a blatant waste of power. Obviously your cards weren't as free as I was initially told - I'm sorry for someone else posting false information...

Focus group doesn't work like "every part in all your computers is free forever". They give us some parts, we have to buy others.

E.G. They just gave me a 780i motherboard to use/post about. I bought a QX6700 and 2GB more of PC 8500 to put on it. I bought the 680i it replaced.

E.G. #2 I've purchased a X800XT PE, a X1800XL, a X1900AIW, two 6800s, a 7950GX2, a 7900GT, a 8800GTX, and probably others since I've been in the group. (so you can't even say all my video cards are free)

Last but not least, I bought five sets of Voodoo2 SLi back in the day, and used to buy a new video card almost every month back when there were choices- I'd be buying SLi in any case.

[Butcher]

I run SLI and it's good and bad. It's good when a game supports it and it gives a nice framerate boost (HL2 is one such game - from unplayable to smooth).

It's bad in that the drivers are generally unstable compared to single cards (and have been so far for more or less every revision since I got my 6800GTs). I'm pretty sure it's the SLI causing it since disabling SLI and running single cards resolves all stability issues.

Also you can't run multiple monitors with SLI which means you have to switch any extra monitors on and off all the time if you want to use both. This isn't too bad in theory since the drivers let you switch modes on the fly, however the latest drivers seem to have mostly broken this so unless you've just booted you have to reboot to switch modes. Not exactly flawless operation.

There's also the heat and noise issue from running the extra card and obviously the cost issue.

All in all, the result is I won't be running SLI in future. I'll just go for the fastest single card my budget will stretch to (It'll probably be nvidia, ATI's drivers are even worse in my experience).